Board Thread:Speculation House/@comment-14138255-20151213162620/@comment-26206856-20151226060433

(Sorry for the wait; holiday travel and such. Also, hopefully I'm not coming off in an offensive manner. I'm just trying to logically prove out or disprove theories.)

In a response to the OP-ness of Weiss in the Nevermore incident, you'll note it was a one time thing that drained Weiss in one go (which is why she fell over to catch her breath after doing it). Sure, you might be able to go all out, but there are some limits like how long or how big of an effect you can push before wearing out. Ruby's sonic boom effect was her using her semblance just a little harder to go fast enough to break the sound barrier. Note that she also gave out when she had to over-exert her semblance while trying to carry Penny, who obviously weighs a lot more and takes much more energy to get going.

I suppose if we apply Winter's logic of using semblances like muscles, the more you use them, the harder you exert them, etc, the longer you can apply them in the future (building muscle). Maybe Neo has used hers so much she can control the thoughts of a couple thousand people, or cover an entire area from a very large distance. It just doesn't seem to fit well with me if that's the case. (Personal opinion) Also in line with the Schnee semblance is that it is unique, and may be OP in and of itself. (It's hereditary, and it's the only semblance seen so far to have multiple facets to it.)

For the CCT, I think it's strictly for cross continental communication. Again, the virus I think was to keep the live broadcast transmitting to the other kingdoms even after the decision to 'cut the cameras'. You know, to ensure panic and distrust spread to all kingdoms. Also, it seems those communicating across continents are higher up people with contacts overseas. Perfect targets to gain access to their data/profiles via hacking.

@ BlissCloudz Bring it! I love a good read :)

BlissCloudz wrote: @Spiegelmeister Get ready for a wall of text!

''' The villains can manipulate the matchups so risking a Neo/Yang conflict isn't going to happen unless they want it to. '''

''-Exactly. And they don't want it to because they have other plans. Like I said, Yang fighting Neo at the tournament would be problematic because Yang would probably recognize her and tell her teammates, then they would get suspicious, and then Cinder would have to worry about RWBY trying to sniff them out. Cinder does not need that kind of drama.''

I agree that Yang would figure it out and make a connection if they wound up fighting. My issue is more with the logistics of needing a member from outside the fight to help with the fighting to achieve the goal. If their plan needs Neo, why choose Yang or any of RWBY to mess with when there are other finalists you could screw over (but then you run into plot problems not using the main team).

 '''CME are always seen together, and Neo is just kind of there on the side. She's not even really Cinder's henchman; she's Torchwick's accomplice, so we haven't seen any sort of true connection between the two other than the possibility of Cinder going 'hey, we just locked your boss up but we need you to help us fight in the 4 on 4 and round out our team. '''

''-I doubt that Neo is only “Torchwick's Accomplice.” She might be his partner in whatever team set up they have, but its pretty clear that they are all working under Cinder. To be honest, we haven't seen much interaction between Neo and Torchwick either. She bailed him out in “Painting the Town” and they were both on the Train in “Breach.” That's about it. ''

Neo was a recent addition to the series (mid run) created to be the yin to the yang of Torchwick (and apparently Yang herself). I agree they're all working with Cinder, but also remember that Torchwick is really his own separate faction that is currently employed or blackmailed by Cinder to work for her. Loyalty isn't necessarily a given.

 '''Neo by nature is a very loose cannon that poses an issue of slipping up in some way. She almost killed Yang, and the kind of murderous intent she had in curbstomping the 4v4 guy would pose a risk if she went any further. By nature, she has a murderous intent. '''

''-They all do. They're villains – they're supposed to have murderous intent. Amber is clinging to life because of Cinder and both Em and Merc actually killed a man. ''

In addition to the loyalty comment above, the point isn't that she HAS murderous intent, but that her attitude is not very well controlled. Cinder, Em and Merc all know when to show their cards, do things in the shadows, and generally have their own leashes they keep on when they need to. Neo doesn't seem to have that. She seems to enjoy the killing (a little too much) and isn't privy to the consequences. If she somehow disobeys Cinder or isn't quite as controlled as thought or gets caught up in a certain situation, it could come back to bite Cinder in the butt when she needs it the least.

 '''As far as keeping viewers out of the loop, that is true, but good writing should have SOME sort of foreshadowing to hint at it. Maybe they think the sound is good enough, but we should have seen more interaction (whether directly relating to the plan or not) between Cinder's gang and Neo. '''

''-There's quite enough foreshadowing already tbh, in fact, the reason we are having this discussion at all is because we're all trying to interpret their foreshadowing. And you're probably right about how they should have interacted more, but that would kind of ruin the suspense in a way. Neo doesn't speak, she's always behind the scenes – even in the episode where we saw Cinder, Em, Merc, and Torchwick interacting altogether, she wasn't even mentioned. Seems like she does a lot more backstage work as opposed to making herself known.''

