Qrow Is Ruby’s Father Theory (Re-Upload)
NOTE: This is an edited version with more information as my first and unedited post is the one being spread, the original is still up with edits but I would appreciate it if this version were to be re-blogged as well. The order of information has also changed so it’s worth a re-read if you’ve seen it before
It’s fair to say that before now the controversial and wide spread theory that Qrow is Ruby’s biological father had merit, but no real evidence to suggest it as canon. As of Volume 4 however, I believe that the CRWBY have placed hints and clues leading to the reveal of this theory becoming canon, and I’ll list of why. (In bullet-point form because I’m lazy) :
In Volume 4 all of the RWBY girls were seen with their fathers, all of whom became involved with the girls’ story arcs. Ruby would be the only exception, except if Qrow is her father, creating a thematic link between all of the girls this season.
Ruby’s hood was a variant of her mother’s, but positioned and coloured just like Qrow’s cape, a combination of both characters which could allude to Ruby herself being a mixture of the two. Her hood in Volume 4 is positioned just like her mothers, but the ends are torn up like Qrow’s cape and still retains the same colour, once again becoming a combination of Qrow and Summer despite the change of outfit
It’s obvious that as stated before and seen in Volume 4 Yang got her fighting style from her father as well as her colour-scheme and aesthetic. Ruby states in-show that Qrow was the one who taught her to fight and he more than likely inspired her to become a sythe-weilder. Her colour -scheme also matches Qrows, and whilst her new outfit’s aesthetic doesn’t match up as nicely as her old one did, it certainly fits Qrow more than Tai. Not to mention Qrow and Ruby both incorporate matching crosses into their outfits
Keep in mind that Ruby’s colour scheme matches not only Qrow but Raven as well, keeping her consistent with what we’ve seen of the Branwen family and not just Qrow himself
Speaking of Branwen, this theory creates a thematic tie between Raven and Qrow, as they both refuse to parent their children but in different ways. Raven never denies she’s Yang’s mother but refuses to be in her life, while Qrow has always denied being Ruby’s father yet is a strong presence in her’s.
From what we’ve seen other characters definitively inherent colours and aesthetics from one (or both most often) of their parents. Yang’s aesthetic matches her father’s so much that one of her concept outfits shows she was going to look even more like her father, or that the crew based Tai’s design from Yang’s scrapped one :
Ghira and Kali’s colours also match Blake’s and it can be inferred that she learned how to fight from her parents (and not Adam as we’ve assumed). Weiss matches her whole family as shown through Winter in Volume 3 and her Father and Brother in Volume 4 (as well as her family portrait). Not to mention during Volume 3 episode 4 it is shown that Winter trained with and/or helped train Weiss. Volume 5′s Weiss short also confirms this Both Weiss and Winter also wield silver swords and use Glyphs. Fighting styles and colour scheme’s seem to be a big indicator as to who is related to whom
Going back to Yang, we can easily see how she is a combination of both of her parents. Her eyes are a literal combination of Tai and Raven’s (red+blue=purple), her hair is blonde like Tai’s but darker like Raven’s. When using her semblance her hair lights up to match Tai’s and her eyes become red to match Raven’s. I think it’s fair to say there is no disputing who Yang’s parents are. So why was Ruby left so ambiguous?Her hair. eyes and skin are identical to her mothers, and there is nothing about her physically that could suggest her other parent. Ruby’s father is a subject that seems too easy to speculate about.
In fact, since Summer is only seen in a de-saturated photo with her hood up, she could potentially have dark red hair with lighter red tips, meaning Ruby would get her black/dark brown hair from Qrow
To quote the wiki “The Chinese transcription of his name, Tàiyáng Xiǎolóng (Simplified: 太阳小龙; Traditional: 太陽小龍) can be translated literally to “Sun Little Dragon”. This has the same literal meaning as Yang’s name; the characters tài yang (太阳) together mean Sun. tài (太) on its own can be a grammatical intensifier analogous to “very”, or an adjective roughly meaning “excessive”, “big”, or can be used to refer to elders within the family, which gives the possible translation of “Elder Yang Xiao Long” The fact that Tai is so closely related to Yang in every single way completely isolates Ruby from the two of them in a way that can’t be coincidental.
