Board Thread:Speculation House/@comment-14138255-20141024002244/@comment-10390252-20141024083814

Well, a great action-oriented episode today! We see a lot more of the various characters' capabilities and see the areas in which some of the characters still have to grow. But... yeah, something tells me next week is going to be a major battle with the highest possible stakes.


 * 1) Roman knows who Blake is and what she is; the probability that he's in contact with Adam is very high;
 * 2) Zwei and Oobleck make a formidable team;
 * 3) Blake can 'crystallise' various types of Dust using her semblance to create shadow clones made of different materials; we must assume that all other characters can channel Dust through their Semblance too (we already knew Weiss could do this but it is now more likely to be a universal ability);
 * 4) Yang is weak against Neo; I've got several possible explanations for this but all essentially narrow down to two possible explanations:
 * 5) Neo was using some kind of reflective semblance to send the power of Yang's attacks back and, for some reason, this doesn't trigger Yang's semblance (this may be an inherit feature of semblance vs. semblance duels);
 * 6) Yang's semblance has a 'trigger energy', a minimum force that she needs to be hit to activate its effects and none of Neo's blows reached or exceeded that;

Just who was the mysterious woman who saved Yang's life? My theory? I'm thinking Yang's mother who, like Blake, was one of the original White Fang and has been fighting, largely alone, to overthrow the new leadership for years.

Faunus? Possibly; it would be interesting if Yang were the hybrid Monty has said we've met without knowing it. However, I like the idea that WF originally had human members too and that Adam's faction purged them when they took over. I like the idea that she fights on alone as 'the Last True White Fang', even adopting their aesthetic to make it clear to the Triumvirate that she isn't an outsider.

IRL, that would be too much of a coincidence to believe, I agree. However, in a fantasy universe where story telling is king? Then:


 * The daughter of the original leader of White Fang (Yang);
 * The apprentice of the man who ousted him (Blake);
 * The daughter of the man who was the worst enemy to both the above (Weiss)
 * The daughter of the woman who died in an attempt to save the peace from all three men's plots (Ruby)

all ending up on the same team and best friends is not only intuitative but very nearly compulsory!

Prediction: There is a leak in Beacon Academy. I have the feeling that Neo has been studying a file on Yang's abilities so as to be ready for her and better able to fight her. I wonder if someone passed Roman their classified personnel files; it would explain why Roman tried a rather weak "I know who you really are" speech on Blake.

So, the whole adventure was for nothing? No. Roman had to move before they were ready (his soldiers certainly weren't happy about moving so soon). If our heroes manage to stop this disaster with minimum casualties, it was (ironically) because Ruby literally dropped in on Roman unannounced.