Talk:Maria Calavera/@comment-10390252-20190129145908/@comment-35434444-20190129160722

That seems apparent in almost every aspect of her design, and yet whenever the time comes for Ruby to learn something, either Maria turns out not to know the answer to the spoiler question any better than her, like with the silver eyed warriors, or Ruby instantaneously figures it out for herself apropo of nothing.

Both situations represent a fully-developed character arc trying to realize itself and coming out half-finished. Part of the reason for this is that I'm not certain M&K understand the full implications of what Ruby has supposedly learned.

Even highly educated, dependable, and respected people in the world like Cordovin are in some sense incomplete. Childlike. Because they can only see the world from a limited conceptual framework of good and bad. In this way, they are dependant on thier creeds like existential safetyblankets and do not know how to love their enemies.

"Not needing adults to tell us what to do" includes metaphysical presuppositions. The way that people cling to life and repudiate death without realizing that you can't have the one without the other. A truly mercurial person doesn't cling to anything. He doesn't even cling to not clinging.

For Ruby to have figured this out means she has resolved the central dilemna of the entire show. All she has to do is get Salem and Ozpin to see the same thing.

However. There is always a way out.

The entire situation can be turned on it's head if we assume that when Maria implied she didn't know anything about the silver eyed power, she was pleading ignorance and the real reason she drew Ruby's attention to the God of Light was to intentionally mislead her onto the proper path towards developing her understanding.

Because if Maria had told her that the mercurial power was derived from the godhead that surpasses all opposites, she would misunderstand and either discard it as a load of nonsense or worse chase after the knowledge of the divine which by definition cannot be known.