This is the reason why I think she's more Torchwick's second in command, and less working directly with Cinder. She might have joined the 4v4 just to stay on good terms and/or because Cinder promised to help retrieve Torchwick from his prison when everything is through if she did. She seems more secondary than a major player on the villain side, even more so with the lack of direct interaction.

 '''True, we are far from over, but if she's on about the same level as Mercury who is above the students to begin with, and he uses his power, why wouldn't she feel the need? '''

''-Well, Mercury hasn't used a semblance either. The only thing we've really seen him do is that wind-bullet-tornado-kick he's been doing, and that was confirmed to be Dust related. Even during the surprise Grimm invasion, Emerald did not feel the need to use a semblance. They probably don't think they need to use it. There's no rule that says that characters MUST use their semblance.''

This is somewhat debatable. I think it is his semblance, but it could be a very unique way of controlling dust with his aura. What I think is the white plumes are the wind dust (a condensed mist-like form). He shoots these out, and they've been shown to go straight, much like a projectile. When they start circling, and he has control of bringing them all down on one point, it leads me to believe he has a semblance that has control over the wind in some way. I don't think we've seen any form of dust use to be controllable after leaving the attacker. Weiss has created constructs to mold into a shape she wants, but I don't think we've seen her control it after the fact. The ice projectiles are icicles created in one spot, and shot with her glyphs. Let me know if you can find a case that has been shown otherwise, and I'll go back and examine it.

If neither has used it, ok. It just means that they're way over powered, and it would give no reason for them to be worried about Qrow or Winter who were using semblances before even getting serious. The power levels would just seem way out of balance for their situation if they weren't using semblances.

 '''<span style="font-size:10pt;color:rgb(255,255,255);line-height:0.23in;">Jaune is a special circumstance. He is the ONLY one going to a hunter's academy that doesn't know what a semblance is and how to use it because he SNUCK in. We have no evidence to support anyone else trying to be a hunter/huntress doesn't know what a semblance is or doesn't have access to at least part of theirs. '''

<p style="text-align: LEFT; border-style:none;border-width:initial;padding:0in;line-height:0.23in;orphans:1;">''-I know. I wasn't suggesting that Emerald didn't know what a semblance was. I was suggesting that she MIGHT not know what HERS is. Which I doubt. I really just think that she's not using it because she doesn't feel the need to. ''

Again, see above. Emerald might get away with this logic a little easier, but then who would she have to go up against to feel the need to use her semblance?

<p style="text-align: LEFT; border-style:none;border-width:initial;padding:0in;line-height:0.23in;orphans:1;"> '''<span style="font-size:10pt;color:rgb(255,255,255);line-height:0.23in;">The mind glare is for intimidation which threw Yang off her game before she even started. The blocks, the redirects, the kick to the ground, the throw up to the ceiling... it's all pretty hard to imagine Yang did that to herself, and even harder for Neo to be watching and somehow position herself correctly to align those physical hits. '''

<p style="text-align: LEFT; border-style:none;border-width:initial;padding:0in;line-height:0.23in;orphans:1;">''-I doubt that. There was definitely some semblance action going on there. It wasn't suggested that Yang was hitting herself, it was suggested that Neo used her semblance to make Yang see a fight that was not happening, or at least partially happening, or maybe even used it to predict her moves, which is why she had the upper hand in their match. Watch the episode again, that was not just intimidation. Yang physically felt something happen to her head. She looked like she got hit with a mini migraine. And then she was off her game for the rest of the fight. ''

<p style="text-align: LEFT; border-style:none;border-width:initial;padding:0in;line-height:0.23in;orphans:1;">''Notice how many times Neo's eyes change color during that fight. I think that the changing of her eyes reflects how her semblance is used. And I'm not sure what, but it definitely might have had something to do with how Yang got basically creamed. They also changed from green to brown/pink before she was going to stomp that poor kid's face in.''

Agreed, there was some semblance going on. I'm still not sold on the making Yang see a non-existent fight. A lot of the blocks, hits, and redirects Neo uses, especially for winding Yang up into the ceiling would require her to be dancing so close to hit those marks while simultaneously using a semblance that it wouldn't make sense. (Think about the concentration of trying to do two of the same thing at once with a second or half second delay and/or a few inches of range difference.) Also note we hear her semblance used three times. One at the beginning, once right before her flip which ends with her sitting on a crate, and once before disappearing when Raven shows up. Judging by the noise, I would think it has something to do with air, which may mean teleportation or enhanced movement speed.

Yang didn't feel something happen to her head. She was blocked/redirected. For a while I thought Neo was able to reverse Yang's momentum, which threw her off balance. It also doesn't seem to be a whiff because Yang's right handed punch gets redirected in the opposite direction (she spins back in a clockwise direction). The crew has been asked if Neo was inspired by the Cheshire Cat (illusions and such) and we have been told a very wary answer that she isn't, but someone else close to her probably is. (More evidence to back up Emerald might be the one.)

