Yeah honestly you could make an entire video of other people’s traumas and semblances. Ex. Blake needing to survive a stab and making a clone sounds like a plausible trauma for a former white fang.
Hey I’m a nerd with a theory, bare with me. What if the there is no such thing as a hereditary semblance? The only one we see is the Schnee one. Piggybacking off of your theory, what if Weiss, Winter and all the other Schnees gained the Glyphs because they are in the specific dynamic of the Schnee household? All the glyphs seem to have one thing in common with each other and that’s control. Control over strength, speed, time, servants/minions etc. Schnees are practically bred to want control in one way or another. Due to how the family has always been managed, the Schnees that were able to experience the world, break away from the household were able to take some of that control with them.
Yup. Also there seems to be this pressure constantly put on them to continue the family’s legacy and maintain its image, which would also almost certainly contribute to having similar/the same semblances.
I don't think it's mutually exclusive. There can certainly be more than one "noble" family who, back when semblances were young, "took control" of their own destiny. Technically, all you would need to create a hereditary semblance, if Critter's theory is correct, is recreate a trauma in the next generation. Feeling helpless and out of control for the first Schnee, then feeling put upon and wanted to destroy someone who punished them with the very same methods they used, and over the years it morph's into a sort of feedback, shaped by powerful family circumstance. The fist Schnee Glyphs may have looked wildly different from each other, and only over time did they become uniform, as the shape of the family's influence became more solid. Meanwhile, rational people don't go around subjecting their kids to the same traumas they had as children to force them to develop superpowers that are a perfect mirror of their own... probably. XD
I'm going to piggy back off this and say with absolutely no proof but rather pure conjecture of all Hereditary Semblances. What if the person who originally unlocked a hereditary semblance did so with an emotional/mental state of wanting to protect their descendants (during the traumatic experience as theorised by critter). Because what better way to ensure the life of your kids than to pass down a powerful ability so you can protect them even after you're gone.
@@antondevonlh Fair point. My biggest fear with this theory, and rwby theories in general is that the writers won't use any of the good stuff and make it either bland, stupid sounding or both. Like when they gave Rwby's semblance an explanation aside from vroom vroom, or with Cinder's backstory being a carbon copy of Cinderella's except worse.
With the hereditary semblances, the only known case is the Schnee Family which have a lot of work with dust (their company is named the Schnee DUST company!). This might be a bit of a stretch but what if hereditary semblances are created from potentially generations-long exposure to dust?
Actually Trauma can be hereditary! Theres the classic phobias of snakes and insects, most people have never seen them in the wild until they go to the zoo. If you're descended from an Irish famine survivor you might have trouble losing weight because your body wants to retain all that fat just in case. Then theres Depression/Anxiety, if your parents have depression then theres a higher chance you''ll get depression. Especially if its down a maternal line(I can trace mine back to my great grandmother) Going forward with that maybe the Schnees used to be matrilineal clan but with a lack of other female relations by the time Weiss dad came in he easily was able to take control.
I always thought the dust was the left over magic from the 1st humans crystallized. Do like the idea that there is a reason you get your spasific semblance rather than just random luck (AKA plot convenience).
Yeah, after seeing (spoilers) full metal alchemist and Philosopher's stones, dust feels similar... I mean, its a totally original thing that isn't derivative of any other work at all! Really! Also, in answer to your question, I would have liked if the show could have, like the last airbender, introduced an Idea of fate or destiny without it being the last words of a character before they died, and then never had it mentioned again. Anybody else hate volume 3?
The god of darkness literally turned the magic humans into fucking dust, like literally, physically, they got Thanos'd, dusted, you can see it when Salem is getting back up afterwards, the Magic Humans are what become Dust, and what also creates the New Humans.
hereditary semblances can still be explained with the trauma explanation, when we remember that only two characters we've seen with hereditary semblances, Weiss and Winter, have specifically family related trauma
so are you implying that the past generation of schnee went thru that same family trauma? including Willow (their mom) and grandfather ( i think he was nikolas or something).
@@naturemage2 I think their grandfather was likely the originator of the semblance, and we don't actually know if Willow unlocked her semblance Edit: you could also think of it as family helping to overcome trauma
This has a non-zero likelihood of being the case. Piggybacking off the back of this thought process, Jacques La Asshole Grande wouldn't have this semblance because he married into the family so we'd have to figure out what his damage is some other time, but it *is* confirmed that WIllow has glyphs. Considering the Schnee family crest and their glyph semblance are both a snowflake, we can assume it's probably almost never skipped a generation as well. This would mean that the snowflake glyph semblance is a symbol of status as a member of this family. A family with a high place in society. If it's one thing high society families suffer from, it's pressure from without and within to maintain a certain image. The constant pressure to live up to this image of what it means to be a Schnee is likely enough to force later generations to develop the glyph. The marriage with Jacques was likely for political reasons considering their position in society, not to mention what sort of pressures her home life was like outside of that. High society families being a never-ending cycle of emotional abuse as the children grow until they either enter the fold or leave the family is a pretty common trope in writing. Throw in some abusive asshole like Jacques to push the girls to the point of basically abandoning the family just to escape him as soon as they're old enough to, and you have a recipe for, as Weiss so aptly put, a very difficult childhood. Any small thing they felt could get him off their backs or just lessen his abuse even for a moment was likely worth several times its weight in gold. Honestly with Jacques in the picture it's borderline prophetic for the two girls to get the semblance, and I think it's only a matter of time until their younger brother gets it. At this point I think it's just a matter of him probably not having the requisite training to use it, even though that's been shown to be irrelevant in life / death situations like ren and nora.
I always thought that they were the descendants of salem and ozma and their children had natural magic so many generations later their magic would still be around in house schnee and even ruby could be a descendant of natural magic.
I've actually been feeling the whole "Trauma defines your Semblance" theory for quite a while, as it matches many of the character's past and personality. Never heard about everything else regarding this theory, but it's not a bad concept. Heck, I wouldn't be surprised if this turns out to be the canon case in the long run.
10:40. Something to add about this section. His power does not "heal", only boosting the person's own aura by using some of his own. Auras automatically heal the user, so boosting them gives them the power to heal in a wide scope. On with the video
i dont mean to be off topic but does anybody know of a method to log back into an Instagram account..? I somehow lost my login password. I love any tricks you can give me
To me.... a semblance is your soul outwards and is always attached to you. Magic comes from nowhere and has no rules. Like... can a semblance make a chair and a table pop up out of nowhere? If that happens - I will be pissed
@@MewDenise A Pocket Dimension IS "From out of nowhere" A Pocket Dimension is specifically a Vacuum void with nothing in it unless you put something in it
@@shelbybayer200 I think his point is that the specific semblance we're talking about requires you to put in whatever you take out, and can't *create* something new with it
Well actually magic does not create chairs or tables out of nothing its put together by magic imagin it like this magic is energy the User can Form this energy into matter becouse matter and energy is the same and then Just turn the magic matter (mattic lol) into the chair and table
@@alexbraun55 Well, technically, if we are going by Penny's explanation it *is* a transformation. Penny literally says that Ruby breaks her body down to its molecular level and rearranges it to become a sentient cloud of rose petals and then breaks it down again and rearranges it to the state it was previously in.
Theory: Dust is simply crystilized magic. The elder brother didn't want humanity to be completly defenseless so he took magic and gave it a physical form. That form came to be known as Dust.
Huh. That’s a good point actually. The god of light is arrogant. He didn’t really leave he broke his own rule to bring back oz. oh my god. What if the god of light is a fucking mastermind! Salem was tricked into her choices. All so that the god of light could get rid of his brother. We never learned what the illness that killed ozma was!!! And like the god of darkness said. Just because they represent life and death those powers aren’t really exclusive to them. God of light could make an illness. Wait for Salem to come to him. Say no. Then wait for her to approach his brother.
Thinking about it, He never revived Ozma's body, Just put his mind into someone's mind while they were alive.... So the God of light Bent his own rule to do this.
