Board Thread:Speculation House/@comment-14138255-20151213162620/@comment-209.6.115.53-20151219191022

@MetallicArcher:

I do agree that the chances of the 3 finalists getting screentime is slim at best. However, I'm reluctant to completely give up on the possibility because learning that there were a total of 8 finalists made me happy since that means this tournament had a total of 32 teams in the first round. I've heard an argument that part of the reason for the hiatus may be to add finishing touches to the 3D models of characters shown as cardboard cutouts (such as Taiyang or the three finalists) when they weren't ready for episodes 1-6. But if the show itself doesn't show these fights, then maybe four scenarios might happen. We might see the off screen fights in the form of either bonus content on the Volume 3 DVD, an adaptation of the tournament arc by the RWBY manga, a fighting game developed by the people behind Grimm Eclipse with every tournament competitor (onscreen or offscreen/seen or unseen) as a playable character or a combination of the 3 previously mentioned options.

@The Devil's Advocate WP:

I just assumed that the cowboy was from Shade/Vacuo and the guy with the face paint was from Haven/Mistral, but I like your idea better because they both give off Vacuo/Mistral vibes to me. My thinking was that Sun would fight a Vacuo native and Pyrrha would fight a Mistral native as a contrast between students who went to a school in a different kingdom (Sun and Pyrrha) and students who stayed home and went to their native kingdom's hunter academies (the Vacuo native and Mistral native). But it would be a nicer pattern if there were two students per school representing their kingdom/school as the finalists of this tournament. So I'll adobt your theory since I like it better than my old one. Also, you mentioning that RT said that Mercury and Emerald had a team outside of Cinder's faction makes me hope that Mercury and Emerald are legitimate Haven students. I also hope that they end up turning back to the side of good by virtue of Cinder discarding them as pawns that have outlived their usefulness to her. They would then do whatever legal punishment is given to them for assisting Cinder as a way of redemption and reunite with their non-evil teammates (assuming that they're still alive, that is). Also, Emerald showing (what I assume is) genuine concern for Mercury's physical state makes me want to support the Jaded ship.

@VedranThell:

I'm aware of that. What tipped me off that they were cardboard cutouts was that they obviously looked like handdrawn 2D images rather than 3D models. As for how their fights would be animated? With 3D models of course. Though that would depend entirely on whether RT has 3D models of them or even wants to animate their fights in the first place.