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

I’d like to preface this with a disclaimer. I am in no way saying that Summer Rose is definitely alive. The entire point of this is to question what happened to her, not to make any conclusions. Saying ‘Summer is definitely alive’ is just as wrong as saying ‘Summer is definitely dead’.

Hey there. So, I’ve been prowling this site for a few months now, and there’s something I really need to get off my chest. Err, well, I suppose there’s something I need to ask, to be more specific. It’s a question that’s been irking me for a while.

Why are we all assuming that Summer Rose is dead?

Now, before you start hyperventilating and spitting sulfuric acid all over the place, please hear me out. I know that most of you guys are absolutely 100% sure that she’s dead, and that the mere notion of her still being alive is enough to send you into a psychotic frenzy. I apologize if I triggered that just now. I am so sorry.

But, as I mentioned, I am in dire need of getting this out there. So, unfortunately, you’re going to have to tolerate this for a few minutes. In case anybody is wondering what typically happens when somebody questions Summer’s status, here’s an example. ..

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This was posted in response to a question similar to mine on this site, and in case it wasn’t made clear, this response postulates that Summer Rose is dead. Which, incidentally, seems to be the opinion of mostly everybody. However, here’s a couple of facts:

Fact 1 - We never saw Summer die.

Fact 2 - We never saw Summer’s dead body.

Fact 3 - No character has ever explicitly stated that Summer is dead.

Now, I don’t know about you guys, but I watch television. A lot of it. And, in my personal experience, when you don’t see a body there’s a good chance that character is coming back. And when you add a persistent lack of exposition related to the fate of said character, the presupposed status of that character becomes very suspicious; at least in my opinion.

So, I guess what I’m really asking is: what evidence do we have of Summer’s demise? Let’s go through that together:

-Summer is not currently present in the show.

-Summer is stated to have ‘gone on a mission and never returned’.

-Summer has a gravestone on a cliffside in Vale.

The first piece of information certainly suggests that something has happened to Summer. I mean, why would she abandon her husband and daughter for such a long period of time unless she were dead and gone? Well, it could just be that she’s alive and simply unable to be present. She could have been captured and held against her will, or she could still be on said mission. It’s hard to say, considering we don’t even know what the mission was.

And it’s not just the mission we know nothing about. We know virtually nothing about Summer either. We don’t even know what her semblance is, or what she’s capable of. All we really know is that she’s a good mom, and she likes to bake cookies. Wow. Try writing a biography about that.

And while I’m at it, since when is ‘went somewhere and never returned’ synonymous with ‘died’? The mere notion is ridiculous beyond rational comprehension. That’s what everybody thought when Tom Hanks disappeared on that airplane. Turns out he was chilling on a beach for three years with his inflatable sidekick. Begging the question, is Summer Rose currently stranded on an island babbling to a bloodstained volleyball? Well, there’s about as much chance of that as her being dead.

Now, I know what you’re all going to say: ’The gravestone, you fool, what about the gravestone?!’  Funny you should ask. Let me answer that question with another question. Did you know that there are over 1 million empty graves in the United States alone? Yes, it seems that marking a plot of land with a headstone without actually burying someone is a common practice both in the real world and in the world of fiction. And it is also not unprecedented for someone presumed dead to return home to find their own gravesite: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2018/06/13/dead-man-returns-year-wrong-body-given-wife-japan/697251002/

So, what does all this amount to? Well, it amounts to one simple sentence. A sentence that, I think, puts all this nonsense into stark perspective.

There is absolutely no evidence that Summer Rose is dead.

Which brings me to my ultimate problem. You see, I’m not really that irked by you guys blindly believing that Summer Rose is dead. I’ve seen herd mentality lead groups of people to some of the dumbest places you could possibly imagine. *cough* QAnon *cough*  So this is objectively tame compared to other things.

What bothers me is this: Why is Ruby Rose not even remotely curious about her mother’s fate? Seriously. She never even mentions her. She never asks her father or her sister about her. She is content to just visit her mother’s grave occasionally, never asking questions, I guess to just stare at it while the one gear in her tiny head rattles about.

All this while her own step-sister actively searches for her own mother. You’d think that Ruby would see that and draw parallels to her own life, but no. Apparently, Ruby is incapable of that level of introspection. She’s either incredibly stupid, or she legitimately doesn’t care about her mother, which would make her a sociopath.

This speaks to the root problem with this show, which is the fact that Ruby Rose is a mascot and not a character. Characters have deep-rooted motivations. Ruby has silver eyes. Characters forge deep and meaningful relationships with people. Ruby gives cookie-cutter speeches every five minutes. Characters try to find out what happened to their missing parents. Ruby has a scythe that’s also a gun.

Consider this; is it not strange that a random person, such as myself, is more concerned about the fate of Summer Rose than her own daughter? Ask yourself if that’s normal, and then come to the realization that Summer may well be alive, held against her will in some god-awful prison cell; and that nobody is coming to save her because, apparently, nobody cares. 