Raven Is Ruby's Dad - Tumblr Posts

Raven the Deadbeat Dad - When a theory feels Just Crazy Enough to Work

You ever get one of those ideas or see one of those theories that seems like a complete joke at first, but the more you think about it, the more it starts making a weird amount of sense? One of those theories that is fairly bonkers, yet feel weirdly fitting to the story?

Yeah, this is one of those.

So to start off, the idea that Summer and Raven had some romantic history is one that I very much support. Beyond the simple ‘they look cute together’ shipping mentality, a Summer/Raven relationship makes the backstory of Team STRQ all the more interesting and adds so much context to Raven’s character. If Summer was indeed the teammate that Raven loved the most, than that would go a long way in explaining why Raven is the kind of person she is in the present.

But then there’s the theory that takes the Rosebird ship one step further. The theory that Summer and Raven weren’t just romantically involved, but that Raven is Ruby’s real father.

Yeah, it’s a pretty bonkers theory.

And yet, the more I think about it, the more this theory actually makes a lot of sense as a narrative twist.

(To get something out of the way before we start, the question of the ‘mechanics’ of how two women conceive a child is entirely irrelevant here. Need I remind everyone that this is a Fantasy World, with both futuristic technology and outright MAGIC, the latter of which both Summer and Raven have ties to through Silver Eyes and Shapeshifting powers respectively. There are plenty of ways that could explain how Summer and Raven conceived Ruby, from medical technologies to weird side-effects of Old-World Magic. The point is that there are all kinds of ways the story could justify how this happened so that’s not what I’m going to be focusing on here.)

Consider the following: Thusfar, the show has seemingly laid a lot of groundwork for a ‘Qrow is Ruby’s real father’ reveal. We’ve been shown Qrow filling a very clear father-figure role to Ruby (more details on that here), while at the same time we’ve been shown almost nothing of Ruby’s relationship with her supposed real father, Tai. Narratively speaking, it would normally be pretty easy to guess where this is going: ‘Oh, Ruby! This man who has been a father figure to you your whole life was actually your REAL father all along!’ There’s a reason people keep bringing this theory up.

However, there is one pretty major wrinkle in this theory: As many others will be quick to point out, CRWBY have gone on record multiple times saying pretty definitively that Qrow is NOT Ruby’s father. And sure, you could always say the creators are just lying to cover up the twist, but that kind of repeated bold-faced lying seems a bit out of character for CRWBY.

So where does that leave us? We have what seems to be a whole lot of setup to some kind of reveal involving Ruby and Qrow, but also very definitive statements from the creators that Qrow is NOT Ruby’s father.

The thing is, a reveal that Raven is Ruby’s real father is kind of a perfect narrative ‘wait, what?’ curve-ball in this situation. We get all this buildup between Ruby and her honorary ‘Uncle’ Qrow that points to Qrow being more than just an ‘Uncle’ to Ruby… but then we get a curve-ball that Qrow is her Uncle, just not an Honorary one.

And the best part is that Raven being Ruby’s real father still works as a reveal. So much of the foreshadowing that pointed to Qrow as Ruby’s father can just as easily be applied to Raven, and some parts even work better with Raven.

All that talk people have made about how Ruby looks nothing like Tai and looks a lot more like Qrow? Well she looks even more like Raven. Even Ruby’s semblance has more similarities to Raven’s than Qrow’s, both being mobility focused.

Then there’s Ruby’s and Raven’s color schemes. Or rather, color scheme because Raven has the exact same color scheme as Ruby’s first outfit. And the thing is, nobody else on Team STRQ has that combination of red and black. Back when Raven first showed up in Volume 2 and saved Yang from Neo, I was convinced that she was actually a not-dead Summer Rose, simply from that color scheme. It just feels really weird narratively that Ruby has no apparent link to Raven, and yet Raven is seemingly the one Ruby inherited her color scheme from.

Also, Raven being Ruby’s father still maintains Ruby’s and Yang’s sister relationship. If Qrow was Ruby’s father, then she and Yang would turn out be cousins, but with Raven, Ruby and Yang are still half-sisters, just with their shared parent being Raven instead of Tai. And as stated previously, Qrow is still Ruby’s Uncle in this, just more than an honorary one. If anything, it makes Ruby referring to Qrow as her Uncle all through the show into foreshadowing to this reveal.

Finally, Raven being Ruby’s father fixes an odd little narrative hole in the Team STRQ family dynamic; Yang has a connection to all four members with Tai as her father, Raven as her biological mother, Summer as her mother-figure and Qrow as her Uncle/Second father-figure. However, as mentioned earlier, Ruby only has links to Summer, Tai and Qrow, with no apparent ties to Raven. Raven being Ruby’s ‘father’ provides such a link, and also sets up a neat bit of thematic mirroring between Summer and Tai, with Tai’s relationship to Ruby now effectively paralleling the one Summer had to Yang; both being the mother/father figure to the daughter of two of their teammates after her actual mother/father (Raven) vanished. Qrow is still the Uncle to both girls, and Raven is now a deadbeat mom and a deadbeat dad.

