Board Thread:Speculation House/@comment-31953669-20171218222149

Hazel Rainart.

Since Dread in the Air, I've been intrigued by this character. For those who need a recap, Hazel accompanied Adam to a "diplomatic" meeting with Sienna Khan. One stabbing later, Hazel laments that "Nobody need to die today". He also gives some advice and a free ticket to Oscar in Kuroyuri.

Hazel seems so starkly not evil in these moments, and we've never seen him fight anyone outside of opening sequences. So what could be his motivation for working with Salem?

The most obvious is fear. However, I don't think this one fits, mostly because Salem seems to respect him much more than she respects Lionheart or Raven.

He has no reason to be working with the White Fang, either. He's human as far as we know, and he'd have no reason to hide his Faunus traits if he was a Faunus.

Which leaves us with one possibility: he holds a grudge against Ozpin.

Allow me to recall one more quote. After their short encounter, Ozpin tells Oscar about Hazel. Ol' Ozzy says that he's

"Someone from my past. Someone who should not be taken lightly."

Ozpin probably did something that screwed over Hazel. After all, it was Ozpin himself who said he's "made more mistakes than any man, woman, and child on this planet."

One of said mistakes must have rubbed Hazel wrong, so he turned to Salem. 