If you don’t know what foils are they are characters that work as counterparts to each other. They highlight each other’s traits by how they are different. Yet I want to point out that they way they play off each other won’t work unless they have SOMETHING in common to begin with. This works even better if it turns out to not just be true in the way the audience views them, but in the way one or more of them view each other as well.

With that established let’s start talking about our groups of foils that faced off in the Volume 5 finale.

First off Cinder.

And her first two foils for the Volume 5 finale.

Ruby.

And Jaune.

To understand how they work as foils for Cinder we have to try and understand Cinder’s character. Without knowing her backstory it’s hard to know anything for certain, but we CAN make certain inferances by what she has said, and how she has acted. (The fact that her name is a nod to Cinderella probably helps as well.) Her line of “I want to be powerful. I want to be feared,” strikes me as that of a character who felt powerless and scared and therefore wanted to be strong and feared so they would never have to feel weak or feel afraid again.

That’s why Ruby gets under Cinder’s skin. No sooner does she attain the hight of her power as the Fall Maiden than Ruby comes along and makes her feel weak again. By handing her a lopsided defeat with her silver eyes.

This is why Cinder is initially so fixated on defeating Ruby once she recover’s from her injuries. Because in her mind she won’t truly be strong unless she never she never has to worry about feeling weak again. Cinder won’t be satisfied until she crushes Ruby and proves to herself that she ISN’T weaker than Ruby the one who initially defeated her anymore.

And yet despite the initial setup Cinder gets easily sidetracked by Jaune, doesn’t she? That’s because while Ruby may be her INITIAL foil, her PRIMARY FOIL in the Volume 5 finale is Jaune.

(I’ll come back to Ruby later.)

This may seem counterintuitive at first, but it makes a lot of sense when you stop to think about it. As previously established Cinder is someone who wanted to be powerful so she would never feel weak again. Yet here Jaune is standing up to her DESPITE his weakness. (Let’s be honest as much as he has improved he is technically the weakest combat wise in the team.) I bet that touched a nerve with her on a VERY PERSONAL level. While Cinder trying to defat Ruby was about trying to reach a new level of STRENGTH. Cinder lashing out at Jaune was her lashing out at her OWN PERCEIVED WEAKNESSES. (On another symbolic note how fitting is it that while Cinder STEAL power from others, Jaune’s semblance has the ability to power OTHERS UP.)

This of course naturally brings us to the confrontation between Raven and Yang.

The way Jaune faces Cinder despite his weakness is similar to how during her discussion with Raven, Yang points out that she is facing Salem DESPITE her fear while Raven let her fear control and define her. Similar to how Cinder seems to have let her weakness control and define her.

With this we turn to the conflict that links them all together. The Raven/Cinder fight.

This fight is a practically a pure mirror fight. You have two powerful women defined by how their weaknesses and fear have control them. We even learn later that they both killed another person to get the maiden powers. We even see the similarities in the psychological blows they throw at each other in combat.

Raven: You became a monster for power.

Cinder: Look who’s talking?

Cinder: The former Spring Maiden must have trusted you a lot.

In fact it seems to be the difference between Cinder and Raven. Cinder ACKNOWLEDGES the fact that she has become a monster, while Raven, until her confrontation with Yang at least, DENIES it. In fact you can argue that while Cinder lost the physical battle due to a lack of experience, she won the PSYCHOLOGICAL battle as she tore open cracks that Yang would be able to exploit during her confrontation.

I said I’d come back to Ruby earlier. Here’s the thing. You have noticed that while she works good at pressing Cinder’s buttons initially. In terms of a THEMATIC foil she seems to have lost relevance. But I have a theory about what the creators are doing here with setting up this group of interlocking foils. However because that goes into theory and speculation territory and everything else has been analysis of stuff established in existing canon I am going to save that for a part 2

#curatorreview