Just like Yang Weiss and Blake both appear to have physical traits from both of their parents (Weiss’s hair=mother’s/eyes=father) (Blake’s hair and eyes=both of her parents)
If we compare another pair of siblings within the show, Winter and Weiss, the two have the same hair, albeit with different styles and both have blue eyes, although Winter’s is darker. They both share the same fighting style and both wield the same type of weapon. Looking at them it’s obvious they’re sisters. The same can’t be said for Ruby and Yang who have no physical or fighting style similarities, except for maybe their skin tone which we know they both inherited from their respective mothers.
Keep in mind if this theory is true Ruby and Yang will still be related, just as first cousins instead of half-sisters.
Qrow and Raven also both wield swords, though in drastically different ways, as Qrow’s is a multi-weapon great-sword (I think) and Raven’s is a katana. While not much is does highlight how siblings in RWBY never stray too far away from each other when it comes to weapons, unlike Ruby and Yang
This is to me the most convincing evidence. During episode 7 of Volume 4 we finally see the colour of Qrow’s aura for the first time. And what colour is it?
RED. Just like Ruby’s. Literally the same shade and everything. That’s gotta mean something.
Volume 4 gives us an actual reason as to why Qrow would not want Ruby to know he’s her father : his semblance. He’s following the cliche of ‘You have to leave me cause I’ll only bring you pain. My life is tragedy and you shouldn’t be near me, ANGST!!!!!!!’ . It’s quite obvious in the lyrics to his theme ‘Bad Luck Charm’ that his angst runs so deep he lets it define him. Qrow was hovering over Ruby this Volume (and previously like in the first Red trailer and the beacon initiation challenge) via crow form and was making everyone’s lives more difficult by not simply travelling with her, something Ruby calls him out on. Since he did this out of fear of his semblance it’s fair to say this could represent how Qrow has chosen to life his life, taking care of Ruby in secret, never by her side in fear of hurting her.
To add to this, remember how in the very same episode Tyrion mentiones how he knew Qrow and that he’s significant enough to warent Salem being pleased by his death. Qrow is obviously tangled up with some really bad people, and if those kind of people caught wind that Qrow Branwen had a daughter then who knows what they would do to her
Speaking of which, In Qrow’s theme ‘Bad Luck Charm’ the lyrics that end the second verse “ You should trust one thing, Take my advice, If you linger close, It’s a hefty price, you and I are not the same, you don’t want the burden of my name” could potentially be sung towards Ruby and give yet another reason why Qrow doesn’t want Ruby to know he’s her father, and why she takes her mother’s maiden name and perhaps why Yang takes her father’s, because the Branwen surname has some serious negativity attached to it in the world of remnant. (There is evidence to suggest people take on their mother’s surname in RWBY but this point works either way)
To quote the Wiki “During the fight between Qrow and Winter in “It’s Brawl in the Family”, the commentary track describes his theme [Bad Luck Charm] as taking inspiration from “Red Like Roses”, but distorted and changed.” I mean come on the connections between these two are endless
To Quote from the Florida Supercon 2017 Barbara & Lindsay Q&A summary by @rwby-analysis : " Lindsay said that many of the songs have a deeper meaning behind them and tell us a bit more about the characters than the show does. She said that she can’t spoil anything but we might want to have a closer look at the lyrics of Bad Luck Charm because it might become important later on.” So trust me this isn’t random speculation.> LINK to the summary<
If we take a look at Qrow’s picture of his team we can notice some very interesting details
those watermarks that cover the photo look just like tear-stains, and there’s a ring around Summer’s face. The ring is presumably from a glass of liquor, but why around Summer? Qrow isn’t the type to carelessly stain a precious photo so it must’ve been intentional. As if Qrow couldn’t bear the grief he felt when he looked at her. Grief is fair assumption due to the tear marks by the by. Of course he would feel grief over losing a teammate, but what if she meant more to him than that? What if they had feelings for each other that led to something more? What if Qrow was somehow involved in her death and blames himself and his semblance? What if we are in desperate need of a prequel to explain everything? Seriously though, Qrow very well could have had something to do with Summer’s death. When Qrow is poisoned during Volume 4 episode 9 he ends up saying a very cryptic line during a hallucination :
Now he could possibly be talking about his sister Raven since he would’ve figured out when she left for good, OR he could be talking about Summer’s last mission, and he know’s she’s ‘not coming’ because he was there. If this is the case believing you were the cause of your lover’s death would leave some heavy guilt and a believe that history will repeat itself if you don’t keep your distance from your daughter. This could be the cause of Qrow’s severe drinking problem, or one of them at least. Also the fact that the people carrying him are Ruby (Summer’s clone) and Jaune (who deeply resembles Tai) lean toward the latter explanation, as being carried by people who look like Summer and Tai would probably make Qrow hallucinate about Summer and Tai.
