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So, Tai is absent. And while they could have given some off hand explanation (Tai is protecting Patch, Tai is helping to evacuate people, etc) for his absence, they implied that he was given some kind of major task that will keep him away for a while.

Most of people assume it's Relic of Choice. I was initially a sceptic about that since Tai is not optimal choice for the task. I mean, what will Tai do if Cinder shows up? Hope muscular blondes are her type and make her back off? (no wait, that one might actually work)

Cinder has defeated stronger foes before and in the middle of conquered Vale she'd have almost unlimited reinforcements of Grimm if they ever come to blows. So putting Tai on guard duty seems very weird. That made me realize something, Raven. Tai is not really a guardian as much as he is a beacon. If Cinder shows up, Tai can contact Raven, who can then bring sufficient reinforcements. So this could work and explains why is Tai the one for the job and why will he be absent for so long (at the end of the day, it's basically a waiting game).

On the other hand, I am still very sceptical about theories that Crown is out and Tai has it. This implies that Crown is not connected to the Fall Maiden and was in the spot that can be accessed by regular people for a while. And considering Relics attract Grimm when outside of the Vault, yeah, this would be a massive oversight by Oz. Additionally, Tai would be a really poor choice for the job of retrieving the Relic considering as far as we know he has neither mobility nor power to be one man army in the middle of enemy territory while being endlessly chased by said enemy. This also wouldn't be a lengthy assignment since as soon as he locates it he can be teleported to Vacuo by Raven. Overall, never been a fan of the theories that claim Crown is the only Relic outside of the Vault.

I've been thinking of another potential explanation, this one is bit out there. What if Tai is trying to locate the remaining silver eyed warriors? Think about it, what do we actually know about Summer, more specifically her family and where she came from? In theory, all of her extended family should be silver eyed warriors (Oscar's Little Prince allusion hints at possibility of there being other Roses). And if there is indeed some kind of hidden village of silver eyed warriors (which is presumably somewhere in Vale), who would know about it? At most, Oz, former members of STRQ and especially Tai considering they were married.

This would also explain why would he be absent for so long, he is looking for a place that presumably only he knows of. He is looking for a trump card that could help turn the war around and alleviate the burden Ruby feels.

Edit: just realized it's entirely possible Tai doesn't know Ruby is alive, making it even more of an imperative to locate silver eyed warriors.

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That one Jaune concept art really did bring back the whole "Oscar shouldn't even exist" hate train, huh. Oscar has one of the most bizarre hatedoms I've seen.

Been having some thoughts about Jaune being Ozma's incarnation and how would that theoretically impact the plot.

First of all, would Jaune becoming an Ozma's vessel make sense narratively? While there aren't any hints in early volumes of story going there, it does flow together relatively well.

You have Jaune, someone who is almost completely incompetent, enrolling to the one of the most prestigious Huntsmen academies. And if Cardin can figure out Jaune was a fraud, then surely all powerful Oz can as well. Jaune becoming Ozma's vessel would answer the question of why does Ozpin tolerate Jaune despite knowing the truth about him, he is grooming him to become his next vessel.

Jaune post Volume 3 also had the mindset to accept that role. After Pyrrha's death he considered himself to be worthless compared to people around him. He would accept what's essentially Faustian bargain with Ozma to sacrifice his mind and soul for greater good.

It also synergizes well with Jaune's primary literary allusion of being Joan of Arc. Joan started hearing Voices after experiencing a tragedy of her village being sacked. So you'd have a direct parallel to Jaune getting a voice in his head in the aftermath of losing his school and partner.

That's all fine, but would it "fix" the narrative as some people suggest? I'd say no. Most common arguments for it I've seen besides people just hating on Oscar is that it would reduce main cast bloat (or in some cases specifically male cast bloat) and it would give Jaune more to do.

Yeah, it would fix the cast bloat, but in very superficial way. You are removing one of the main characters, but at the end of the day all of his plot points would still have to remain. Oscar is not a filler character, he is not dealing with some random side plots that are inconsequential to the main story. As Ozma's vessel he is dealing with members of his faction, Hazel and Salem herself. Pretty much all of this would have to remain in the story but be given to different character.

And who would that character be? Jaune in this case as Ozma's vessel since all of these plot lines are Oz specific. He has to be the one dealing with his faction members since he is the one who personally knows them. He has to be the one dealing with Hazel since Hazel's motivation for becoming evil was Ozpin's neglect of his sister. He has to be the one dealing with Salem considering that's his ex wife and nemesis. And that's on top of Jaune specific plot lines like dealing with Cinder since that doesn't just magically disappear. You are not fixing bloat of any kind since by removing Oscar, you are ballooning Jaune's narrative role to ridiculous degree (which also makes the point about reducing the male cast moot). And Jaune's narrative role doesn't really need an upgrade considering he is already one of the main characters.

