I did not think I was going to jump back onto this train. Oh well, let's talk I guess. I finally continued past the part of Volume 7 that I got hung up on and decided to keep trucking along and I'm now at the most recent episode which, if I'm correct, at the time I write this is RWBY Volume 9 Episode 8. If I'm wrong, well, you'll probably be past that once you look this up anyway.
RWBY Volume 9 is a bit of an improvement over prior Volumes. It has a bit of a tonal clash but that's the premise. These girls from a pre-apocalyptic world come to what is their world's version of Alice in Wonderland, known in the series itself as The Girl That Fell Through The World. And we've been given enough to chew on that I decided to create a few speculations about what's going on. I'll be referencing information from Volumes 8 and 9 primarily as that's where this stuff is most relevant but I won't be discussing anything past Episode 8 of Volume 9 as it's not out currently. So think of this as a theory-craft post.
What am I theorizing about though? Well, specifically what is the deal with The Girl That Fell Through The World and what impact will it have on the story going forward? So I'll summarize the Fairytale a little bit then get into my logic before I pull in evidence.
The story goes that Alyx is a young girl who finds her way into Ever-After via a hole in the ground and begins going through some trials and tribulations to get back home. These include purchasing an item from the Jinxer's Auction, playing a game with the Red King, the Curious Cat helps out in exchange for receiving information, and Alyx ends up finding her way home somehow.
However, as the story progresses we find a few things are amiss. Firstly, several characters in Ever-After appear to somehow recognize the human species but don't quite understand it enough to put a finger on it. Characters from the tale do appear but either older or in an altered shape, with the Jinxer being older than depicted in the Fairy Tale, the Red King now apparently being the Red Prince and the figure of the Rust Knight being a much older version of Jaune Ark.
Once this final bit is revealed, Jaune gives an explanation as to what he knows. Specifically that the events in the Fairy Tale do occur, the problem is what's not recalled. Specifically that Alyx wasn't alone, she had a brother who came along by the name of Lewis. The events of the Fairy Tale did occur but a lot of things happened that the Fairy Tale didn't mention. Toward the end of Jaune's recollection he notes that the poison Alyx was supposed to drink was given to him and the Curious Cat took her and Lewis to the Great Tree. However, while both went, only Alyx is recalled in the Fairy Tale, Lewis was never mentioned in Remnant nor ever rediscovered in the Ever-After by Jaune.
So what's going on here. Well, I have three total possibilities, all of which have holes in them currently but I'll lay out the ground work and present evidence for each. Starting with what I think may be the least likely of the three.
A Time Loop
Okay so during the events of Volume 8, things kind of hit the fan and the World of Remnant is left at a stalemate between Osma and Salem. Salem now has 2 of the Relics which means she's getting ever closer to achieving her goal. She's immortal so she has time to recover but she's lost quite a bit in this last battle. Her primary fortress was destroyed, two of her top men, Watts and Hazel were killed during the struggle, and Salem doesn't have a real way yet to get the other two relics. She doesn't know where the Haven Relic is and she doesn't know where the Summer Maiden is. Salem's forces have been heavily crippled.
In addition to that, Ozpin is finally back in action and the remains of Team ORNJ have the Winter Maiden in the form of Winter Schnee. Winter proved that she was strong enough to fight against Cinder in 1-v-1 Combat and Raven Branwen, the Spring Maiden, proved to be equally capable of that in Volume 5. If Ozpin or Qrow can somehow convince her to either join the fight or stay in hiding, this gives Ozpin a chance to recover the two lost Relics and start over. Salem may have all the time in the world but so does Ozpin and by extension Oscar. In addition Ozpin's Forces are in much better shape than they were when they had to deal with Ironwood now that he's earned the trust of the people back AND gotten a Maiden on his side. Even if the battle simply devolves into Osma and Winter vs Salem and Cinder, the odds could go in either of their favors in that outcome. Since killing either Winter or Cinder would cause a reset on the Maiden power causing it to go to someone else at random. The worst case scenario would be for both Maiden powers to go to Salem but she may be exempt on the basis of Age and Immortality.
In the midst of all this though a single line is uttered. The timeline has shifted. Somehow these characters knew what was going to happen enough to comment on timeline alteration and what's more several characters state this. Cinder, Ironwood, and Ozpin. Cinder and Ironwood are one thing but Ozpin is a very particular figure to be talking about timelines. Very strange that he'd bring that up.
We know time manipulation is possible in the series has Time Dilation Dust is possible early on in the series and the beginning of Jaune's story in Volume 9 features time rewinding so we know the flow of time is non-linear and can be manipulated to some extent. So how does this pertain to The Girl That Fell Through The World?
