User blog comment:SomeoneYouUsedToKnow/SYUTK's V5E11 - Being Weiss Is Suffering - Impressions/Recap/@comment-34633327-20180103231431

I don't really see this as a flanderization of Cinder's character. When I think of Cinder, three words tend to come to mind: Sadistic, Prideful, and Bitch.

SADISM:

Cinder is heavily sadistic and relishes in the pain of others. Even back in Volume 2 she came across as such. Remember that little line of hers when Mercury was saying she could easily take Pyrrha?

Cinder : It's not about overpowering the enemy. It's about taking away what power they have.

That line right there is the tell tale line of a sadist. For most the pragmatic route of just overpowering them is enough, but for Cinder, she actively wants her enemy to suffer and feel useless.

Or remember when she actually killed Pyrrha, not only does she have a damn smirk on her face the whole time, she begins dressing her down right before killing her. She only lost the smirk when Pyrrha made the Destiny line, and while it could have been the word destiny holding some meaning to Cinder, its just as easily Cinder being pissed that Pyrrha wasn't giving into despair like she wanted.

For months she has had no opportunity to do so however, she has been the bottom rung on the ladder among her peers, the only ones lower being Em and Merc, and she can't be sadistic to them lest they risk rebelling and getting killed for disobediance, which robs her of her only two direct allies. And she could not be sadistic to Raven and Vernal lest they risk Vernal running off or losing her powers, ruining the Battle of Haven.

(They didn't offer an "Olive Branch" out of good will, they had to. Since they didn't just outright use a Grimm Glove on Vernal like they did Amber, we can assume it was accessible. They can't take her with them as she may not cooperate. And they can't kill her because there is no guarentee her powers would go to her killer, so they needed to recruit Vernal, Raven was recruited due to them being a package deal)

So, when Jaune clearly shows he's suffering because of her actions, she would gladly relish in it as it gives her the opportunity to finally be a sadist after so many months. It also explains why she didn't kill Ruby to hurt Jaune when Ruby was right there. She wants Ruby to suffer, it ties in with her sadism. If Ruby were to die, then not only would Ruby not suffer for hurting Cinder's pride, but only Jaune would suffer. By hurting Weiss though, who she knows is Ruby's partner thanks to Beacon's records and knows Jaune cares for based on seeing his reaction to her aura breaking, then she gets to see Jaune's immediant suffering, and witness Ruby's suffering when she wakes up.

PRIDE:

Cinder is a woman of immense pride. She is someone who has to have everything go according to keikaku (Translator note: Keikaku means Plan), and for most of Volume 1-3, it did. Even the minor hiccups there were like the Breach still managed to support her plan.

She was quiet in V4, not just because of her injury, but also because at the time, she was the bottom totem on the pole. She couldn't fight back. But outside of Salem's inner circle, she acts like the queen bitch. Even when with Raven she spoke about killing them as if it was easy as swatting a fly. But look at her behavior concerning Jaune. She was just toying with him most of the fight. After he chipped her mask/face (I'm starting to believe the whole "Arm and Eye Socket Petrified" thing now), she got pissed.

Why? Because he actually managed to damage her. It was minor, but it still hurt her pride none the less. Only three other people have ever really hurt her, those being Ruby, Ozpin, and Pyrrha, but with Ozpin and Pyrrha, the damage was minimal and she still killed them. But with Ruby, she really has a hate boner for Ruby, one so large it causes her to ignore common sense and participate in Raven's dumb plan just so she can get her revenge.

INSANITY:

Her facial expressions don't come off as a poor mans Tyrian for two reasons: 1. The limitations in facial expressions in the Poser system compared to Maya. Only after the jump to Maya did the facial expressions really get good, so it could be Cinder was intended to have those expressions in V1-V3, but Poser made it impossible.

Or, ignoring that, Then there is one thing we need to consider out of all of this: her sanity. Cinder may have been this smug calculating villain in V1-V3, she very well seems to have become unhinged following V3. Why though? Because someone managed to damage her pride. Ruby's little silver eye stunt actually managed to do what not even Ozpin could, and that is injure her. The only time we ever see Cinder lose her cool is when someone belittles her or damages her Pride, as I said above.

And while the damage alone isn't enough to make her unhinged, the literal damage in conjunction is. Her left arm is constantly underneath a sleeve so we never see it, but someone raised a good theory, that the arm is petrified like the dragon, she can't move it. Hence why Cinder, who normally dual wields blades that turn into a bow, is using a single blade. And following that logic, she isn't wearing a mask on her face, that is her face petrified and the eye hole is her empty eye socket. She has to live with this scars that also came with damaging her pride. That together can cause someone to snap imo.

So to me, Cinder doesn't seem flanderized, she seems to be showing her core, she is truly unhinged and showing just what a bitch she truly is.