User blog:BenRG/The Chosen One

Over on The RoosterTeeth forums, I've posted a brief essey-lite about the possibility of Ruby or Jaune being 'the Chosen One'.

The lyrics of This Will Be The Day strongly imply that there will be a savior character in RWBY, the 'simple soul' who will bring victory whose 'heart will open minds'. Who is this? We've all thought it is Ruby but the revelation that Jaune has unexpected potential powers brings this into question. So, is there a Chosen One?

FWIW, in my view this is one of the (many) ways that the Jedi, and Qui-Gon especially (who was never so unequivocally a white hat in my eyes), screwed up with Anakin Skywalker in the Star Wars prequel trilogy. They laid this 'chosen one' bullshit on him from before day one and this twisted his mind, giving him both a superiority complex and a sense of duty to protect the universe that played with his perceptions and sense of proportion. If he could have been trained just thinking he was an unusually powerful Jedi and then the 'chosen one' thing be discussed with him in the fullness of time (when he was finally Knighted), then he might have been able to handle it more maturely.

I think this might be what Ozpin is doing with Ruby and Jaune. He found them; maybe it was blind luck or maybe he's searching. Personally, I think it was implausible that the Deputy Headmistress of Beacon Academy was just coincidentally in the area close enough to save Ruby's neck from Roman. I think that Qrow had sent Ruby's report of her vision of Summer Rose and her encounter with the Beowolves to his old patrol partner Ozpin. Ozpin, in turn, assigned Glynda to follow Ruby around and keep him appraised of her abilities and behaviour.

When Ozpin encountered Ruby in that interview room, he already knew almost everything about her. The purpose of that interview was to see what was in her heart. What he found was that, despite her great potential, she was a true innocent - motivated by a desire to help and a completely unrealistic idea of what classifies as a 'hero'. He knew he had found one of his chosen ones and, with the Moon turning dark, there was insufficient time for her to sand off her many remaining rough edges in Signal Academy, she needed to come to Beacon now so he could ensure she was ready when the time came.

Ruby was only one half of the equation, though: She seemed to be "The Champion" - a born warrior whose heart was set on being the defender of good and innocence in the world. However, there is a limit to what a warrior can achieve and, because of that, The Champion has a more pacific counterpart, "The Healer" - one whose compassion and essential goodness would help restore balance to the world. Ozpin had his eye on one candidate, the son of a storied family but whose parents had declined to allow to learn the ways of the warrior, having lost too many friends and kin to the struggle over the generations. Nonetheless, Ozpin had seen enough young cadets over his career to know this one had the strongest Aura he had ever seen; only Ruby was his match. Although a nervous, unsure personality, Jaune was exactly what Ozpin was looking for - an essentially gentle and kind personality who was focussed greatly on doing the right thing and making others happy.

There was no doubt that Jaune was the other key to this puzzle. However, there was no time to train the boy in the basics of warcraft. He would learn; watching him carry out basic drills under Qrow's instruction proved that he had the raw potential. However, there was no time. He would learn quickly enough when the necessity was there but, until then, he needed a protector and mentor, someone with the right gentle personality that could persuade him past his nervousness and embrace his potential.

The one selected for this role was Pyrrha Nikos, the youngest ever champion of the warrior peoples of the Mistral Region. She was as thoroughly briefed as Ozpin dared. She would know to seek Jaune out, attach herself to him and ensure that he learnt all he needed to know for the fight ahead. This would mean that Pyrrha would have to give up whatever dreams she had for her own future and bind her destiny to him and maybe ultimately give up her life for him so that he might live to fulfil his own destiny. The Mistral are a warrior people, trained to duty through a Spartan-like code from their youngest days; Pyrrha would not flinch from her duty nor complain about it dooming her. As Ozpin watched their earlier interactions, though, he was glad that she seemed to have become infatuated with Jaune. Perhaps some love would be a tiny compensation for the pain to come for them both...

Indeed, Ozpin had seen that some of the most remarkable young people he had seen in many years were to start Beacon this year. Young people with strange, sad and often unique backgrounds. Just the sort of companions that The Chosen Two would need at their sides if they were to drive back the Dark for another Cycle.

Both Chosen Ones arrived at Beacon and, as Ozpin predicted, almost immediately started interacting. They were far from impressive beyond their raw potential - that was something else Ozpin expected due to the regrettably but necessarily hurried nature of their acceptance. Time and necessity would change that. Ujntil then, he could not afford to draw too much attention to them, lest the Dark realise they are targets that needed to be eliminated as a priority before they were ready to defend themselves. They would need to be trained as any other Cadet would be, irrespective of the risk that would put them in. Only when the time came would he confront them with their destinies. Until then, they would just be Cadets like so many others.

Of course... they weren't 'just like so many others'... and that very quickly started becoming apparent as the semester progressed.