In 2020 I had a major life event that created a tumultuous downward spiral that left me feeling alone and depressed. I lost a lot of things during the spiral that I held dear and I thought I’d never be able to feel like my old self again. very recent events showed me that I was right but a shift of mentality showed me that I don’t need to get back to the old me. The old me is dead and I need to stop pressing B on my evolution. I had let myself out on 60 pounds just to be able to look in the mirror and say that’s why I feel bad instead of facing the emotions and stress.
That ends today. The spiral is done. The pain is still here. The healing is starting.
Could you make a top 10 list of favorite semblances?
What are your favorite semblances and why?
Hello anons!
Thank you fo much for these asks! I have been wanting to make a list of my favourite semblances for a while now :)
So, let’s go!
1) Glyphs
The Schnee Family semblance is about reconciling your own unique self with your family legacy. How can you not lose yourself in the snow storm? The answer is to become your own special snowflake.
Klein: Please don’t worry, my snowflake, it had nothing to do with you.
Glyphs illustrate this dychotomy very well! On one hand it is a gift shared by all the family members. On the other hand different people go through different struggles and as a result they are able to summon different avatars. In a sense the Schnees are nothing, but Grimm trainers :’’’) Gotta catch them all!
Moreover, the way each family member uses their semblance says a lot about how they relate to the family situation.
Weiss initially excels at combining her glyphs with Dust, but can’t summon. This is because she is still dependent on her family name and on the SDC influence. Once she gives up her persona as the SDC heiress, she finally succeeds and by facing a world different from hers, she adds more options to her summoning arsenal.
Of course each summon is symbolic of a part of Weiss’s self. Arma Gigas is her becoming a Knight who saves herself and serves the people:
It is also symbolic of her purifying her family from his father’s poisonous influence since the armor (Nicholas’s symbol) was originally possessed by a Geist.
The Queen Lancer conveys instead her being both a queen (a Schnee) and a lancer (a support fighter):
We’ll see what the Nervermore will come to represent:
As for now, I think it will be about Weiss’s familial bonds since the Nevermore was killed by team RWBY in their first fight together and has been teased the first time in an episode centered around the Schnee Family as a whole.
Winter is great at summoning, but is rarely shown combining her glyphs with Dust. This is because she has cut herself off from the family. Once she accepts her feelings and reaches out to Weiss, she is shown using Dust powered Glyphs much more. Now that she has finally become “a real girl” and “the blue fairy” thanks to Penny’s gift, it would be interesting if she used her magic to elementally charge the glyphs. It would be very cool and fitting symbolically. She doesn’t need to use her father’s Dust anymore and can make all kinds of Glyphs independently because she is finally her own person.
We know almost nothing of Willow and her semblance, apart that she can summon. This may suggest that she used to have a strong sense of self. However, her marriage with Jaques and alcohol consumed her and she lost it. Still, the love for her kids has who she really is emerge once again:
Very fittingly, she manages to summon a Boarbatusk to protect Whitley. After all, boars are famous to be aggressively protective mothers :’’)
Finally, Whitley has yet to unlock his semblance:
Weiss: Is that why you hate me? Are you jealous of my abilities? Of Winter's?
Whitley: Hmm... no, not really. Honestly, I find it barbaric. It's beneath people like me. Like Father.
This is because he has tried to conform to his father’s ideals to survive abuse. We’ll see if he will be able to unlock glyphs and how he will use them.
Other than this, I found very cool that in the fight against the Queen Lancer it seems that Weiss can perceive the world through the Knight and that the Knight can use Glyphs to teleport. I would love for these aspects to be explored more.
For example, would it be possible to send a mini Knight to scout around? Or can Glyphs be used to communicate? It would be very cool if now that the family is repairing their relationships, it turned out the Glyphs of the family members can be connected somehow. They could create some kinds of portals summons can travel through, so that they can exchange information (kind of like HP patronus). Anyway, it would be fitting if after seeing how the Glyphs represent family legacy and individuality, they were used also to explore family bonds. I think this may already be happening thanks to Weiss’s new summon.