Kinda make sense. Like what if he knows they both fucked up by making that one woman who spites them be Immortal. Since both brother's powers were involved and one brother left, he can't fix this mistake by himself nor can take it back as that would look badly in the presence of his brother (not being able to stand by your decision and to set an example). Also how did humanity comeback? If all humans except Salem died. Did they get created again? Or did only those with magic get wiped out and non-magical humans survive? Finally, I think semblances came from the offspring of the 4 little girls that Salem and Oz had. If they actually survived the crossfire tho.
@@dknighteli actually it was explained in the video you just watched via theorizing. Man was born from dust. They came into existence from the dust of the dead humans
I think you should have ended your theory by saying... “and that’s not just my theory, that is a damn FACT” You did such a better job explaining something the FNDM has been pulling their hair out for well over 5 years or so now. You are a national treasure in this FNDM and it would be lesser without you
"how do hereditary semblance work", generational trama. Parents forceing thair child to fit Into a specific mold would have a strong effect on a child, making the child unlock the sentence in order to maintain the status quo
My theory is that the relationship between dust and magic is the same relationship between crude oil and dinosaurs. The dust is literally all that remains of the magic in the previous era
Yeah I'm pretty sure that the creators said that gravity and hard light dust were manufactured and that's why they're expensive you can't just mine it out.
@@j3ssthealien283 Hard light is solely manufactured. Gravity and the others can be manufactured and are also naturally occurring. The floating islands over the lake in volume 5 have natural gravity dust in them.
I like the bit on semblances unlocking. It sounded like animals in nature. Much like how animals adapt to the environment to survive, the people of remnant adapt(unlocking a semblance) to survive theirs.
I was just thing about how dust and magic were connected somehow, and you come proving my theory. This has been been very satisfying to watch as all the pieces come together.
If the god of light “recreated” humans, do you think he also made the silver-eyed warriors? Like how the god of darkness made the Grimm (his own personal creation), the god of light wanted something personal to himself.
That would make sense plus it's a fact that they fought that means they could have created stuff to fight each other inorder to compete and see who could make the better living being's.
The second you mentioned trauma as a trigger for semblances, so much clicked in my mind. Ruby's world shattered when Summer died, she can break her body apart into petals to move faster. Weiss has familial trauma and carries the burden of having to be a jack of all trades. Blake literally explained hers Yang's anger issues combined with the constant blows of her life, she can bounce back twice as strong Jaune and Ren are explained in the show Getting struck by lightning is traumatic Hell other characters in the show could have easy trauma explanations that match their backgrounds Ex- Robin hill probably lived with a family of liars and as a result of hating such people, her semblance is magic lie detection so she never has to be hurt again May's invisibility could stem from her feeling like her true self was never seen by her family(which fits the trans backstory since a lot of unaccepting parents say it's not real unfortunately), and sheep girl's pocket dimensions could have come from needing food when she was young(poor Faunus in Mantle), so she needed a way to steal food for her family. Raven builds connections, then breaks them, so her semblance relies on trusting others, which she can't do anymore Qrow could've manifested his bad luck semblance from being told he was cursed as a child, maybe called as such so much it made him believe he brought misfortune, hence bad luck. God i could go on and on...love this theory
Dust is just the God of Light going behind the Dark God's back like he did when he revived Oz. Semblance like mutation caused by residual magic radiation from the humans that passed away prior to the de-magicifaction caused by the Dark God. Since he only took magic from human but didn't count on residual magic in the world.
I fell the need to point out that Jaune had his semblance for a while, back in volume 1 he activated it in the falls. That thing with Cardin was confirmed to be his semblance. He just couldn’t activatly use it yet.
When I was younger I thought Yang and Ruby's semblances complimented each other well considering their sibling roles and situations. Ever since Yang told the story of when Qrow had to save her and Ruby when they were kids, I kinda got the feeling that the experience somewhat influenced their semblances. Ruby has wanted to become a huntress/hero her whole life and I always felt that Ruby would be the type to get into situations that a hero would but would most likely need some sort of assistance in the end. Yang, of course, would be that assistance. In the beginning Yang was shown to be very close and protective of her sister, so Yang getting a semblance that would allow her to take hits and be a sort of distraction while her sister can get away (giving Ruby a speed semblance) would make sense. I guess what really settled it for me was the Yang character short where it kinda came to fruition. In that, the girls are attacked by an Ursa and Yang uses her semblance to defend Ruby while she could, theoretically, go get help or assist from the sidelines. And, really, the older sibling getting a more "protective" semblance while the younger gets a more evasive one kinda makes sense in general. Kinda like how older siblings are expected to take care of younger ones and how younger ones use that to escape whatever sitch it may be. Of course it's probably not that deep but it does somewhat fit into the "trauma effects semblance theory".
Pretty solid theory. I like it a lot. Though the only thing that stands out to me is the point around Semblances being triggered by trauma, cause to me that implies that something like slavery on Remnant would nearly impossible, because subjecting a vast amount of people to trauma like that would probably cause a good amount of them to gain a Semblance and rebel. Not necessarily a deal breaker, just food for thought. Again, wonderful theory.
@@redlock1353 I just think that it means that you are right, and slavery is very hard to maintain in Remnant. It can exist though, because as we saw with Cinder, when she was very young and couldn't really fight back, she was abused. I think it really depends on age. so you could have people who are young as slaves, but the older they get, the harder it is to control them.
I'll be honest, this theory changed my opinion about the whole backstory of the twin gods and magic; it feels like that makes too much sense now to not be true. If you let me add one thing, I honestly thought that the Maiden's would be elemental specific as there are only four core elemental Dust: Fall is fire, Summer is earth, Winter is ice or water, and Spring is wind. Although that is not the case, it was my logic that led to me thinking the Schnee family are direct descendants of the Winter Maiden; the ice themed Maiden has identical children and grandchildren who all have the most RPG Magic like power in the series.
13:02 hereditary semblances are a result of shifting the pressure to conform (from the big-name schnee family) to a nonbehavioral aspect of self, the semblance. This is almost definitely compounded by the fact that they *expect* to inherit it now. Was it hereditary before the big-name general, who is literally the santa claus allegory btw, fun reminder?
Weiss's Glyphs have always been kind of weird within the show (i.e. being hereditary, performing propulsion AND summoning), but when we learned about the Relic of Creation being a paint brush I was positive that we were going to find out that one of Weiss's ancestors painted the Glyph and gave themselves that ability. Piggybacking off of this video's theory, the Glyph being a magically created semblance could explain how it was passed down between generations. I also thought her semblance itself is also pretty unique for having its own symbol and magic circle-but then I remembered that Glynda's semblance is pretty similar looking. Since it hasn't been mentioned during the Atlas portion of the show, I'm pretty sure this theory's a bust.
The Relic of Creation is a Staff, not a paintbrush. (Those 2 things don't even look similar? lol). Also once the Staff creates something new, whatever it had previously created gets destroyed. So even if some ancestor COULD figure out a way to "make a glyph" it would just be destroyed once they made a new Creation with the staff. But none of that could ever actually work because the rules very clearly state the Staff can only create something with some sort of blue print. Or at least a method of HOW something can be created, using some sort of point of reference. But EVEN if all of that was true, that doesn't explain the the implied other characters who would have familial semblances passed down to them. Winter says it's "unlike most" but it's not exclusive to just the Schnees.
The only part of this topic that I put together were the names, Dust, Semblance, Remnant, all of these sound like they are pieces of a whole and when I saw the episode that explained what happened it made sense. I want to also add how Menagerie looks like the Whale Grimm.
I may have an explanation for the hereditary semblances, magic could be passed from person to person as seen with Ospin and the Maidens as well as the Branwen twins, so the hereditary semblances work in the same way. This could also explain why Weiss seems to have a harder time than Winter with the summoning aspect of her Glyphs, it gets weaker as it is passed along.
Additional Sticky note for this theory, Souls are most Light Bro's feild (but Dark Bro can obviously do it as well see Ozma kill spam) Mostly to explain why the Grimm, pure Dark Bro creations, lack souls. Hey take it a step further and imply animals can't get semblances because they don't got that Darkness in them (and honestly thank fuck otherwise hunting for meat would become damn impossible)
Semblance remind me of Zanpakuto from Bleach. A zanpakuto is basically the physical manifestation of the user's soul. A semblance might follow the same route, though tempered with the caviate that the emotion of the user can help influence the manifestation of the semblance
After watching this I finally realized that the reason Ruby’s silver eyes work on cinder is because of her magic cause magic is from the younger brother which is a great little detail
Nice theory that kind of fixes the issue or how semblances aren't considered magic. Though it would've been easier if they were the same but semblances are just an ability you/your body can just use outright once it's unlocked through whatever means and you CAN learn more but there is little to no info about other spells or whatnot and even if you find an ancient book your body/aura may not be able to handle doing anything else BUT your semblance.
