Board Thread:Speculation House/@comment-14138255-20160103163552/@comment-26206856-20160103224830

So... I was right about Emerald's semblance. Just want to put that out there after all the back and forth.

Ahhh Cinder. You want power, you want control... you can't wait to be King! Did anyone else pick up on the lion king references?

"Stealing is an art of Patience, Coordination, and in a pinch, Sleight of Hand." This has been Cinder the entire time. Though I don't think we've seen the sleight of hand yet for the current plan since she hasn't been backed up against a wall too much. You could see it as a callout to the glove, or even the masking of her face when Qrow shows up. (I don't think that was Emerald's doing btw. It seemed more like heatwaves much like you see coming off pavement on a hot summer day (aka Cinder used some op heat powers to mask her face).

The Untold Backstory---

It sounds like Cinder was stating her loyalty and morals to the black queen in these scenes. "I want to be stong, I want to be feared, I want to be powerful." The queen released her as her subject, and now Cinder is on the lookout for her own little army. She sees Em's semblance as a very useful and powerful tool for her plans, and finds a way to corner and recruit her.

She then brings Em back to the Black Queen. "You will question everything you know." *grimm growling in the background* This implies she was told about the maidens, but also Em's line of "this is impossible" probably means she saw the Queen and/or the abominations (altered grimm). The squishing sound may also have been someone killing an insect like the one that appeared in the glove.

Em asks what sounds like Ozpin to take on an apprentice. (Probably disguised as someone with enough talent and skill to adopt Mercury's father. (It would've made more sense if she said apprenticeship)  Cinder sinks her Mufasa fangs into Em even more to keep her loyal with the "follow me and you'll never go hungry again " line. In fact with the right comparisons, that whole song pretty much describes Cinder. xD

There's some internal conflict over Mercury. Cinder seems to deem him necessary, and puts Em back her place when she says they don't need him. The original plan for Marcus was probably to get a good enough assassin with the help of Em to bring down the maiden. Mercury showed his competence by beating Marcus but Em either doesn't realize the plan or deems him not worthy enough.

Mercury tells them to "ask the rats" to know a city. This is where Cinder gets in touch with Torchwick, either using her charms, power or both to sway him. Torchwick being connected with the underground gets them access to the whereabouts of the WF.

Cinder's mention of his power and leadership skills have me questioning if it's part of a semblance, but I doubt it. Merely the fact that he has the charisma to control numbers for muscle is what she's looking for. His line about being a "force of revolution" gets Em and Merc to react, as that's pretty much what they are planning to do themselves.

"I believe our plan is beneficial to all parties involved." Choice words I suppose from CInder. She has an associate (Torchwick) in Vale working on a revolution, and they need the muscle to carry it out. This has me wondering if the stolen dust is a different plan of it's own, targeted at the Dust companies like the SDC. Adam rejects the plan because the main goal seems to be beneficial to Humans, not Faunice, and he refuses to let his men die for something they care nothing about.

"There's another task we must attend to." The wording implies that taking the maiden powers is merely a side mission to help further the main one.

The Fight--

Funny how Em screwed their plan up though... "not a foot out of place", yet her foot clued Amber off that something wasn't right. It's also odd that Amber's armor pads (boots and shoulder pads) are so similar to Pyrrahs. I'm not sure if it's meant to bring a closer connection to their likenesses, and hence why Oz picked Pyrrah, or it it's hinting at something else.

--Maiden Powers

It seems Maidens get elemental powers. Autumn can control wind, ice, and fire alone (technically, you could make things cold or hot with air manipulation, but I think that's getting too technical for this show for it to not just be the diferent elements). The leaves could be 'earth' or 'plant', but I'll assume it was to do with using wind to gather them from the nearby trees. The powers don't seem to need aura, but the eyes only seem to happen when they're up in power. (Amber's wind swipe after she fell and lost her aura didn't have her eye glowing is the proof, though it could be (and probably is) a slip-up in animation.)

---Cinder Arrows-

Cinder's arrows didn't seem to have dust on them. I'm wondering if anything with the weird portal-like effect (red or orange) has to do with the Queen and her tinkering, or just portals in general. It may explain the orange explosion ones as screaming from 'hell'. xD  More likely, it has something to do with them being a non-obsidian glass that Cinder is altering after the fact. (Still a weird occurence and effect either way.)

This also brings to question the final arrow that sunk into Amber. Did it do something to her to keep her from using her powers and possibly aid the draining of them, or did she just run out of juice/concentration from all the pain and fighting. Kudos for the team taking out her aura so Cinder could get the arrow past her aura barrier and inflict actual severe pain.

-Cinder Glove

So this must be one of the abominations that are "fear themselves" as Qrow put it. Looks like there's some sort of 'magic' circle to help the weaving of grimm into the glove, or to transfer the powers since it glows red while integrating with Cinder's hand. Interesting to note the same reddish portal like effect that spawns the tick grimm and that it also shows up below Amber as the transfer takes place. It also marks Cinder's back for some reason when the transfer is complete. Possibly to symbolize the hole in her heart?

"The huntsman severed the connection before it was complete. Yes. It's an emptiness. It burns like hunger. I like it. Yes. I will claim what is ours. Thankyou."

This seems to imply Cinder talking to the Queen about the transfer. Because it didn't finish, there is an emptiness, pulling at her with hunger to get the last half, and she the type who likes it. After being questioned if everything is ok and she can continue, she responds that she will claim what is theirs (not the rest of the maiden power) and thanks the queen for the glove that gave her power.

Using the new power, she intimidates and recruits Adam to her side out of fear "our plan will benefit both of us or one of us" i.e. It will benefit both of us or just me and you die.

Previous Cinder Appearances

Looking back at Vol1 Ep1, you'll notice Cinder's eyes glowing when using her powers. You'll also notice in Dance Dance Infiltration, that her eyes glow when she uses her maiden powers to aid her, but the full shape is hidden with the mask. I'm half wondering if the peacock feathery thing on her right hip is meant to be a half mask to hide the tell-tale sign of the maiden power in a pinch.

Back to your Regularly Scheduled Program

There's a reason Em rushed to the stage so quickly (besides needing to be as close as possible to Yang)... she needed to fool any medics that came to check Merc out. At first I thought Em was going to say I can deal with one headache (her power), but not two (Merc), but instead she says "one mind I can handle, but two is a stretch". This implies she can only control one mind at a time, and in a pinch maybe two. Since people can't seem to figure out which two, it's the two medics when they first arrive on the scene. She really shouldn't have needed to use it much after since the medic in front of the stretcher never really looked back.

Doubt Sets In-

We get some scenes showing the doubt in Beacon's ability to train decent Huntsmen. Globally, their reputation just slid downhill. We also hear that grimm are gathering, and that there is a call to any available Hunters to aid in repelling them from the borders. (I still say this is part of Cinder's plan to weaken/distract the hunters with the grimm to take advantage of something elsewhere.

Cinder and Em still have plans for the remaining fights. I still say we will see Penny vs Pyrrah, but I don't see how an illusion will mess with them besides helping them reveal Pyrrah's semblance and/or that Penny is a robot. Also, if Sun can really see through illusions (doubtful, but a fun thought), who's ready to see Em fail at tricking him?

Guess it's another week or more before we find out what happens to Yang. Time to play the waiting game.