As a side note, Weiss’s ability to turn savage Grimms into docile allies ties very well with her allusion as Snowhite. Snowhite can enchant the forest animals thanks to her singing. Weiss charms people with her voice and Grimms with her semblance.
1) Hallucinations
Emerald’s semblance is at the very top of my list together with Weiss’s and yet I have not written a Semblance of the Soul meta for her. This is because I am waiting for her arc to reach a more climatic resolution. Right now, it has been put on hold at the end of volume 8.
That said, there are still many things that can be said about Hallucinations.
First of all, I love that Emerald, just like Weiss, is mostly a support fighter. In a sense, their abilities are both about controlling the field, but in completely different ways. Glyphs are exceptional to use the battlefield in a smart and flexible way physically. Yet, Hallucinations is just as great at affecting the way a fighter sees the battle mentally. The first is focused on the outside, while the second on the inside.
At the same time, I think that Weiss and Emerald as characters might have to move in different directions when it comes to their fighting styles.
On one hand Weiss starts as very self-centered and has to grow into a good teammate:
Weiss: "Ruby, I think you have what it takes to be a good leader. Just know that I am going to be the best teammate you’ll ever have!“
On the other hand Emerald is too dependent on others when it comes to both her life and her fighting style:
Tyrian: So devoted to someone so incompetent.
She has decided to dedicate herself to Cinder completely. She depends on Mercury’s fighting ability while facing opponents (just like he depends on her semblance) and she generally lets others take the lead. It is indicative that even when it comes to her own redemption and despite Em’s importance as a character... she is not really the protagonist of the episode she leaves Salem...Hazel is:
Hazel is the one making the choice, figuring himself out and finalizing his arc... Em tags along and is saved by him.
In short, just as Weiss has evolved her fighting style and semblance so that she can be of support to others, Em might have to become able to stand on her own two feet.
Secondly, Hallucinations, at its root, is nothing, but a strong coping mechanism Emerald uses to protect herself from the world. It is born from the idea that the world is a scary place, that Emerald is alone and weak in there hence she needs to hide herself and to trick others to survive.
Still, there is more to it than just that. Em is scared, but she is not motivated by fear. Very strong wishes are her drive:
Cinder: Follow me, and you'll never be hungry again.
She wants love so badly that she does not hesitate to trick herself like she tricks others to keep the illusion of her happy family with Cinder alive.
So, Em’s semblance is about all the lies we tell others and ourselves to navigate our lives. It strikes a nice balance between fears and wishes. Hence it is very potentially rich thematically.
So, her illusions materialize what people fear:
But also what people want:
Thirdly, there may be additional sides to this ability Em is still not using to its full potential:
Emerald: I knew I sensed some weak minds nearby.
It is telling that this is the same episode Ren shows he can find people through empathy. It hints to the fact that there is an empathic component to Em’s power which is hidden behind the fear and the selfishness. All in all, Hallucinations is nothing, but a very flawed way to interact with others. It would be interesting to see how it changes as Em herself grows in a healthier environment.
Finally, it is a semblance I enjoy because so far it has been highly plot relevant on multiple occasions.
It is instrumental to Beacon’s fall which ties thematically with the idea of distrust, fear and manipulation being among the major weapons Cinder and Salem can use to confuse people’s minds and bring destruction.
And yet, once Emerald defects those same weapons are used against both Salem herself and Ironwood aka two individuals that like playing Gods and that feel superiors to others. Still, they are easily tricked by a frail and scared kid, who does not even have to try too hard.
Finally, Hallucinations being used to introduce the protagonists to Salem is interesting. It conveys perfectly how scary Salem is, but at the same time she is nor real. In this way RWBY and JNRO have a glimpse of what they are facing, but have time to prepare themselves for a real encounter. As if the ability to face your fears in a relatively safe way could actually be helpful in overcoming them.
