one of the coolest things about RWBY thematically is how you have this big point of how all of the main characters have the things that make them unique - their individual outfits, their personal weapons, and of course their semblances - their own unique superpower - and how it's all these different aspects coming together and working together in this collage of self-expression that will save the world
and then the overarching antagonist, Salem, is someone who doesn't have anything that actually makes her personally unique - she has no weapon, her colour scheme is borderline monochromatic, and everything that makes her special doesn't come from anything she's done or worked for
her magic (and it's just broadly magic, not a specific power unique to Salem) was an innate thing she was born with, just like any other human from her era, which was a gift from Darkness to humanity
her immortality was granted to her by Light
and her current form and control over the Grimm came about by her throwing herself into Darkness's Grimm pools (and that wasn't the intended result when she did that)
it's the thing i find kinda funny about Salem; that all her posturing about being superior to the current humanity, she's only special because of things outside of her. she despises the Brothers but thinks herself superior to humanity solely because of the things she got from the Brothers, meanwhile current humanity is having to operate on powers born within themselves and their own invention
and we see this with Cinder too - she starts out with her Scorching Caress semblance, and her bow-swords Midnight weapon, but after she gets the full Fall Maiden powers, she basically never uses Scorching Caress again, and relies solely on weapons she makes from the magic she stole, and the Grimm arm she got from Salem
this even extends into her fights with other Maidens after becoming Fall
when fighting Raven, she was constantly making weapons during the fight, while Raven utilised her magic in conjunction with her own weapon for the most part; and Cinder ultimately loses there (thanks to Vernal - one of the few people Raven can use her semblance to create a portal to - using her own weapon, distracting her for a second so Raven can get in close - but similarly, Cinder survives because Raven decides to rely on magic to freeze her instead of getting another attack in to get a sure victory)
when fighting Penny for the first time, Penny uses her weapons and in-built sensors to pull out a win, barely using her magic in the actual fight itself, but instead to a) try and mitigate the damage Cinder was doing to Amity and b) create storm clouds seemingly to power up her own big laser attack. Cinder learned enough from the previous match with Raven to not go on alone this time but still underestimated Penny and got blindsided by the fact that Penny's sensors - something that makes Penny unique - make Emerald's illusions useless
then the script is flipped in the second fight with Penny, because Penny no longer has her mechanical body, so has to rely on magic as a substitute for everything she used to be able to do, and she ends up taking a mortal wound. but even in that situation, Cinder still doesn't get what she wants out of that fight (the Winter Maiden's magic) as by that point she had betrayed Neo and was back to solo fighting with her magic-made weapons and Grimm arm (Weiss fought her off with her Glyphs, Myrtenaster and Gambol Shroud for long enough that Penny could pass on the Winter Maiden's power to Winter
like there is a strong case for a theme there
hell it even extends to Ruby - Ruby's Silver Eyes are a power from the God of Light but they've never won her a fight; Ruby's use of Crescent Rose and her semblance have always been more reliable because of how highly situational the Silver Eyes are and how tricky they are to use
it makes me wonder if, following this trend, this is the reason why we've never seen a Semblance from an Oz incarnation so far - so much of his plans have hinged on his god-derived magic (not necessarily him using it, but using the Maidens as keys to the Vaults, empowering Qrow and Raven as his spies) and keeping his reincarnations in positions of power and authority so he can perpetuate the narrative he's trying to create; and that's all been falling apart as the lies finally catch up on him. while he does have his own weapon, it's passed down between incarnations; so Ozpin and Oscar don't have unique things of their own to work with
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