#it’s my least favourite gale theory/headcanon

[lanaevyssmoved]

i really don’t like the sorcerer gale theory. we should love the prodigy wizard not try to take that away from him

[littlemisssquiggles]

Hello! I've been reading your posts for quite some time. Now I have been reading about scenarios in which Oscar got kidnapped with or without Ruby by Salem but....what if Ruby got kidnapped by Salem and Oscar has to go out and save her (with backup of course). I'm not suggesting that Ruby should take on the role of the damsel in distress given her development in the show thus far but it's been so common nowadays about these speculations of Oscar being more likely to be kidnapped. Just curious.

Hello Rainbow.Well to be fair, I’m among the folks who’ve been pitchingthe idea of Oscar beingthe one to be taken by Salem alone.

However before duringV5’s runtime, one of the firsttheories for a potential Dark Domain Arc in RWBY that I pitched featured the idea of Oscarand Ruby both becoming prisoners ofSalem, being forced to survive on their own and make the perilous trek acrossthe Grimm infested Dark Lands.

Back then, I figured that Ruby and Oscar would bekidnapped together because between V4 and V5, there were hints of this beingpossible. In V5, we got Lionheart mentioning taking Oscar to Salem and in V4,Ruby was made a target by Salem who sent Tyrian Callows to kidnap her and if itweren’t for Qrow intervening, Tyrian may have succeeded in abducting her.

Despite Tyrian’s failure, it doesn’t excuse the fact thatSalem showed an interest in Ruby and with Tyrian expected to be a part of theupcoming Atlas Arc, it wouldn’t surprise me if he dared to enact his revengeand claim a second chance at whisking Ruby away to Salem. So if Ruby becomes a prisoner of Salem,it wouldn’t surprise me.

However here’s the thing, Ican’t picture the idea of Ruby being kidnapped alone with an entire arc being dedicated to focusing on her friends having tosave her being led by Oscar. And my reason for that is due to her status as ourmain protagonist of RWBY. Ruby is our valiant hero of the story and I can only see theWriters writing her to be that way. I’m not saying Ruby can’t become Salem’sprisoner. I’m just saying I can’t see that story being written in a way whereRuby is the maiden waiting to be saved by her friends. I can only see Rubybeing captured only to escape and then the audient spends the story watchingher struggle to make her way back to reuniting with her friends who are lookingfor her.

That’s how I see it. I also can’t see Ruby being takenalone with Oscar having to find since the narrative so far has painted the bothof them with clear targets on their backs. Oscar especially, given Salem’sreaction to learning that Ozpin is alive and reincarnated as him and the V6finale after-credit moment of her preparing her Winged Beringel Army topossibly go after Ozpin and essentially Oscar.

I can’t see Ruby being taken without Oscar. For me, I canonly see it as Ruby beingkidnapped with Oscar since both smaller,more honest souls have been previously alluded to be targetedby Salem or just Oscar takenalone with Ruby being the only to save him. That’swhat I see being more likely to become canon with my current favourite beingthese two headcanons being the one about Oscar being taken.

I’m sorry if it’s become a common theory but as I alwayssay, my firm reasoning behind why I love the ‘Oscarthe prisoner and Ruby his saviour’ theory isbecause of the strong parallels to the Lost Fable episode from RWBY V6 and the Lost Princessof Oz fairy-tale.

Oscar draws inspiration from Princess Ozma, as many RWBYtheories had deducted, and in the Oz book series, there is a story titled ‘The Lost Princess of Oz’ which depicts Princess Ozmabeing kidnapped and it is her best friend Dorothy Gale who leads a search partyto rescue her.

Many RWBY theorists believe that Ruby draws inspirationfrom Dorothy Gale apart from her trademark Little Red Riding Hood motif.Personally I was more under the impression that both Ruby and Oscar shared influence from Dorothy but it is Ruby who’ll become the Dorothycharacter in Oscar’s Ozma story. 

Dorothy was said to be Princess Ozma’sclosest confidant in the Oz series and this is thetype of relationship that I’m anticipating to see reflected in the Rosegardenbudding friendship. I’m expecting Ruby tobecome Oscar’s best friend and closest companion as well as his future love interest since Oscar also takes influence from the Little Prince whose truelove was a red rose that was his main companion back on his home planet. 

As for the Lost Fable, should Oscar becomeSalem’s prisoner then I am of the opinion that she would lock him away inside a lonely tower much similarto how she was imprisoned centuries ago. I adore the parallel of Oscarbecoming like Salem once was---stripped away from his loved ones and lockedaway by a wicked being who condemned him to a life of isolation and loneliness;never knowing if he’d see the outside world ever again or be reunited with thosehe holds dear.

I am behind this theory 100% because I think it would be fittingto have Oscar, as an incarnate of Ozma, become the Boyin the Lonely Tower waiting to be saved by his caped champion. Itis quite the appropriate satire to have Salem, the original girl in the tower detainthe boy who is the very embodiment of the hero who once saved her from hersolitude. Salem the imprisoned becoming the imprisoner to lock away the boy was once the righteous man who freed her in anotherlifetime is such a perfect parallel . At least to me it is.  

In Salem’s story, Ozma was the righteous valiant hero whofought and freed her from her captivity. I can definitely see Ruby becomingOscar’s champion, leading the charge to save him from his imprisonment. There are similarities to Ruby and Ozma just as much as there are similarities to Salem (original) and Oscar. I discussed those similarities better in this Musing post right there. 

