Board Thread:Speculation House/@comment-14138255-20151213162620/@comment-24147441-20151228060318

@Spiegelmeister

 '''I agree that Yang would figure it out and make a connection if they wound up fighting. My issue is more with the logistics of needing a member from outside the fight to help with the fighting to achieve the goal. If their plan needs Neo, why choose Yang or any of RWBY to mess with when there are other finalists you could screw over (but then you run into plot problems not using the main team).'''

- As for why she specifically picked Yang, I will admit that I have no idea. It could be that Yang was one of the people on Cinder's list of potential maidens that she wanted to eliminate. It could be that they know she's Raven's kid and want to draw out Raven (or Qrow) by getting her into serious trouble. Who really knows for sure?! Guess we'll have to find out next year.



 '''Neo was a recent addition to the series (mid run) created to be the yin to the yang of Torchwick (and apparently Yang herself). I agree they're all working with Cinder, but also remember that Torchwick is really his own separate faction that is currently employed or blackmailed by Cinder to work for her. Loyalty isn't necessarily a given.'''

''-Maybe not employed, but blackmailed is a possibility. I do think that their loyalty is still a factor, even if its fear induced. And as for Torchwick being is own separate faction, I don't know. We really don't know much about his background, how he came to be involved with Cinder, or what he was doing before that. Seems he became affiliated with the White Fang after meeting Cinder and being ordered to do so. I'm not going to assume anything just yet. I'll just wait and see how this unfolds. ''



 '''In addition to the loyalty comment above, the point isn't that she HAS murderous intent, but that her attitude is not very well controlled. Cinder, Em and Merc all know when to show their cards, do things in the shadows, and generally have their own leashes they keep on when they need to. Neo doesn't seem to have that. She seems to enjoy the killing (a little too much) and isn't privy to the consequences. If she somehow disobeys Cinder or isn't quite as controlled as thought or gets caught up in a certain situation, it could come back to bite Cinder in the butt when she needs it the least.'''

''-But we haven't actually seen her kill anyone. o.o To be honest, considering how crucial her role has been throughout Cinder's plans in the tournament, I'd say that she's just as obedient to Cinder as the others really. If she wasn't, I'm sure she would have been dealt with by now. Merc and Em went and killed a man when they really weren't supposed to. I'd say they're more guilty of being “loose cannons” than Neo in that aspect. But in reality, insurgency of any kind from any one of her members could bite her in the butt when she needs it the least, which is why she keeps them on lock. ''



 '''This is the reason why I think she's more Torchwick's second in command, and less working directly with Cinder. She might have joined the 4v4 just to stay on good terms and/or because Cinder promised to help retrieve Torchwick from his prison when everything is through if she did. She seems more secondary than a major player on the villain side, even more so with the lack of direct interaction'''.

''-I see what you're saying, but there is really no way to determine Neo's motives right now. There hasn't been enough interaction between Cinder and Neo to make that connection. But they clearly communicate enough for Neo to be able to keep doing illusions and working from the background. Cinder did mention something about “heavy lifting” being taken care of by their “clever little friend”, which I initially thought was Penny, but might also be Neo. ''



 '''This is somewhat debatable. I think it is his semblance, but it could be a very unique way of controlling dust with his aura. What I think is the white plumes are the wind dust (a condensed mist-like form). He shoots these out, and they've been shown to go straight, much like a projectile. When they start circling, and he has control of bringing them all down on one point, it leads me to believe he has a semblance that has control over the wind in some way. I don't think we've seen any form of dust use to be controllable after leaving the attacker. Weiss has created constructs to mold into a shape she wants, but I don't think we've seen her control it after the fact. The ice projectiles are icicles created in one spot, and shot with her glyphs. Let me know if you can find a case that has been shown otherwise, and I'll go back and examine it.'''

''-The only person I can really think of who manipulates Dust in a way you're describing would be Cinder, from her first fight with Glynda. And I don't think its semblance related. Its kind of been hinted at that she's fused Dust into both her clothes and her body. Another would be Weiss, with how she summoned a giant ice hand and then made an ice ramp. There aren't too many characters who really even use Dust like that to begin with, so I guess we'll have to wait and see. You're right though, it is debatable for the time being. But I've noticed the Dust that Mercury uses is the same color as the Dust that Weiss uses when she does her multi-glyph attack against Flynt. Which is why I think that its some kind of enhanced Wind Dust and why that move Merc does isn't necessarily semblance related. But I will admit that it is debatable. For now.''



