User blog:MrGrey27/Cinder, Emerald, the white fang- and Sonia from Fire Emblem

Hey everyone, I’m MrGrey27 and this is my blog ever on this wiki! The topic for this blog is an interestingly high number of similarities between Cinder and the character Sonia from the game Fire Emblem (FE). I doubt these similarities are anything but pure coincidence, but I still found them quite interesting anyway and thought I would share them with you. While not necessary in order to understand the following, I would recommend that you go google 'Sonia- Fire Emblem'. Otherwise, no worries- I'll walk you through this :)

Now the first set of similarities between Cinder and Sonia are pretty straightforward: both are powerful wielders of elemental attacks, both have pale skin, gleaming golden eyes, similar hairstyles and hair colors, wear a similar style of dress (though Sonia’s is primarily black), and both have a cruel, menacing personality. Sonia tends to use the femme fatale aspect of her character more than Cinder though.

Then there’s the similarity in the way they interact with a certain character close to them. For Cinder, that person is Emerald- for Sonia, it’s her adopted daughter Nino. Sonia became Nino’s guardian after she killed Nino’s parents and older brother- but Nino is blissfully ignorant of this since she was still an infant at the time. Sonia actually wanted to kill Nino as well, but her master, Nergal talked her out of it since he thought Nino might be useful to him as an assassin if raised as one by Sonia. Because of this, Sonia hates Nino and views her as little more than a burden and a tool, never showing her any affection. Nino on the other hand, is always eager to please Sonia- despite the fact that all she gets in return is scorn and contempt.

Now compare that to Cinder and Emerald’s interaction towards the end of ‘best day ever’. When Cinder appears, Emerald’s face lights up, she sounds very excited and happy, and she starts moving towards Cinder as if to hug her- only to be ignored by Cinder who heads straight for Roman. When Emerald then tries to impress Cinder by telling her that she and Mercury took on the task of killing Tukson themselves, Cinder simply retorts with her awesomely sinister ‘Don’t think- Obey’ line (damn I love that line…!). This is very similar to the relationship that Sonia and Nino share. But why is Emerald so loyal then? My guess (and that of several other fans it seems), is that it has something to do with Roman’s ‘street rat’ insult. Perhaps Emerald got taken in by Cinder after being forced to live off her thieving skills on the streets as a result of being orphaned (another similarity between Emerald and Nino).

Still, if the relationship between Emerald and Cinder ends up being anything like that between Sonia and Nino, Emerald’s loyalty might end up getting tested: Sonia only shows affection towards Nino at one point- when she wants her to take on a mission to kill a prince. Nino happily accepts, thinking this might finally earn her Sonia’s love- but what she doesn’t know is that Sonia plans to have her murdered and act as a scapegoat in the process. I can’t help but wonder if Cinder might not be willing to do something similar with Emerald?

Then there is the case of the two groups that the two women use as their pawns: Cinder has the white fang, Sonia has the black fang. Both groups are known for previously having fought for a noble cause- the white fang in defense of oppressed faunus, the black fang in defense of oppressed commoner’s by using their skills as assassins to kill nobles that abused their power. But following a change of leadership, both groups begin to become increasingly corrupt. In FE, this was the work of Sonia, who married the black fang leader after his first wife died, and then became the de facto leader herself. I wonder if the new white fang leader that Blake mentions might have been helped to power by Cinder in a similar way?

Finally, last but not least, there’s the issue of Sonia’s true identity. While appearing human, she is in fact nothing but a magical shell in the shape of a person made by her master, Nergal, who is the true mastermind behind the game’s events. He even leads Sonia to believe she is human.

What about Cinder? Most fans seem to agree that she is not the ultimate antagonist of RWBY, and that she too is acting on behalf of someone else. But while I’ve seen quite a few people ask WHO is Cinder, I’ve seen less ask WHAT she is. What if she too is merely something masquerading as a human- might she be more closely related to the grimm?

Anyway, that’s all I wanted to share with you all! I’m sure you can find other examples of plots and characters that line up closely with those of RWBY. Let me know what you think!