Ruby having a wolf/dog/canine motif has long been a popular idea in the fandom. And it’s easy to see why; after all Ruby has always had an ‘adorable puppy’ image, and we’ve also seen a number of times that Ruby would have no trouble going for somebody’s throat. Both metaphorically and literally.
Now for the most part, people explore Ruby’s canine motif via the AU route by simply making Ruby a Wolf Faunus. Now while there is certainly nothing wrong with this take, I also think we can get a little more imaginative with this concept of Wolf!Ruby.
So today I thought I’d talk about how Ruby actually turning into a big, fluffy, fuzzy murder machine could actually happen in the show and would fit rather well thematically into Ruby’s character.
First, The How, which I am quite happy to talk about because really all we need to do to get Doggo!Ruby is combine my two favorite ‘completely bonkers yet make a weird amount of actual sense in context’ theories:
One – Yang inherited Raven’s animal-shifting magic. This one’s pretty self-explanatory; Basically Raven unknowingly passed on some of the magic she got from Ozpin that allowed her to turn into an animal that symbolizes her to Yang, and at some point our metaphorical Sunny Dragon is going to be able to turn into an ACTUAL Sunny Dragon. The evidence for this one has basically been right in front of us since Volume 5 when we learned that Raven’s and Qrow’s animal-shifting aren’t a semblance and are instead an ability they got from Ozpin. Plus, we know that people with Magic power can pass on a bit of that power to their children, especially if it’s true that the Silver Eyed Warriors are descended from Ozpin. Heck, Yang’s even displayed a small degree of shapeshifting via her eye-color changing.
Two – Raven is Ruby’s dad. This theory is a bit more well-known, plus I’ve already done a few posts on it. Basically, through some form of super-science/magic-chicanery, Ruby is Summer’s and Raven’s magic lesbian lovechild.
And when we combine these two theories, we get: Ruby ALSO inherited Raven’s animal-shifting magic, which will allow her to turn into a wolf!
The fact is, Ruby’s character has been associated with canines a number of times throughout the series. She has Beowolf-print pajamas, a dog-face pillow, a pet corgi and tends to fight Beowolves more than any other type of Grimm. Plus, she’s definitely got the puppy-dog adorableness down pat.
Then there is a specific element to Ruby’s method as a Huntress. Ruby is not just a hunter. She is almost always seen leading a group of hunters. In other words, a Pack. It’s been made clear on multiple occasions that Team RWBY are many times stronger when fighting together than when they are apart.
And just speaking in terms of the general mechanics of the ability; we already know that Ruby is capable of deconstructing and reconstructing herself at a molecular level via her semblance. With that in mind, why wouldn’t she be able to reconstruct herself into a different form?
Finally, given how much RWBY subverts, flips, inverts and generally plays its fairy tale conventions anything but actually straight, to the point where Little Red Riding Hood in this story is a hunter of monsters rather than their prey, it would hardly be a stretch for this Little Red to have a bit of wolf in her as well.
