User blog:PerhapsTheOtherOne/Speculative Spitballing: Crisis on Not-Two Not-Earths

Badum tiss......... wait......... I think I'm forgetting the punchline. Whatever.

It is I, PerhapsTheOtherOne, here again with another installment of Speculative Spitballing!

(Wiki): GET OFF THE FOOKING STAGE!

I know, I know, I missed you all two after that hiatus between this one and the last one! So, what are we gonna be covering today, you might be wondering, my fine fellow RWBY Wiki contributors?

(Wiki): WE DON'T FOOKING CA--

Yeah......... yeah, I thought as much.

Now that I've calmed your metaphorical tits, let's get down to business, shall we? As the title suggests, I'm an utter hack with no talent or originality! Wait, that's not right. Is that right? It is? Okay then!

I've decided to make an in-depth blog detailing a theory I came up with on one of the blogs of fellow contributor and ACTUALLY talented professional, Zathronas. What is this theory, you fine Wiki-goers might ask?

(Wiki): *still crying over the death of Pyrrha and the blog writer's insensitivity*

Very good! We ARE talking about how Dust is really something else besides energy made physical! So, where do we even begin? Well, why not the beginning?

The Beginning
According to the narrator/main villain so far, Salem, Humanity was born from dust in a merciless world, a world where the Creatures of Grimm sought to snuff out our light (and not the kind in Destiny). But with the discovery of a material substance that gave them the power to ward off the darkness (again, not the kind in Destiny), they paved the way for civilization, naming the miraculous stuff....... Dust.


 * sarcasm* REAL creative there, Humanity.

But, then again, she IS the main villain so far. Why should we trust her? She's the reason that Penny's dead, Pyrrha's dead, Amber's dead, a whole lot of civilians are dead, Yang's disarmed (I do not apologize), all of Vale is lost to the Grimm, and Atlas's name has been smeared like kindergarten paint on the wall.

Well, she's not exactly contradicted, either. Sure, she kinda has this strange power-trip vibe to her, but she seems like an okay woman!

According to Word of God Monty Oum, bless his soul, Dust is supposedly akin to Materia in principle. Now, as the internet is likely aware, Materia was basically the planet's lifeforce. It's pretty obvious at this point what I'm getting at: Dust is the lifeforce of Remnant. More specifically, it's the planet's "soul" in particular.

Why do I say that? Well, what if I told you.......... that the Dust of Humanity's origins, and the Dust used by them today....... were one and the same?

It's a crazy idea, I know, but let's postulate on this train of thought for a few moments!

What are the connecting points between Dust and Humanity?

What are the common threads?

The Basic Rundown
Dust can be used like ordinary powder-based substances for things like guns or fuel, but its special properties truly come into play when a user utilizes his/her soul to bring out the stuff's full potential. It's like magic, almost, except not, because we already have what's actually Magic, and it sure as heck ain't Dust!

So, what the heck was I even talking about just up above this? Oh right, Dust = Materia and whatnot.

Well, let's assume that Remnant has a soul like any other being. If that's the case, then you could say that Dust is the planet's soul, in a sense. So that explains why it resonates so well with Humans, right? Hold up there, cowboy, we ain't done with this angle just yet! We still have to deal with the Grimm, the Maidens, the Silver-Eyed Warriors, and whatever in Godzilla's name Ozpin and Salem are!

This time, let's use my claim above that the Dust that Humanity currently uses is the same as the kind that's part of their origins. That would mean that we come from Remnant's soul, that our souls are not our own, but merely an extension of the planet's. In turn, this would include animals in a Dust-based ecosystem.

But then, you might ask, why do the Grimm hate our guts so much, and also possess no souls? Well, if the planet is a living thing, then everything that inhabits it is merely a part of its bodily systems. It could be that Humanity is a particularly bad screw-up on Remnant's part, consuming more of its Dust than would normally be healthy.

In this scenario, the Grimm are the solution, kinda like antibodies or white blood cells: an endless spawn of beings that don't consume Dust, or souls, serving as the response system to harmful parasites, in this case Humans. So why bother eating us if not for nutrition? Well, we can answer that too!

Perhaps Grimm consume Humans in order to absorb our Dust, or souls, and re-deposit it back into the planet. And it only happens to us because we aren't a sustainable part of the Remnant Dust Exchange. So where do the Maidens, the Silver-Eyed Warriors, and Ozpin and Salem come in? Well, stick around, because this is entirely new!

The Unexplainable
Do you guys notice something familiar about the conflict between the Wizard (Ozpin, we all know it), the Witch (Salem), and the Maidens, and how well it reflects Humanity's origins as highlighted by me? Allow me to elaborate further.

The Wizard was visited by four Maidens, each gifting him with an act of kindness that opened his heart, his soul, to the compassion and potential within Humanity as a whole. In turn, he would give each one powers beyond imagination.

And now, the Witch sends her minions to take this power and dismantle what the Wizard had so carefully created. Notice any similarities?

An immensely powerful being gifts its disciples with magical abilities beyond imagination, but an enemy seemingly of the darkness has arisen, looking to snuff out their light and take it back. A transfer of immense power from one source to another.

According to the history of the Hive from Destiny, powerful enough beings can embody ideas themselves, and can even be reincarnated by the execution of such concepts. Perhaps Ozpin the Wizard, the Maidens, and Salem all embody conceptual aspects of this Remnant Dust Exchange that I've highlighted, but on a more Human level. An imitation of the larger game, if you will.

The Wizard is Remnant, gifting his disciples, the Maidens as Humanity, with great power, with Magic as Dust/souls, only for a hungry Witch to play the role of the Grimm, aiming to snuff out light of Humanity, the Maidens, and reclaim what isn't theirs, Magic/Dust/souls.

In a stark contrast, however, the Wizard doesn't decide to enact this himself. Perhaps because his Human side got the better of him, going against the natural order of Remnant. So where do the Silver-Eyed Warriors come in?

If this case of conceptual embodiment holds true, then maybe the Silver-Eyed Warriors represent another aspect of the struggle between Humanity and the planet: Humanity fighting against the Grimm, arming themselves with Dust, the very thing that created the whole conflict.

The Silver-Eyed Warriors are thieves, stealing power from the Wizard when they have no right to. Just like Humanity as a whole did in the early stages.

So how exactly do concepts become physical things? It all comes down to Humanity: we're stubborn as heck, and that stubbornness to comply with nature was strong enough to recreate the order of Remnant within Humanity itself.

And let's be honest, if your planet was trying to kill you, wouldn't YOU want to kick its ass, Sarge-style?