Alright It's 5:30 In The Morning So I'm Gonna Make One More Post Of My Thoughts About The Teaser Then

Alright it's 5:30 in the morning so I'm gonna make one more post of my thoughts about the teaser then go to bed... and fail to fall asleep because I will still be thinking about it.

So the opening shot of Ruby in the fog room, we see her shake her head slightly suggesting she's talking, also she's seemingly by herself, so either the team doesn't reunite until a ways into the volume or Ruby is separated from the others. Might be some sort of personal trial thing? I've heard in another post that apparently the island reacts to their emotions so maybe this is just what happens when Ruby finally breaks down? it summons this... ominous fog.

The next scene is from the last teaser, and unless we are getting scenes of what's going on back in remnant it will likely be the opening scene of the volume. Not much to say here.

Then the crazy m.c. escher-esque bell tower and butterfly. The view outside the tower windows make it seem like the structure is horizontal, but differentsides don't match up, and the butterfly's movement says vertical. So clearly some trippy shit going on here. Can't quite make out what the pattern is inside the grid at the end of the structure is, but it kinda looks like a raised dias with a set of stairs leading up to it.

The next scene has Ruby holding one of penny's summoned swords. So if they made it down here then its possible her body did too, which... is unpleasant to think about given the general fuckery of this place. Crwby don't do us dirty with some kind of zombie penny please.

Then Ruby looking shocked in the forest with the mouse, I'm guessing this is fairly early on and she's just seen something that's made the otherworldliness of this place land for her.

Followed by a shot of the team on a cliffside overlooking some absoultely bonkers terrain. This could actually be a shot directly following from the last one and this view is what has Ruby shocked. We have the world tree, a hexagon of big glowing mushrooms, some smoking geyser/volcano rock formations, a floating island, some icy peaks and weird columns off in the distance, and oh yeah, fucking candyland apparently. If the terrain responds to their presence then Neo is definitely somewhere in the candy zone. We've also got a red area that reminds me of forever fall and a purpke area that kinda looks like a town covered in shadecloths that are partially hidden by the cliff and trees. So... a lot of ground to cover.

Then we've got a knight with armour seemingly reminiscent of Jaune's standing in flames. Is it jaune? Maybe, he doesn't appear anywhere else in the trailer. Definitely framed like a bad guy though. So either it's someone else or we're getting evil/corrupted jaune this volume.

Then this weird horned masked guy standing in what looks like a tree structure with glowing mushrooms around, some kind of village maybe? Also the figure has some kind of armour, shell, or exoskeleton over sinewy tissue. Not much to work with, but the stance, twitchy movement and the horns do remind me of the god of darkness a bit.

Neo looking feral in the rain and using her semblance on herself, though the scene cuts off before you can tell what illusion she's making. The terrain looks purple and rocky I don't think we've seen that so far in the trailer, so she might be in a very different area.

Someone with a bandage around one leg walking from the beach following another (likely Ruby's) set of footprints. A lot of people are saying Alyx and I'm inclined to agree mostly because they looked quite human, unlike a lot of the stuff we've seen so far, and I don't have any other good guesses except neo in disguise, abd why would she bother disguising herself if no one's there.

Then we get a montage of things asking what.The mouse talks, there's soneone with a crown, a chesire cat creature that said fuck you I'm gonna have my own artstyle, something with three eyes lurking in a pile of leaves, a lady in some kind of metal exosuit, and Ruby standing over someone (or something? We hear a what here too, but she closes a lid, so maybe whoecer spoke did so from a different place than Ruby's eyeline. That or she's locking someone in a trunk, which... normally I would say she wouldn't do, but hey she's under a lot of stress, who knows) off screen with death in her eyes. Too brief to be able to tell much about each of these. Though the exo-suit lady looks to have something to do with jaune/the knight from earlier just because they appear to be in the same place surrounded by fire. If not the person on the beach then this would be my next guess for Alyx, and it turns out she's maybe not gonna be as helpful as we hoped. No Idea why Ruby's so pissed off, but I guess that depends on who/what she's standing over.

Then we get shots of each of team Rwby and the trailer ends.

All in all, I have very few answers here. Team Rwby definitely seems to cover a lot of varied terrains, but whether they're doing so with intent or just searching remains to be seen. Jaune might be having a horrible time this volume as some kind of corrupted enemy, or that could be something completely different and they just decided not to show him in the teaser.

I have no idea, but writing all this down instead of having it rattling around my brain will hopefully help me sleep better.

ITS BEEN 84 YEARS

Could be. My money's on Alyx though.

NARRATOR IS A WOMAN WE HAVEN’T HEARD BEFORE.

Calling it now that this is Summer!

I'd assume the spring maiden would've been roughly the same age as vernal if she was supposed to a decoy for her (and I'd imagine they'd resemble each other as well for the same reasons). But I also really want to know what the deal between them was, and I love your speculation about it.

okay but this is actually another interesting part of "who the heck was the spring maiden" and where the lack of her name really starts to stand out.

i think we can safely assume that people like qrow and lionheart would have known the spring maiden before she left, right? qrow especially, since he knew amber and fria.

yet, when they see vernal, the presumed spring maiden, there's no reaction from them; no familiarity, no questions on why she changed her name; and in an event that vernal didn't resemble the spring maiden at all, no mention of how the powers have changed host and they're now dealing with a spring maiden they don't know.

so, in my mind, there are two options:

vernal was the perfect decoy and resembled the previous spring maiden so much that no one questioned the name change—or the spring maiden's name was vernal and the vernal we knew decided to add identity theft on top of all the other crimes that come by default with banditry. it wouldn't explain the lack of familiarity, but that could be chalked up to time and place... OR

qrow and lionheart never actually met the spring maiden and simply presumed that vernal must have been her based on what they did know about her... which admittedly doesn't sound like was much, but it also does raise a question where and from whom they got that information from (most likely ozpin, but you never know)

this is why the lack of name and raven never mentioning the time frame starts making things a bit suspicious, because frankly, can we even say that these people are talking about the same spring maiden? there have been many spring maidens over the years, so some identification would be nice!!

for all we know, they're talking about two different spring maidens and we're all just assuming it's one and the same.

and honestly if that's the case then i'll applaud the writers but also it drives me mad.

Tumblr is really great on days where a bunch of stuff happens. Because it all just melts into this congealed mass of memes, and its completely impossible to tell what the fuck is going on.

Tumblr is the one website that will just tell me shit, and refuse to elaborate in any way that makes sense. Like some kind of unnecessarily cryptic wizard giving dire warnings of worldwide events.

Okay so I know a lot of people are proposing Summer as the narrator, but that just doesn't sound right to me.

For one, the voice just sounds a little younger than I would've expected summer to sound.

For two, I'm unconvinced they'd reveal summer in a teaser rather than leaving it for a big moment in the show itself.

And three, the actual wording of the narration seems to ve talking about the story of the girl who fell through the world (while obviously drawing a parallel for us, the audience, to Ruby), and who would know that story in the ever after if not Alyx herself.

So yeah, I think the narrator is Alyx not Summer, no I do not have any strong evidence for that claim. It's purely vibes based atm.