I want to talk about why it had to be Jaune.
first off, no one else would have done it. Most of team rwby had already fallen, nora, ren- the others were already through the portal. Weiss was still there, but not for long. (And before, when ruby was refusing to kill her because of the virus they still had more options.)
But Jaune was there. And Jaune wanted to heal her, he wanted her to live and keep fighting. But..
Jaune’s character arc starting with pyrrah’s death involved him growing to realize the value of self sacrifice. In different situations. He is based on joan of arc, a myrter after all. Pyrrah had been willing to sacrifice herself to save the lives of many others, and he was initially angry at oz for this, because she was important to him. But in war you are forced to make hard decisions. He misses pyrrah greatly but in this moment when he’s looking at his sword, he’s thinking about what pyrrah would do- and also trusting penny to know what is the best decision, because she has the powers.
Jaune understood now that the strength of the maiden powers could destroy or protect depending on who got them, and Penny only wanted the freedom to choose. She didn’t choose to become the winter maiden, but she could choose who became the next one, and she could stop cinder from having it. She could protect so many people by giving up her life, and she knew that of everyone, jaune would understand her desire. Even if it hurt him greatly, she trusted him to do it. And the powers can’t transfer to jaune, so she could make sure the right person was the last in her thoughts. which penny said had to be winter. And here’s the thing- penny was already dying. She was fading, and she knew she wouldn’t be able to be healed enough to fight cinder off or protect the people. And she also believed she’d already seen many of her friends sacrifice themselves. So jaune does it. He makes it quicker and less painful. Because winning the war is more important than winning one battle.