Speaking of which, I actually like how Em uses her semblance here to help Cinder train and hold on mentally:
Sure, here it is used very unhealthily, but think how useful Em’s semblance would be to help a person in a panic attack or with claustrophobia or even to reach the right mental state to use Silver Eyes.
It would also be interesting if the idea Hallucinations is rooted in - the ability to modify the sensory information in a person's head while their brain is processing it - could be used with other senses other than sight and listening. Imagine having a situation where tricking taste could be useful or also imagine messing with one’s tact, etc.
Could you keep pain at bait for a short period of time? If so, it would be interesting for this ability to be used to honor Hazel.
Anyway, even as it is, Hallucinations remains one of the most interesting, powerful and flexible semblances we have seen imo. The basic idea is simple. Its uses are many.
3) Overactive Imagination
Neo’s semblance really shines in Roman Holiday for me to the point that it went from I don’t really care to number 3 on my list!
Thematically, I love it because of this:
In conclusion, Overactive Imagination is an ability that has something surprising to say about what identity truly is. Specifically, it says that identity is nothing, but an illusion and yet, it is something very real.
A person’s identity is not a unit, but is made of different parts. Some visible only to the person. Others experienced only by others. And yet, all these parts are real. Identity is also not static, but changes with time to the point that the person of tomorrow might be completely different from the person of yesterday. Finally, identity can shatter and needs to be rebuilt.
All these attributes are attributes of Neo’s illusions, which are the result of multi-faced fragments coming together, let her transform and shatter like glass.
Tying the idea of identity with the theme of reality and illusions to affirm that one’s self is in a sense an illusion and yet this does not make it less real is great.
A person’s identity changes, shatters, is rebuilt. It is contradictory and can’t never be fully understood. Some parts will remain illusions either because fantasies in the person’s mind or because they are masks the person wears. And yet, they are still parts of the self. This is why thematically Neo’s illusions have substance differently from Em’s.
I really like the creative ways Overactive Imagination is used in the book.
From Neo using it to survive her fall (a pretty improvised landing strategy) to her using it to save Roman. From it making the world more similar to Neo’s mind to it being perfect to navigate society anonymously.
It is the perfect power for a lonely and imaginative child. And it is also the perfect power for a lethal spy.
In the main series, I think Neo’s semblance is interesting because it comments others’ interiority:
This is something illusory powers tend to be perfect for :P. After all, Em does the same:
Interestingly, Em’s illusions in the Mistral arc have mostly been about the protagonists’ enemies. Cinder, Raven and Salem are all opponents our protagonists must fight. This is fitting in an arc centered around overcoming fear.
Neo’s illusions in the Atlas arc have instead been the protagonists’ loved ones. Not only that, but the two characters she has used them against are characters who have been repressing their feelings. Once again, the perfect illusions for an arc centered around accepting one’s emotions.
Other than this, it is not by chance that both Emerald and Neo end up working for Cinder, who uses smoke screens and manipulation to reach her goals. Illusory semblances are perfect for her plans and to comment on her illusory (this time for real) sense of self.
4) Scorching Caress
Speaking of whom, I quite like Cinder’s semblance. It starts out as nothing much. Just the ability to emit heat from the hands:
The perfect ability for an abused child, constantly under pressure and ignored by everyone. Nothing to really worry about, right? Just not very ladylike, at most.
And yet the heat grows:
And grows:
And grows:
Until it burns the world.
Scorching Caress ties with Cinder’s cruel twist of the original Cinderella. In the fairy-tale, the protagonist is called Cinderella because forced to sleep in the ashes to keep herself warm. It is a visual representation of her abuse. In the story, this metaphorical representation of abuse becomes Cinder’s own semblance, the essence of her soul and her major weapon.
She was burnt, so she burns.
At the same time, she also uses her power to make glass objects. This effect has two opposite meanings.
On one hand there is what Cinder wants to do, i.e. purify the dirt of her past into something beautiful and refined:
On the other hand glass has to do with her abusive environment, which was a hotel full of glass statues called The Glass Unicorn. This is not by chance because ultimately Cinder’s own personhood is made of glass. She was a frail child broken by the world around her. Still, when glass is broken it can cut you deeply.
