Ok, so I have mixed feelings about Summer’s ‘death.’ So far, it seems like her death is only implied rather than factual. What are ya’ll’s theories on it?

Since Salem's inner circle is also known as team WTCH (Watts, Tyrian, Cinder, Hazel), I figure why not give Ozpin's group a team name too. 

Right the only people that are confirmed to be in his group are Oscar Pine, Qrow Branwen, Glynda Goodwitch, Xanthe Rumpole, and Theodore. For their team name I suggest of calling them team GRBT (Greenbelt). G is for Glynda or Goodwitch, R is for Rumpole, B is for Branwen, and T is for Theodore.

I decided to leave Oscar out since he is kinda the leader becasue of Ozpin, and it would be similar to how Salem's name isn't included in team WTCH. 

You guys agree or disagree?

Ruby is a Silver Eyed Warrior, a being who can literally destroy Grimm just by looking at them. Salem is basically a Grimm, and is thus vulnerable to the powers of the Silver Eyes. Hazel says that they've "dealt with" Silver Eyed Warriors before, and Tok specifically said that her master (Salem) wanted Maria DEAD because of her eyes, implying that Salem wants them wiped out. 

This brings us to the big question: Why does Salem want Ruby brought to her ALIVE? It just doesn't make sense given their capabilities and Salem's previous actions against them. And it's not like she's opposed to killing children, being the master of a race that literally eats them for breakfast. So why should the case with Ruby be any different?

Then I found this quote from The Lost Fable: "Why spend our lives trying to redeem these Humans when we can replace them with what they could never be?"

That's when it clicked: Salem CREATED the Silver Eyed Warriors. She intended them to be humanity's replacement, as she intended with her daughters.

But shouldn't something of Salem's creation be capable of destroying humans as well, and not just the creatures of Grimm? And besides that, why is she having her leutenants hunt down and kill Silver Eyed Warriors?

First of all, the color silver in of itself is a medium between black and white, light and darkness. With how crucial color symbolism is to the series, both inside and out, this can tell us more about what the Silver Eyes are really capable of. With Ruby being the bright little ball of sunshine she is, it's no wonder why she's able to use the Silver Eyes to purge the evil Grimm. But what if that isn't all they can do? Maria said that the source of a Silver Eyed Warrior's power is their desire to protect, but what if that's only half of the truth? What if the desire to protect can only access the light half? If that's the case, then in order to access the dark half, Ruby would need to have a much more destructive desire. A desire for vengence, perhaps? 

As for why Salem is having so many of them killed off, the answer is simple: to cull the weak. She is testing her creations, seeing whether or not they're up to snuff. If they are, then great! If they aren't then....well....ask Summer.

This is just a crazy theory I have, but if it turns out to be true, then holy shit the potential is limitless! This is especially the case for Ruby. This would make her question EVERYTHING about herself, perhaps leading her down a much darker path.

Anyways, what do you think Salem has planned for Ruby?

Because with a name like Malik "the Sunderer" it's not hard to guess what he was probably infamous for doing to his enemies. 

Or at the very least a major supporting antagonist.

The user 5.62.43.106 brought up a very good point about Gillian and Jax's birthmarks in one of their earlier posts. Here it is:

At no point in the book is it mentioned that Gillian branded herself beyond Coco speculating such. Her father says they were both born with the mark, meaning if anyone branded her, it was him.

----

This all just speculation of course, but if it's true, then that brings an all-new element of tragedy to both Jax and Gillian's stories in the books and also opens door to whole new questions such as:

Why was Finn so obsessed with Vacuo history, particularly in the monarchy? 

Did he choose to brand his own children and if so why? 

Was he secretly just as obsessed as his children with the throne and was manipulating them into doing exactly what he wanted the entire time? 

Or does he have his own agenda and if so then what is it? 

And why was he so quick to help them take down his own children if he was involved? 

Was he actually a hidden puppet master the entire time without either of his children knowing?

These are all questions that I think need to be answered at some point.

I mean, we still want Scarlet and Sage backstory, and there are still agents of The Crown out there. Plus, maybe it could be moreso about Theo having to reveal THE SECRETS to everyone?

Okay guys so I was watching volume 4, episode 1 and I realized what I'm about to tell you when Salem said "It is because of the maiden's power" while addressing her villain squad. So I realized that Cinder reacts to Ruby's silver eyes because silver eyes impair grim and Cinder is the fall maiden. For my theory to be correct, the maidens would have to be the product of Ozma (Ozpin's past life) and Salem. We know that they had four daughters with magic, so it would only make sense. Since Salem is part grim, that part of her would have been passed along with her four dauhters. My theory is that the grim gene from Salem passed down not only with their daughters, but their magic. Therefore, the maidens would be impaired by silver eyes.

Personal idea of mine: when the heroes go through Salem's lair, they have to fight grimmified versions of every dead lackey of Salem, and everyone killed by a lackey or grimm. IE, they would have to fight grimm versions of Pyrrha, Leo, Brawnz, Roy, Zedong, Fria, Sienna, Amber, Vernal, Tock, Adam, Tukson, Gretchen, Summer, Roman, and Ozpin (the host, not Ozma)

Found this interesting tweet claiming that during "Talk CRWBY" there was confirmation that though it will be then longest volume yet, “volume 8 doesn’t take place over weeks, it’s only some hours, maybe a day or two.”