I always assumed we see convenient semblances as a form of evolution. If an island is filled with giraffs and horses, but the only food grows at the top of tall trees, giraffs will be the ones to survive. The horses would die out because their necks wouldn't grow to overcome this situation. I assumed semblances would work in a similar way. Ren unlocked his semblance which helped him to survive in that situation, but other people who may have unlocked their semblances during that same event would have died because their semblance wasn't suited to that situation
Note on hereditary semblances in the trama theory. The only hereditary semblance we’ve seen thus far is the Schnees, an extremely dysfunctional family. Perhaps hereditary semblances could function as a result of familial trauma, where the parents’ trauma affect the children which affect their children and so on. Perhaps this vicious cycle of emotional abuse is what is behind this. You could certainly interpret summoning powers as a desire for the support you couldn’t get from your family. It also explains why Weiss and her mother have semblances while her brother and father don’t. They bore the brunt of the abuse.
I really like the theory, though with Jaune, assuming it wasn't retconned, they confirmed we already saw his semblance which was why he glowed white when Cardin punched him, which I guess means the amped aura was so strong it made Cardin hurt himself. You could also make the argument that in the game, (which is canon between V2 & 3?) his special power was making everyone else stronger and faster. So it lends some credence to semblances also just existing when aura is unlocked. Doesn't like trash the whole theory, just this one detail poking a hole that, may suggest that you always have your semblance from the start, but it's a case of how do you know it? Like for Nora getting struck by lighting is RARE, and assuming she was only a Orphaned fairly soon to meeting Ren she likely didn't get to have many fork incidents. I think it's more a case of living in those dangerous situations makes it easier to discover your semblance's uses, or it heavily alters your personality because the environment you live it will affect how you develop as a person. Just because as a huntress you'd run the risk of lightning dust in a dangerous fashion way more. I think it's both in a sense, with Ren his aura unlocked and immediately had a solution to his problem, but someone like Yang for Example, we were never given an impression she needed a semblance like hers to get by in her life, but her upbringing does suggest she took on lots of negative things and started to act out as a result what with partying and drinking and all that, and since her semblance was called a "Temper Tantrum" it's likely she's used to these outbursts if the hair cut remark is anything to go by. And then trauma can have a massive impact on your personality which will alter your semblance.
I know this is old, but if I could pitch an idea for the hereditary semblance of the schnee's I would point out that it could be as a result of the Schnee that started the company. He didn't just want to be strong enough to live his life, but built a foundation that would go on to his family for generations. And with it, the semblance he used to survive long enough to make that company.
You know... if they want to make Ozpin look morally dubious, I just realized they have the perfect setup. They could have one of his previous lives try to cross breed the maidens with people with good hereditary semblances and with people with silver eyes. They could do some messed up stuff with that, which they won’t of course, but it would be interesting and actually give us a reason to be suspicious of Ozpin.
I had a similar idea where said child would be groomed into being like Ozpin to act as his future vessel. Where Ozpin gives a portion of his aura to the child during conception to both increase the likelihood of them being like him, but also so if he died, his soul would join the portion that was already in the child.
Hey I know you probably won't read this since the video is a couple months old but if we go by your theory I think I have an explanation for hereditary semblances Trauma can be heridatary, like traumatic experiences legit can imprint on someone's DNA, there are studies about it, maybe if a semblance is hereditary is because the trauma gave an imprint so strong it lasts generations (not quite sure about like the actual scientific backing on that last tid bit but yeah)
"Your semblance is triggered from your trauma." _I didn't have hair dye once_ But going out of character now I'm curious of what my semblance would be-
I remember a theory back in the early years that Dust was the Magic that the Gods took away from humans given solid form and the Semblances were the ability to shape magic. Like them saying "If you want all this power back, you're going to have to earn it the hard way" and chucking the Magic underground.
Mercury’s father had a semblance that allowed him to steal semblances, and Mercury’s father took Mercury’s semblance. That man could give and takes semblances
The anti power "power" in shows always weirds me out. Like if such a semblance exists, to take and potentially give semblance at will, would Salem and Ozma not be aware of such an ability and would they not be able to do the same through all their magical power? I guess you could argue that maybe they just never thought of it but I feel like that would easily be something Salem would want to look into and exploit.
9:39 Someone’s read Worm... Or if not, you basically summarized the power system in it. The characters’ theme of powers are hereditary (control of living things, emotional manipulation, manipulation of metal, flight, etc.), but the specifics are based on a traumatic event, so a person who has the power to control bone might have a child who can heal people, for example.
@@thejudgmentalcritter6584 It’s a web series that’s basically a more grounded take on super hero stories. The protagonist has the power to control insects (or arthopods, more generally), so that’s where the name comes from (more or less). If you couldn’t already tell by the way powers are triggered, the story is pretty dark in places. The protagonist suffers a lot, and so do a lot of people around her.
I think the one thing that can further prove your semblance theory would be if we got origins or detail descriptions on how each character got their semblance As in what situation they were in which their semblance was born
Kinda makes sense and the hereditary semblance like the glyphs are just people with more magic in them like as seen from the schnee family and it’s versatility like when Ozma and salem had their kids when they found that magic was genetic because since they had more of it they had enough to pass down. That’s my crack shot on hereditary semblances also what’s up with life dust (it’s the green one, it used to be wind but they changed that one to white and made life dust green)
Remember what Mercury said about his father Marcus Black has the Semblance to take another Semblance & probably return it. Also wouldn’t Ruby’s silver eyes also be considered Magic in some way?
Also, you blew my tiny smoothbrain MIND with this video. Like, I predicted in volume ONE that Ozpin was not just an immortal but what KIND of immortal he is, and I didn't think of ANY of this theory!
I like it makes a lot of sense and I’m assuming the reason why Weiss and winter have the same semblance is because the dust that was left behind after they were dusted was stronger so they were able to pass it down, or the semblance just gets passed down, kind of like one for all from my hero academia
🤩🤩This good stuff like seriously this video and The show give what we need to piece together how team RWBY got their semblances *I believe this revelation will brought up and touch more in volume 9 ,or volume 10*
I love the trauma breeds semblances theory. I’ve heard something similar in it regarding Qrow. Crows are typically seen as bad luck and the bandit tribe blamed qrow so his semblance evolved to reflect the his world. Either way brilliant theory and I’ll subscribe for more!
7:03 I think her mansion may be on the land mass above the Continent of Sanus. It has no Identification as far as I can tell, No Name No Kingdom No Nothing. At first I thought " Why didn't the world give this area to the Faunus instead of Menagerie?", but then I realized that that must be where Salem's fortress is.
9:48 Even though Raven and Qrow are "twins", they are male and female, which means they are dizygotic twins (they formed from different embryos). Dizygotic twins are only related to each other as much as a regular brother and sister, 50% of their genetic code. Only monozygotic twins (twins formed from a single embryo) share 100% of their genetic code. Even though we call these people "twins", they are not twins. We could then talk about epigenetics but whatever. 12:25 Friendly reminder that Jacques is not a Schnee: he married Willow Schnee and changed his family name. His real family name is Gelé, according to the Wiki. People tend to forget he's an impostor, which is one of the reasons the Schnee family is so compelling as a story.
Actually I AM a twin! I'm a fraternal (or as you're calling it, Dizygotic) twin, and I'm more than aware of the science behind different types of twins. The important twin aspect between Qrow and Raven is the fact they're the same age and likely grew up the same way as each other and faced similar hardships. We could even be talking about identical twins and my theory would be the same, since even if you're identical, you still have a unique personality compared to your twin which shapes your character differently from each other, even when growing up in the exact same living conditions. Also when I was bringing up Jacques I was more referring to how civilians who don't train to fight monsters don't usually unlock their semblances since their lives are often much cozier than a huntsmans' it had nothing to do with the fact he married into the Schnee family, which I was aware of. I didn't know that was his last name tho!