Imagine Atlas arc with Jaune as Ozma's vessel: He would be dealing with Ironwood, Hazel, Cinder, Salem at bare minimum. RWBY? never heard of it, you are watching J&O show.

Overall, it's an interesting idea, but I don't think it would work well in canon story which is probably why it was scrapped by the writers (if it was even an idea in the first place).

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When observing potential Knightfall there is an interesting duality present in both of Cinder's literary allusions, Cinderella and Dauphin from Joan of Arc story. That duality being elements that both characters are simultaneously at the bottom and at the top of social pyramid.

Cinderella is servant girl that thanks to magical powers (of either Fairy Godmother or wish granting tree, depending on a version) became a princess. Dauphin was nominally a King, but due to his circumstances he held almost no power. According to the legend, when Joan first met him, he was dressed as a common courtier (and there are anecdotes that he wore torn up shoes due to being unable to pay his shoemaker for repairs).

So one has outward appearance of royalty but was actually a servant, while the other has appearance of servant but was in fact royalty.

So which one is Cinder? She is simultaneously both, she is both a servant and royalty. She holds almost godlike power that would make her akin to royalty, but at the same time she is trapped, Grimm arm holding her on metaphorical leash.

So her redemption should also center around both. Jaune recognizing that Cinder is someone broken beneath her mask and offering her his hand. However, her redemption should also center around her embracing her duty as Fall Maiden and using that power for good.

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Criteria will be:

Only looking at fics at AO3 since it's way easier to survey compared to FF

For it to be considered a harem fic, Jaune has to have at least 3 love interests

One shot romance chapters within the same fic will count as harem fic even if chapters are not in the same continuity

Intent also counts. Fics that are ongoing or were never finished that are presented as harem fics but didn't get to that part yet.

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RWBY contains surprising amount of Norse allusions in the story (and funny part is that almost none of them center around Nora, who's primary allusion is Norse god). Everything from Oz being Odin, Beacon being Valhalla, Branwen siblings being Huginn and Muninn, Pyrrha being Baldr, Tree in Ever After being Yggdrasil, and so on.

However, I want to focus on Salem as Loki allusion and her Grimm hybrids.

While relations wise Salem doesn't make much sense as Loki (since Odin's wife was Frigg), Loki does share ancient past with Odin that latter is embarrassed to admit. This of course parallels back to Salem being Ozma's "little" secret he keeps from his allies.

Outside of that, both Loki and Salem seek to overturn order of Gods and cause a Doomsday. Loki also nicely parallels Salem's title of Queen of Grimm by being father (or mother in Sleipnir's case) of monsters that would end up causing Ragnarok. Those children being Fenrir, Jormungandr and Hel.

Hel and Fenrir were already featured in the show, being Cinder and Hound respectively. Cinder has visual similarities with Hel: Mask and Grimm arm (as well as her asymmetrical clothing style) parallel to Hel's half flesh, half blue skinned appearance. Both are also self proclaimed rulers that were cast down at very young age (Cinder symbolically, Hel literally). Hound, just like Fenrir is massive wolf that devoured Odin/Oscar. Their deaths are also relatively similar: Hound was crushed under statue while Fenrir had its jaw crushed by Vidar's heavy boot before being stabbed.

Unlike Salem's other creations, Hound and Cinder are hybrids, which gives them elevated position. If we go by that logic, then third harbinger of Ragnarok, Jormungandr, should also be a hybrid and major threat narratively. Jormungandr appears as either massive serpent or worm depending on the version of story. This, combined with current Vacuo setting makes me believe that we might see Jormungandr in the show as massive Grimm sand worm. While Jormungandr was aquatic being, there is no appropriate setting for that in the show and it would come way too close to Leviathan from Volume 6. So why not bust out a sand worm, after all, desert is sea of sand.

At its core it will likely be another silver eyed warrior, although I don't think this will be Summer. Since potential Grimm Summer would be an allusion to Red Riding Hood's devoured grandma, If they ever make a Norse allusion for Grimm Summer it's more likely she is gonna be a Garmr, ultimate hound of Norse mythology and guardian of Hel's gate (this could be a parallel to implication that Summer was the one guarding conquered Beacon). It's the only opponent at Ragnarok that doesn't seem to be referenced in any way. Garmr's opponent at Ragnarok was Tyr (who parallels with Yang) so it makes sense narratively as well.