That's... kinda scary actually. I really hope they manage to handle the spacing.

So it has been mentioned that Salem wants to get all four relics to essentially be unstoppable in terms of power and rule. But it was revealed in "The Lost Fable" that bringing them together will summon the brother gods and humanity will be judged, either to live amongst humans and faunus like before, or wipe them out of existence. And, later in the episode before the first battle between Salem and Ozma, its revealed that Ozma told her everything the god of light told him, including what would happen when the four relics were brought together. Sooooo, why do you think Salem thinks getting all four relics will make her invincible? It's possible that she won't exactly "bring them together" but possessing all four might qualify as together. If she is aware that having all four will summon the gods, does she just not realize that "their world" being wiped off of existence includes her (despite being immortal) or is she just so egotistical that she thinks she can challenge them again?

Where was the 39th Vytal Festival Tournament?

In the Haven Arc, we had lionhart as a traitor. In vol 7, Ironwood became an antagonist. Both Ironwood and lionhart were derived from charecters who traveled with Dorthy in Wizard of Oz. The charecters who traveled with her were the Scarecrow who wanted a brain, the Tin Man who wanted a heart, and the Lion who wanted courage. Leo alluded to the lion who wanted courage, and when we saw him on screen he was a total coward. Hence he lost his courage.

Ironwood on the other hand alluded to the Tin man that wanted a heart. In Vol 7, Ironwood abandoned his humanity for the war with Salem, hence he lost his heart.

In both cases each of them alluded to a charecter who traveled with Dorthy, and both turned to the dark side upon losing what their WOO counterparts were trying to gain.

If we follow this pattern, Qrow Branwen alludes to the Scarecrow who wanted a brain. I think that maybe in the next volume or the one after it, Qrow himself may become an enemy of team Rwby. With the assumpsion that he will figuratively "lose his brain" the writers may very well have him brainwashed or mind-controlled which causes his Face-heel turn, this fits the pattern as shown by Ironwood and Lionhart. 

Personally, I've always been a fan of the "No Animosity in the Afterlife" trope.

When a character dies, with rare exceptions, they end up in an afterlife populated by other deceased. Some of these people will have been friends or loved ones in the living world, reunited at last. Some of these people...well, let's just say not everyone in Heaven was on good terms before they died. Some of them were even bitter enemies!

But in the afterlife, there's little reason to care about former rivalries and disagreements. It stops mattering what happened when you were alive, and so the people you used to hate, suddenly, aren't so bad at all.

This may happen because the afterlife brings a sensation of peace and understanding. A character once consumed by rage or jealousy or power can gain some perspective after death, and become a much calmer, friendlier person. At the same time, there's nothing left to pick a fight over, anyway. You don't need money, land, or authority when you're a ghost— so why continue to hate the people that challenged you? With the entire reason for the animosity being nullified, rivalries can be put aside. However, it doesn't have to happen instantaneously. The afterlife is supposed to be eternal, after all. There's more than enough time to mend bridges with the people you used to fight with, so some works portray this process as being about a gradual bonding and forgiveness process while there's nothing left to do but talk to each other, rather than an immediate shift.

Having this occur between individuals is most common, but it could also happen on a larger scale. Entire warring nations could become friends in the afterlife, and though their descendants will still fight, at least the afterlife brings them a truce.

OK, still 44 days til Before The Dawn, and school just ended, so I wanna hear some speculations. I'll list a few:

Theodore is a good headmaster (respects the kids, doesn't have his maiden imprisoned but still knows where she is, et cetera)

The Weeping Wall has Water Dust under it

Rumpole is the Summer Maiden

SSSN gets into a fight and barely functions anymore, but has to work together again on a mission where Sun promises he will finally stop leaving them

Team BRNZ isn't dead, they are captured by Salem and/or the Crown

The Crown is/works for Salem

Along with Starr Sanzang, Sun has two other cousins: Moon Wujing and Comet Bajie, and the four of them joked that they would be Team SSMC (smoke) when they were little

CFVY, ABRN, SSSN, and NDGO will switch around team members in the new initiation, with the main one being Arslan, Sun, Nebula, and Coco as Team ASNC (arsenic)

i don't know if this was already done, but anyways, HERE WE GO (also V7 spoilers)

in V7:E10, clover said that he had a grudge against tyrian. this may just be due to him being a serial killer and/or the mantle killings, but i think that tyrian may have killed someone close to clover (i.e a family member or a close friend) so clover wants revenge? i know he is dead and all (F) but maybe we will find out about his past through tyrian, ironwood, one of the aceops, or maybe a new charecter (who knows!) but i really want to find out about clovers past.

So, is no-one going to say anything about Salem's immortality semblance? Yeah, sure, it's never said, but it's as obvious as the silver in Ruby's eyes.

Powers aside, i was thinking that maybe each relic relates to a fairytale object:

The lamp: I'm 90% sure it is a reference to the lamp from Aladdin, the genie living in it, being given 3 of something, very strongly 

The staff: I'm don't have any solid evidence for the staff, maybe Merlin's staff (although I theorise the sword is an Excalibur), honestly there are a lot of wands/staffs in fairy tales

I'm not sure about the sword or crown since as of yet they haven't appeared, does anyone else have an idea of what the relics could be based on?

How old would Summer be if she's alive, and how old would she be before her death?

If rooster teeth decides to make character shorts for upcoming volumes Again such as volume 8 who would you like to get a character short of?