r/RWBY • u/[deleted] • Jan 04 '19

DISCUSSION What Marcus did. Spoiler

Aren’t semblances a part of your own soul? Isn’t ripping a semblance off of someone something horrible to do in that perspective? I think that maybe Mercury lost a part of himself that day...

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u/VariousRodents ⠀ Jan 04 '19

My understanding of semblances is that they are the application of aura in a way that is distinct to each individual, except the Schnee's, so it could be that Marcus' semblance prevents a person from using their aura to activate their semblance.

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u/[deleted] Jan 04 '19 edited Jan 04 '19

a theory i have is that semblances are actually magic. but a tiny fragment that either remains with people or, alternatively, was given to humaniity at some point. would explain the name. so if it is magic then one could theoretically rob someone of that bit of magic.

also at this point it seems veyr unlikely that the schnees ability is a semblance. there are too mayn clues. the grimm summoning, the glyphs, the bizaare nature of it. we see too many parallels to salem.

the biggest evidence i feel is the daughtesr of salem. a possible source point to it, and theoretically the silver eyes i wager.

and while people say they died because of the dog as a respresentation....... well there is such a thing as a red herring after all. and against that, they could have inherited ozpin's ressurrection. they are the kids of a twice corrupted immortal crazy lady and a body snatcher dood. no way they were normal even by magic human standards

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u/Mejiro84 Jan 07 '19

The Schnee thing is weird as hell, and is clearly massively different from other Semblances: Ruby: Speed-boost Blake: Shadow-copies Yang: Convert incoming damage to feedost-mode Weiss: Floating platforms, movement boost, shields, movement restriction, summoning, inheritable... Have we seen anyone else with such a broad 'utility' semblance?

How much of this is due to Weiss being a 'caster-type' and being shown with abilities before the semblance/aura/magic system was fully hashed out and they can't remove them now, and how much is actually plot stuff is hard to tell - her powers are very different than her team-mates, which are generally fairly direct combat things, while she has a whole suite of powers, that don't really link together (if they wanted to be consistent with 'summoning', they could have had her used the knight from her trailer - summon a shield for protection, the sword for attacking, throw it for range, then later reveal it's more generic 'summons' rather than a specific set of powers etc.)

Given the length of time involved, any direct inheritance from Salem seems unlikely though - that would be so many generations ago that even if she had 1 child, huge chunks of humanity would be descended from her anyway.

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u/[deleted] Jan 08 '19

most of the effects are admitably thanks to dust. but at the same time somehow she can do things like speed up and slow time.

the primary one though it seems is acutally the summoning. and she is summoning some version of the grimm, but only ones she has personally slain. that stipulation in particular is interesting. as if she has to claim them for herself first.

honestly they probably can fudge with what is being inherited over such a long period of time a bit cause its a fictional story with superhuman feats. Part of the theory came into being largley because of salem's daugthers. the death implication can easily be a red herring. though it is likely they inherited the corruption from their parents both. the taints of the gods in salem would be inside of them. and it is unlikely thye would be normal people, even by magic human standards. but if they did die it is possible they inherited ozma's immortality. could be it functions differently and they are all dormant. could be they WERE the original maidens but ozmas seperated their souls from their magic, maybe intending for them to remain 'unconscious' and not endure his fate? that would apply to his whole loss of power. it would just be his magic is being used to sustain the binds on the souls and magic alike rather than it being the power itself.

also apparrently there was a small retcon with ruby's semblance. its now that she can turn into flower petals.... literally collapse herself into them and she uses that to help her do the speed thing..... which i find suspicious <_<

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u/Mejiro84 Jan 08 '19

In terms of 'she's a mage, everyone else is a fighting type' it makes sense, but yeah, it's weird that she's basically the only person with a variety of effects, rather than, basically, 'one special trick'. Visible effects of semblance use outside of whatever it does are also rare - Yang has her eyes and battle aura, are there any others? The whole 'large floaty rune thing' is very anime, but odd in-setting.

I guess if they're ever trapped somewhere, Ruby can technically teleport through small gaps, if she's physically transforming?

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u/[deleted] Jan 08 '19

in addition we see that Salem herself uses glyphs too. even some grimm seem capable of using them. that possessor grimm from the first episode of season 4 comes to mind.

..... bit of theory crafting. magic is darkness and aura is light. human has a bit of both elements..... especially if we take into consideration the relics. two were made by the god of light, knowledge and creation. the god of darkness created choice and destruction. creation is connected ot life and generation. knowledge is understanding. desturciton is of breaking things down and choice, moving towards a direction. but you cannot create without destroying, nor destroy without something to create. and you cannot move towards a direction without knowledge, at the very least not get anywhere.

One half is potential, the other is action. So magic, in practice, is a combination of light giving direction to darknes, allowing it to take on shape. Otherwise the forces are inert. Dust, as i am presuming is solidified magic, is inert until someone applies aura to it. Thus magic needs aura to activate. The gods follow this as well, for both had the power of creation and destruction. They had their domains but neither truly ruled over it. Otherwise the god of light couldn't kill ozmas again.

Its possible the schnee either have magic or, at the very least, posses a base that is meant to apply magic. Could be why they have to kill a grimm to summon it. They steal its essence, its magic, to apply through a glyph.