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I feel almost silly for only now realizing Blake and Yang are Yin and Yang respectively. I guess you can add that to "it was planned since the beginning" pile.

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I feel like major complaints about latest Beyond episode being Jaune centric are bit silly. As I said before, you can dislike Jaune, that's up to you, I don't mind. However, I don't think people are thinking rationally on this one (partially because this might be the last piece of RWBY content fans will ever get).

First of all, complaints about Jaune being in the episode. Yeah yeah, usual complaints about Jaune being golden boy of the series and getting way too much screen time. However, keep in mind that Beyond was not suppose to be 4 episode series it ended up becoming. It was confirmed that 4 episodes was what they ended up finishing before studio got canned. There were likely gonna be plenty of episodes with variety of characters being featured. Jaune episode likely wouldn't have stood out as much if there were like 10 episodes. So not necessary case of Jaune favoritism as much of a consequence of project being massively cut down in scale.

Second, complaints how this should have been Ruby focused episode (have Ruby sit down with Oscar and talk about her traumas from Ever After). I disagree on this one. Beyond is smaller scale production that is meant to bridge the gap between the Volumes 9 and 10. The fact Jaune's shrink session ended up being featured here means it's important enough to be mentioned, but deemed not important enough to be featured in Volume 10. There is no good reason for something as important as Ruby's reunion with Oscar and her dealing with her traumas to be relegated to what's essentially a spin off show. The fact it's not featured here is a good thing, it means they are taking it seriously and will likely be a major point of Volume 10 instead.

Ironically enough, I think this episode being focused on Jaune should be a good news for people who dislike Jaune in the long run because it frees up the space in Volume 10 to focus on other major characters.

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Been thinking about supposed Summer Maiden and Grimmification.

While RWBY as a show has never been that great at portraying character's age, supposed Summer Maiden looks pretty young. So young that it's plausible for her to be Oscar's age. If we assume that's Summer Maiden and that she is relatively young, then that brings some questions.

While Ozpin's faction has always been shady and made some morally dubious choices, selecting a young teen to be a Maiden seems bit off. It would be very reckless to give power to someone immature and inexperienced. Headmaster Theodore has also been described as cautious in novels, so that makes even less sense. I also don't think power was given by choice since that would have been equally reckless by whoever did that (being a Maiden is basically painting a target on your back, why put your loved one at risk?)

This leads me to the conclusion that current Summer Maiden has been randomly chosen by its power upon the death of the previous user. So far we've never seen that happen in the show, so it might be the time to explore the concept. Question is, who was the previous user?

First, let me return to Grimmification. So Aura and Grimm are incompatible. It doesn't work even if user is Hybrid like Cinder (unable to use Aura on Grimm arm) or if user gives Grimm an Aura as seen with Gillian in novels. Maiden powers are connected to user's Aura and any way of interacting with Maiden powers requires an interaction with Aura (Maiden machine, Grimm arm).

So if Maiden powers are attached to Aura and Grimm are incompatible with Aura, what happens if Maiden is fully Grimmified? I'd say Maiden powers get ejected and seek a new host since there is no Aura for them to attach to.

Think about it, if one could be a full Grimm Maiden, do you think Salem would tolerate Cinder's tantrums and disobedience? She knows their interests don't allign, yet she chooses to keep Cinder only on leash instead of fully taking away her free will. As seen with Hound, she would prefer if Cinder was mindless puppet. She probably can't create Grimm puppet Maiden.

But what if she tried that before? Hound's fate as well as Salem's insistence on capturing Ruby alive implies her goal is to turn silver eyed warriors into Grimm. What if Summer Rose was previous Summer Maiden and by Grimmifying her, Salem got rid of her Maiden powers. It would explain why current user was so relatively young and would explain why Salem is relatively patient with Cinder.

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People correctly predicted Jaune and Ruby would have a falling out in Volume 9. But of course, people predicted a falling out over Jaune killing Penny, not over *reads notes* ...fucking Paper Pleasers.

This leaves Penny's death reveal as a ticking time bomb leading to another potential falling out between them. But thing is, they did it in the previous volume, they are not gonna start a new volume with another falling out.

Ruby will inevitably realize Penny is dead and Winter is new Winter Maiden, but what happens then? If Jaune comes clean and Ruby has no reaction to it, then it makes the whole thing feel trivial. If they start arguing again, then you have two volumes in the row they are arguing. Might as well had that reveal and argument happen in Volume 9.

