I Dont Hate Life, but Life Hates Me.

. . . I am not sorry. 😌😌💕

So I wasn’t really taught to brush my teeth every day as a kid. So I didn’t. I got to be an adult and realized “hmm teeth are expensive I need to start brushing them” and brushing my teeth twice a day has been on my actual to do list every single day of my college career. It’s a habit I needed to build.

Have I successfully done it? Absolutely not. I’m pretty good about doing it at least once a day, but some days it just doesn’t happen. It’s not that I forget usually, I just had some aversion I couldn’t figure out, until last week.

I’m at the grocery store, in the toothpaste aisle with my roommate, and I complain about how much I hate mint. I FUCKING HATE THE TASTE OF MINT. The taste and the smell, any kind of minty thing in any form, I HATE IT. But literally every “adult” toothpaste in the aisle was some type of minty disgusting nonsense. And my roommate was like “you know you could like get kids’ toothpaste? You like bubblegum right?”

And y’all, it was like the clouds parted. I got some strawberry bubblegum kids’ toothpaste. I brushed my teeth with it and it was a whole new experience. I have successfully brushed twice a day every day since, because the mental block I had towards it is gone! 

I thought my lack of brushing was just a moral failing on my part; I was too lazy, too undisciplined, to build a good habit. But really? I just hate the taste of mint so much I didn’t want to brush my teeth.

This made me realize that when presented with a change you want to make, a habit you want to build, if you’re encountering resistance in yourself, you should lean into that resistance and really investigate what’s causing it, then work on accommodating that. 

Say you hate washing dishes so they pile up and then you’re overwhelmed by how many you have to do. Why do you hate it? Deep down, what about it do you dislike? Is touching wet food super gross for you? Try thick rubber gloves while you’re washing. Does the sound of dishing clanking together grate your nerves? Do them with headphones in and turned up loud. Do you hate the smell? Light some candles, spray some air freshener. 

Do these things instead of gritting your teeth and forcing yourself, then ultimately failing and getting discouraged by your “lack of self-discipline”

Hi y’all!!

Their reflection fails to reverse when the other soul is talking.

Remember Volume 4? Oscar notices something wrong with himself in the mirror just before Ozpin makes himself known.

Here’s Oscar initially looking in the mirror, and not seeing anything wrong:

And here’s the exact next shot, directly before Ozpin speaks:

Notice how the pockets on his arm and chest fail to switch sides, to be a reverse image like mirrors project, in the second image, but not the first.

Okay, maybe it was a goof in that second shot. It doesn’t prove anything.

Here’s some images from The Lost Fable with properly reversed reflections:

And now here’s Ozma 2.0, just before and during his host asking him what they’re doing:

Notice his lock of hair has failed to reverse in the reflection. It’s swept towards his left-hand side in both.

Now, this is not foolproof. Not reversing a reflection is a very simple animation mistake to make, as we can see in Volume 7 Chapter 3:

Though, admittedly, Blake is metaphorically a person with two souls. Beauty and Beast in one person, symbolising the struggle between who she is and the person Adam wanted her to be. So maybe it’s not a mistake? After all, she is the person who introduces us to the concept of people with two souls…

So, anyway, why do I bring this up?

Well, a lot of people have been discussing Cinder looking sad in her reflection in this week’s episode:

Only, as a post by @witch-of-the-world has pointed out, her reflection has failed to reverse.

Now, this could easily be an animation mistake. Place a transparent model of Cinder behind the glass, fail to reverse-image it, easy mistake to make.

And, I mean, where would Cinder even get a second soul from? It’s not like anyone was merging souls with the Fall Maiden powers just as Amber died-

Oh.

Both Salem’s forces and even Lionheart have repeatedly said that that Ozpin’s reincarnation this time around has been much faster than usual. The process usually takes longer.

And we’re what? A year out from the Fall of Beacon, as opposed to Oscar’s six months?

