So after thinking about it for a good nine minutes at work today and after just watching The Indecisive King, I’ve decided the crown Aka the Relic of Choice is IN the tree. I am not good at long theories but come ON the first king making decision he did was about a Tree That Fell (and broke a fence). It’s a relic that has no practical use, meaning that Oz putting it in the Ever After means he would’ve had no use for it himself. I don’t know about the sword but the lamp can only answer 3 questions every 100 years and the staff can only make and keep one new creation at a time and it destroys the last thing it makes to create a new one. ALSO I guess the moral or good end of The Indecisive King is that one person having to carry the burden of making all the rules and knowing too much on their own leads to that person being burnt out and second guessing themselves. I still have no idea what’s really going on with Alyx and what truly happened to her both the first time and then with Jaune, but we don’t have the full picture. “Share your burden with me. Let me wear the crown so I may understand.”
“This crown… it gives a glimpse into the future, to a decision that must some day be made.”
“If you only concern yourself with the future you will miss the good things right in front of your eyes. Life is full of decisions, but you must trust yourself to do the right thing when the time comes. YOU must keep living.”
They don’t know how to stop Salem, they don’t know what’s waiting for them back home, they don’t know if they can do all they’ve been asked to do. But the point is that none of them are doing it alone. None of them have All the answers but Together they might just find one. If there IS a sacrifice that’s a choice they’ll have to make. And if not there’s probably going to be one last little mind puzzle they have to answer for themselves before the path home is revealed. We know the sword is in Vacuo. If the crown really is at the ruins then things will end where they started which is at Beacon which is what I personally would like, for them to go back to Beacon I mean. But the crown has a very good chance of being in the Ever After and I’m on team tree until the next four episodes prove me wrong haha
Also the cat endlessly seeking knowledge via all their questions and the opening of the story which is “Is knowledge the answer to all your problems? Surely being more informed leads to smarter choices.” Idk it’s giving the gang isn’t asking the right or interesting questions bc they’ve been trying to stick to a path that fundamentally will not work for them by virtue them not being in the Book but the Location of the Ever After and their very presence would’ve changed things even if they were in the literal book.
you know. i could see it. i mean it depends if ozma knows about the ever after and how to get there (i don't think he would leave the crown in the ever after without ever having a way to get it back).
alternatively it could be that the door that leads to remnant (if such door actually exists) is somehow connected to where the crown is, so the crown would still be on remnant, but in a place that would still have (magical) protection as i doubt the other side of the door to the ever after is just. out there for everyone to walk through.
main reasons i find this compelling is bc of 1. the connection between choice and knowledge, 2. the ever after is definitely playing around with these two concepts, with the curious cat asking questions (and answering them, and also highlighting the importance of asking the right questions) and the whole thing with the crossroads that requires making choices between two options (but is that the only way to go through it? deciding to go with neither is a choice as well.) and 3. well.. there's is a big tree in the ever after, and the vault of knowledge also had a tree with some magical properties. like. the trees, i do not understand them, but they do compel me so.
there's also the "a place like these vaults" instruction team rwby gave ambrosius for the central platform, from where they then fell to the ever after, so. the possibility is there that the vaults are connected to the ever after in some way—if not directly, then like. being in the same realm or something. perhaps acting as in-between? the vaults have similar effects within them as did the white void where the god of light brought ozma from afterlife.
i think there's a good possibility that there's something here, but how exactly it all fits together, i'm still unsure about.