Well, this theory posits that the version The Girl That Fell Through The World that the characters read about did happen exactly as written but the version Jaune experienced is not. All you'd need to believe this is Multiverse theory. Assume the only things that need to change are that one version has Lewis come with Alyx into Ever-After, and one in which he does not. After this, deviations can occur. This would explain why the occurrences are similar but different. It's why some events would not be recalled as they didn't happen and it may also explain why Alyx behaves differently in one story than the other.
The reason I think this theory is the least likely of the three is a few fold. First off, it's relying a lot on a single line that, at this time, is a setup with no payoff. Multiverse theory is something like dream theory in the sense that it can explain almost any discrepancy in narration or character profiles. However, we do not know enough to assume that it's what it's operating on.
Likewise, this theory doesn't explain how Alyx got out of the Ever-After in the first place. Sacrificing Lewis in exchange for Alyx's exit is Jaune's working theory but for the theory I'm positing to work, we have to assume there's another method of escape, one that doesn't require Lewis to even exist. And if Jaune's right that the Tree is a version of Death, it isn't a method of escape at all. If all it does it remake someone with new memories or a different personality, it couldn't have been the method of escape if that's all that's going on. There's still a lot the character's don't know about this world but it's functions have been fairly consistent as far as what's been presented thus far, namely that everything has a specific rule that it follow unilaterally. It is only beholden to that one rule but it is completely beholden to that one rule. Once you know the rule, everything else falls into place. So for the Tree to have a function that operates outside its own rule doesn't add up.
In addition, if Alyx had a brother that just didn't go with her, why wouldn't she reference him? Sure Multiverse theory could explain that by just saying that her brother either never existed in that timeline or died before being relevant to her life but that seems like a huge copout for such an important twist. Some writers may take that route but I doubt RoosterTeeth has the guts. Considering the pandering they get up to in this Volume, they'll only take pre-approved risks and introducing an element that potentially changes the entire status quo is not one of them.
Alyx is Not JUST Alyx
So let's entertain Jaune's theory for a moment, that Alyx sacrificed Lewis in exchange for her own escape. How might that've worked? Well, if we assume that the tree takes you back to your birthplace for some reason after it reshapes you and Lewis bypasses the clean slate by having his memories sacrificed for hers, what may have happened is that Lewis and Alyx did indeed escape together but not in the way that implies. Not as two people on a journey, but as one person entirely.
If the two of them somehow merged into one person, this would fit inline with elements of the series up to this point. Alyx would call herself Alyx because she's the dominant personality but her memories would mix with Lewis'. Events that require them both to be present would be forgotten as a contradiction she couldn't reconcile and any memories that one could experience without the other would be remembered not as Alyx or Lewis but as herself. After all, when you have a memory, do you remember yourself by your own name or do you remember yourself as you? If Alyx and Lewis merged, the memories they each had would not be Alyx's and Mine or Mine and Lewis', they would just be Mine. Any memories that have no contradictions would be kept and the ones that do would be forgotten as misrememberings or imagination.
Narratively this would make Jaune a more trustworthy narrator since Volume 9 doesn't appear to have one right now and it would explain why some memories are kept out of view of the Fairy Tale. Alyx herself doesn't remember them so her story wouldn't recount them.
I think this is the second most likely because it's inline with elements from the series thus far. People reincarnating or two merging into one has been a thing for a while and if the tree wipes the slate clean and grants a new purpose, this would fall in line. Substituting Lewis' personality and memories as the cost for Alyx' would be a weird exception but it could hold and since nobody's ever done it before, nobody knows quite how it works, nor does anybody who would currently still exist.
This still doesn't explain everything though. For example, if the Tree does kill and reshape, how does that translate into Alyx going back home? So far nothing about what we know about the tree mentions reincarnation and while it is a possibility, it's still a stretch. In addition, it's worth pointing out that several of the Fairy tales in the setting we've been given have been relatively accurate such as the Maidens of the 4 Seasons and the Gods of Creation and Destruction. These ones are proven to be canon and while Qrow did say in Volume 4 that some are real and some are made up, this one seems to be an outlier in that it's somewhat true but pieces are missing. Context is always going to be missing from historical accounts to an extent but with fairytales in this series, no, certainly not enough to create a brand new version of events.
This theory still requires us to make a lot of assumptions about how this world works and what is true and false. But as I wrote this, I came up with one more theory that may just be plausible.
