#tahnex

Sylveon

Vaporeon

Espeon

Glaceon

Umbreon

Leafeon

Flareon

Jolteon

i felt that one pelt me in the gut, thanks 😔

Delayed this one a bit to gather my thoughts since this is touches on some personal things for me.

I've got. . .very strong opinions about Raven giving her powers to Yang. Don't get me wrong, I understand why people like the idea of Maiden Yang, I do. I don't judge anyone for liking the theory or hoping it happens. But, with all that's going on between these two, I don't think it works for giving these characters the arc and growth they need.

Like, up until this point Raven and Yang's whole dynamic has essentially Yang being stuck dealing with the problems Raven causes/runs away from. She's had to grow up young in part because she only had one parent: got roped into a war Raven fled from: had to drive halfway across Remnant to connect because Raven was terrified of making the first move. Not to mention how the only time Raven's helped Yang turned into a lecture of "I'll only save you once".

As much as it'd be nice to know Raven loves her, I think she already knows that. (I think realizing that Raven never fully let go of Yang mixed with the emotions in the Vault scene made that abundantly clear for her) What she needs is, for once, for her mother to be there for her. Actually see her and her needs as they are and act to help her daughter.

She failed with the lamp. Yang gave Raven plenty of chances to step up in the vault and instead she fled, leaving Yang with yet another burden to deal with. Maiden powers, by and large, are not something to be envied. Raven herself called them a "curse" (in fact, everyone save for Cinder seems to see them as a bad thing). They give a person unimaginable magic, sure, but also a life that revolves around that magic (avoiding assassins, deciding how to use it, etc.)

The last thing Yang needs is more power, more responsibility. She's shouldered plenty in her life. What she needs is to be held and to have someone say "no, this isn't on you" and take something off her plate.

It's what I hope we see Blake eventually drive home for Yang, but to have Raven - the very woman who sent Yang down that path in the first place - be the parent to step up do that for her. It would mean a lot. For both of them.

Maybe have Raven spend enough time with her daughter beforehand to get a taste of what she gave up. Realize how much pain she could have avoided by staying in her life. Find a love and connection worth dying for. Normally, it'd be sweet for Yang to be the last person in Raven's thoughts. But Raven gave up that luxury the moment she became a maiden. The least she can do is finally let go and make sure those powers are one mistake Yang doesn't have to deal with for the rest of her days.

I think it'd be pretty cool if we did! Personally, in terms of most likely, I have to say Nora. Ren's semblance evolution is huge, but it's essentially him embracing the other parts of his power. Namely, he's always been very in tune with people's emotions (it's how he knows which feelings to suppress in others) he just hasn't ever openly realized it because of his own repression. A lot of his work this volume has revolved around him getting in touch with his emotions, so it makes sense to have the semblance evolve that way.

Likewise, Nora's power revolves around absorbing electricty (energy) from other sources and turning it into strength. With her theme this volume looking like learning to trust her own strength, I think it'd be epic if her semblance evolved from relying on converting external sources to being able to generate lightning on her own.

[Splitting this into 2 parts because I have some strong and very specific feelings about Raven passing her powers to Yang. 😅]

Hmm, I really prefer the idea of the maiden powers going to non-RWBY members. A big theme of the show (and, for personal reasons one of my favorites) is the idea of strength in small, simple things instead of raw power. And, as cool as it would be to see our girls with flaming eyes, having the ultimate message be "they had to be magical super beings to take down the big bad" kind of directly contradicts that message.

Personally, I like the idea of our team members serving as inspirations for the 4 maidens. Right now the 3 we have all have an unhealthy view of the thing they examplify. Cinder is choice, but struggles to feel agency in her life. Raven is knowledge, but in seeing it as an ends became isolated and consumed by fear. Penny is creation and struggles with creating her own sense of self indep. of her role as Mantle's protector/agent of Atlas's military.

Which are all things our members struggle with - Ruby with agency as an SEW and huntress. Yang in balancing knowledge and passion (ultimately how learning forges connection). Weiss in creating a new identity for herself apart from the Schnee name. I like the idea of our girls resolving these main arcs and exemplifying what a healthy relationship to these ideals looks like. And for their personal experiences to help them encourage/inspire these maidens to come into their own.

Ooh, interesting! As a heads up: I tend to gravitate towards character/lit analysis more than in-universe mechanics, so this is relatively new territory for me, lol.

Honestly, I don't think I personally understand how the magic systems work enough to swing strongly either way? Like. I think it's been pretty strongly implied that without assistance (like Salem's Grimm bug/arm), one person can't hold more than one set of maiden powers. [world of Remnant was adamant about there always being four, as did the fairy tale, etc.] So, if whatever rules of magic that apply there go for silver eyes as well, then the powers would likely go elsewhere.

But we have an example of someone who already possessed some form of magic (Raven) being able to inherit maiden powers without a device. So having other magic powers in general doesn't seem to be a disqualifier for maidenhood. Does that mean Maiden Powers are a class unto their own? Are their different tiers of magical gifts that cancel each other out and others that stack? Do Silver Eyes count as a magical power? Or a bonus semblance like how Schnees have glyphs and summons? Or perhaps a genetic mutation/entirely separate gift stemming from the God of Light?

Narrative-wise I think it's unlikely we'd see this 1) Bc a silver eyed maiden would be OP AS HECK and 2) Bc maiden powers and SEW powers seem to rep different empowerment metaphors. (most of our maidens are young prev. disenfranchised/manipulated women gifted great power. SEW's seem to be more a question of familial ties and being burdened with a fate at birth) But, yeah. Depending on how the rules of magic actually function in Remnant I could see silver-eyed maidens being a theoretical possibility.

Kinda like the last one, unfortunately, lol. We haven't gotten a lot of specific lore/info about what Silver eyes are/how they function yet.

All 4 of the SEW's that appear (Ruby, Summer, Maria and "the Warrior in The Woods") are women. Almost any model we've seen meant to portray one has been a woman. Thematically, RWBY very much focuses on "soft" power (diplomacy, empathy, communication, etc.) and matrilineal connections (Summer and Ruby, Schnee Semblance, Yang's issues focusing on Raven, not Tai, etc.). So, with that being said I think there is a strong implication that all SEW's are women.

But. At the same time, there's still so many things we don't know about how they work. Four is a very limited sample size and, despite all of our examples being women, most discourse we've heard about SEW's has stayed in gender neutral pronouns. Then, like you said, Maria's father was a bit ambiguous (though him living long enough to see her go to school might be indicative that he wasn't since they tend to pass away so young). With what we currently know I don't see a reason why men couldn't also inherit Silver Eyes?