Here’s a little thing some characters seem to have two semblances which if we were to base it off this theory u could say they managed to finally overcome that truma granting another semblance like how yang has one where she gets angry and it activates and she also has the ability to take a beating then give it back meaning she got over her truma by being able to hit the world harder than it hits her Adam has the one with his sword but during the fight with yang he also seems to summon shadows of himself symbolize he got over his truma by looking at the past ren with the new thing that shows people emotions by being around good people
I know this is three years late but I just thought of this recently, it’s only a idea but it kinda explains many of the similarities semblances have with magic but also the differences as well and that’s semblances are a remnant of the magic people had before the brothers left and recreated them
I have an idea on the relationship between hereditary semblances and their families. Take Weiss and Winter for example. Both were brought up in high society, constantly being judged, evaluated, and watched for any sign of weakness growing up. The similar conditions in which they, and presumably the rest of their family, were brought up in might have triggered or created similar traumatic events that aided in what they believed to be what would save them. Glyphs, the power to manipulate and bend the rules of reality, to draw from what would’ve been your death via Grimm and turn that into your strength. Perhaps the magic tying the semblances to each individual was simply a bit stronger in their bloodline, allowing the semblance to imprint itself on every generation of Schnee when the right conditions were met.
It came out great. I had fun. You made some excellent points I agree on as well; I have felt like I've heard this theory somewhere before. (slight rant; frustrated story-wise about 1. the in-universe controversy of turning into birds and 2. skepticism & awe toward og magic...*smh*). Thank you.
So semblances would be something like survival instinct. That probably already answer the question about hereditary semblances. Remember when Weiss says that her childhood was terrible and all, because of the problems with the company being brought to the family and they not being able to defend them selves in a lot of situations, maybe that's why the Schenee family have such a powerful and versatile, they need to be prepared to all sorts of situations in a company or family or being hunters. The amount of stress that family always had is probably big enough to unlock their semblances in the same way and with the same power
I had never heard the theory that the God of Light stayed and watched Remnant regrow. I had always felt he went back to the "gap between worlds". You present a very interesting case on why that might not be though, he does enjoy watching his creations flitter about and different from the Lost Fable, the Story of the Two Brothers in the Fairytale book says that the two gods are lying dormant on Remnant. Which may actually be the case for the God of Light. You took the "Man, born from Dust" line in an interesting direction, it being the actual dust of Humanity 1.0. To me that seemed to imply that Humanity 2.0 was formed from Dust crystals at first, but your way of reading it is also a valid one and it does explain the different Semblances better than trying to relate each one to an innate element. Great first theory, though. I look forward to seeing more.
Awesome theory, it makes so much sense! As for Hard Light and Gravity dust, "Gravity" can technically be considered an Element, right? It's not a traditional one, but it's not so far out of the realm of potential that gravity magic would be infused into stone. Hard-Light dust is, supposedly, the rarest dust (not that you'd know it from the massive shield Atlas keeps deploying ineffectively around their stuff XD), so maybe it's the magic of transformation? If all of the dust is magical space rocks, the magic in question could totally just be "shape" and Atlas harnessed and sold it as "Hard Light" because in such a military-minded world of science, "Transformation Dust" is a little out of their imaginative wheelhouse. Love the theory, can't wait for more videos!! Keep up the wonderful work!
And also semblances can be transferred: Mercury's dad (Marcus Black) had a semblance that could steal semblances (he also implied that Mercury would "have it back" when he got stronger). When Mercury killed his dad he never got the semblance back, which implies that Marcus would have had to choose to return the semblance to Mercury for Mercury to get back his semblance. So magic and semblances are even MORE similar. I think the main difference is that magic has a wider range of powers involved, usually a semblance at most grants 2-3 distinct abilities. Glyphs are an exception but clearly glyphs never really fit with the whole maidens/magic thing they added, which is why Weiss just never uses time dilation anymore lmao
It was a good theory and makes a lot sense in my opinion. I’m taking it like semblances are trying to get like the magic they’re coming from but they’re still missing something so they stay limited at one point, one side of the old magic for most of them. For the “can be given away” part of the magic, isn’t Mercury’s situation a case of semblance like that ?
I like your theory on trauma causing your semblance, I would say there are at least 4 cases that challenge this theory, however they could be the exception that proves the rule. The first two are the two hereditary semblances, schnee's family and I think Neptune's family also has a water thing going on. The other two are crow and ironwood, like maybe bad luck could have saved crow from something, but it is highly destructive to his life and ironwood's is literately just him being thick minded how that would have saved him is beyond me. Like I said these 4ish exceptions could be the exception that prove the rule, but idk
A idea to the hereditary semblance works. It could be when a family member have known semblance, another family member may want to emulate them. Weiss was child of abuse with her father harsh standards and mother neglect, so to coped she be inspired to be like her grandfather.
![Blox Fruits Dragon Rework Update [Full Stream]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/EqDAp8udhm0/mqdefault.jpg)
The theory about the effects of trauma on semblances is brilliant.
I can't tell if that would make them more or less meaningful.
Also, how do you think ironwood got his semblance?
I agree with the theory as well
Tell me where tf raven went after she supposedly “killed” cinder?
yeah I’m caught up I’m just saying “killed” as in that’s what should’ve happened
Yeah honestly you could make an entire video of other people’s traumas and semblances. Ex. Blake needing to survive a stab and making a clone sounds like a plausible trauma for a former white fang.
Hey I’m a nerd with a theory, bare with me. What if the there is no such thing as a hereditary semblance? The only one we see is the Schnee one. Piggybacking off of your theory, what if Weiss, Winter and all the other Schnees gained the Glyphs because they are in the specific dynamic of the Schnee household? All the glyphs seem to have one thing in common with each other and that’s control. Control over strength, speed, time, servants/minions etc. Schnees are practically bred to want control in one way or another. Due to how the family has always been managed, the Schnees that were able to experience the world, break away from the household were able to take some of that control with them.
That seems likely
Yup. Also there seems to be this pressure constantly put on them to continue the family’s legacy and maintain its image, which would also almost certainly contribute to having similar/the same semblances.
I don't think it's mutually exclusive. There can certainly be more than one "noble" family who, back when semblances were young, "took control" of their own destiny. Technically, all you would need to create a hereditary semblance, if Critter's theory is correct, is recreate a trauma in the next generation. Feeling helpless and out of control for the first Schnee, then feeling put upon and wanted to destroy someone who punished them with the very same methods they used, and over the years it morph's into a sort of feedback, shaped by powerful family circumstance. The fist Schnee Glyphs may have looked wildly different from each other, and only over time did they become uniform, as the shape of the family's influence became more solid. Meanwhile, rational people don't go around subjecting their kids to the same traumas they had as children to force them to develop superpowers that are a perfect mirror of their own... probably. XD
I'm going to piggy back off this and say with absolutely no proof but rather pure conjecture of all Hereditary Semblances. What if the person who originally unlocked a hereditary semblance did so with an emotional/mental state of wanting to protect their descendants (during the traumatic experience as theorised by critter). Because what better way to ensure the life of your kids than to pass down a powerful ability so you can protect them even after you're gone.
@@antondevonlh Fair point. My biggest fear with this theory, and rwby theories in general is that the writers won't use any of the good stuff and make it either bland, stupid sounding or both. Like when they gave Rwby's semblance an explanation aside from vroom vroom, or with Cinder's backstory being a carbon copy of Cinderella's except worse.
With the hereditary semblances, the only known case is the Schnee Family which have a lot of work with dust (their company is named the Schnee DUST company!). This might be a bit of a stretch but what if hereditary semblances are created from potentially generations-long exposure to dust?
Wow, I like this theory. And maybe the semblance is very versatile because each generation had their own trouble with dust ?
