Yes, I am sad, but also I love these characters and the series more than anything. That's been enough to cheer me up honestly. I'm really sorry for the crwby team, but also so very thankful for this story they've given us.
So, as I had mentioned I was going to do, here are some Vacuo designs, WhiteRose version first~
I know this is NOT a popular take in the RWBY FNDM but y’all…I love Jaune Arc. He’s such a refreshing, interesting male character.
He’s Ruby’s best friend, and the two of them parallel each other in such FASCINATING ways. I’m planning a full video essay on this but as some examples:
1) They both have hero complexes, obviously.
2) Ruby is a prodigy who earns her place at beacon two years early, while Jaune cheated his way in and needs to work constantly outside of his school training to be anywhere near capable of huntsmen level combat
3) Jaune’s pain is loud and disruptive, Ruby’s pain is quiet and suppressed (examining their respective expressions of pain through the lens of gender expectations is REALLY interesting)
4) Ruby inherits silver eyes, an invaluable tool in fighting Grimm. Jaune inherited a regular sword, heavily outclassed by most of his peers.
5) Ruby made her weapon but modeled it after her mentor, Jaune had a hand-me-down
6) Ruby leads by developing plans and taking action, Jaune leads by supporting his team and bolstering their strengths with his own.
I’m sure there’s more too but those parallels are why their conflicts in vol 9 work so well for me, they are partners in narrative from literally the second episode.
I also just adore the commentary on masculinity with Jaune. From day one he was deconstructing traditional ideas of masculinity and patriarchal concepts of heroism.
The way he has to learn to reject so many of the things that blockbusters with men at the center have been pushing for decades is fantastic. He tried to pursue revenge like John Wick or Iron Man and it went HORRIBLY.
He can fight when necessary but it’s not where his true strength lies and that’s SO COOL for a male character.
I dunno y’all I just think he doesn’t deserve the hate. He doesn’t butt in on other stories nearly as much as people claim—in terms of Ruby, he actually serves her story quite a bit—and he is a character worth following in and of himself.
I expect team RWBY & co to be at least a bit wary of Theodore as they haven't had the best track record with the headmasters: 2 of them betrayed them and the other used them and kept very important secrets from them.
This is my personal preference/opinion and a head-canon I would really like to see in volume 10, but I would really like to see each member of team RWBY to individually receive training from the other 3 maidens, in preparation to fight against Cinder and ultimately Salem.
Team RWBY are amazing as a team, but with their past experiences and losses against a certain maiden, and “magic” in general, I feel now is a good time for them to learn on how to better handle against “magic” users.
And with potentially Winter, Spring and Summer being in the same place, there in no better opportunity to learn about “magic” then right now….
So to begin with the most obvious pairing….
Weiss and Winter:
One reason I would like to see these two train together is that it could play into Winter’s fear of losing Weiss again. She would want her sister to be ready for anything and practices with Weiss relentlessly. Weiss would more then love to have Winter train her, but it could possibly lead to uncomfortable tension between the two as Winter pushes Weiss more and more.
This could inevitably lead to Whitley, Willow, and Klein cutting between the two sisters and have the whole Schnee family go into probably their first heart to heart conversation with each other, since the fall of Atlas, and begin building the new foundations of the Schnee family moving forward.
Now for the next pairings, be prepared, I’m throwing curve balls at you….
Blake and Yang, with the Summer Maiden:
Now for this pairing I have to give a little a context. I am under the same camp of people who theorized that each maiden has a “connection” to each member of team RWBY.
Ruby - Cinder (enemies)
Weiss - Winter (sisters)
Yang - Raven (mother/daughter)
If we follow this train of thought then it would be easy to assume that the Summer Maiden might have a “connection” with Blake. I’m imagining that whoever the Summer maiden is that they could have a much better working relationship with Blake, compared to the other girls.
Now for the reasons I included Yang together with Blake are actually fairly simple…..except for one.
Yang is actually one of the most fairly easiest people to get along with. If the Summer Maiden is who I think it is then they would no doubt love to train together with Yang, along side with Blake.
After the official Union of “Bumblebee” in volume 9 and after how much their teamwork has synced near perfectly, it’s almost impossible to see them apart now.
The Summer Maiden would no doubt train them individually of coarse, and both Blake and Yang could give each other pointers on how to get better at a certain topic that one another is lacking on.
Now I said there was one other reason that Yang would be training with Summer Maiden, and that is because of her mother Raven. Obviously the two have a discomforting relationship with each other, so before things could start mending between the two of them I can imagine they would keep their distance from each other for most of their time in Vacuo.
Now for the last pairing you are definitely going to be asking yourself “Why?”…..
Ruby and Raven:
To me……I believe that after what Ruby had experienced back in the Ever-After, she will begin to experience a “change” within herself to have a strong desire to be better, and to be stronger then what she currently is. A desire to better focus on the aspects of herself that she feels that need to be approved upon, without the burdens of responsibilities weighing down upon her.
I imagine Raven would see this “desire” building up within Ruby and oddly feel reminiscent to how she felt back in her younger days, and find a particular kinship with her former partner’s daughter, and agree to train Ruby.
Not only that but I can also imagine Ruby would feel immense pent up aggression, in regards challenging against Cinder, and Raven would be a fitting teacher for Ruby.
Raven has several years of training as maiden and would no doubt know certain “tricks” to utilize against another maiden. She also has first hand experienced fighting against Cinder and actually won between the two.
Another reason why Raven and Ruby would be together is because of their connection with Summer Rose. There is obviously something building up to happen between the two, after what was discovered in Volume 9, so it seems fitting that putting these two together is a must definite story-wise.
I obviously know that something like this may not actually happen when we finally get into Volume 10 and Vacuo (#GREENLIGHTVOLUME10), but I would find it amazing to have training arc like this to happen for team RWBY, especially for future battles to come.
What do y’all think? Would you be interested in seeing a joint training session between the maidens and team RWBY in Volume 10???
