Board Thread:Speculation House/@comment-10390252-20150427084942/@comment-26018514-20150512021907

DiegoAnime3000 wrote: That makes sense. Pyrrha is really the only side character who has been developed enough for the audience to actually care if she dies apart from Sun. If it was Ren or Nora... well... it's not like if they were that important to the story. They're still unidimensional characters. Their deaths might have some impact to the story but not to the audience.

And yes, her entire character is so far, purely for Jaune's development purposes. So if Volume 3 changes that, then, maybe Pyrrha will stay for a few more volumes.

She has three big foreshadowing scenes: She's on Cinder's list, she's now suspicious of Mercury and it has been confirmed (I think) that her mother will appear in a flashback in Volume 3. Might have something to do with that thing on her head (forgot the name) that she never takes off.

There is all of that to be sure, but there is also the fact that she seems to have peaked as far as skill in just about everything, she makes just about everyone look like a joke except for DPS and perhaps Aura skill... while being far sturdier and harder to take out. Just look at her in breach, Jaune killed one ursa while she actually lead the teams charge, usurping him.

Her death would raise the stakes for everyone, because in almost every way she should be expected to surpass them, while she could pull a sacrifice play for Jaune she could just as easily die in such a way it makes it look hopeless for the others.

Penny on the other hand is the prototype you expect to die... if she did, we would only expect a better 2.0 to show up at some point... it would be like Robo-cop dying... it should happen, so it is inversely less likely to occur. Furthermore, Penny currently appears unattached to a team, if she was friendships would likely mean less to her, and among the only known ties for her are her creator, Ironwood(who as the new leader is the tallest blade of grass and first to be cut/disgraced), and Atlas mooks.

Further reasons Penny may replace Pyrrha are that she fits: CNR, the genderswap theme of JNPR, and Jaunes inept description of Ruby/Pyrrha: "where will he find another nice, quirky, redhead?". She would also fit Pyrrha's role as overpowered, and near her limits, however she is so far above them she would likely fill that role for only a year or two, and from then on depend on upgrades to stay up there or at least even with the MC's. While Pyrrha is simply "too perfect" Penny has lots of flaws, and would increase JNPR's team balance when Jaune actually becomes a tank(because both he and Pyrrha fill the role atm).