Also oz reincarnations have the same op semblances
That actually makes a lot of sense for a gacha person
@@burnt.alaska you know, I was gonna get mad at you for saying that, but I’m just gonna take the compliment and say thanks
Well in a campion book it states the hereditary semblance are rare but not limited to the Schnees
Actually Trauma can be hereditary! Theres the classic phobias of snakes and insects, most people have never seen them in the wild until they go to the zoo. If you're descended from an Irish famine survivor you might have trouble losing weight because your body wants to retain all that fat just in case. Then theres Depression/Anxiety, if your parents have depression then theres a higher chance you''ll get depression. Especially if its down a maternal line(I can trace mine back to my great grandmother) Going forward with that maybe the Schnees used to be matrilineal clan but with a lack of other female relations by the time Weiss dad came in he easily was able to take control.
I always thought the dust was the left over magic from the 1st humans crystallized. Do like the idea that there is a reason you get your spasific semblance rather than just random luck (AKA plot convenience).
Yeah, after seeing (spoilers) full metal alchemist and Philosopher's stones, dust feels similar... I mean, its a totally original thing that isn't derivative of any other work at all! Really!
Also, in answer to your question, I would have liked if the show could have, like the last airbender, introduced an Idea of fate or destiny without it being the last words of a character before they died, and then never had it mentioned again. Anybody else hate volume 3?
This was actually confirmed by the writers recently. They outright stated that theres a connection between Aura and Magic.
Aura is the soul though,what exactly is magic?
@@grantlangkamp1909 How should I know? I'm not the one writing this nonsense.
@@grantlangkamp1909 No aura is a manifestation of the soul not the soul itself.
@@antoniofaulkner2423 it's interchangeable
@@antoniofaulkner2423 Semblance, Dust, Aura and Silver Eyes are basically just a "Schism" of Magic.
The god of darkness literally turned the magic humans into fucking dust, like literally, physically, they got Thanos'd, dusted, you can see it when Salem is getting back up afterwards, the Magic Humans are what become Dust, and what also creates the New Humans.
hereditary semblances can still be explained with the trauma explanation, when we remember that only two characters we've seen with hereditary semblances, Weiss and Winter, have specifically family related trauma
so are you implying that the past generation of schnee went thru that same family trauma? including Willow (their mom) and grandfather ( i think he was nikolas or something).
@@naturemage2 I think their grandfather was likely the originator of the semblance, and we don't actually know if Willow unlocked her semblance
Edit: you could also think of it as family helping to overcome trauma
This has a non-zero likelihood of being the case. Piggybacking off the back of this thought process, Jacques La Asshole Grande wouldn't have this semblance because he married into the family so we'd have to figure out what his damage is some other time, but it *is* confirmed that WIllow has glyphs. Considering the Schnee family crest and their glyph semblance are both a snowflake, we can assume it's probably almost never skipped a generation as well. This would mean that the snowflake glyph semblance is a symbol of status as a member of this family. A family with a high place in society. If it's one thing high society families suffer from, it's pressure from without and within to maintain a certain image. The constant pressure to live up to this image of what it means to be a Schnee is likely enough to force later generations to develop the glyph. The marriage with Jacques was likely for political reasons considering their position in society, not to mention what sort of pressures her home life was like outside of that. High society families being a never-ending cycle of emotional abuse as the children grow until they either enter the fold or leave the family is a pretty common trope in writing.
Throw in some abusive asshole like Jacques to push the girls to the point of basically abandoning the family just to escape him as soon as they're old enough to, and you have a recipe for, as Weiss so aptly put, a very difficult childhood. Any small thing they felt could get him off their backs or just lessen his abuse even for a moment was likely worth several times its weight in gold. Honestly with Jacques in the picture it's borderline prophetic for the two girls to get the semblance, and I think it's only a matter of time until their younger brother gets it. At this point I think it's just a matter of him probably not having the requisite training to use it, even though that's been shown to be irrelevant in life / death situations like ren and nora.
@@naturemage2 It's implying that the entire Schnee line has the same trauma as Weiss, beyond her grandfather. I'm not very comfortable with it.
I always thought that they were the descendants of salem and ozma and their children had natural magic so many generations later their magic would still be around in house schnee and even ruby could be a descendant of natural magic.
It makes sense that the god of darkness also gave Choice, so without him you don't choose your semblance and you only get one.
YES!
I've actually been feeling the whole "Trauma defines your Semblance" theory for quite a while, as it matches many of the character's past and personality. Never heard about everything else regarding this theory, but it's not a bad concept. Heck, I wouldn't be surprised if this turns out to be the canon case in the long run.
Not always. A semblance can either correlate to the character or be the complete opposite. I believe it was said in volume 4 or 5
10:40. Something to add about this section. His power does not "heal", only boosting the person's own aura by using some of his own. Auras automatically heal the user, so boosting them gives them the power to heal in a wide scope. On with the video
man sometime you doing explain is better then the show themself
i dont mean to be off topic but does anybody know of a method to log back into an Instagram account..?
I somehow lost my login password. I love any tricks you can give me
@Salvatore Izaiah instablaster ;)
I always thought there was a connection I just couldn’t find evidence to put it together thanks
To me.... a semblance is your soul outwards and is always attached to you. Magic comes from nowhere and has no rules. Like... can a semblance make a chair and a table pop up out of nowhere? If that happens - I will be pissed
Pocket Dimension semblance?
@@alexbraun55 No. OOU OF NOWHERE. An objects that didn't exist and now suddenly exists
@@MewDenise
A Pocket Dimension IS "From out of nowhere"
A Pocket Dimension is specifically a Vacuum void with nothing in it unless you put something in it
@@shelbybayer200 I think his point is that the specific semblance we're talking about requires you to put in whatever you take out, and can't *create* something new with it
Well actually magic does not create chairs or tables out of nothing its put together by magic imagin it like this magic is energy the User can Form this energy into matter becouse matter and energy is the same and then Just turn the magic matter (mattic lol) into the chair and table
"There's no transformation semblance"
Yeah, apart from the main character
That’s more so transportation
@@nigelcarter6895 she turns into rose petals yes it is called speed but it’s because of a transformation
@@ragingmonkeycritic well, technically, if we're going by Penny's explanation, its debatable whether its a transformation.
@@alexbraun55 Well, technically, if we are going by Penny's explanation it *is* a transformation. Penny literally says that Ruby breaks her body down to its molecular level and rearranges it to become a sentient cloud of rose petals and then breaks it down again and rearranges it to the state it was previously in.
@@bishop782 I don't know about the rearranging part
Theory: Dust is simply crystilized magic. The elder brother didn't want humanity to be completly defenseless so he took magic and gave it a physical form. That form came to be known as Dust.
Huh. That’s a good point actually. The god of light is arrogant. He didn’t really leave he broke his own rule to bring back oz. oh my god. What if the god of light is a fucking mastermind! Salem was tricked into her choices. All so that the god of light could get rid of his brother. We never learned what the illness that killed ozma was!!! And like the god of darkness said. Just because they represent life and death those powers aren’t really exclusive to them. God of light could make an illness. Wait for Salem to come to him. Say no. Then wait for her to approach his brother.
Damn... That would be so interesting to unravel in the show!!!
Thinking about it, He never revived Ozma's body, Just put his mind into someone's mind while they were alive.... So the God of light Bent his own rule to do this.
Kinda make sense. Like what if he knows they both fucked up by making that one woman who spites them be Immortal. Since both brother's powers were involved and one brother left, he can't fix this mistake by himself nor can take it back as that would look badly in the presence of his brother (not being able to stand by your decision and to set an example).
Also how did humanity comeback? If all humans except Salem died. Did they get created again? Or did only those with magic get wiped out and non-magical humans survive?
Finally, I think semblances came from the offspring of the 4 little girls that Salem and Oz had. If they actually survived the crossfire tho.
@@dknighteli actually it was explained in the video you just watched via theorizing. Man was born from dust. They came into existence from the dust of the dead humans
@@kingdoppelganger8951 Oh like evolution and shit. Checks out.
I have to say that this was one of the best RWBY theories out there. I think you just blew my mind
Damn Critter this theory is actually really good props
I think you should have ended your theory by saying... “and that’s not just my theory, that is a damn FACT”
You did such a better job explaining something the FNDM has been pulling their hair out for well over 5 years or so now.
You are a national treasure in this FNDM and it would be lesser without you
Thematically, at least, Weiss's hereditary semblance makes sense because her trauma IS her family.
