Board Thread:Episode Discussion/@comment-108.9.190.228-20151213211819/@comment-27347325-20151216130401

This is my theory about Cinder's Plan. It's probably really flawed and most of it is speculation, so please read with an open mind.

We need to look at what we do know. Her plan revolves around Mercury and Emerald, plus her and Neo, winning the Vytal Festival. Now as far as I can remember, Beacon is one of, if not the best, secondary academy for training Huntsmen and Huntresses, meaning that the students from Beacon ought to be some of the best fighters in the world of Remnant. Following that logic, they should therefore be able to hold their own against students from other schools. However, Team CRME are evidently not from Vale or Beacon, essentially strangers. If they're able to defeat the supposed "best-of-the-best" Huntsman and Huntresses-in-training, what does it represent? Is Beacon not as elite as it once was? This creates doubt amongst the populace, wondering if their own defence forces are capable of defending them.

But why? Why would Cinder want to do this? Flashback to Season 2, where Torchwick and the White Fang were blowing up the tunnels to allow the Grimm into the city. Question is, why? If Torchwick and Cinder were half as smart as anyone else, they would know that the Grimm would try to destroy Vale and kill everyone. It thus wouldn't make sense for them to do this unless it was intentional. My theory here is that Cinder wants to release the Grimm into Vale after the Vytal Festival. From Season 1 and World of Remnant, we know that the Grimm are empowered (sorta) by negative emotions such as doubt and fear. Assuming Cinder's team wins the Vytal Festival, the doubt amongst the populace could be enough to draw the Grimm to Vale.

Then the next questions are why and how, but I'll focus on the how first. Obviously, the White Fang can't start blowing trains up again, so there needs to be another way to release the Grimm. Remember back in Season 1, when Torchwick and the White Fang kept stealing Dust? In Season 2, Torchwick claimed he was busy stealing "every last bit of Dust in the city." While I do think that's an exxageration, that''s still a lot of Dust they managed to steal. As seen again in Season 1, a tiny bit of Dust can cause a miniature explosion. So imagine if they use that Dust to open tunnels for the Grimm...''

Now we get to the complicated part: why? Why go through all this trouble to do this? I believe Cinder wants two things out of it: power and the humiliation of the Huntsmen and Huntresses. I'm kinda on board for the whole Autumn Rose becoming Cinder Fall theory simply because it fits Cinder's plan mostly. It would give the motivation to want to destroy Ozpin's reputation, and if it means bringing Beacon down with him, then that's a bonus. However, it wouldn't explain the immense amounts of Dust she needs. Earlier, I mentioned that just a tiny amount of dust--no more than a tiny vial of it anyways--can cause a miniature explosion, so unless you want to blow the whole city of Vale underground, there isn't a reason for that much Dust. Sure, you'll need a lot of Dust to blow the tunnels, but even if Torchwick was exaggerating about the amount of Dust stolen, remember Vale has a Schnee company tower in the city, and Dust is needed to power weapons. Since Vale is home to other academies like Signal and Beacon, that's gonna be quite a lot of Dust, much more than necessary.

That's where the power part comes in. I think that with Summer's death (read the earlier posts to understand this theory better), Cinder might have felt completely powerless and vengeful. So she might to become more powerful. What's Dust gotta do with that? First of all, Dust is powerful stuff. We've already seen quite a bit of evidence about this, so I don't think I need to elaborate. But second, Dust also happens to be what I describe as manifestations of the elements--heck, they could even be the elements themselves. Cinder's semblance (or weapon) seems to be channeling fire into constructs, like Green Lantern. Since red Dust represents fire, it would power Cinder beyond normal. She'll be much more powerful than before, maybe more powerful than even Ozpin himself, which further aids in her plan.

I know, it's really far-fetched and probably completely nonsensical. Still, what do you guys think of this?