I was thinking the same with the eyes, but I couldn't really find any links to figure out what it meant. At one point my thought was one color could see a few seconds ahead to the future to predict moves, one was regular (spike spiegel much? except future instead of past), and the silver/blue eyes (when Raven shows up) were semblance or something else. It looks like we have all sorts of colors though (green being the most recent), with the pink/brown being the most common. (For funsies, I also had a theory based on Sacrifice that the eye colors were different souls she had 'reaped' from her enemies, and thus each gave her a different power.) <p style="text-align: LEFT; border-style:none;border-width:initial;padding:0in;line-height:0.23in;orphans:1;"> '''If Neo is hiding in the stadium, good for her. The problem I have here is her semblance would have such a large range that it becomes very over powered especially if it effects multiple people instead of focused on one'''

<p style="text-align: LEFT; border-style:none;border-width:initial;padding:0in;line-height:0.23in;orphans:1;">''-Its quite possible that we could have an overpowered villain on our hands. It would up the ante for the protagonists in a way though. But the point I was trying to make with the stadium bit was that she could be sitting up close towards the front row, where she would be as close to the combatants as possible, if her semblance does have some kind of range restriction. ''

I don't think she'll be that overpowered based on the previous assumption she's not directly related with the main villain crew. Even with a front row seat there's that large sand area to deal with and who knows how the shield barrier works (not saying it's impossible, just makes it a bit harder). You'll also notice that Emerald was not sitting with Cinder (empty seat beside her though), yet was the first on the scene to come to Mercury's aid which means she was probably somewhere close and could immediately run onto the field after the soldiers did.

<p style="text-align: LEFT; border-style:none;border-width:initial;padding:0in;line-height:0.23in;orphans:1;"> '''<span style="font-size:10pt;color:rgb(255,255,255);line-height:0.23in;">Why would she even bother confronting anyone or showing her face if she can create an illusion from halfway across the stadium? '''

<p style="text-align: LEFT; border-style:none;border-width:initial;padding:0in;line-height:0.23in;orphans:1;">-''That's just it. She hasn't. We have not seen hide or hair of Neo since Round 1. But there are illusions happening. ''

This wasn't in the context of this chapter, but in fighting RWBY in Vol. 2 and showing herself at the WF meeting. If she could create an illusion of herself from a distance, why show herself as herself to an enemy when you could disguise yourself as someone else to them? Also realize that her 'costume' was just a wig and maybe contacts (probably not). She still had a girl's body with the same height, etc. If she could create an illusion of a man or different proportions (like the recent illusions), wouldn't it cause even less suspicion if she showed herself as far from her actual self as possible?

<p style="text-align: LEFT; border-style:none;border-width:initial;padding:0in;line-height:0.23in;orphans:1;"> '''<span style="font-size:10pt;color:rgb(255,255,255);line-height:0.23in;">Cinder leaves because she likes to show that she already knows the outcome and is so full of herself that she has all the confidence in the world to know nothing will screw up her plans. '''

<p style="text-align: LEFT; border-style:none;border-width:initial;padding:0in;line-height:0.23in;orphans:1;">''-That's true, but there are some fights that she sticks around to watch. I went back and re-watched the episodes to see if there was any connection between Cinder's leaving her seat and the illusions happening, and I couldn't really make one. It seems that she gets up to leave AFTER a match, if we do see her at all. “Fall” was the only time she left her seat BEFORE the match started that I saw. I just find it suspicious.''

I might take a look at that later on, but it does seem slightly suspicious. Then again, if you think about it, all the other fights she needed to oversee to make sure they went the way she planned/wanted. The fight she walks up early from is the final fight when everything has already played out exactly as planned. There's nothing left to throw a wrench into her plan, creating the confidence boost to just walk away.

<p style="text-align: LEFT; margin-bottom:0in;border-style:none;border-width:initial;padding:0in;line-height:0.23in;orphans:1;"> '''As far as best ways, it's been 3 seasons. We've had all the intros and the story starts now. I think we can start to arrange the characters to see how they fit from now on.'''

<p style="text-align: LEFT; margin-bottom:0in;border-style:none;border-width:initial;padding:0in;line-height:0.23in;orphans:1;">''-We really can't though. There is still so much that we don't know and things are still being revealed. It would not be smart to go jumping to conclusions. ''

I'll agree to disagree on this a little. There is a lot we don't know, there is a lot still to be revealed. The crew did say in the livestream though that we are now at the "end of the beginning" and that the intro is taken care of and we have now started the story. This means most of the introduced characters are already pretty established. We can add on some other things later, but I think the reveals will be more plot related, and less (side) character related unless they're new.