Hey everyone, this is Hailey from Cartoon Universe and I am back with another RWBY theory
video!
This video topic was suggested by one of our amazing patrons, Adam Myers!
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He suggested that I talk about Cinder Fall, who I know is pretty hard to make theories
about simply because we know so little about her and her motivations.
This has also led to a lot of criticism about her character, which I totally understand,
but I am here to get you all excited about what could potentially be revealed about her.
It was specifically recommended that I talk about her weaknesses.
With that in mind, I was able to think about what made her the character she is currently,
and from there we there are some pretty neat possibilities.
So let’s first talk about what we know about Cinder.
Going over her entire story so far would take way too long, and I’d recommend reading
her RWBY wiki article to get all the details.
And before her time with Salem we know... nothing.
Hmm, well that does make things a bit tricky.
Okay, so the farthest back chronologically we see her is in Volume 3 when we see her
recruiting members for her cause.
And by her cause I really mean Salem’s cause.
Because despite everything Cinder has said, it has become increasingly clear she is not
in as much control of her actions as she thinks she is.
Everything she has done is to ultimately benefit Salem.
That does mean along the way she was able to obtain maiden powers, but now more than
ever can we see the influence Salem has on Cinder.
It is very much possible that Salem has some sort of control over Cinder that has not yet
been addressed.
And this makes Cinder afraid of failure for what might happen if she does not do her job.
While Cinder is generally fearless, the one time we do see her scared is when she learns
that Vernal was not the Spring Maiden.
This reveal meant that after all that planning, Cinder failed her mission.
I can’t be certain of what the consequences may have been, but perhaps the worst thing
that could happen in Cinder’s mind is Salem forsaking her and not allowing her to get
any more powerful.
Which basically did happen after losing the battle at Haven.
But even more than that, Cinder states in volume 6 that she was instructed not to kill
Ruby.
Yet, since Neo wasn’t given these orders, Neo can do as she pleases.
Yet, how would Salem know if Cinder was the one to kill Ruby if she was with Neo?
She could just lie to her master.
You could say that Salem ordered Cinder to retrieve the relic first, which is why she
didn’t go after Ruby at Haven and instead told the others to leave Ruby alive for when
she got back.
And it seems she still seeks the relic, so she is still devoted to something Salem wants,
and would not go against her leader.
But I think it would be more interesting if it was also something deeper than this.
If there was something actually inhibiting Cinder from doing whatever she wanted.
This leads me to believe Salem has a tighter leash on Cinder than she is currently letting
on.
I do have an idea about the kind of hold Salem has on Cinder, which I will save for later.
But a look into Cinder’s past will help reveal how she became the person she is currently.
One problem...
As mentioned before, we know basically nothing about her.
The one thing we do know is said by Salem, which shouldn’t be much of a surprise.
In Volume 4, episode 11, Taking Control, Salem says:
I thought you were the girl who wanted power.
Did you lie to me?
So it’s not much, but I suppose it is some sort of starting point.
Whatever happened to Cinder in her childhood left her with a need to have power over others.
And as usual, the best thing to look at when we have no real information about a character’s
backstory in RWBY is to look at what character or characters they may be alluding to.
With Cinder, it’s quite obvious.
She is Cinderella!
She went to a ball in disguise and had to leave by midnight.
Her emblem is even two slippers next to each other.
And I mean her name is Cinder sooooo yea.
Of course, the character we know in RWBY is nothing like her fairy tale counterpart.
She is power hungry, cruel, and is willing to hurt others to get what she wants.
So, what if the Cinder we got is a more realistic take on the Cinderella story?
After years of being abused by the people that she lived with, she gets an opportunity
to better herself, as long as she is willing to deceive others in order to get there.
But this change in status happens through hurting others, and does not involve any acts
of kindness.
And of course, this means that Salem is Cinder’s fairy godmother, who gives her all these powers.
For most of her life, Cinder had nothing.