So my guess is that reveal will be saved for later volume.

In that case, what happens when Ruby inevitably realizes Penny is dead? My guess is that either Ruby will assume Cinder killed her and nobody corrects her, or Weiss lies to cover Jaune (since realistically she'd know what happened wasn't really his fault).

Either way, I suspect they are saving it for something big later on and full truth won't be revealed to Ruby in Volume 10.

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I think Rhodopis as literary allusion to Knightfall is bit overrated. At the end of the day it doesn't really say much compared to any other allusion. It's basically "spoiler alert: he frees her" and that's mostly it.

However, thing about Rhodopis is that it's decent insurance policy. Are you really gonna reference less famous version of obscure Ancient Greek proto Cinderella story and not have it matter in any way?

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Previously I mostly focused on endgame conclusion of what Joan of Arc's Voices could mean in Jaune's story. Now I wanna briefly touch on how do they relate to Jaune's martyrdom.

To briefly summarize I believe that three saints Joan of Arc heard are represented in the story by Pyrrha, Penny and Alyx. It ties thematically since all three are martyrs and deaths Jaune thinks he could have prevented.

I am almost certain Saint Michael is Pyrrha, not only do they parallel each other in some ways (model warriors everyone strives to be, Joan's patron saint, Michael's fight with a Dragon that can be paralleled to Pyrrha fighting Cinder and Wyrm) she narratively performs the same role Michael did for Joan (spiritual awakening, motivation for their journey, reinsurance when they have doubts). Penny takes the role of Saint Catherine while Alyx takes the role of Saint Margareth.

But my main focus is how do they tie to the martyrdom. As I stated above, Saint Michael was Joan's patron saint while other two were famous virgin martyrs. By taking the role of Maiden, Joan took two of them as her example. Ultimately, Joan understood that she will eventually be martyred and her Voices informed her when she will be captured.

Jaune's Voices are different. To him, they are not some legendary saints, they are people who's tragic fate he couldn't prevent. So Voices don't come as encouragement to follow their example, it's more of a something that haunts Jaune. Voices don't want him to follow their example, it's the exact opposite. Pyrrha shoved him into locker to keep him out the harms way, Penny pleaded Jaune to kill her instead of sacrificing himself to heal her, Alyx gave Jaune new lease on life by restoring his youth.

It's kind of tragic irony, all of them wanted Jaune to live while he himself took their deaths as a sign he is a failure and should sacrifice himself for the greater good. This is best exemplified in his fight with Cinder in Volume 5. His conclusion from Pyrrha's death was that he was the worthless one and should die fighting Cinder to give others better chance. If Jaune's path was indeed martyrdom, then he would have been narratively rewarded for doing so, but instead he accomplished nothing. He grew by recognizing his worth and saving Weiss with his newly awakened Semblance.

My point is, despite him being based on Joan of Arc, I don't think Jaune will be martyred. Voices that guided Joan to martyrdom are instead inverted to intrusive thoughts Jaune has based on the tragedies around him. Joan embraced her Voices, Jaune needs to fight them back and realize his self worth.

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I overlooked Jax Asturias in my Volume 10 speculations. Mostly on the account of him being supposedly lobotomized at the end of the novel... I guess he got better.

Gillian's Semblance siphons Aura which means she can theoretically steal Maiden power. However, Jax is also pretty scary in that regard. He cannot take it for himself, but with his mind control he can influence who gets the power. On top of that, his Semblance can be used to gather information.

When combined with Tyrian, Asturias siblings are fairly potent Maiden hunters. This makes me somewhat confident Gillian will take the power and we might see the Vault by the end of the Volume.

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There is a take that I personally disagree with and that is "Jaune should have been female since he is based on Joan of Arc."

First of all, all JNPR team members are genderbent versions of their literary allusion. You've got female Achilles and Thor and male Mulan and Joan.

But more importantly, would it work? Pyrrha and Nora become bit more interesting conceptually with their primary allusion being genderbent, but can work either way. However, I ironically think female Jaune doesn't work as a concept without making some major changes to the world itself.

Jaune is character that on surface embodies traditionally muscular roles (knight, battle shonen protagonist). However, beneath the surface, he takes more feminine roles of being healer and support. His character tends to hit the low point whenever he tries to perform a traditionally male role (for example, when he tried to be an avenger to kill Cinder).

If Jaune was a female, then he'd embody feminine role on surface but end up taking more traditionally masculine role as story goes on. You know who already does that? Pretty much every single major female character in RWBY.

