Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-32346149-20190505185133/@comment-14909251-20190507220716

Sentry 616 wrote: One of the main reasons I don't think Summer is alive is because this is her daughter's story, and her mother is prumably more skilled at both combat and being an SEW, and half of team RWBY would almost immediately defer to her lead.

This would necessitate getting her out of the story, at which point she may as well have been dead from the start. There is something to be said about having the hero believe a parent is dead, learn the parent is alive, and then have the parent die in front of them instead. My own feeling is that if Summer should turn out to be alive, she will inevitably end up dead and it will probably be to save Ruby. Given that, it would probably have to be either in Atlas or in Vacuo that such a thing happens with the main thing being that this is a massive defeat for the heroes who then make a final stand to begin turning the tide.