In general, both major effects of her semblance are linked to the cycle of abuse:
Cinder is instead a person, who has been molded through violence just like the glass statues in the hotel. She is forced to endure until she can’t take it anymore and she explodes.
She herself is the Glass Unicorn, which shatters like Cinder’s innocence when too much pressure is added. Not only that, but Cinder too has started molding others to her will. She has been grooming both Emerald and Mercury for her own ego. This is why the name Scorching Caress fits her so well. It is because behind every act of care it is hidden an act of manipulation. And this happens because Cinder too has been treated utilitaristically and the only kind of love she experienced (Rhodes’s) was a “weak” love Cinder ended up perceiving as fake.
On one hand she was burnt and so she burns her enemies. On the other hand she was molded by her abusers like glass, so the only care she shows to Emerald and Mercury is to shape them after herself. Just like mirrors made of glass.
Finally, I quite like how she uses her magically charged semblance to decompose and reshape her weapons:
No matter how many times she is broken. She always manages to put herself back together in a new way. And at the same time, this constant erosion and burning of the self is not helping her.
This is also conveyed in how she keeps creating and destroying new weapons with her magic. In how she has managed to make even their destruction dangerous to others - for example, she makes them explode, she breaks the glass to free the tornado of fire within them, she turns even their fragments into bombs.
All of this is just Cinder’s coping mechanims at its finest. She keeps hurting others and changing just to avoid true growth and vulnerability.
5) Polarity
Pyrrha’s semblance may come from pyrrhotite, according to the wiki. Pyrrhotite is one of two minerals found naturally magnetized. I quite like the trivia, which conveys the rarity of Pyrrha’s talent and how special she is as a fighter. Still, I am mostly interested in what her semblance has to say about the metals of RWBY.
Many characters have a metal motif in RWBY. Well, some of the most important ones have come into contact with Pyrrha’s semblance in ways that are both plot-driven and thematically resonant.
Jaune’s arc is about going from lead to gold. He starts as unrefined and is molded by Pyrrha who helps him grow both as a fighter and as a person. This is symbolically shown by Pyrrha revealing her semblance to help Jaune find the right stance while fighting. At the same time, her semblance foreshadows the tragedy of their relationship in how she pushes him away because of her distress over the Fall Maiden business.
Penny is a robot because she is symbolically weaponized by her society. Pyrrha accidentally killing her as a result of CEM’s manipulation drives home what will be Penny’s conflict up until the very end. Her society and her enemy seeing her as a puppet when she is a real girl.
Mercury uses his legs, so his trauma as a weapon to hurt others and to bring them down to his level. So, it is fitting that he uses his legs (what his father forced on him) and observational skills to discover Pyrrha’s semblance (what his father stole from him).
Interestingly, the other important metal character introduced in the Vale arc has no interaction with Pyrrha. Still, his destiny and storyline are foreshadowed. Ironwood has his robots hacked by Watts, just like in the very end he himself will be manipulated by his enemies and will become nothing more than a drone, symbolically.
Anyway, other than this, Pyrrha’s semblance is actually tied to the theme of destiny. She can control a battle, just like she is in control of her destiny. When she starts having doubts about it, she loses control of her powers, but in the end she pulls herself together and uses her gift to its utmost potential against Cinder.
Very fittingly, she can’t defeat an enemy whose weapons are not made of metal, so someone that is symbolically an unseen factor in her life. Still, she manages to foreshadows Cinder can’t escape consequences forever because time will catch up with her:
Finally, Pyrrha being able to manipulate all the metals she touches can be seen as her having left a strong impression on her loved ones (the people she “touched”) despite her premature death.
6) Petal Burst
Ruby is an interestint case because the power which is at the centre of her arc is not really her semblance, but her silver eyes.
Still, I quite like Petal Burst! Initially, it clearly symbolizes Ruby’s precosciousness and quick thinking:
Ruby: I'm not slow, see? You don't have to worry about me!
