The Blacksmith is not the Tree
A lot of people seem to have heard this:
Ruby: “Are you the Tree?”
Blacksmith: “You could say that, but that is a simplistic understanding of the Tree and what it does.” (Ep9)
And decided that yup, she’s the Tree. Simple answer accepted. Which is boring. And contradictory to what the show actually says. ‘But wait!’ you might say. ‘She helps Afterans Ascend. That’s what the Tree does! She even has a tree root growing up her back!’ These things are true, but I don’t think either of these things makes the Blacksmith and the Tree the same.
For one, the Blacksmith consistently refers to the Tree as separate to herself, as seen in the quote above. It’s not ‘I’, it’s not ‘we’, she doesn’t go back and forth between saying ‘I’ and ‘the Tree’. She always refers to the Tree as separate,. As in: “These brothers were the Tree’s earliest blossoms. […] The Tree did not foresee what they would become.” (Ep10)
Secondly, the Curious Cat also helps Afterans Ascend, by sending them to the Tree. It’s very clear that the Cat is not the Tree. The Curious Cat sends Afterans to the Tree, the Blacksmith helps them decide who (or what) they want to be, and then someone Ascends. The Blacksmith's close role with the Tree may be symbolized by her root spine, but that's only a part of her. The Blacksmith isn't the Tree any more than the Cat is. To bring it back to original quote, the Blacksmith is of the Tree the same way all Afterans are of the Tree. She came from and will return to the Tree, but it would be overly simplistic to call her the Tree.
However, I do think there’s a little more to her. There’s one character from the book that we never seemingly meet, and that’s the Lively Carpenter.
Weiss: “Of all the characters in the book, why did it have to be the Cat? Why couldn’t we have gotten help from the Lively Carpenter? Or the Rusted Knight?” (Ep4)
Like the Red King Ascended after meeting Alyx, I think so too did the Lively Carpenter. The Blacksmith says about RWBY+J, “The five of you have had a greater impact than you know. Just like Alyx and Lewis did before you, just like others will after you. One small kindness, in one small moment, led to such a marvelous transformation" (Ep10). Overtly, this is about Little becoming Somewhat. We can see the positive change that Ruby has had on them by their more complicated identity (being somewhat of a lot of things) and the cape they wear that is so obviously inspired by Ruby.
But the Blacksmith says this about Alyx and Lewis as well. While Alyx's broken promise did lead to the Cat's broken heart, the way the Blacksmith worded it implies that their impact lead to a "marvelous transformation" as well. In this case, I think it was Alyx’s small kindness, her wish to help Jaune even after she had died (left behind in her knife), that resulted in the Lively Carpenter's Ascension into the Blacksmith (also the emphasis on weaponry, not just when talking to Ruby, but in her workshop as well). The Blacksmith took up Alyx's wish to "fix everything [Alyx] had broken in the Ever After, including poor Jaune" (CC Ep9). She is the one to hold onto Alyx's knife (her wish) and give it to Jaune.
(As an aside, the Blacksmith may have expanded her role to help others in the Ever After as well, as it's stated Alyx wanted to do. Arguably, the Blacksmith's role in Ascension isn't strictly needed, but it is helpful. It could be that this wasn't the role of the Lively Carpenter (or perhaps the Lively Carpenter just didn't offer guidance like the Blacksmith does) and she didn't take on this role until post-Alyx. That could be why the Red King had such a regressive Ascension, although she can't force people to make good decisions so that's not proof. It's not important to proving my point. I just think it's a neat idea and brings Alyx's impact (helping Afterans through Ascension) to be more on par with Ruby's (multi-faceted identities over singular purpose) in terms of having "a greater impact." Anyways).
Notably, the Blacksmith is still associated with woodworking, like we would expect the Lively Carpenter to be , as we see her carving wooden figurines.
Like Somewhat wears a cape like Ruby, the Blacksmith is literally wearing a copy of Alyx’s blue bandana, just in a different way (honestly the wires that make up part of her hair may be inspired by the stripes on Alyx's dress).
Perhaps, like the Paper Pleasers wanted to be more resilient and became the Genial Gems, the Lively Carpenter wanted to use more resilient material when helping Afterans and became the Blacksmith.
Tldr: The Blacksmith Ascended from the Lively Carpenter (inspired by Alyx), isn’t the Tree, and didn’t create the Brother Gods. So please, stop calling her their mom.
