Board Thread:Speculation House/@comment-35941743-20190304195312/@comment-14909251-20190720063734

Wilfred J. Pemberley wrote: Except that when you look at the situation in its totality (particularly the dialogue in the scene), you can see that it's not the case. Jaune told Cinder that he was willing to die if it meant protecting his friends, to which Cinder immediately responded with, "you really think so?". And then she immediately impaled Weiss with a javelin (which, let's not forget, was Pyrrha's weapon of choice).

With that said, you'd have to be in serious denial to think that this was anything other than Cinder trying to torment Jaune, and you'd be in even further denial if you thought she did that for any reason other than the fact that she's a sadist. God, I just looked at the context of this fight again. Why the hell would anyone raise this as a point at all? There is a lot that is illogical about the fight, but the only thing that really made sense is her going after Weiss in the moment. Jaune really pissed her off by striking a blow against her and so she lashed out against the person in the room able to fight at that moment that he clearly cared most about in the group to spite him. Saying this is "sadism" and proof that she "enjoys killing" is a bit much. It was a pragmatic approach to revenge.

That she didn't go for unconscious Ruby is, if anything, an argument for her still applying a certain combat logic given Ruby is the only one in the group that she actually cared about killing. Maybe you could write that off a really dumb writing decision. However, it also makes sense if it was just her not dealing with someone Emerald was already handling well enough on her own. She had no immediate need to deal with Ruby, whereas Weiss was at least a present threat to eliminate with the dual benefits of demoralizing the group and getting back at Jaune for injuring her.

You could even argue that her desire for revenge in both cases really just comes back to wanting power. She doesn't want to feel powerless or weak ever again and, therefore, gets extremely pissed at anyone who makes her feel that way. It isn't about enjoying killing, but getting revenge on people who injured her and made her feel powerless.