User blog:ChishioKunrin/Grimm-mask Samurai Woman = Yang's Mother

Now that I have had time to gather my thoughts, take a look at what everyone else is saying, and figure out more of what was going on in my head than just "I have this super strong gut feeling," I'm going to explain why I think that the samurai woman from No Brakes was Yang's mother... and not Summer.

Why she's more likely Yang's mother
First of all...

Let's go back to the beginning for my first point, yeah? Here in this gallery, you see If you look closely enough, you can see her eyes through the bottom set of eyeholes in the mask. Her eyes are red. What color do Yang's eyes turn? Red. Though, this isn't very solid for evidence... I honestly picture Summer as having silver eyes to go along with Ozpin's comment from the pilot: "You... have silver eyes."
 * 1) Monty's artwork Transient Princess. She has feathers for hair. It's much easier to tell if you view it in its full gigantic size.
 * 2) Screenshot of Yang showing Junior a photo she found of her mother. Monty used an edited version of Transient Princess as a placeholder. If I have to explain how I know it's her mother... Just... think about the interrogation from the Yellow Trailer and the fact that Yang said she hasn't given up looking for her mother in Burning the Candle.
 * 3) The masked samurai woman, whose hair gives me the impression of being somewhat feathery.

Then, we also have the fact that she lingered a bit to stare at Yang, and then, the plot conveniently had Yang wake up just in time to catch a glimpse of the woman leaving. This occurred in the same exact volume as Yang describing her desperate search for her mother.

"But, if she abandoned Yang, why would she come protect her?" you might ask.

We don't know why her mother left. Hell, apparently nobody does (no one could tell Yang anything about where she went). For all we know, she could've pulled a Hohenheim (Full Metal Alchemist manga, FMA Brotherhood anime). In other words, she could have needed to leave to carry out a self-imposed mission against evil. It would've been easier to just not explain her reasons to anyone because then they would want to help, which would mean loved ones putting themselves in danger. Surely, the last thing she wants is her child growing up dreaming about joining her on an incredibly dangerous crusade.

Basically, what I'm saying is, she could've needed to leave, for a good reason, rather than just leaving to be a bitch.

You say "Summer didn't die; she went missing."
I'll admit, there's a chance this could be true, but... I don't completely agree with most people's reason for thinking this (read: I slightly agree, but mostly disagree. I see why it makes you think this).

"One day, she went out on a mission and never came back." My impression of that is that it was simply a much more dramatic and less clunky way of saying "One day, she went out on a mission and was killed by grimm." I acknowledge that there is, however, a possibility that Yang truly meant that Summer went missing.

Buuuut... Red Like Roses Part 2 (which multiple people on the RWBY crew, including Jeff Williams who wrote the damn song, have said is about Ruby Rose and her mother) makes me think Summer is dead. Sure, sure, the stuff about outright saying Summer died could just be that everyone assumed Summer to be dead and told it to Ruby as fact. But I still wonder about the line "Every nightmare just discloses, it's your blood that's red like roses." Remember that red like roses fills Ruby's dreams and brings her to the place Summer rests? Has Ruby truly had nightmares that involved Summer's blood and led her to revisit Summer's grave? It really makes you wonder.

You say "The samurai's color theme is red and black, like Ruby's."
So is Adam's, and Monty has told us outright that Adam has no relation with Ruby.

By the way, as for the red blade, one anon said that the colors in her sheath or whatever kind of container it is may have actually been blades. In which case, she can exchange what blade is attached to her sword and choose from a wide variety of types (read: colors).

In fact, I think that's really what it actually is. If you look at this screenshot in its full size, you'll see the colors are shaped like blades.

Yang's mother is possibly Qrow's sister
Admittedly, this theory is mainly based on an edit from 2013 made by someone by the username of... Montyoum. That edit consisted of adding Branwen as Qrow's last name.

This year, a Sheenaduquette showed up on the wiki, and Sheena proved on Twitter that it was really her. On the wiki, she mentioned that she noticed we even suspected Monty of being an impersonator, when she saw a conversation about the Montyoum edits here on the wiki. So, I'm inclined to believe that Qrow Branwen edit was legit.

That said, the last name Branwen does not match up with Summer Rose nor Taiyang Xiao Long. Who is left to make him an uncle? Yang's mother, whose first name is, for some reason, rumored to be Raven. This would make Qrow Yang's uncle, but not Ruby's, but... I don't think anyone told Ruby that. They probably didn't tell Yang until later, if they ever did.

Um... Bird... faunus...?
Yeah... Let me just get this straight for you guys: The only reason I was ever against bird faunus was for the sole image of winged bird faunus. Okay? I had a problem with winged faunus, not bird faunus in general, though beaked faunus also weirded me out.

So... if her hair is actually feather in more than just texture, but also in material... could she be a bird faunus?

I mean, we've been told that faunus are not only mammals. I think there was also mention somewhere that someone could be a half-faunus and we wouldn't realize it.

She can exchange what blade is on her sword
Like I said above in the end of "Why she probably isn't Summer," an anon pointed out that the colors in her sheath thing are most likely blades, and upon closer inspection, I've noticed that they're most likely right.

That's why the sheath is so clunky. It contains rotating storage for who knows how many blades and a mechanism for detaching and attaching blades to the sword.