Any thoughts on the Lie Ren backstory revealed in this latest ep?
Last episode I have watched was 4x09, just for the record.
So it’s implied that Ren’s parents were somehow involved in building Oniyuri, but Nora didn’t know about that village. Ren showing a strong reaction to the sign leading to Kuroyuri and him being reluctant to go there heavily implies that he knows the village, maybe lived there. When Nora sees the sign she immediately seems to notice something - maybe just the name of the village being crossed out, maybe the name itself, I’d bet on the name.
Someone pointed out the possibility that Oniyuri was build by the surviving citizens of another destroyed village, possibly Kuroyuri. That would mean that Ren lived in Kuroyuri, Kuroyuri was destroyed, they moved to build Oniyuri which was also destroyed and as Nora didn’t recognize Oniyuri Ren must have met her afterwards, which still wouldn’t explain why she recognized Kuroyuri.
Another possibility is that it was the other way around - Oniyuri got destroyed, Ren and his parents survived and they moved to Kuroyuri where he might have met Nora, then Kuroyuri got destroyed as well and both their parents died. That would also explain why Ren showed a much stronger reaction to the sheer idea of going to Kuroyuri than to literally standing in the ruins of Oniyuri.
Of course it’s still possible that Ren and Nora met after their parents died, that they both have similar but different backstorys, but I think it’s more likely the same tragedy/Grimm happened to both of them because they both exactly knew what the footprint (by now I think it is rather a footprint than a symbol) in Shion meant.
It’s still possible that Raven is linked to all this, being part of the bandits who destroyed the village and then attracted the Grimm. Maybe it’s true and Nora and Ren stayed with that tribe for at least a while, but what bugs me about that is the fact that apparently a fight between Raven and JNPR was meant to happen in Volume 3 and it was supposed to foreshadow something. If Ren and Nora had stayed with the tribe for some time, the tribe of which Raven is now the leader, they should have recognized Raven and maybe they wanted to do a “Oh, not YOU but we’re totally not going to explain how the hell we know that crazy woman just yet” thing but somehow this just doesn’t add up. Which also might just be the reason why that fight in the end didn’t happen.
At this point it’s all speculation but I’m still convinced we will find out more about them this season. I really, really hope that we will get some Ren-Nora-interaction and characterization now that RNJR has split up because I’ve been waiting for that since Volume 1. Maybe they run into Raven and her tribe who then end up saving Qrow (though I think there is no way Raven would need Nora and Ren to tell her that Qrow is coughing up weird purple Faunus poison and about to run into a village eating Grimm), maybe they go to Mistral and happen to come back with some badass hunters to save their team’s asses last minute.
Please give me some Renora interaction.