Now, do I actually think this is where CRWBY is going with the story? Honestly, I do feel that the Rosebird ship is going to happen in some capacity, ie; Summer was the teammate Raven cared for the most and losing Summer was the thing that truly broke Raven, fully turning her into the callous, cynical deadbeat mom she is in the present, and it wouldn’t be too hard to tweak that backstory to include some romantic history between Summer and Raven.

But do I think CRWBY’s will be going for a full ‘Ruby I am your father!’ reveal from Raven?

I have NO IDEA.

I do believe that there will be some kind of reveal/twist involving Ruby, Qrow and the Team STRQ family as a whole. As mentioned earlier, CRWBY seems to be laying the groundwork for something down the line.

Also, has anyone else noticed that each member of Team RWBY seems to have gotten/is getting a major arc devoted to dealing with some very complicated family issues? Blake had the Anima arc (Volumes 4-6) to deal with reconnecting with her estranged parents and ultimately retaking their shared legacy (the White Fang). And of course, Weiss is going to have a LOT to do in the Atlas arc when it comes to salvaging something from the dumpster fire that is her family (reconnecting with her sister and mother, possibly redeeming her brother, Cask-of-Amontillado-ing Jacques into an abandoned dust mine, etc.).

With all that in mind, it stands to reason that the arc after Atlas will see Ruby and Yang having to deal with some complicated family issues of their own. Sure, Yang got her arc with Raven in Volume 5, but that was clearly only scratching the surface of what’s going on. Ruby’s and Yang’s family baggage might not be as readily apparent as Weiss’s and Blake’s, but that doesn’t mean it’s not there.

The point being, I believe Ruby and Yang are going to have some pretty heavy family baggage to sort through at some point in the future, and a reveal like this would fit into such an arc very nicely.

I have no idea if this reveal is going to happen. But I’m kinda hoping it will.

Back on this hot bit of Crazy...

As it happens, I am once again on a ‘Raven could totally turn out to be Ruby’s Dad’ theory bent. For the uninitiated, this is the theory that through whatever super-science/magic-chicanery, Raven somehow managed to knock Summer up and Ruby is their magic lesbian lovechild. See here and here for more details. 

So I thought I’d subject you all to more ways that this theory can work into the narrative of RWBY in weirdly specific and fitting ways.

First off, let’s talk about the so far one and only time Ruby and Raven (damn it even their NAMES are phonetically similar!) have exchanged words, AKA; Ruby’s first stint at talking down a bad guy.

It didn’t go too well.

But let’s actually look at Raven’s reaction to this whole speech. Namely, this line:

“You sound just like your mother.”

Not only is this a really good line that effectively confirms that Summer and Raven were quite close once, but the way Raven phrases this line is quite telling.

Raven’s tone is very restrained and forced here. I think it’s pretty clear that Ruby’s speech brought out some emotions that Raven is now clamping down HARD on. We already know from Raven’s scenes with Yang (namely their confrontation in the Haven Vault) that despite caring deeply for her daughter, Raven views those feelings as a weakness and clamps down hard on those feelings as much as she can. It’s not until the scene in the Vault where Yang basically tears those feelings out of Raven by force.

With all that in mind, I think it’s no stretch to say there may well be something similar going on with Raven’s feelings towards Ruby; that she cares for Ruby in the same way she cares for Yang, ie: As a daughter.

Not to mention the line itself; ‘You sound just like your mother’ is totally the kind of line you’d expect to hear from a ‘I’m secretly your father’ character.

Now while we’re on the subject of the Battle for Haven, let’s talk about Cinder.

In hindsight, Cinder’s whole quasi-rivalry with Raven in Volume 5 feels a bit out of place, doesn’t it? Post-Volume 3, almost all of Cinder’s character arc is defined by her lose to Ruby at the Battle of Beacon. As the end of Volume 7 indicates, deep down Cinder is terrified of Ruby, and that fear is the source of Cinder’s obsession with acquiring the other Maiden powers. Ruby made Cinder feel powerless, and now she is desperate to never feel powerless again. So it feels like a weird detour that in Volume 5, the narrative pits Cinder against Raven, a character with seemingly no direct connection to her arch-enemy.

Unless of course, Raven turned out to be the father of said arch-enemy.

Raven being Ruby’s father really streamlines Cinder’s arc and makes her whole journey flow more smoothly. In the Beacon Arc, Cinder overlooks and underestimates a young girl, and suffers a horrific defeat as a result. In the Anima Arc, Cinder makes the same mistake against that same girl’s father and suffers a horrific defeat once again.

It ensures that no matter what she does, Cinder’s fears and obsession with power keeps leading her back to Ruby in some way.

Finally, there is just the sheer symbolism of Raven’s character and how that can tie into the massive amount of Death symbolism and imagery associated with Ruby and other Silver-Eyed Warriors. Ravens of course have always been one of those animals closely associated with Death in literature, which would fit nicely with Raven herself having a close connection with both Summer and Ruby.

As I’ve stated previously, while I do really like this theory, I honestly have no idea if this is actually where CRWBY could be taking the story. This is still some pretty wild conjecture. Hell, we don’t even have any direct hints/implications in-story that Taiyang isn’t Ruby’s father.

And yet, it seems like every time I come back to this idea, it keeps seeming more and more weirdly plausible.