<p style="margin-top:0.08in;border-style:none;border-width:initial;padding:0in;line-height:0.22in;orphans:1;background:rgb(28,28,28);"> '''If neither has used it, ok. It just means that they're way over powered, and it would give no reason for them to be worried about Qrow or Winter who were using semblances before even getting serious. The power levels would just seem way out of balance for their situation if they weren't using semblances.'''

<p style="margin-top:0.08in;border-style:none;border-width:initial;padding:0in;font-weight:normal;line-height:0.22in;orphans:1;background:rgb(28,28,28);">''-Winter used her semblance. Qrow didn't. He didn't even break out the full form of his weapon. And they're not worried about Winter – they're worried about Qrow. This is what I meant when I said we can't jump to conclusions! There is obviously a REASON why they're afraid of Qrow (and Raven.) We just have no idea what that reason is. ''

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<p style="margin-top:0.08in;border-style:none;border-width:initial;padding:0in;line-height:0.22in;orphans:1;background:rgb(28,28,28);"> '''Agreed, there was some semblance going on. I'm still not sold on the making Yang see a non-existent fight. A lot of the blocks, hits, and redirects Neo uses, especially for winding Yang up into the ceiling would require her to be dancing so close to hit those marks while simultaneously using a semblance that it wouldn't make sense. (Think about the concentration of trying to do two of the same thing at once with a second or half second delay and/or a few inches of range difference.) Also note we hear her semblance used three times. One at the beginning, once right before her flip which ends with her sitting on a crate, and once before disappearing when Raven shows up. Judging by the noise, I would think it has something to do with air, which may mean teleportation or enhanced movement speed.'''

<p style="margin-top:0.08in;border-style:none;border-width:initial;padding:0in;font-weight:normal;line-height:0.22in;orphans:1;background:rgb(28,28,28);">-Then you would have to explain why she can also produce illusion mirrors that can be shattered. She can teleport, she can re-direct moves with her mind, and assuming I'm right, she can project illusions onto other people's minds to make them see something false, AND predict the future to an extent. Either her semblance is ridiculously OP or SHE is the one who took the Maiden's power. And I really don't see what would be so difficult about fighting and using a semblance at the same time tbh, Yang does it every time she goes Super Saiyan. Sun is the only one who can't multi-task while using his semblance.

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<p style="margin-top:0.08in;border-style:none;border-width:initial;padding:0in;line-height:0.22in;orphans:1;background:rgb(28,28,28);"> '''Yang didn't feel something happen to her head. She was blocked/redirected. For a while I thought Neo was able to reverse Yang's momentum, which threw her off balance. It also doesn't seem to be a whiff because Yang's right handed punch gets redirected in the opposite direction (she spins back in a clockwise direction). The crew has been asked if Neo was inspired by the Cheshire Cat (illusions and such) and we have been told a very wary answer that she isn't, but someone else close to her probably is. (More evidence to back up Emerald might be the one.)'''

<p style="margin-top:0.08in;border-style:none;border-width:initial;padding:0in;font-weight:normal;line-height:0.22in;orphans:1;background:rgb(28,28,28);">''-She most certainly did. Yang couldn't have been blocked OR re-directed physically because Neo did NOT move. And alright, let's say for a minute that Emerald IS the one casting these illusions. Emerald wasn't in the ring with Yang and Merc when the illusion happened in “Fall”, meaning she would have had to cast an illusion from outside the fighting arena. If there is a range restriction, Emerald would have to be subject to it too. Merc was fresh out of aura when the illusion happened, so it couldn't have been him. And if Neo can't cast illusions from a distance outside the ring, then neither can Emerald. So either Yang cast the illusion on herself, or someone's semblance is not range restricted and is probably OP. And it's probably Neo's since she is the ONLY one who has been shown to be able to screw around with people's heads like this.''

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<p style="margin-top:0.08in;border-style:none;border-width:initial;padding:0in;line-height:0.22in;orphans:1;background:rgb(28,28,28);"> '''I was thinking the same with the eyes, but I couldn't really find any links to figure out what it meant. At one point my thought was one color could see a few seconds ahead to the future to predict moves, one was regular (spike spiegel much? except future instead of past), and the silver/blue eyes (when Raven shows up) were semblance or something else. It looks like we have all sorts of colors though (green being the most recent), with the pink/brown being the most common. (For funsies, I also had a theory based on Sacrifice that the eye colors were different souls she had 'reaped' from her enemies, and thus each gave her a different power.)'''

