Board Thread:Speculation House/@comment-71.84.15.225-20150807131522/@comment-14909251-20150817232524

ChishioKunrin wrote:

"left for a mission and never came back" is a dramatic and better-sounding way of saying "One day, she left for a mission and was killed."

Besides, we've seen her gravestone.

It says:

"Summer Rose

Thus Kindly I Scatter"

If you can't see it, there's also this image where I've made adjustments to make the gravestone easier to read.

Jeff Williams, who writes the songs for RWBY, said that Red Like Roses Part 2 is about Ruby and Summer. That song outright says "died" and the lyrics for Summer include "I made a sacrifice". Basically, Summer sacrificed herself for some cause while on her mission. Then, there's also the lyrics "It's your blood that's red like roses," which relates to the original Red Like Roses song: "Red like roses fills my dreams and brings me to the place you rest" while Ruby is standing in front of Summer's gravestone. I think it depends on whether that grave really is where she is buried. Seems odd to bury her out in Grimm territory. One would expect them to bring her back to a place not occupied by Grimm. Should it instead be a marker showing where she apparently died then the lyric still makes sense. You also have to consider that the lyrics are done from a perspective. Ruby is saying she died and Ruby is saying it is where she rests. Nothing in Summer's lyrics clearly acknowledges being dead.

Not saying that she is definitely alive, but as of yet there is no indisputable confirmation of her being dead. As to those saying "it's redundant", unless Weiss and Blake both have mothers who are alive and present, then you also run the risk of redundancy in having three to two of the four main characters having dead mothers with the other having a mother who abandoned her as a baby. Given Blake's situation, it is hard to imagine that her parents are alive, and there has not been a single mention of Weiss having a mother despite all the discussion of her family. That does not leave me inclined to think her mother is alive.