With her color scheme and Grimm mask, I (and other fans) thought it would turn out that Raven was connected to the White Fang. But that she wasn't with the group now meant that she struck out after the civil rights group turned to extreme measures. That would be a really interesting story, with no certain morale answers.

But now it turns out that she's part of a bandit tribe (do we call it the Branwen tribe?) whose entire existence is sustained by ruining people's lives for their own gain, and not having any empathy outside of anyone outside their posse. I'm not cross because a fan theory I believed in was proving wrong, it's just that instead of getting a challenging character, Raven turns out to be someone who is clearly in the morale wrong.

Raven’s justification for ransacking villages and not lifting a finger to help the other 99% of the world at risk of being eaten by Grimm is: “The weak die. The strong live.” This sounds like the philosophy that Locus had in Red vs Blue. But this is the argument of people who excel in a "survival of the fittest" situation acting indignant at the idea of NOT living in that kind of lawless environment, where they have to work for the benefit of people they don’t know or entirely agree with. You know, a comfortable, secure, civilized society, like what we live in.

Red vs Blue made the right move in portraying Locus as a straight up bad guy for most of the story arc, as well as being clearly damaged on a mental/emotional level. Raven seems to be someone we’re supposed to view as ambiguous in her moral standing, and hope that her tribe will show up to help the good guys. But now we know they’re murderers who do horrible things as dictated by tradition. The White Fang, murderous and deluded as they are, are doing it for the sake of Faunus all over the world. They actually have a concept of ‘the greater good,’ despite it being so flawed. They think of Faunus OTHER than themselves.

What Raven and this tribe are doing is even worse, in a way, than what Felix and Locus (and their mercenary army) were doing on Chorus. The former were just trying to kill off the population of a single small colony, with the rest of humanity spread throughout the galaxy. Raven’s tribe is looting villages in the wilderness between kingdoms, leaving people completely at the mercy of the Grimm after their defenses are destroyed. It’s got to be even worse now, with the increase in Grimm activity following Beacon’s fall. That would be like if Locus and Felix were going around razing planets while the Covenant was still trying to kill all of humanity. Locus and Felix would just be dooming themselves in that situation, since they could never live or work with the Covenant, and shouldn’t sabotage the UNSC in any significant way. Something similar is happening when Raven decides that stopping the world from burning doesn’t take precedent over her tribe. As a bandit tribe, they are totally dependent on the kingdoms and their efforts. If all the kingdoms fell, there wouldn’t be sources for settlers to emerge from and get sacked by the bandits. We probably got that World of Remnant video last week just to learn about how these bandit tribes exist. The tribes are like wolves whose existence are tied entirely to whether there are any prey animals around.

Despite the different scales of their respective settings, Charon Industries was just trying to kill a select group of people. It was genocidal and evil, but it wouldn’t endanger their own civilization like a cancer killing its host. They weren’t doing anything to put all civilization at risk of extinction, something Raven does when she acts adversarial to Qrow’s pleas for cooperation with Salem.

So Raven and her tribe seem to act like backwards-thinking war criminals. There isn’t an inherent problem with that. It could actually make for a Shakespearean villainous faction, lamenting the human tendency of tribalism. But that’s if this tribe was going to be in the vein of the Empire or the Fire Nation; antagonists to make frequent appearances to fight the protagonists, and were to be defeated in a way that related to their morale failings. But given how much importance this show places on the theme of family (which I think it actually does quite well), and these people are the answers to learning the story of Qrow and Raven, we’ll likely be having more encounters with Raven, and learning about her view of the world. But this single conversation from the episode made it feel like Raven has a completely detestable, self-centered view of the world. Qrow and all the good guys should work with this tribe if possible, yes, for the sake of defeating the pure evil of the Grimm. But only for the sheer necessity of saving people, and not because the actions of this woman and the Branwen tribe should be equated with morale, or even truly necessary behavior.

I’m afraid the show is going to take a path with Raven that they won’t manage to pull off, but I hope for the best. I also know this is early in the season, and probably pretty early for RWBY’s entire running length. Plus, so far each episode of this new season has thrilled me more and more. So the “Branwen tribe” could end up being totally different from how I’ve pictured them. Perhaps it’ll turn out that this tribe is descended from mercenaries or war refugees who had to go on the run after the super powers left them for dead, teaching them to rely on living off the grid and not trusting outsiders. Basically living out “Heathens” by 21 Pilots. As opposed to a bunch of idiots who think “Hey, this lifestyle worked for our ancestors centuries ago, it must be right way to act even though we have stuff like phones and cars now.” Or maybe someone will show up and call Raven, and perhaps the entire tribe, on their bull, and it will fall on these people to redeem themselves. I’ve been happy to be off the mark before, and I can’t wait to watch more.