Board Thread:Speculation House/@comment-17742613-20130911015129/@comment-10390252-20131217075747

I'm pretty sure that the masks worn by White Fang members has both practical and symbolic value.

In practical terms, they are criminals, so hiding their identity from casual recognition is important. Additionally, they may act as part of armour protection.

However, given that the masks are marked with red patterns similar to Grimm facial markings, I think that there is also a symbolic value. It shows that White Fang is deliberately adopting the appearance of monsters both as a psychological warfare tactic and, perhaps, to demonstrate that, like Grimm, they are the natural enemy of humans.

The mask could be the proof that Weiss was right when she said that the reformed White Fang has a genocidal intent.