Something to remember is that they're called "semblances" - the powers people of remnant possess are a semblance of what came before.
"how do hereditary semblance work", generational trama.
Parents forceing thair child to fit Into a specific mold would have a strong effect on a child, making the child unlock the sentence in order to maintain the status quo
My theory is that the relationship between dust and magic is the same relationship between crude oil and dinosaurs. The dust is literally all that remains of the magic in the previous era
I think you can give hard light dust a pass on being weird bc I'm pretty sure humans made it
Yeah I'm pretty sure that the creators said that gravity and hard light dust were manufactured and that's why they're expensive you can't just mine it out.
@@j3ssthealien283 Hard light is solely manufactured. Gravity and the others can be manufactured and are also naturally occurring. The floating islands over the lake in volume 5 have natural gravity dust in them.
@@jakeperez8242 I did not know that I haven't seen volume five in a while
I like the bit on semblances unlocking. It sounded like animals in nature. Much like how animals adapt to the environment to survive, the people of remnant adapt(unlocking a semblance) to survive theirs.
I was just thing about how dust and magic were connected somehow, and you come proving my theory. This has been been very satisfying to watch as all the pieces come together.
I hate how much more thought you've put into this than the writers have 😭
If the god of light “recreated” humans, do you think he also made the silver-eyed warriors? Like how the god of darkness made the Grimm (his own personal creation), the god of light wanted something personal to himself.
That would make sense plus it's a fact that they fought that means they could have created stuff to fight each other inorder to compete and see who could make the better living being's.
Nah man silver eyes are just anti-magic
Didn't it get stated in seasons six that he was the reason for people with silver eyes?
The second you mentioned trauma as a trigger for semblances, so much clicked in my mind.
Ruby's world shattered when Summer died, she can break her body apart into petals to move faster.
Weiss has familial trauma and carries the burden of having to be a jack of all trades.
Blake literally explained hers
Yang's anger issues combined with the constant blows of her life, she can bounce back twice as strong
Jaune and Ren are explained in the show
Getting struck by lightning is traumatic
Hell other characters in the show could have easy trauma explanations that match their backgrounds
Ex- Robin hill probably lived with a family of liars and as a result of hating such people, her semblance is magic lie detection so she never has to be hurt again
May's invisibility could stem from her feeling like her true self was never seen by her family(which fits the trans backstory since a lot of unaccepting parents say it's not real unfortunately), and sheep girl's pocket dimensions could have come from needing food when she was young(poor Faunus in Mantle), so she needed a way to steal food for her family.
Raven builds connections, then breaks them, so her semblance relies on trusting others, which she can't do anymore
Qrow could've manifested his bad luck semblance from being told he was cursed as a child, maybe called as such so much it made him believe he brought misfortune, hence bad luck.
God i could go on and on...love this theory
Dust is just the God of Light going behind the Dark God's back like he did when he revived Oz. Semblance like mutation caused by residual magic radiation from the humans that passed away prior to the de-magicifaction caused by the Dark God. Since he only took magic from human but didn't count on residual magic in the world.
I fell the need to point out that Jaune had his semblance for a while, back in volume 1 he activated it in the falls. That thing with Cardin was confirmed to be his semblance. He just couldn’t activatly use it yet.
When I was younger I thought Yang and Ruby's semblances complimented each other well considering their sibling roles and situations. Ever since Yang told the story of when Qrow had to save her and Ruby when they were kids, I kinda got the feeling that the experience somewhat influenced their semblances. Ruby has wanted to become a huntress/hero her whole life and I always felt that Ruby would be the type to get into situations that a hero would but would most likely need some sort of assistance in the end. Yang, of course, would be that assistance. In the beginning Yang was shown to be very close and protective of her sister, so Yang getting a semblance that would allow her to take hits and be a sort of distraction while her sister can get away (giving Ruby a speed semblance) would make sense. I guess what really settled it for me was the Yang character short where it kinda came to fruition. In that, the girls are attacked by an Ursa and Yang uses her semblance to defend Ruby while she could, theoretically, go get help or assist from the sidelines. And, really, the older sibling getting a more "protective" semblance while the younger gets a more evasive one kinda makes sense in general. Kinda like how older siblings are expected to take care of younger ones and how younger ones use that to escape whatever sitch it may be. Of course it's probably not that deep but it does somewhat fit into the "trauma effects semblance theory".
Pretty solid theory. I like it a lot. Though the only thing that stands out to me is the point around Semblances being triggered by trauma, cause to me that implies that something like slavery on Remnant would nearly impossible, because subjecting a vast amount of people to trauma like that would probably cause a good amount of them to gain a Semblance and rebel. Not necessarily a deal breaker, just food for thought. Again, wonderful theory.
Well, I mean, isn't that what happened to cinder?
@@bishop782 exactly what i was about to comment she unlocked her semblance as a slave
@@bishop782 Yeah. That's what I'm saying. You'd think it'd be a common enough occurrence that it would make any sort of abuse backfire on the abuser.
@@redlock1353 I just think that it means that you are right, and slavery is very hard to maintain in Remnant. It can exist though, because as we saw with Cinder, when she was very young and couldn't really fight back, she was abused. I think it really depends on age. so you could have people who are young as slaves, but the older they get, the harder it is to control them.
@@bishop782 Fair point.
I'll be honest, this theory changed my opinion about the whole backstory of the twin gods and magic; it feels like that makes too much sense now to not be true. If you let me add one thing, I honestly thought that the Maiden's would be elemental specific as there are only four core elemental Dust: Fall is fire, Summer is earth, Winter is ice or water, and Spring is wind. Although that is not the case, it was my logic that led to me thinking the Schnee family are direct descendants of the Winter Maiden; the ice themed Maiden has identical children and grandchildren who all have the most RPG Magic like power in the series.
Dude this is probably one of the best put together rent theory videos I've seen in a long time 🤣🤣
oh you just KNOW if a Schnee got a different semblance theyd get traumatized even worse
You brought all these elements of the story together without contrivance so I'd say this is a solid theory, well done
My theory. Dust is the crystallized remnants of people who wield magic who were killed by the god of darkness.
Damn for a first theory, this is really good. I'm impressed
13:02 hereditary semblances are a result of shifting the pressure to conform (from the big-name schnee family) to a nonbehavioral aspect of self, the semblance. This is almost definitely compounded by the fact that they *expect* to inherit it now. Was it hereditary before the big-name general, who is literally the santa claus allegory btw, fun reminder?
This was exceptional critter.
Weiss's Glyphs have always been kind of weird within the show (i.e. being hereditary, performing propulsion AND summoning), but when we learned about the Relic of Creation being a paint brush I was positive that we were going to find out that one of Weiss's ancestors painted the Glyph and gave themselves that ability. Piggybacking off of this video's theory, the Glyph being a magically created semblance could explain how it was passed down between generations.
I also thought her semblance itself is also pretty unique for having its own symbol and magic circle-but then I remembered that Glynda's semblance is pretty similar looking. Since it hasn't been mentioned during the Atlas portion of the show, I'm pretty sure this theory's a bust.
The Relic of Creation is a Staff, not a paintbrush. (Those 2 things don't even look similar? lol).
Also once the Staff creates something new, whatever it had previously created gets destroyed. So even if some ancestor COULD figure out a way to "make a glyph" it would just be destroyed once they made a new Creation with the staff.
But none of that could ever actually work because the rules very clearly state the Staff can only create something with some sort of blue print. Or at least a method of HOW something can be created, using some sort of point of reference.
But EVEN if all of that was true, that doesn't explain the the implied other characters who would have familial semblances passed down to them. Winter says it's "unlike most" but it's not exclusive to just the Schnees.
@@thejudgmentalcritter6584 Ahh, that makes sense. I dropped the show after Volume 7 so I was missing a lot of context lol
The only part of this topic that I put together were the names, Dust, Semblance, Remnant, all of these sound like they are pieces of a whole and when I saw the episode that explained what happened it made sense. I want to also add how Menagerie looks like the Whale Grimm.
I may have an explanation for the hereditary semblances, magic could be passed from person to person as seen with Ospin and the Maidens as well as the Branwen twins, so the hereditary semblances work in the same way. This could also explain why Weiss seems to have a harder time than Winter with the summoning aspect of her Glyphs, it gets weaker as it is passed along.