This is why I love this theory so much. It connects backto two important tales related to Oscar. I really would love to see that parallelto the Lost Fable because I think it’s the most possible. If not that, then it’sRuby and Oscar against the Dark Domain theory because that headcanon also hasan Oz equivalent. Two actually.

In the Wizard of Oz, Dorothy was kidnapped by the flyingmonkeys and taken to the Wicked Witch. As I said, Ruby and Oscar both shareinspiration from Dorothy Gale. There is also another Oz book--- ‘Glinda ofOz’ in which Dorothy and Princess Ozma got kidnapped together. This was another nodto the Oz books that helped me justify why I inclined to the theory of would be cool if bothRuby and Oscar got nabbed together since they both technically representDorothy and Princess Ozma.

As a matter of fact, I’d actually love to combine both ofthese theories. Imagine if…Ruby and Oscar are kidnappedtogether and taken to Salem. Oscar is then lockedaway in another solitary part of Salem’s castle while Ruby is held elsewhere---possiblyin some kind of tomb-like dungeon of some sorts where Salem can potentiallyentertain herself by forcing Ruby to combat countless hordes of Grimm withoutthe use of her Crescent Rose or her silver eyes.

Some fans have shared the idea of Ruby losing one of her eyes. While this squigglemeister isn’t too big of a fan of this theory, I’lladmit that I can actually see it happening. I can see Salem damagingRuby’s eyes but not to the point of her going completelyblind. 

Since by my assumption, Salem would most likely rather sadistically wishfor the young huntress to see every bit of torment Salem was going to put her through. Instead Ruby’seyes are damaged just enough so that she can’t summon forth her indomitablepower. At least, not without causing herself excruciating pain or failingentirely.  

Perhaps Salem damages Ruby’s eyes using dark magicmaking her injuries impossible to be healed even by normal means such as Jaune’ssemblance. I’ve more been a fan of Ruby losing her eyes to dark magic since it an potentially open up a bit where Oscar can master control ofhis own magical powers as means of healing Ruby’s eyes back to their originalstate.  It’s only another headcanon butit’s one that I like.

Anyways, eventually Ruby manages to free herself byoutsmarting Salem’s forces. We then get a story of Ruby finding her way toOscar who she learnt was being kept in a lonely tower. There she reunites withOscar and the two share a tender moment before making their daring escapetogether.

However in spite of their heartfelt reunion, our twoRosebuds aren’t out of the danger yet. Escaping Salem’s castle and the lonelytower was only the first obstacle. The hardest journey would be making it back to civilization to findtheir comrades---granted that they were still alive after the Fall of Atlas.

That actually doesn’t sound too bad. I am down for bothof these theories being combined, if ever possible.

So to reiterate, I can’t see Ruby being kidnapped alone.In my mind, we’re more likely to either see Rubykidnapped with Oscar and the two have to work together to escape Salem.

Or…it’s ascenario where Salem arrivesto kidnap Ruby but Oscar lets Salem take him in Ruby’s place. Or…it’sthe latter where Salem comesto take Oscar and threatens to the lives of everyone in Atlas if Oscar didn’t surrenderhimself over to her. So in the end, Oscar gives himself up toSalem to protect everyone including Ruby who fails to save him and can onlywatch helplessly as Oscar is taken away before her eyes while the entire kingdom of Atlasfalls around her.

That’s how I’m seeing it. I see the heroes taking their biggest hit and facing their biggestfailure in Atlas Kingdom. Even worse than Vale. Notonly does Atlas Academy fall but the entire kingdom itself. Since Atlas is inthe sky, that is just a giant red flag in my eyes for this entire kingdom to plummetto the ground.

My impression is that Atlaswill fall from the sky at some point during itstrilogy and what I figured could be an interesting way to tie this narrative toa potential standalone Dark Domain Arc is if Salemsimultaneously kidnapped a handful of Atlesian citizens during the Fall ofAtlas to hold them hostage in her domain.

Like…imagine General Ironwood and the Atlesian military workingdesperately to evacuate every surviving citizen during the Fall of Atlas; boardingthem all on airships to be taken to safety in another neighbouring kingdom(like Mistral or maybe even Vacuo); only to be bombarded by Salem’s forces whotake control of those ships.

So while some airships managed to evade captivity, Salem stillsucceeded in capturing a good percentage of the populace. Among the safepassengers are, of course, our heroes (minus Oscar) but to their dismay, theyare forced to watch helplessly as Salem took hostage of some of the airshipswith evacuees on board. Among them were some of their friends and even family.

Like perhaps Team FNKI and I have this headcanon thatWeiss’ family---Whitley, her mother, Klein and even Winter were among theevacuees captured by Salem. Y’know to give Weiss an incentive to join Ruby in venturing into Salem’s Domain on a life and death rescue mission to save Oscar. 

These days I’m really starting to lean toward the headcanon of Salem capturing Atlesian citizens during the Fall of Atlas to use as leverage to torture Oscar into submitting to her whim during his imprisonment by threatening their lives if he didn’t obey. 

By my headcanon, Oscar figured he had saved everyone with his sacrifice when the reality was, he didn’t. I described this theory betterin these two Pinehead headcanons----Oscar’s GrimmBuddy and Oscar’sBetrayal.

So yeah, I think this covers why I’m more in support of the Oscar the Prisoner theory. The Ruby reverse isn’t bad. I just find the version with Oscar more likely to happen because of the strong parallells to Oz and the Lost Fable. Hope this answers your question. 

~LittleMissSquiggles (2019)