<p style="margin-top:0.08in;border-style:none;border-width:initial;padding:0in;font-weight:normal;line-height:0.22in;orphans:1;background:rgb(28,28,28);">''-I'm starting to think that that might even be the case, and her real semblance might be something like taking people's auras or something. Her eyes change color a total of 16 times during the match (I counted) Her eyes were silver those last few moments before she teleported out of the train. I'm even starting to think that it might be because she has some kind of connection to Summer. I know I'm really going out on a limb here, but if her semblance is stealing people's semblances, its possible that she might have fought/killed Summer and taken her semblance, which might explain why she's able to teleport/move really fast. Assuming that Ruby inherited her semblance from her mom. ''

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<p style="margin-top:0.08in;border-style:none;border-width:initial;padding:0in;line-height:0.22in;orphans:1;background:rgb(28,28,28);"> 'I don't think she'll be that overpowered based on the previous assumption she's not directly related with the main villain crew. Even with a front row seat there's that large sand area to deal with and who knows how the shield barrier works (not saying it's impossible, just makes it a bit harder). You'll also notice that Emerald was not sitting with Cinder (empty seat beside her though), yet was the first on the scene to come to Mercury's aid which means she was probably somewhere close and could immediately run onto the field after the soldiers did.' 

<p style="margin-top:0.08in;border-style:none;border-width:initial;padding:0in;font-weight:normal;line-height:0.22in;orphans:1;background:rgb(28,28,28);">''-But how does that prove that she was the one who casted the illusion over Neo? Like I said before, she too would have had to find a way to bypass the sand area (assuming its that big an obstacle in the first place), and if she can, then so can Neo. I'm pretty sure the shield barrier exists to keep people from flying out of the stadium, or getting hit with projectiles, like Coco's bullets. It doesn't seem like it was designed to keep semblances at bay, as you can still use your semblance in or out of the arena.''

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<p style="margin-bottom:0in;border-style:none;border-width:initial;padding:0in;line-height:0.22in;orphans:1;background:rgb(28,28,28);"> '''This wasn't in the context of this chapter, but in fighting RWBY in Vol. 2 and showing herself at the WF meeting. If she could create an illusion of herself from a distance, why show herself as herself to an enemy when you could disguise yourself as someone else to them? Also realize that her 'costume' was just a wig and maybe contacts (probably not). She still had a girl's body with the same height, etc. If she could create an illusion of a man or different proportions (like the recent illusions), wouldn't it cause even less suspicion if she showed herself as far from her actual self as possible?'''

<p style="margin-top:0.08in;border-style:none;border-width:initial;padding:0in;font-weight:normal;line-height:0.22in;orphans:1;background:rgb(28,28,28);">'' - I'm sorry, but I don't understand what you're trying to imply here? You might as well be asking why ALL the villains don't just wear disguises. Cinder already said that the ones who should be most suspicious of them don't even know who they are, even though they know that they're somewhere in the school. Neo has no reason to be worried about being suspected, especially since she's still in disguise. ''

<p style="margin-top:0.08in;border-style:none;border-width:initial;padding:0in;font-weight:normal;line-height:0.22in;orphans:1;background:rgb(28,28,28);"> '''I might take a look at that later on, but it does seem slightly suspicious. Then again, if you think about it, all the other fights she needed to oversee to make sure they went the way she planned/wanted. The fight she walks up early from is the final fight when everything has already played out exactly as planned. There's nothing left to throw a wrench into her plan, creating the confidence boost to just walk away.'''

<p style="margin-top:0.08in;border-style:none;border-width:initial;padding:0in;font-weight:normal;line-height:0.22in;orphans:1;background:rgb(28,28,28);">''-Perhaps. But I still think she's up to something. This would hardly be the time for her to go celebrating when one of her best fighters just got his leg shattered. And I'm not even sure if that was part of the plan or not. I guess we will see.''

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<p style="margin-bottom:0in;border-style:none;border-width:initial;padding:0in;line-height:0.22in;orphans:1;background:rgb(28,28,28);"> '''I'll agree to disagree on this a little. There is a lot we don't know, there is a lot still to be revealed. The crew did say in the livestream though that we are now at the "end of the beginning" and that the intro is taken care of and we have now started the story. This means most of the introduced characters are already pretty established. We can add on some other things later, but I think the reveals will be more plot related, and less (side) character related unless they're new.'''

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<p style="margin-bottom:0in;border-style:none;border-width:initial;padding:0in;font-weight:normal;line-height:0.22in;orphans:1;background:rgb(28,28,28);">''-I guess time will tell. To an extent, you are right, but just because a story has started doesn't mean anything is necessarily set in stone. The characters you start with might not be the characters you end with. The people you thought were good, might end up being evil. There is really no way to know what to expect. But as for trying to figure out whose going to fit where in the grand scheme of things when we don't even really know the grand scheme wouldn't be wise. ''