Board Thread:Speculation House/@comment-26581829-20161211140713

I posted something along these lines on the RWBY subreddit after the introduction of Klein, but yesterday I again remembered the old saying "The eyes are the window to the soul." We first saw someone's eyes change color with Yang. The first thing Ozpin did upon meeting Ruby was remark upon her silver eyes, which of course turned out to be quite special. Neo's eye color switches deliberately and also possibly subconsciously. Klein's eye color depends on which personality is currently speaking. Cinder's eyes glow orange, and Salem's glow red.

Hypothesis: The expression "The eyes are the window to the soul" is literal in Remnant. Now, Cinder's and Salem's cases are not necessarily support for this hypothesis. In Cinder's case it's because we don't actually know if this is because of her Semblance (supports the hypothesis) or if it's because of Dust (not support). In Salem's case we don't know for sure that she has a soul. Most likely she does, because she has a personality, but we know intelligent Grimm exist, which do not have a soul. Intelligent Grimm is a weak argument against her having a soul, though, as intelligence does not necessarily require a personality (and I don't mean this facetiously: we know this for a fact due to the existence of an archaic medical procedure known as the lobotomy). For that matter, I am making the assumption that soul=personality, which is, in fact, just an assumption, although a logical one as the Grimm embody anonymity, and anonymity entails not being able to tell one apart from the rest, which differences in personality otherwise allows you to do when things like intelligence is equal.

This hypothesis being true would justify all the eye stuff in-universe. I'm also wondering if there are more situations in the previous seasons where eyes and eye color have been important. I know the Fall Maiden has the eye flares, and I also seem to recall there being mention of Emerald having red eyes just like the Branwens being important and somehow relevant to her background (born to a bandit tribe?) 