Additional Sticky note for this theory, Souls are most Light Bro's feild (but Dark Bro can obviously do it as well see Ozma kill spam) Mostly to explain why the Grimm, pure Dark Bro creations, lack souls.
Hey take it a step further and imply animals can't get semblances because they don't got that Darkness in them (and honestly thank fuck otherwise hunting for meat would become damn impossible)
Semblance remind me of Zanpakuto from Bleach.
A zanpakuto is basically the physical manifestation of the user's soul.
A semblance might follow the same route, though tempered with the caviate that the emotion of the user can help influence the manifestation of the semblance
Okay, I genuinely adore your idea on why/how semblances are unlocked, and that they are molded to save you from trauma.
After watching this I finally realized that the reason Ruby’s silver eyes work on cinder is because of her magic cause magic is from the younger brother which is a great little detail
wow, I really enjoyed this. you tied everything together so nicely!
Really good. Neat takes. And much better than some of the other theories. I liked the honesty "I have no idea" much better than forcing it.
Nice theory that kind of fixes the issue or how semblances aren't considered magic.
Though it would've been easier if they were the same but semblances are just an ability you/your body can just use outright once it's unlocked through whatever means and you CAN learn more but there is little to no info about other spells or whatnot and even if you find an ancient book your body/aura may not be able to handle doing anything else BUT your semblance.
So this stuff of a semblace, according to your theory, is more of self-defense mechanism of the body/soul? Thay sounds awesome.
I always assumed we see convenient semblances as a form of evolution. If an island is filled with giraffs and horses, but the only food grows at the top of tall trees, giraffs will be the ones to survive. The horses would die out because their necks wouldn't grow to overcome this situation. I assumed semblances would work in a similar way. Ren unlocked his semblance which helped him to survive in that situation, but other people who may have unlocked their semblances during that same event would have died because their semblance wasn't suited to that situation
Holy shit, so many things make sense now
Now if only roster teeth made that an intentional connection and made it some sort of plot point
0:08 A GAAAAAAAAAAAAAME THEORY! THANKS FOR WATCHING ( >wO)
Note on hereditary semblances in the trama theory. The only hereditary semblance we’ve seen thus far is the Schnees, an extremely dysfunctional family. Perhaps hereditary semblances could function as a result of familial trauma, where the parents’ trauma affect the children which affect their children and so on. Perhaps this vicious cycle of emotional abuse is what is behind this. You could certainly interpret summoning powers as a desire for the support you couldn’t get from your family. It also explains why Weiss and her mother have semblances while her brother and father don’t. They bore the brunt of the abuse.
This makes all three of these properties make so much more sense than the actual show does
Very great theory :))
The creators of the show already confirmed this theory Recently
I really like the theory, though with Jaune, assuming it wasn't retconned, they confirmed we already saw his semblance which was why he glowed white when Cardin punched him, which I guess means the amped aura was so strong it made Cardin hurt himself. You could also make the argument that in the game, (which is canon between V2 & 3?) his special power was making everyone else stronger and faster. So it lends some credence to semblances also just existing when aura is unlocked.
Doesn't like trash the whole theory, just this one detail poking a hole that, may suggest that you always have your semblance from the start, but it's a case of how do you know it? Like for Nora getting struck by lighting is RARE, and assuming she was only a Orphaned fairly soon to meeting Ren she likely didn't get to have many fork incidents. I think it's more a case of living in those dangerous situations makes it easier to discover your semblance's uses, or it heavily alters your personality because the environment you live it will affect how you develop as a person. Just because as a huntress you'd run the risk of lightning dust in a dangerous fashion way more.
I think it's both in a sense, with Ren his aura unlocked and immediately had a solution to his problem, but someone like Yang for Example, we were never given an impression she needed a semblance like hers to get by in her life, but her upbringing does suggest she took on lots of negative things and started to act out as a result what with partying and drinking and all that, and since her semblance was called a "Temper Tantrum" it's likely she's used to these outbursts if the hair cut remark is anything to go by. And then trauma can have a massive impact on your personality which will alter your semblance.
You have some real potential as a theorist. If you ever planned on doing more theories, then I look forward to seeing them.
I know this is old, but if I could pitch an idea for the hereditary semblance of the schnee's I would point out that it could be as a result of the Schnee that started the company. He didn't just want to be strong enough to live his life, but built a foundation that would go on to his family for generations.
And with it, the semblance he used to survive long enough to make that company.
You know... if they want to make Ozpin look morally dubious, I just realized they have the perfect setup. They could have one of his previous lives try to cross breed the maidens with people with good hereditary semblances and with people with silver eyes. They could do some messed up stuff with that, which they won’t of course, but it would be interesting and actually give us a reason to be suspicious of Ozpin.
I had a similar idea where said child would be groomed into being like Ozpin to act as his future vessel. Where Ozpin gives a portion of his aura to the child during conception to both increase the likelihood of them being like him, but also so if he died, his soul would join the portion that was already in the child.
@@herpderp5727 that’s also a cool idea, and it just goes to show that the writers put zero effort into making him actually do bad stuff
@@Didierpelupessy
But, don't you remember? He cursed Raven and Qrow with the ability to turn into birds.
LOL
@@herpderp5727 YOU DON’T UNSERSTAND! I CAN TURN INTO A BIRD!
@@Didierpelupessy
WHY IS MY NAME SPELLED WITH A Q?!
Hey I know you probably won't read this since the video is a couple months old but if we go by your theory I think I have an explanation for hereditary semblances
Trauma can be heridatary, like traumatic experiences legit can imprint on someone's DNA, there are studies about it, maybe if a semblance is hereditary is because the trauma gave an imprint so strong it lasts generations (not quite sure about like the actual scientific backing on that last tid bit but yeah)
I did read this!
Good theory! :D
@@thejudgmentalcritter6584 omg omg omg :D
Honestly, this was very well done... i had some things similar to this, but had a few questions that you answered.
"Your semblance is triggered from your trauma."
_I didn't have hair dye once_
But going out of character now I'm curious of what my semblance would be-
Damn you're good. Great theory!
Dust being Soylent Green would be hilarious.
I remember a theory back in the early years that Dust was the Magic that the Gods took away from humans given solid form and the Semblances were the ability to shape magic. Like them saying "If you want all this power back, you're going to have to earn it the hard way" and chucking the Magic underground.
Mercury’s father had a semblance that allowed him to steal semblances, and Mercury’s father took Mercury’s semblance. That man could give and takes semblances
The anti power "power" in shows always weirds me out. Like if such a semblance exists, to take and potentially give semblance at will, would Salem and Ozma not be aware of such an ability and would they not be able to do the same through all their magical power?
I guess you could argue that maybe they just never thought of it but I feel like that would easily be something Salem would want to look into and exploit.
Also, jesus I just realized how old this video and comment are
9:39 Someone’s read Worm...
Or if not, you basically summarized the power system in it. The characters’ theme of powers are hereditary (control of living things, emotional manipulation, manipulation of metal, flight, etc.), but the specifics are based on a traumatic event, so a person who has the power to control bone might have a child who can heal people, for example.
I'm not gunna lie, I have no idea what "worm" is? I'm just imagining something like "Dune"?
@@thejudgmentalcritter6584 It’s a web series that’s basically a more grounded take on super hero stories. The protagonist has the power to control insects (or arthopods, more generally), so that’s where the name comes from (more or less).
If you couldn’t already tell by the way powers are triggered, the story is pretty dark in places. The protagonist suffers a lot, and so do a lot of people around her.
I think the one thing that can further prove your semblance theory would be if we got origins or detail descriptions on how each character got their semblance
As in what situation they were in which their semblance was born
Kinda makes sense and the hereditary semblance like the glyphs are just people with more magic in them like as seen from the schnee family and it’s versatility like when Ozma and salem had their kids when they found that magic was genetic because since they had more of it they had enough to pass down. That’s my crack shot on hereditary semblances also what’s up with life dust (it’s the green one, it used to be wind but they changed that one to white and made life dust green)
Remember what Mercury said about his father Marcus Black has the Semblance to take another Semblance & probably return it.