She was a slave to those who were supposedly her family.
While we don’t know of any evil step mother or step sisters yet, there is a good chance
we will get some when we learn about her backstory.
I have even heard that in older versions of the story, it is Cinderella’s own mother
who hurts Cinderella by playing favorites with her children and singles out Cinderella
for torment.
Just like in the fairy tale, Cinder is able to escape this life of abuse thanks to some
otherworldly power.
It’s just in this instance her fairy godmother did not have good intentions, and sought to
use her for her own gain.
In this story, Salem needed a Fall Maiden, and Cinder turned out to be the perfect candidate.
I don’t know how they could’ve met- was Salem just on the street walking around looking
for someone to take advantage of?
That would be funny but probably not.
But Salem does have a mystical crystal ball in the form of the Seer grimm.
It’s very possible she sent them out on a mission to find someone that was suffering
and desperately wanted to leave their current situation.
Once located, Salem could go directly to wherever Cinder was, or could use a Seer grimm to communicate
to Cinder and explain her cause.
It probably wasn’t too hard to win over Cinder, as she currently had nothing and was
promised a chance to become powerful.
This was something Cinder never had, but because of that no matter how powerful she gets she
will never be satisfied.
Luckily for Salem, Cinder turned out to be an excellent choice, as she is a master of
strategy and extremely dedicated.
She even changed her last name to Fall to reflect what her ultimate goal was.
And Cinder did get what she wanted, even if every time she gets the power she wants she
almost immediately gets knocked back down and has to rise up again.
But this power does not come without its weaknesses.
In Volume 4 episode 1, Salem mentions that the Maiden power comes with a weakness, and
this is why Ruby was able to beat Cinder in V3.
Some people think this was retconned in V5 since we didn’t see Raven react to silver
eyes, but since she was off screen it’s still a possibility.
And in V6 Maria says that there is something we were not seeing, since at that point Cinder
was not Grimm yet Ruby’s silver eyes reacted to her.
But then again, the Grimm Dragon was right there so it's possible Ruby’s eyes were
reacting to that.
Or since Cinder had that bug crawl into her, as we see in the flashback from V3, she may
have technically been Grimm for a long time.
That was a bit of a tangent but I do believe Salem is referring to Maiden powers being
weak to silver eyes, and this was something Maria did not know about since silver eye
powers are pretty mysterious, even to her.
That means both Grimm and Maidens have something in common, and Cinder now happens to be both.
Which could mean that silver eyes are twice as powerful on her as they would be to a regular
maiden.
But with Cinder’s grimm arm in mind, I think we may have an answer as to why she is so
fearful of betraying Salem.
If Salem were to ever find out that Cinder did something wrong, Salem could simply control
Cinder’s own grimm arm and make it kill her.
Salem knew Cinder was alive somehow, and Cinder’s connection to grimm is likely why that was
the case.
Cinder has now become little more than Salem’s pawn who has no choice but to listen to her
every command.
Yet when Cinder is defeated at Haven, Salem does not come to her rescue and instead wants
Cinder to toil in her own isolation until she can redeem herself.
And with that, I think we may have an idea of what Cinder’s biggest weakness may be.
She now has little choice in her devotion to Salem.
Cinder never truly escaped from the abuse she suffered as a child, and this may ultimately
end up leading to her demise.
So that wraps up this theory video!
I hope you enjoyed it!
Adam suggested a great topic for me to talk about but my memory about anything Cinder
related was fuzzy, so this video required a ton of research and rewatching.
So, if you want to see more like this, make sure to leave a like and subscribe to my channel.
Or if you want to go the extra mile like Adam did and suggest a theory for me to cover and
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Oh, and make sure to check out other RWBY theory videos I did, such as my Qrow and Mercury
ones.
I realize my Cinder theory was the first one I made about a female character in this show,
and that was suggested to me... but at least you can’t say I never did one now!
But anyways, thank you all for watching and have an animated day!