Board Thread:Speculation House/@comment-3146930-20160704005509/@comment-117.201.85.66-20160710011731

A long shot stretch, but hear me out! (speculation follows)

I think in the long term, Ozpin is kind of playing a strategic/tactical game in order to defeat Salem. With the entire chess motifs flying about, I don't think it's too far-fetched to think that Ruby currently is actually his pawn, who he wishes to make queen in the endgame. Translated differently, he's waiting for Ruby to become more powerful and mature - he knows those Silver Eyes are a trump card, and he wanted her to develop under his watchful gaze.

Keeping that in mind, he would have never opted for Ruby to have the Maiden powers, especially given the dangerous circumstances surrounding maidens at the time (someone managing to steal a maiden's power, and maidens generally needing to be kept under wraps and protection to prevent their powers from getting abused etc.)

But of course, the fact that the rest of his inner circle would easily agree on Pyrrha compared to Ruby is also a factor -- however it's less about him having to "settle" with Pyrrha instead of Ruby: it is what he had envisioned to begin with. In fact, to throw some more chess imagery in there, in the initial phase of chess you "set up" the pieces, which is what happened all across volumes 1 and 2. Then during the "middle" phase of the game, combinations are most common (sacrificial moves which gain you an advantage later) and given the dubious nature of Oz's character so far, I wouldn't put it beyond him to have setup the whole thing as a means to draw Salem out. He probably didn't envision casualities on the scale they happened, but I don't doubt that he didn't see this coming to an extent, given how well he appears to know Salem (and vice-versa). It is the final phase of the game that pawns - ala Ruby - and even the King himself (likely Oz) become relevant. That Pyrrha's sacrifice has led to the activation of Ruby's silver eyes is only an advantage for Oz's endgame.

Hope this was worth your while!

-- sos_se_ahrol