Board Thread:Speculation House/@comment-71.17.68.254-20130907025506/@comment-82.12.156.248-20140126220958

Oh yeah, as for the original topic even though its not being discussed right now:

Since soul is no more objectively real in the real world then it is in anime, then i'd go as far as to say that we have no reason to believe that having a soul (a spiritual concept with no definitive proof as to its actual existence) in any way links to having intelligence. To that end I think each individual species as there are own intelliigence level with a select few proving themselves superior (these would become Alphas or Majors of their respective group).

It's likely that the Deathstalker and Nevermore are highly intelligent creatures; after all both likely compete with one another on the food chain, and yet even though they could just as easily tear each other apart, they seemingly combine their efforts to divide the humans (and faunus) into two groups and cornering them, forcing them to battle on more even ground.

To put it another way: If the Grimm lacked intelligence of any kind, then they would never have united in an attempt to slaughter humanity and the faunus all those years ago. Because they'd have been too busy ripping each other to pieces to recognise the new threat, due to an inability to do anything outside of follow base instincts.