And there’s just… little things that have left me and others suspicious. Her use of spears at the Attack on Haven, knowing that hurting Weiss would hurt Jaune, bringing up the Destiny line out of nowhere in Volume 6, the sheer amount of parallels between Ozma and Pyrrha (even using the same effect for their final deaths), the fact that Cinder’s outfit looks kinda inspired by Pyrrha’s…

So, to answer the question, why does Cinder look sad in her reflection?

(I’m sorry for how long this is. I went off and it got really long, but I don’t know how to add a “Read More.”)

In Norse Mythology, Freya is the leader of the Valkyries. Frigga is Thor’s mother. Fria likely alludes to both; the logical conclusion is that she has some connection to the character based on Thor. Incidentally, the character based on Thor’s last name is Valkyrie. Nothing is ever by coincidence in RWBY...

And in RWBY Chibi, Nora mentions her grandma, who is “scary strong.” Chibi foreshadows quite a lot in the series proper: Penny’s resurrection, the Volume 6 finale, Cinder’s fate at Haven, Neo’s return and redesign. There were no other cases of introduction of new characters in Chibi, but Nora namedropped someone in Season 1. That can’t be meaningless.

Nora’s new outfit, unlike her previous ones, prominently features a lot of blue, white and gray; all of which are colors typically associated with winter. The outfit itself is very reminiscent of Mantle fashions; specifically, those of the Happy Huntresses. I doubt this was a purely aesthetic choice.

Nora has always been the one advocating for Mantle. She tries to advocate for better conditions, asks Ironwood to help them, and stops him from declaring Martial law. It doesn’t make sense to have Nora almost exclusively be the only one really sticking up for Mantle, unless...

Nora is from Mantle. Samantha Ireland, Nora’s VA, confirmed we will learn more about her character this Volume. It makes sense to be doing that in her home town. It also makes sense for her backstory to be accompanied by more intense development; Nora’s character has been somewhat static up until now.

In addition to aesthetic and character, there has been a great deal of minor foreshadowing for Nora to be the Winter Maiden. She has been referenced as “lightning” in the last two intros. The effects around her eyes in the “thunder thighs” gag (which references the same skit where Nora mentions her grandma,) has lightning affects around Nora’s eyes... which look and awful lot like the maiden fire effects. Nora is the only member of the main cast whose eye color has been changed, and that change made her look even more maiden coded. Finally, her personality does somewhat match that of an original Maiden; Summer. While this is less concrete, it’s not irrelevant. Nora is maiden coded more than any other candidate.

Cinder says Ironwood has been “hiding the Winter Maiden for years.” That leaves plenty of time for Nora to have lost contact with her grandma before losing her parents and winding up in Mistral. The timeline absolutely works.

While I do think Winter is trying to be a good person, and do not think she is an antagonistic character, she is still ultimately ill-suited for Maidenhood...

For one, she views being the Winter Maiden as “a chance to do some real good for Atlas. For Remnant.” That is her order of priorities. The Maidens are each tied to a Relic, and thereby a kingdom, but are not meant to serve them. Amber was doing what the Maidens are supposed to. She traveled the Kingdoms, doing all she could to aid others with her powers. This is why the Maidens were created in the first place. To help others in any way they could...

Which is exactly what Nora (along with the rest of the main cast,) has been doing. She wanted to spare others the suffering she and Ren experienced, so Nora dedicated her life to being a Huntress, to helping others no matter what.

...Whereas Winter really only joined the military to escape her father. Being the Winter Maiden wasn’t her idea or her choice, despite what she’s told herself. Winter isn’t just unfit to be a Maiden; it’s an unhealthy choice for her.

Or, to summarize:

Nora clearly has a connection to Fria, who is likely her grandmother

Nora is heavily implied to be from Mantle

There has been a lot of symbolism and foreshadowing to suggest she will become the Winter Maiden.

Winter is very ill-suited to be a Maiden, while Nora would be an excellent fit for the role.

I will accept my status as a prophet is this happens, or as a fool if it doesn’t.

IT SAVED THE PILLARS WITH AN ANTIDOTE BUT DIED TO MUZAN

FUCK YOU WITH YO BITCH ASS BEYBLADE SELF MUZAN