Board Thread:Speculation House/@comment-27397283-20160214182542/@comment-174.52.56.92-20160216170154

So personal thoughts time--I have two theories regarding Ruby's Abilities. One where she is not the winter maiden and one where she is. Honestly I prefer the second because it makes sense, but you know. ; ) It never hurts to come with theories for both sides, yeah?

1) The Silver Eyed Warriors act as a sort of counter balance to the maidens. Their abilities only appear when they're confronted by a fellow warrior or a maiden, which is why they only showed up after Ruby saw Cinder kill Pyrrha. That's why the 'eyes' are a thing as a corralation to the 'eyes' of the maidens, because they would be like the opposite of the Maidens.

They're also referred to as a 'they' which implies that they may both male and female while the Maidens are for sure female only.

(There's also the possiblity that the Silver Eyed Warriors are the Maidens' predeccesors 'in power' and that the old man from the story granted the Maidens their power not just because they helped him but because the SEW (hahah sew...I'm getting bored of writing the full title over and over again) were dying out and he knew these four could be trusted with a power equal or similar to the SEWs)

2) My other theory is this: Summer Rose was the previous Winter Maiden and Ruby is the current one. Red like Roses pt 2 has a duet between 'Ruby' and 'Summer' which implies that Summer's last thoughts were of Ruby--which would mean that Ruby would take on the mantle of the Winter Maiden as a toddler. She'd grow up with absolutely no idea that she is the Winter Maiden and thus, would not actively try to access the abilities. (Of note is that Summer's eyes are exactly the same shade as Ruby's...and even if they are both 'Silver Eyed Warriors' I find it unlikely they'd be exactly the same like that.)

Also, when Qrow says 'a line of silver eyed warriors' that...means a line. As in parent passes on to child or master to apprentice. It implies that there is only one single line of Silver Eyed Warriors, similar to how there is only one line of Autumn Maidens and only one line of Summer/Spring Maidens.

As someone else has brought up, it's possible that the Winter Maidens were 'lost' or potentionally hid themselves away. Perhaps they figured someone would eventually come after them to steal their powers and they hid according to protect themselves and this led to them starting the legend of the SEW...so Qrow wouldn't be lying to Ruby when he told her that story.

It was truth--just not the whole truth. And considering what Pyrrha went though just learning that she was a candidate....well, he might not have wanted to press such a burden on his 'neice' and gave her half the story. Just enough to satsify her for now, just enough for her to come to terms with the abilities. And then he'd tell her more, when he's sure she can handle it.

Ahaha sorry, these two theories got really long! I actually have more for the second one but someone's already brought up the Cinder's startled 'what' so I didn't want to go over that again. Also the eye thing Ruby does, haha. TL;DR: basically I highly doubt that the SEWs have no connection whatsoever to the Maidens.

-DreamyRequiem