Board Thread:Speculation House/@comment-27848518-20160222172037

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Ok, so I'll be the umpteenth person to start one of these, but so far, everyone seems very focused on Volume 4. I'm thinking big picture--all seven or so volumes we have left. Because I was struck by inspiration for a fanfic that would span the remainder of the show, but don't want to wait until RWBY is over, I'd love some input. Wall of Text incoming.

1.) Tying up Volume 3:

-We've now established all the important players and all the necessary bits. If this was Lord of the Rings, I'd say we've finished Fellowship of the Ring. The exposition is finished, and we'll now be moving into the meat of the story.

-'''Who's alive? '''Probably all our important players except Pyrrha and Roman. I'm assuming CVFY and SSSN made it out with minimal injury. Also assuming Emerald, Mercury, and Neo are alive. Ozpin is probably alive. However, Cinder is questionable. Did Ruby's powers defeat her? To me, it looked like she was frozen along with the Wyvern-Grimm (I refuse to call it a dragon). I'm assuming she is alive, nothing was said of her whereabouts, and we need a defeatable villain for a while longer. Also, at this point, introducing a new villain for a short period of time seems pointless.

-Communications have been restored. At least a couple of months have passed since the Battle of Beacon. Getting communications back online would be a top priority. They are not 100% restored, but I assume Pyrrha's parents have been informed of her death.

-Blake did run. She's not searching for Adam exclusively or only trying to protect her friends from anything he might do to them, she is running from her problems to some degree. She and Weiss are unaware that Team RNJR have left for Mistral.

-'''Ruby is not a 'M'aiden. '''Warriors are a separate entity from Maidens. Could she be both? I don't see it making any sense from a writing perspective; it would make her overpowered.

-Let me repeat this for clarity: Pyrrha is dead. She is not in a shadow realm, or teleported, or Emerald created an illusion, or mostly dead. All that's left is to check her incinerated pockets. (Pyrrha was my favorite, and Arkos was my ship. I almost swore off RWBY I was so heartbroken, and I cried for half that damn finale, so I'm not being callous, just realistic.)

-Someone gave Pyrrha's circlet to Jaune. He's keeping it on him, though part of him wants to chuck it into the ocean.

2.) Questions left at the end of Volume 3: 

-Exactly why are Tai and Qrow on bad terms? Tai spends a lot of time glaring at Qrow in the finale.

-'''How much does Tai know about Maidens and Warriors and who/what Ruby is? ''' He's gotta know something because of Summer. Could this be part of the reasons behind the glaring? When Ruby leaves, Tai appears to panic. I assume he called Qrow to find her/keep an eye on her, because he knows a good part of the big picture.

-'''How much do Qrow, James, and Glynda know? Are they aware of Salem's existance? '''Ozpin knew a lot, I assume, but how much did he tell the others? Is Qrow now the defacto leader of the little group? Is there a plan?

-What things was Qrow talking about when he referred to “the things she has out there”? Are those things Cinder's or Salem's?

-Did Qrow ever tell Yang that hint about finding Raven? Does it matter given that Raven was just seen outside Yang's window?

3.) Predictions for Volume 4 specifically: 

-Volume 4 has two options for where to start: as RNJR travel to Mistral, or as they arrive  in Mistral. For pacing purposes, I'm guessing it will start in Mistral.

- Tensions between the kingdoms may be building towards war.

-A moment between Pyrrha's Mom and Jaune.

-A lot of dealing with the grief caused by Pyrrha's death. We will see a very different Jaune.

-RNJR meets one of the other Maidens.

-Winter becomes Weiss' confidant and encouragement while she is living with her father again. Her ability to use Summoning will improve under her sister's tutelage.

-Blake confronts some of her demons and stops running from her problems.

-Yang searches for Blake, perhaps in an indirect manner. She begins to accept her new limits.

-Raven is a worried mama bird and watching Yang.

-Yang/Blake confrontation. They make up and become friends again. They'll have a new clue to big puzzle they will try to pursue.

-Yang and Raven meet. She joins Yang and Blake in their quest, if only as a distant observer-bird. Raven may provide the clue for their quest.

-If Cinder is not frozen, she is pursing Ruby, who she considers more of a threat. Yang and Blake have a separate villain to deal with, probably Adam.

-More hinting at Renora, but nothing official.

4.) Predictions/'Questions' for Volumes 4-10 in General:

- We're going to have a lot of simultaneously running plot lines, since the party has been split, they will probably gain others, and will possibly split further, but for now we can refer to them as “Team Qrow” and “Team Raven”.

-Finding the other three Maidens. We haven't met them yet, and there's plenty of time to introduce them. There are three kingdoms we haven't seen: Mistral, Vacuo, and Atlas. RNJR (Team Qrow) will find one Maiden per kingdom, adding them to their little group. At the fastest, they will explore one kingdom and find one Maiden per Volume. Because of the set up, I'm predicting Spring living in Mistral, Winter in Atlas, and Summer in Vacuo.

-What are the rules of Maiden powers? Are Maidens allowed to have children? Does the power normally stick to family lines? (I realize it's not a direct inheritance, but do people tend to pick cousins or nieces?)

-Are the other Maidens aware of their powers? Was Ozpin's little group watching over all the Maidens or just Fall? Are there other groups watching the other Maidens?

-Vacuo is going to feel like Texas. Vacuo is supposed to be hot, Texas is hot, this is Rooster Teeth we're talking about.

