Board Thread:Speculation House/@comment-11188061-20131008154955

This theory would talk about Yang Xiao Long and Ruby's Rose enigmatic past, while attempting to shed some light on the various mysteries shrouding them.

Now then. At some point all of us already had an idea on the background of the other heroines, with Weiss and Blake being the more transparent ones. For example, most people would agree that Weiss Schnee is Heiress to the Schnee Corporation, and that she had issues with either her family or the organization itself. Most people would also agree that Blake - regardless of whether she's a human, half, or Faunu - came from a Faunu familiar background, and that at some point she had, and perhaps still did, dabble with dirty businesses that are either immoral, unethical, unlawful, and so on.

In fact, Ruby Rose is not the person whose past was most shrouded with mystery. There was almost no background information at all regarding her sister, Yang Xiao Long, and neither her trailer nor the episodes yielded much of anything solid that could be used as sure evidences of her past.

Personally though, I have at least an abstract idea on Yang's life before Beacon. Note that who (Ruby or Yang) is adopted into whose family doesn't matter in this theory:

Yang Xiao Long

1) She came from a Chinese-cultured family, or at least Chinese influenced. I'm not exactly sure how specific RWBY wants to go with the racial differences, so you may interpret it as Asian if you wish. Yang Xiao Long is a chinese name, with Xiao Long meaning Little Dragon literally. We can deduce from her name that Yang was already pretty rowdy, tough and mayhaps even fought a lot when she's just a little kid.

Lie Ren is another example of a Chinese, with his attire commonly seen in Cantonese old era dramas.

2) We can assume that at least some of her family members excelled at combat arts, since judging from her proficiency in hand-to-hand combat, and the common references of the Chinese culture to kungfu.

3) We may suggest that Yang's family may not be your normal, clean household, and that they have affliations with gangsters or underground organizations, which in Chinese is usually called hei she hui. This can be related to the fact that Yang's attire in general, her kickass motorbike, and how she seemed completely used to the atmosphere when visiting at Junior's bar.

5) This is a bit of a stretch, but I'll assume that Yang in the past is an easily irritated, moody and even unsociable kid with little control over her emotions or strength, until Ruby came into her life.

The need and act to take care of her new, younger sister gave change into Yang's character, and she came to become more sociable, more in control, and generally better than she was before. I would not be surprised if many of her current, better personality traits - such as being cheerful, sociable, and mature - was born for Ruby's sake, to be an example for her little sister and the Sun that shines her way. There's a mention somewhere in the wiki that the Episode 3 theme song described exactly Yang's sisterly feelings for Ruby.

 Ruby Rose 

Her past is the one being debated the most, even though no one seemed to be able to make head to tails of her past. Popular theories tried deducing her literal relationship with the White Cloak (such as White Cloak being Ruby Rose's mother), which in my opinion is a waste of time because it literally means and does nothing to reveal the events of her past.

One of the reasons I could never write a Ruby Rose past fanfic - believe me, I've tried both AU and not, both using the same setting and characters - is that too often points would begin to contradict with each other, and logic dictates that the current flow of the story is false and must be broken. But that is of no consequence in this thread, so without further ado let's look at the several deductions I believe to be correct and useful in unravelling her past:

1) We may all agree that the White Cloak is a senior to Ruby Rose, and that Ruby Rose greatly respected her as seen from how she knelt in the episodes' introduction scene. The form of relationship we can immediately deduce from that scene is between a Master and Student, or a Superior and Apprenntice. Obviously it can also be a mix of both, which I believe is the case.

The one thing I'm sure of is that even if White Cloak and Ruby Rose can be of Master-Student relationship, the White Cloak did not teach Ruby much combat arts at all, or at most the basics. This is confirmed in Episode 1 where Ruby Rose stated that she was, 'complete garbage' before Uncle Qrow took her under his wing.

This also means that their relationship is less Master-Student as Ruby didn't really learn much - at least not combat arts - and more Superior and Apprentice. Which leads to the next point.

2) The White Cloak holds a certain Position, and Ruby Rose is apprentice to that Position. In this case obviously the White Cloak is likely not entitled at all to teach Ruby anything. But as we know kids are sticky, and it's easy to believe that Ruby forced herself onto the White Cloak at some point after the encounter. The most common scenario would be that the White Cloak saved Ruby, and Ruby doesn't want to let go. After being taught of the White Cloak's identity and duty - presumably so that Ruby would be scared away - the naive girl simply found it fanscinating and became even more attached instead.