As the story becomes more serious, it comes to represent Ruby’s determination to move forward no matter what and her flexibility in overcoming obstacles. As her intelligence and ability to see things from outside the box grow, so does her semblance!
Not only that, but she becomes able to both inspire others and to lead them hence her power becomes effective on others too:
Penny: Do not worry, Ruby is capable of traveling at an extreme velocity from one point to another by breaking herself down to her molecular components, thus negating her mass and then reassembling them at the destination, theoretically making it possible for her to transport all of us in the same way, as mass no longer matters.
Ruby: I, uh, what?
Penny: You can use your Semblance on all of us.
In general, I have liked how she has become able to use Petal Burst in more inventive ways, like when she frees herself from Harriet thanks to it and how she uses it to trick Neo in the volume 8 finale.
All in all, Ruby’s semblance lets her move faster and more freely than others. It opens new ways, just like she is able to find new solutions to problems.
At the same time, it is a power that also foreshadows Ruby’s issues, like her tendency to spread herself too thin and to scatter:
Maria: You know, you don’t give yourself enough credit.
Ruby: Oh… Thanks.
Maria: That wasn’t a compliment.
7) Aura Amp
Jaune’s semblance is foreshadowed since his introduction, is a call back to his relationship with Pyrrha and is the perfect ability for a leader. It is about caring about others (healing) and having their best traits come out (strengthening their semblances).
Still, I am mostly interested in its limitations and how they will be overcome. In volume 8, we have seen how Jaune can’t heal everything:
Jaune: Ah, sorry. No matter how much I boost you, they won’t go away.
Jaune: Did… I stop the virus?
Penny: No. It’s still there.
And in the volume 8 finale he has to kill Penny. It will be interesting to see how Jaune is challenged by this truth and if his semblance will evolve with him or not.
When is it that a person can’t heal themselves, no matter how muchyou are there to assist them? And what should you do in those circumstances?
8) Tranquillity
I have just written a meta on Ren’s semblance, so I do not have much to add. I just really liked what they did with it. How they made a power that describes emotional management and had it be extremely useful in battle since it can hide from Grimms.
I also really like it aesthetically since they managed to tie it to Ren’s flower motif and to the use of colors. It will be interesting to see Ren using it in different ways as the story goes on! I wonder if maybe with time he will also become able to influence others’ emotions in other ways than just “tranquility”.
9) Kindred Link
A semblance that describes Raven’s contradictory views of bonds perfectly.
On one hand it is a power centered on bonding. On the other hand it highlights how Raven makes her bonds with others unbalanced. She can reach out to them when she wants, but others have no way to contact her.
At the same time, it is ironic how a person whose whole ability is rooted in bonding with others is extremely selective in her relationships and also she has cut off all her loved ones.
10) Photographic Memory
Velvet’s a minor character, but I quite like her semblance.
The photographic motif is very cool and I love how it is used by both her weapon and her special ability. At the same time, it could be very interesting if explored thematically, as it partially is in the books where Velvet’s memories about Vale and her lost friends turn out to be both her major strength, but also a weakness if she does not learn to move forward.
What is more, her power is basically the opposite of that of her partner Yatsuhashi (Memory Wiping). I doubt it will happen, but it would be a very good juxtaposition to explore. The girl that can’t forget anything and the boy that makes others forgets. Their powers would be good to explore how memory is at the root of human identity, but also how it can be used to change into a new person (Velvet copying others’ fighting styles). When is it good to remember? When is it good to forget?
Finally, I quite like Velvet’s fighting style and how her memory complements her intelligence and knack for technology.
Other semblances I quite like are Misfortune, Pocket Dimensions, Numbing Agent and Telepathy. Basically, I really like psychic semblances, teleportation ones and sometimes elemental ones. That said, it really depends because for me what makes a semblance great is not the power itself, but the character and how it is used in the story, both to drive the plot further and to explore coping mechanisms and themes.
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