One point that everyone brings up : Yang and Ruby’s age difference. Since Ruby is 16 in Volume 4 whilst Yang is still 17 there must be an age gap of under 2 years between them but more than a year. Let’s say they have a 20 month age gap (1 year 8 months). Now deduct 9 months for a full term pregnancy and we have 11 months, less than a year between Yang’s birth and Ruby’s conception. We know Raven left Yang some time after she was born so in less than a year Tai would have to move on from his wife and develop a relationship with Summer and have a child with her. Whilst not completely unrealistic it still depicts Tai as not only moving on quickly but having progressed far enough in his relationship with Summer to want another child (unless poor Ruby was an accident). This doesn’t present either Tai or Summer in a good light as Summer could be seen as taking advantage of her friend’s grief whilst ignoring/disrespecting the unspoken boundaries of another (one does not hook up with their friend’s ex), neither of which seem in character for the positive, good and loving people Tai and Summer are said to be. There are many reasons for Tai and Summer to be raising their children together that don’t involve a romance between them (such as their respective partners being gone and it simply being easier to have another person ((who happens to be your close friend)) helping you raise your child).
People mention that since Monty Oum once tweeted that Ruby and Yang were half-sisters that this theory can’t be true. Whose to say it wasn’t meant to fool us? Or that Monty changed his mind? Or that the CRWBY decided to go their own route? Blake was clearly set-up in show to be an orphan with a lonely past and no true home, but this volume turned our french alley-cat into a jungle princess with a wealthy home and loving, living parents in positions of power, absolutely nothing like the past set-up for Blake in volume 1. Ren is based on Mulan, a Chinese legend. Yet Volume 4 gave us his backstory with him growing in a Japanese based town, with a Japanese name, and a father who is a reference to Hanzo from Over-Watch, a Japanese character. I think it’s fair to say the CRWBY are making some changes with these new volume’s, and that a lot can change in 4 freakin’ years.
Obviously Qrow has always shared a kinship with Ruby that is much stronger than the one he shares with his biological niece Yang. Perhaps the same can be said for Tai, who is shown to share a strong kinship with Yang this volume that we haven’t seen with Ruby. The closer Tai and Yang are shown to mimic each other the further Ruby is pushed out of the picture. Symbolically this could mean that, biologically Ruby is not in the picture. Not that Tai and Ruby don’t love each other or shouldn’t love each other, but perhaps Ruby and Yang simply have similar personality’s to their father’s and were thus drawn more to them than to the other male.
In fact Yang and Tai are shown to have very similar charismatic and outgoing personality’s, as well as a deep love of puns. Whilst not the exact same the similarity’s are there. Ruby on the other hand seems to share her fun-loving and goofy nature with Qrow (who shows his goofy side when he gets drunk in Volume 5 episode 1). Qrow and Ruby were also compared and contrasted to Winter and Weiss in Volume 3 chapter 2, showing their similarities in juxtaposition to the Schnee sisters.
This is stupid and minor but from my viewing Tai calls Yang ‘kiddo’ but never Ruby, and Qrow calls Ruby ‘kiddo’ but never Yang.Coincidence? Probably.
There was a big tonal shift during this new volume. Death is an ever-present fear that is real and ready to strike, betrayal has become natural and sometimes the heroes lose BIG. There is no safe haven anymore, no school to protect them anymore. The world of remnant has become more adult, including a proper swear word for the first time ever. The show has changed from what it used to be, and with that change comes a light on a darker past. Things will be revealed that our protagonists were too young and naive to know before, and even more secrets are going to be revealed. I had always liked the Qrow is Ruby’s father theory, but this volume made me believe it.
VOLUME 5 STUFF AND SPECULATION ONWARD FOR THOSE WHO HATE ANY KIND OF SPOILERS (read more will be removed after full volume is on YouTube)
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