Remnant is very female oriented setting compared to Medieval France. Being a female warrior in RWBY is norm, not taboo. Even if you add institutional sexism to the world, it still wouldn't make much sense since it would be something every female character would deal with, not just Jaune.

He simply cannot be female because niche he'd have as a character is already taken by several other characters. Point of the character would have been diluted or he would have been reduced to uwu girl healer.

You'd need to add in universe reason on why uniquely female Jaune cannot be huntress or completely sideline Jaune's literary allusion to be nothing more than a nod to the name and abilities.

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Isolation is an angle I didn't explore much so far in my Joan of Arc Knightfall theories. Of course in these theories I assume Jaune as Joan of Arc and Cinder as Dauphin.

Dauphin was very isolated person with minimal support from people around him despite nominally being a king. His parents disinherited him, his marshal openly rebelled against him, his constable murdered several of his court favorites, his chamberlain only minded his own interest to the point of borderline treachery. Before Joan arrived his only real support was his mother in law.

That parallels well with Cinder, someone also completely emotionally isolated from the world. Emerald left her, Mercury seems to be on his way to do that as well, and she personally ditched Neo. Her interactions with other Salem's faction members like Watts and Tyrian are mostly filled with mutual disdain. This only leaves her with abusive and emotionally manipulative relationship with Salem.

This also fits the mold of Indecisive King story, which to me as previously stated, feels like Remnant's version of Joan of Arc story (tl;dr King burdened by the Crown being saved by peasant woman giving him an advice). Indecisive King is another character completely isolated from the world after he chased away all of his advisors.

Just like despondent and melancholic Dauphin waited for Maiden to save him, Cinder is awaiting for someone to reach out to her, that someone being Jaune.

And isolation angle, just like some other angles I previously discussed doesn't work that well with combination of Jaune and some other character. It works well with Cinder because she has nobody, amplifying impact of the moment. When you take some other character like Weiss or Ruby, they all have someone else besides Jaune, they have family members and their other friends. You'd need some relatively contrived scenario to explain why only Jaune can help them with their issue and not anyone else close to them.

Also I simply like the contrast between their circumstances growing up. Jaune always being surrounded by his friends and family (and having the largest family in the story) being matched with Cinder that had nobody.

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Can't say I expected "In the Chamber of Her Burning Soul" to be updated and finished today. Good to have my favorite RWBY fanfiction writer back. That alone will give me energy to post more Knightfall propaganda.

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It annoys me how much sense it makes despite being batshit crazy

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With Vale being destroyed there is a non zero percent chance Salem has Relic of Choice. As I previously stated, I don't think that's the case as it would be very anticlimactic way to do it after six full volumes of Relic eluding her. I see it more as a raising of stakes for Vacuo battle since loss there could mean Salem's victory with all four Relics.

However, I mostly want to focus on Relic of Choice's role in Knightfall theory mythos and implications Relic being taken by Salem could have.

Relic of Choice is one of the center pieces of Knightfall theories, tying to Indecisive King story as well as giving Cinder in universe way to see reality of her situation. So if Relic of Choice is acquired off screen, does that invalidate all previous theories? I'd say no.

While it's true most interpretations of the theory focus on Vault encounter, it doesn't have to be that way. Encounter can happen at Evernight (or wherever Salem stashes Relics) with Cinder being there on guard duty. As I stated before in one of my theories, I consider Cinder kidnapping Jaune to be plausible scenario to happen during Vacuo arc looking at him as Joan of Arc allusion. So scenario in which Cinder and Jaune are at Evernight with Relics in not implausible in my book.

In fact, now that I think of it, encounter happening in Evernight might make more sense than in the Vault going purely by literary influences. Prince encounters Cinderella at her home, Joan encounters Dauphin in his castle, Widow encounters Indecisive King in his castle, Ozma saves Salem from tower she was trapped in (this is looking at Knightfall as reverse Salem/Ozma story). Common thread is that Jaune coded character encounters Cinder coded character at her home and Evernight is closest she has to one.

It could also tie in nicely with Cinder's Cinderella influence. In her story Salem is both Fairy Godmother (magical being that gives her the tools to achieve her dream, in this case acquisition of Maiden powers) and Evil Stepmother (repressive figure that keeps her down). With her Relic being acquired, Salem no longer has a reason to rely on Cinder and might resort to having her as glorified guard dog (I mean she can basically control her with Grimm arm). So she might slip from Fairy Godmother role to Stepmother role and keep her away at Evernight with Relics.

So basically, I don't think anything changes in the grand scheme of things even if Relic is acquired of screen.