Also wouldn’t Ruby’s silver eyes also be considered Magic in some way?
Also, you blew my tiny smoothbrain MIND with this video. Like, I predicted in volume ONE that Ozpin was not just an immortal but what KIND of immortal he is, and I didn't think of ANY of this theory!
I love this theory ive been watching theories for like along time and this has to be one if the best
I like it makes a lot of sense and I’m assuming the reason why Weiss and winter have the same semblance is because the dust that was left behind after they were dusted was stronger so they were able to pass it down, or the semblance just gets passed down, kind of like one for all from my hero academia
and that is the end of my powerpoint presentation. I did really enjoy this
🤩🤩This good stuff like seriously this video and The show give what we need to piece together how team RWBY got their semblances
*I believe this revelation will brought up and touch more in volume 9 ,or volume 10*
hereditary semblances could work due to the same family experiencing similar abuse in a cycle that lasts on maybe? either way, very good theory :)
I love the trauma breeds semblances theory. I’ve heard something similar in it regarding Qrow. Crows are typically seen as bad luck and the bandit tribe blamed qrow so his semblance evolved to reflect the his world. Either way brilliant theory and I’ll subscribe for more!
7:03 I think her mansion may be on the land mass above the Continent of Sanus. It has no Identification as far as I can tell, No Name No Kingdom No Nothing. At first I thought " Why didn't the world give this area to the Faunus instead of Menagerie?", but then I realized that that must be where Salem's fortress is.
9:48 Even though Raven and Qrow are "twins", they are male and female, which means they are dizygotic twins (they formed from different embryos). Dizygotic twins are only related to each other as much as a regular brother and sister, 50% of their genetic code. Only monozygotic twins (twins formed from a single embryo) share 100% of their genetic code. Even though we call these people "twins", they are not twins. We could then talk about epigenetics but whatever.
12:25 Friendly reminder that Jacques is not a Schnee: he married Willow Schnee and changed his family name. His real family name is Gelé, according to the Wiki. People tend to forget he's an impostor, which is one of the reasons the Schnee family is so compelling as a story.
Actually I AM a twin! I'm a fraternal (or as you're calling it, Dizygotic) twin, and I'm more than aware of the science behind different types of twins. The important twin aspect between Qrow and Raven is the fact they're the same age and likely grew up the same way as each other and faced similar hardships. We could even be talking about identical twins and my theory would be the same, since even if you're identical, you still have a unique personality compared to your twin which shapes your character differently from each other, even when growing up in the exact same living conditions.
Also when I was bringing up Jacques I was more referring to how civilians who don't train to fight monsters don't usually unlock their semblances since their lives are often much cozier than a huntsmans' it had nothing to do with the fact he married into the Schnee family, which I was aware of. I didn't know that was his last name tho!
The best part of this theory for sure is the part of the destruction brother breaking the moon and the chunks that rain down being encased in Dust
Here’s a little thing some characters seem to have two semblances which if we were to base it off this theory u could say they managed to finally overcome that truma granting another semblance like how yang has one where she gets angry and it activates and she also has the ability to take a beating then give it back meaning she got over her truma by being able to hit the world harder than it hits her Adam has the one with his sword but during the fight with yang he also seems to summon shadows of himself symbolize he got over his truma by looking at the past ren with the new thing that shows people emotions by being around good people
I know this is three years late but I just thought of this recently, it’s only a idea but it kinda explains many of the similarities semblances have with magic but also the differences as well and that’s semblances are a remnant of the magic people had before the brothers left and recreated them
I have an idea on the relationship between hereditary semblances and their families. Take Weiss and Winter for example. Both were brought up in high society, constantly being judged, evaluated, and watched for any sign of weakness growing up. The similar conditions in which they, and presumably the rest of their family, were brought up in might have triggered or created similar traumatic events that aided in what they believed to be what would save them. Glyphs, the power to manipulate and bend the rules of reality, to draw from what would’ve been your death via Grimm and turn that into your strength. Perhaps the magic tying the semblances to each individual was simply a bit stronger in their bloodline, allowing the semblance to imprint itself on every generation of Schnee when the right conditions were met.
i love this theory!!!
It came out great. I had fun. You made some excellent points I agree on as well; I have felt like I've heard this theory somewhere before. (slight rant; frustrated story-wise about 1. the in-universe controversy of turning into birds and 2. skepticism & awe toward og magic...*smh*). Thank you.
So semblances would be something like survival instinct. That probably already answer the question about hereditary semblances. Remember when Weiss says that her childhood was terrible and all, because of the problems with the company being brought to the family and they not being able to defend them selves in a lot of situations, maybe that's why the Schenee family have such a powerful and versatile, they need to be prepared to all sorts of situations in a company or family or being hunters. The amount of stress that family always had is probably big enough to unlock their semblances in the same way and with the same power
I had never heard the theory that the God of Light stayed and watched Remnant regrow. I had always felt he went back to the "gap between worlds". You present a very interesting case on why that might not be though, he does enjoy watching his creations flitter about and different from the Lost Fable, the Story of the Two Brothers in the Fairytale book says that the two gods are lying dormant on Remnant. Which may actually be the case for the God of Light.
You took the "Man, born from Dust" line in an interesting direction, it being the actual dust of Humanity 1.0. To me that seemed to imply that Humanity 2.0 was formed from Dust crystals at first, but your way of reading it is also a valid one and it does explain the different Semblances better than trying to relate each one to an innate element.
Great first theory, though. I look forward to seeing more.
Awesome theory, it makes so much sense! As for Hard Light and Gravity dust, "Gravity" can technically be considered an Element, right? It's not a traditional one, but it's not so far out of the realm of potential that gravity magic would be infused into stone. Hard-Light dust is, supposedly, the rarest dust (not that you'd know it from the massive shield Atlas keeps deploying ineffectively around their stuff XD), so maybe it's the magic of transformation? If all of the dust is magical space rocks, the magic in question could totally just be "shape" and Atlas harnessed and sold it as "Hard Light" because in such a military-minded world of science, "Transformation Dust" is a little out of their imaginative wheelhouse.
Love the theory, can't wait for more videos!! Keep up the wonderful work!
That makes a lot of sense! I hope that really was they were going for when then created the show and backstory of the episodes from season 6
And also semblances can be transferred: Mercury's dad (Marcus Black) had a semblance that could steal semblances (he also implied that Mercury would "have it back" when he got stronger). When Mercury killed his dad he never got the semblance back, which implies that Marcus would have had to choose to return the semblance to Mercury for Mercury to get back his semblance. So magic and semblances are even MORE similar. I think the main difference is that magic has a wider range of powers involved, usually a semblance at most grants 2-3 distinct abilities. Glyphs are an exception but clearly glyphs never really fit with the whole maidens/magic thing they added, which is why Weiss just never uses time dilation anymore lmao
i love this! i'd love to see if you have more theories!
It was a good theory and makes a lot sense in my opinion.
I’m taking it like semblances are trying to get like the magic they’re coming from but they’re still missing something so they stay limited at one point, one side of the old magic for most of them.
For the “can be given away” part of the magic, isn’t Mercury’s situation a case of semblance like that ?
Not really. Mercury's father stole Mercury's semblance with his own semblance. Mercury didn't give it to him.
That's a damn good theory, esp the part about the semblance, I hope it becomes cannon.
Honestly, I figured dust came from the ashes of the old civilization, where as semblances are the last "semblance" of magic in any given individual
I like your theory on trauma causing your semblance, I would say there are at least 4 cases that challenge this theory, however they could be the exception that proves the rule. The first two are the two hereditary semblances, schnee's family and I think Neptune's family also has a water thing going on. The other two are crow and ironwood, like maybe bad luck could have saved crow from something, but it is highly destructive to his life and ironwood's is literately just him being thick minded how that would have saved him is beyond me. Like I said these 4ish exceptions could be the exception that prove the rule, but idk
Jepetto gave penny his aura so in a way he gave his semblance
A idea to the hereditary semblance works. It could be when a family member have known semblance, another family member may want to emulate them. Weiss was child of abuse with her father harsh standards and mother neglect, so to coped she be inspired to be like her grandfather.