So now that I’m doing RWBY theories, I thought it’s about time I addressed the biggest asspull of last season: Ruby’s silver eyes and the great power they hold over grimm

At least, that was what I thought. As it turns out, all the sumptuous theory meat can be found simmering in a nondescript pot on the other end of the kitchen with some san marzano tomatoes and paprika. Okay, that expression may have gotten a bit off the rails, so let me just clarify what the hell I’m talking about.

Silver eyes are so last season. Red Eyes are where it’s at!

Let’s discuss salem for a moment. Just a moment because there Salem is a pit stop and we’re going to be going on a road trip across the entirety of fucking Massachusetts.

It’s very clear right now that, for the time being, Salem is the biggest bad on the table. She just arrived at the season finale, motives unknown, castle spooky, and dick out. All we know is she looks really goddamn creepy with her glowing red eyes, and despite being mad evil she has no problem being assaulted by grimm who sense her negative emotions.

Now some of you might suspect that Salem is safe from the grimm because she is some sort of humanoid grimm or grimm hybrid. I don’t doubt something like that is a factor, but she doesn’t seem to be the only one who is just ignored by the grimm.

Bandits

Think for a moment about what we know of the world of Remnant and try to imagine the geopolitics. Grimm are everywhere, necessitating walled cities to prevent being overrun the minute the weather turns miserable or a horrible politician is elected. Smaller settlements and towns are in a precarious state and depend geographic barriers even in the best of times.

By this logic, it should immediately be obvious that only people strong individuals with generally sunny dispositions could survive more than a few days at a time in the wilderness, and yet somehow Bandit Tribes thrive.

Now, if they were living self-sufficent lives and were well-adjusted people, they might have a shot, but these are whole interrelated communities of murderers and thieves. If they aren’t miserable on their own, the towns they pillage sure will be. Yes, you heard me, they risk inviting grimm attacks to leech off others, so how the fuck have they not been killed by grimm?

Easy. The same reason as Salem

V4C4 didn’t just reveal that Raven and Qrow were from the bandit tribes, and thus imply that they likely have relatives there with the same eye color, it clued me in to this whole mess by having a waitress identify Raven as the the woman with red eyes. When your eye color is so rare that it’s a unique identifier, there’s something to be said for significance and scarcity.

Okay, I’ve gotten this deep, I should clarify what I’m proposing these red eyes do. As a feature borne by the biggest bad this side of downtown achievement city, these red eyes are a direct parallel to Ruby’s silver ones (unrelated note, but given all the wizard of oz motifs going around, we we should probably be aware that the Ruby Slippers were originally silver).

If the silver eyes are known to make one a natural enemy to the grim, then the red eyes do the opposite: they make the grimm consider you one of them and allow one to pass by them unharmed and unmolested

Looking back this explains a lot. It’s not just bandits being unafraid of fear-tracking monsters, or some evil witch using them to further her goals unharmed. It’s the little things, like how Qrow, a chronic alcoholic with very little sense of self preservation could have survived the beginning of his career as a huntsman, fighting bus-sized supernatural beasts faster and stronger than humans were meant to be.