-'''Ruby finds a mentor for her Warrior powers. '''This will probably be another Warrior, but might be Qrow or Ozpin. This could go one of four ways: mentor finds her and takes her away to train, mentor finds her and travels with her to train, Ruby seeks out mentor alone (like in Star Wars), or Ruby and some others seek out the mentor (like in Last Airbender ). I see this happening at the very end of Volume 4 at the earliest. If she goes away for training, it will be her storyline for a full Volume, perhaps more, and she'll probably rejoin her friends in late Volume 6 or early Volume 7.

-On that note, we will meet at least one other Warrior.

-Lots of new characters will be introduced, in addition to the Maidens and the Warrior(s). Some of them will tag along with either team.

-Penny 2.0. Penny will be rebuilt, but probably will have limited, if any, memories of Ruby and her time in Vale. We will have evidence of this in Volume 4, but I doubt we will see Penny 2.0 in action until the very end of Volume 4 at the earliest.

-'''Another party split 'or the addition of a third quest line'. ''' Depending on the order things happen in, this will either happen when Ruby has a mentor or Team Qrow visit Atlas, at which point they'll add Penny 2.0 and Weiss to the team, and then split up. The quests pursued by these teams and how they split will depend on when this split occurs. If we don't get a party split, Penny 2.0 and Weiss start the third quest.

- Qrow and Winter reunion. This will be apologies and a way to recap what has happened. They will leave on much better terms than we last saw them.

-'''Emerald leaves Cinder, 'or at least tries to'. '''She was uncomfortable with the large scale destruction of lives during the Battle of Beacon. If Cinder isn't frozen, she might kill her when she tries. If she does manage to leave Cinder and switch sides, she will face Mercury in combat. That will be a very charged encounter. Emerald will attempt to leave sometime in either Volume 4 or early in Volume 5.

-The defeat of Cinder, and the transfer of the Fall Maiden powers. Finding a suitable candidate and trying to set it up such that she does inherit the powers is a quest for someone. I seriously doubt that Cinder will change sides and the “ Ozluminati” won't want the power to go to just anyone. I don't see this happening until Volume 5 or later, but not later than the end of Volume 8. Jaune will deliver the final blow and say, “That's for Pyrrha.”

-Raven know's' a lot 'more than we might imagine'. She's been basically off the grid for a long while and seen a lot. She will inform Blake and Yang of things similar to what Qrow knows.

- '''Yang might get a robotic arm, especially if her quest leads her to Atlas. ''' Should her quest lead her to Atlas, Team Raven and Team Qrow will meet up there. Penny 2.0 will enter the scene at this point, and the parties will split again to pursue their quests, but will probably be re-aligned. If this happens, Yang's arrival would probably be no early than the start of Volume 5. To be honest, I'm very unsure about whether or not this will happen.

- R'eunion of all of the '(still alive) characters. No earlier than the end of Volume 8, all of the split parties will return to Vale, their quests completed, and we'll start preparing for the final battle.

- '''Explosive Raven and Qrow reunion. ''' It'll be angry, angsty, and emotional. It won't be pretty. This will either happen when the two teams meet in Atlas, or when the teams reunite entirely in Vale.

-Backstory on''' Ozpin. '''Some of his past, more of what his purpose has been. Additional prediction: he's been around basically forever, and knows more than he's let on, especially about Summer Rose. He might be the Wizard from the story of the seasons.

-Backstory on Salem. She's probably another fairy tale that's actually true. We'll be given details of what her role was, if any, in Summer's death.

- At least one instance of Salem basically forcing someone to work for her.   Brainwashing, mind control, some way or another, Salem will have control over someone who is otherwise a good guy.

- At least one Salem pawn pretending to be friends/allies with' 'either Team Qrow or Team Raven'''. ''' We won't see any traitors, but we will have one character who will reveal their real purpose and will leave us going, “What? They're working  for   her?”. They will probably kill a character as their big reveal.

-Will Adam join Blake, or will they continue to antagonize each other until one kills the other?

-Will the Remnant actually come to war? If so, how will this affect everything? Salem could certainly take advantage of the chaos.

-I would really like to see a flashback of team STRQ.

-I hope water Grimm will make an appearance.

-By the end of Volume 5, Jaune's Semblance will be a thing. We'll also see Ren's Semblance.

-Eventual Renora.

-"Guardian Angel" Pyrrha. We'll never see her again, probably will never hear her, but it will be heavily implied that she's protecting her friends, especially Jaune.

-Jaune will slowly recover. We may or may not see him fall in love again. (I don't ship Lancaster, but I recognize it as possible.)

-Someone might have two souls battling for control of their body, just like in Blake's book. I'm not sure who.

-    Ruby will defeat Salem and survive. They've been setting this up since the beginning,    it's obvious. However, they won't    see each other     until at least Volume 7     or Volume 8. I doubt    defeating Salem     will do anything like eliminate Grimm.

-Predicted Deaths by the End: Blake, Qrow, Mercury, Emerald, Adam, and Ozpin all feel almost certain to me. Ironwood, some of teams CVFY and SSSN (I'm thinking either Sun or Scarlet will die, because Team Nice Dynamite), and either Ren OR Nora seem likely. Unlikely to die are Yang and Jaune. I don't see all of JNPR dying, and I think Jaune's plot armor is too thick. Though I hate the idea of breaking Renora up in such a way, it would make for some really killer scenes with a lot of emotion, and give whoever remains motivation through a desire for vengeance. Given that the show has taken its recent dark and emotional turn, I can see it happening. I have no clue about Weiss. She could easily go either way. Everyone else is possible, but I don't have strong enough feelings either way yet, mostly because they are secondary characters.



Wowza, that's a long wall of text. Oops. Sorry.

If you read all of that, thanks for (wasting) your time on this! 