Board Thread:Speculation House/@comment-24.247.91.107-20140511154823/@comment-107.185.93.89-20150827022243

I have 2 theories on the matter:

There is always the possibility that the real-world naming conventions are different. It could be possible that the first and second children have, respectively, the last name of the father and maden name of the mother. This would, of course, mean that Yang and Ruby are full-sisters. However, the appearance of Raven Branwen and her.... er... appearance suggest some sort of relationship to Yang. (I myself have thought of something similar with my girlfriend if we ever have children)

My second theory is that, plain and simple, Yang and Ruby are half-sisters. Based on the life-story told by Yang to Blake in Vol. 2, it can be assumed that Yang's search was for her mother, not their mother. Now, Raven Branwen's similarities to Yang's appearance (or in this case Yang's similarities to Raven) suggest that Raven might be Yang's mother. Summer Rose would most likely be Ruby's mother, apparent by their shared surname. Therefore, given that they would have 2 mother's between them, Yang and Ruby share the same father (I call him Mr. Xiao Long because I assume Yang kept the family name while Ruby took her deceased mother's maiden name). Speaking of shared names and relatives, Uncle Qrow was previously mentioned and alluded to throughout the series so far. He will soon be making a full appearance in the show come Vol. 3. He happens to share a surname: Branwen. This seems to suggest, by the current theory, that Qrow is Raven's brother, thus making him Yang's blood-related uncle and Ruby's uncle by general relationship (she calls him Uncle because Yang calls him that).

I could easily be wrong but based on things we know right now, Theory 2 seems most plausible to me.

-Travis