Note that the scenario details obviously may differ from canon as it is just as example. The main point here is that Ruby Rose is an (unnecessary) apprentice to the White Cloak, and that Ruby forced herself into that position and refuse to budge.

3) Now we'll talk a little bit on weapons. Given that Ruby handled not a commonplace sword, not a gun, not even a gauntlet (which Yang as the loving sister probably at least tried to teach her) but a freaking rifle scythe, it's likely safe to say that the White Cloak's weapon is a scythe as well.

This theory is strengthen by the fact that Professor Ozpin mentioned that Crescent Rose - though he should mean the rifle scythe in general - is one of the most dangerous weapons ever created. There should be no more than a few people who was given the qualification to wield this weapon, and Ruby Rose was an exception to that rule due to some special circumstances. This is also why I said that she was Apprentice to White Cloak's position, because this gives Ruby a legitimate reason to wield Crescent Rose legally.

Also, note that Ruby treated Crescent Rose with exceptional love. Literally, she told Yang in Episode 2 that she needed just Crescent Rose and Yang in her life. Now, there are various ways she could've acquired Crescent Rose - either it was a gift from the White Cloak, or given by Uncle Qrow, or that she made it herself in Signal Academy. It does not matter. What's important is that Crescent Rose is a symbolism of some pretty strong emotional attachment - very likely the White Cloak - and hence we may assume that because Crescent Rose is the same type of weapon as the White Cloak's, Ruby loves it lots and lots.

4) The Red Cloak - if it ain't obvious enough - is incredibly important to Ruby, and may very well be a gift from the White Cloak to Ruby Rose. The reason is simple: it is exactly the same as the White Cloak's except that it's colored red, likely to match Ruby's red hair.

Does the Red Cloak holds any significance however, other than sentimental ones? If so, then very likely the White Cloak, in the end, acknowledged Ruby Rose to be qualified of the 'Position' and gave her the red cloak as proof of her own acknowledgement, whether or not it was officially admitted.

This admittance can be written in several ways. For example, Ruby may still be an apprentice - she certainly is still green - but was acknowledged that she has the quality to achieve the Position. Or she may be given the cloak as proof of succession of the Position, in which case things has taken a slightly dark turn. The possible scenarios here are endless, and I would not dwell on the details.

Note that Ruby Rose does not even need to receive the gift directly from the White Cloak, and may have gotten it from Uncle Qrow.

5) Finally, we have arrived at the final point of the theory: Ruby Rose still thinks that the White Cloak is alive.

Here's a list of reasons why I believe this:

- Abstractly speaking, the White Cloak design has always given off a ghost-like feeling where she seemed like she would disappear anytime. This is of course, a floaty reason at best.

- This is complete guesswork, but I would assume that if the White Cloak knows of her inevitable end, she would not let Ruby follow her to the end as well. We may assume that the White Cloak lied or forced Ruby to obey, then left her when she got the chance, not leaving Ruby any chances to protest or change her mind.

- A stronger evidence. Monty Oum has stated that Ruby Rose does not understand death yet, so regardless of whether the White Cloak is still alive, it's hard to believe that if Ruby indeed knew about the White Cloak's death and in grief pretended that the incident never happened (to the point of illness), she would show no sign of such mental sickness at all throughout the episodes so far.

Obviously, the greatest contradiction to this theory is the Red Trailer. Many people believe that the Red Trailer's timeline is before RWBY, and in that case this theory would of course shatter entirely. However, if this is the case then what Monty Oum stated about Ruby's current frame of mind wouldn't make sense at all, because I find it hard to believe that she would visit the White Cloak's grave and not understand the concept of death. Also, we are told that various details in the Red Trailer may be different and incorrect (such as how Ruby's personality is different, and that the video was meant to show off the action scene). Hence, I am inclined to believe that the Red Trailer happened in the future rather than in the past.

The lunar phase is also misleading, as we can see in the Yellow Trailer that there were 2 moons for whatever reason. That and if you understand how a lunar phase works you wouldn't be dumb enough to believe the 'full moon = past' 'shattered moon = present' logic. Of course, if Rooster Teeth decides to screw with the celestial body and state the moon is always the same then whatever, shoot me when it happens.

And that is all. 