H: Volume 8 has just recently started and of course like with every new season of RWBY,
I wanted to talk about it! Despite it apparently only taking place over the course of two days,
it is already clear that so much that is going to happen, going off the first episode
and intro alone. And to start things off, I am collaborating with another RWBY YouTuber,
Myrkuri! He had a pretty interesting theory about his favorite character,
Mercury Black, and what’s going to happen with him and Emerald.
M: Thanks for letting me collab with you! We wanted to collaborate for a long time
now, but we didn’t know what to talk about until now. Though we do both love Mercury,
so we figured this would be a good thing to talk about before a lot happens with them this volume.
H: I actually did make a Mercury theory video a while back since I became really interested
in him as a character ever since I watched the I’m the One lyric video. That one covered a lot
of different ideas about his semblance, and how he could possibly get it back.
M: And I liked him because he was a jerk! Well, that was just at first,
and eventually I came to love his fighting style and everything else about him.
H: Now with all that said, let’s get into this theory video!
M: Objectively speaking, Mercury and Emerald have always been two of the most interesting
characters in RWBY. And now in Volume 8, they finally got a change of clothes!
H: Emerald now wears Gucci, which we can only presume were found in the whale.
And Hazel, who isn’t too important in the theory but should still be mentioned,
decided Atlas was the best place to bring out the summer wear.
M: Let’s be real, it’s so we don’t have to watch him rip his clothes off again.
That leaves us with Mercury, who has an amazing new look. I would like to think that
the addition of some more colors to his outfit is symbolic of him becoming his own character.
H: Not to mention the addition of his keychain, which actually has
some references to real-life Mercury stuff. It reads, M80-495. The M is for Mercury,
as you could probably guess. And according to a post which I will link in the description,
80 is the atomic number for the element Mercury, and finally, 495 is the year when
the Temple of Mercury, a building in Rome, was built. These numbers probably don’t have
any meaning to Mercury in the show, and just exist as an easter egg for the viewers. Though
it would be interesting if there was some significance to it that was later revealed.
M: My guess is that’s it the number of times Marcus hit him.
H: ouch.
...
M: Anyways! Emerald and Mercury have a very un ique role in the story that gets highlighted
most blatantly in Lost. With their return in Volume 8, it seems likely that they are going
to be exploring each of the topics brought up in that episode… just not with each other around.
H: In Lost, Mercury and Emerald both bring up very personal issues that have yet to
be addressed. Emerald discusses how she is only there because Cinder cares about her,
and Mercury says he stays because he believes he’s right where he’s supposed to be.
M: The theory is as follows: I believe Mercury and Emerald are going to be splitting up this volume,
only to realize on their own that everything they thought was true about themselves was a lie. Well,
maybe not EVERYTHING, but the important things they ranted about.
H: The basis for this theory is the new opening we got for Volume 8, where Emerald is split up
from Mercury and vice versa, as well as how Cinder has treated Emerald so far in Volume 8
combined with what Mercury said in Lost. In the opening, you see Emerald standing alone with Neo
as she watches Cinder ignore her, which makes her upset. Meanwhile, you see Mercury alone with Hazel
and Tyrian. Now, this has a lot of people worried, but we are sure things will work out in the end.
M: We have good reason to think that the pair will split and
have them both face their own fears and things they said about themselves apart.
H: For Emerald, she spent the past two volumes crying when Cinder was gone, defending her actions
and how she acted to Mercury, and was even willing to fight Tyrian when he made a casual remark about
Cinder not being there. Fast forward to Volume 8, the first thing Cinder does when Emerald meets her
is to tell her to be quiet. Now, it’s clear that Emerald isn’t right in her belief that Cinder
cares about her, but it’s important to realize that Emerald has yet to learn that for herself.
With Neo being around and also tired of Cinder’s disrespect, it might finally hit her that she’s
been wrong about Cinder the entire time. And honestly, it’s been a long time coming.
M: As for Mercury, he spends Volume 4 being angry at Watts (for the short time he was in Volume 4),
he gets told by Raven he’s just a kid tricked into following Cinder in V5, and then spent
all of Volume 6 terrified while being inside Evernight and being mad at Tyrian. Nevertheless,
he still tries to convince the viewers back home and Marcus’ ghost that he’s actually a big bad
guy ‘just like the others’. So, when he splits off with Tyrian and Hazel and sees what these
guys can actually do in action, it might make him realize he’s not where he’s meant to be at all.
For example, I think Tyrian’s going to fight and kill the Ace Ops this year! Or,
at least two of them. If Mercury sees that happen in front of his eyes in a really sadistic way,
that might be enough to make him realize he’s not cut out for working with Salem after all.
H: Eventually, we think that they’ll reunite when the pairs get together again. Once they do,
Emerald and Mercury will finally talk to each other and realize their ideas about themselves
that they spoke about in Lost weren’t actually true, and they’ll probably ditch Salem together.
Maybe they’ll even try to run away and Tyrian attempts to kill them,
but Hazel steps in and protects them for long enough to let them get to safety. Why would
Hazel protect them? Well, he’s been shown to care for them (at least Emerald for sure).
He might really want to protect the two who remind him of Gretchen: young kids who
got into something they weren’t ready for, which is something that he couldn’t do for his sister.
After that, who knows what the kids will get to in Volume 9 and later. Maybe explore Vacuo?
M: Now, there are a few questions and complaints people might have
with this theory. The major one being “But Mercury seems fine being a bad guy?” Well,
let’s just highlight all the moments he was around other bad guys in Evernight.
H: And some people might argue that Cinder and Emerald’s relationship isn’t that bad, so there’s
no way Emerald would leave. Well, all you really have to do is look at her ignore Emerald’s attempt
at a hug in Volume 2, and her slapping Emerald in Volume 3 to realize that isn’t the case.
Cinder has abused Emerald for years and now it’s become even more apparent with Volume 8!
M: Finally, some people seem to think that Emerald is more likely to leave, whereas Mercury wouldn’t.
This ignores the fact that Mercury has literally never went anywhere without Emerald! He even tags
along in Volume 2 just because he enjoys being with her! Or in Volume 5, he doesn’t leave Haven
until he is sure she’s safe. The only moment they’re not somewhere close by is in Volume 3,
where Mercury meets Ruby in the hallway as Emerald is in the stands preparing to
cause a hallucination for Pyrrha. They’re pretty much a packaged deal, not to mention
that it would be very hard for Emerald to just straight up leave without Cinder stopping her.
H: So we think there’s a lot of reason to believe this is going to be the Volume where
Emerald and Mercury both really learn a lot about themselves and what they want to do going
forward into the show. And if that requires them splitting apart for a bit, well, I’m all for it!
M: I’m confident the show will do them good, I don’t think there’s any need to worry about
them dying this year or Mercury staying a bad guy. I have high hopes for this year!
H: This is going to be a great volume for sure, and I would like to give a big thank
you to Mykuri much for joining me in this theory video. Where can people find you?
M: My youtube channel! I imagine there’ll be a link in the description to check that out.
H: There will be! He makes some awesome AMVs, as well as the very good analysis
video from time to time. And as always if you enjoyed the video make sure to give it a like
and subscribe to the channel for more RWBY videos. Deepcut might actually start making
videos for the show soon, which means a ton more videos about RWBY! Thanks for watching!