Alyx was a Maiden
Okay, let's work our way backward now. What do we know about Alyx really? Well, we know that her recounting of events from the fairy tale is not 100% how Jaune recounts it and we know her personality doesn't 100% match up with how she's depicted in it. We know she's a young lady and one who was desperate to leave Ever-After. We know that she lost trust in her brother and Jaune over time and poisoned them to allow her to get back home.
Now we can assume the Herbalist may have had something to do with this since it's not referenced in the Fairy Tale but the Herbalist seems to offers tests of character and resolve that can be passed but also failed. We see this earlier in this very season where Blake, Yang, and Weiss managed to individuate and become whole but Ruby just ended up breaking down further to the point where Neo was fully capable of convincing Ruby to commit suicide via the Tree. Now as of Episode 8 we don't know fully what this means. However, the Herbalist seems to have played a part in Alyx' change in personality.
However, when Alyx took Lewis up to the Tree, we don't know what happened. We'll likely find out but if Jaune is right that Lewis died, how did Alyx survive? Well, let's take a look at her gender and age, specifically the fact that she fits the criteria to be able to potentially have been one of the four Maidens.
The Maidens have a very specifics set of rules they abide by in terms of how a girl becomes one: that being that the prior maiden will transfer the power to whoever they think of at the time of their death. The exception is if they think of a boy or an elderly woman. If they do that, the maiden's power is tranferred to a young woman at random.
If we assume she was a maiden, the Tree ending her life would result in her spirit reincarnating back in Remnant. Afterall, her power would go to a human woman, and at that time none were in the Ever-After. If she didn't know she was a maiden but it was revealed to her via the Herbalist, this would be what made her so confident that the Tree could take her back home in some capacity. It would explain why she may not trust Jaune, and her taking Lewis with her may have been her attempting to save him and it not working.
Now this would require some logical leaps to make but the way the Herbalist's hallucinations work seem to be very specific. All four of Team RWBY were not confronted with fears, or doubts, or things like that. They were confronted with their younger selves. Rub, Weiss, Blake, and Yang all resolved their issues with past versions of themselves, not different people. This would be different if Alyx were a maiden, though. Since a past life and a younger self would be almost interchangeable for her, and it's also been documented that the Maidens don't necessarily know they are one right away this being how it's revealed would naturally cause something of a change of heart. It would be a drastic reaction, sure, but drastic too is the realization that you are simply one in a long line of lives lived by one soul.
It would explain almost everything. Why Lewis wouldn't be recalled in the fairy tale, why Alyx would be the only one to successfully make it back, why she'd be certain that the tree would work in the first place, why she wouldn't have information that Jaune is privvy to, how the tree that kills or rewrites memories could be an out for Alyx while still being nothing more than a death entity,
Of course, this still leaves a problem. Even if we ignore the Time Dilation as a gimmick to turn Jaune into a fairy tale character there's still what happens at the end of Episode 8 to consider. Namely that Ruby decides to be taken by the Tree. During Episode 8 Ruby has had all she can stand and has left on her own. She comes face to face with Neopolitan who uses this as an opportunity to work with the Curious Cat to break Ruby down to the point that she doesn't want to live anymore. She says she doesn't want to be her and that she thinks the world would be better off without her.
Now, obviously, no one in the actual story believes that. Neo was simply trying to break Ruby to have her revenge over Torchwick. The problem is that Ruby decided to drink the drink and has been absorbed into the Tree. The thing is, this is only Episode 8 of an entire volume and while ending a series this popular via the main character's suicide is a gutsy move, again I don't believe RoosterTeeth are the kind to take any risks that are not preapproved. So I don't think Ruby is actually dead or going to die. However, if my assumption is correct, that means nearly every other assumption that was made about the Tree and Alyx may be wrong.
It's possible the Tree may have an innate property of reincarnation upon the Ascension process. It's possible that the time dilation will occur in the sense that Ruby herself will be sent back in time to before all this occurred but with some, if not all, of her memories intact. It's possible her Silver Eye quality may come with a reincarnation trait similar to the Maidens.
It's possible the real answer is some combination of these three or even that bits and pieces of each theory is true but the real answer is more complicated and requires more pieces. It's possible more pieces will show up in Volume 10 after Volume 9 is over since we've got around 4 episodes lefts of this one season. However, I thought I'd vomit my thoughts onto a post yet again after I apparently got a content warning on one of my posts that Google didn't want to tell me which one. So I thought let's test them again with another content warning. For all I know my blog may be deleted after this, who knows for certain?
Have a wonderful night and I'll see you next time.
No comments:
Post a Comment