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#rwby maria
juanarc-thethird · 8 months
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The Wounded Damsel
Jaune: *Helping Winter up* Are you ok?
Winter: Thank you Jaune. I still haven't recovered from the fight. The maiden's powers have affected me a lot. Could you help me walk to my room? If it's not too much trouble of course.
Jaune: Sure, I help you.
Winter: Thank you, you are very kind.
In the distance, Winter notices her sister watching them. She looks in her direction and gives her a victorious smile. Confused, Weiss is silent by such action.
Maria: *Behind Weiss* The wounded damsel, a classic. You know, It was with this tactic that I managed to tie the knot with my husband at the time.
Weiss: *Angry* WHAT?!
Maria: Oh the memories.
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sarahshoots1st · 13 days
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RWBY Characters as Tarot Cards
02. The High Priestess - Maria
If the Magician is associated with the elements of the physical world, then the High Priestess deals in the realm of the spiritual. She is associated with the unseen - instinct over knowledge.
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Maria is a pretty obvious shoe-in for this card. Her Semblance allows her to sense attacks before they strike, supernaturally reacting to blows even outside her field of vision. This was an extremely powerful asset for her in her younger years, and allows her to continue fighting despite her age and the loss of her eyes. She is a warrior who trusts not only in what is seen, but also what is unseen. This aligns well with the philosophy of the High Priestess.
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In addition, the Grimm Reaper helps our protagonist navigate some of the difficulties she is facing. In V6 E8, Maria coaches Ruby on her silver-eyes abilities. This session - which evokes the image of a mystical guru spouting off arcane truisms to an eager pupil - takes place after Ruby almost fails to activate her powers in time to save the group from the Apathy. Ruby tries to focus her attention on the immediate threat - in this case, the Grimm which threaten her teammates physically. However, in their conversation Maria encourages the young Huntress to focus instead on those who are important to her. She insists that she focus beyond the outward desire to destroy Grimm into her truer motivations: the desire to protect life, which Maria describes as "the light inside you." She is able to pass on some of her wisdom to her young protege, teaching her to focus on the truths inside her and not just the external dangers.
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Maria may no longer be able to see as she once did, but between her mechanical eyes, her Semblance, and her hard-won wisdom, she has learned to perceive many of the deeper truths of the universe. For this, she naturally fills the roll of the High Priestess - perceptive, wise, and just a little bit snarky.
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Potential card art could depict Maria as she is now, resting her hands on her cane, a sly grin on her face as she stares forward with her mechanical eyes. The twin scythes of her legendary weapon - which would go on to inspire both Qrow's, and in turn Ruby's, own weapons - can serve as the pillars which traditionally fill the background of the High Priestess card. Their name - Life and Death - is appropriate, both within the legend of Maria as the "grim reaper," but also in depicting two opposite halves - the aforementioned pillars are commonly associated with the physical and the spiritual, male and female, yin and yang. Completing the backdrop would be Maria's old mask - faded into the background, but still clearly present, a reminder of the powerful warrior who still lurks inside the frame of a frail old woman.
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yangfanbb · 1 year
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Anyone else still simping on Young Maria
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dinochickrox · 11 months
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supersaiyanjedi14 · 1 year
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RWBY COMBAT ANALYSIS: MARIA CALAVERA, THE GRIMM REAPER
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“It is the desire to preserve life which fuels the light inside you. And to make no mistake, it is light. Preservation is an extension of creation, or, at the very least, an enemy of destruction.”
This entry in the RWBY Combat Analysis will be a special detailing the capabilities of Maria Calavera…both of them.  Since Maria’s two on-screen fights are separated by a minimum of thirty years, I will be ranking Maria in her prime and Maria in the present as separate entities, with additional commentary on her development between then and now.  Therefore, while I will be referring to her by both her name and ops-moniker interchangeably, my evaluation of Maria in her prime will be officially labeled as the Grimm Reaper, as she has effectively ceased to be that figure by the time of the show.  Furthermore, the sections will be more condensed than usual for the sake of time, but I do hope I provided sufficient detail where needed.  With all that out of the way, let’s get started.
PHYSICAL
(Grimm Reaper)
A human female, Maria Calavera’s exact age when she was blinded by Tock has not been established, though based on her appearance, I would estimate her to be in her mid to late thirties.  Born into a lineage of Silver-Eyed Warriors, Maria lived a relatively isolated life due to her father’s caution about those with Silver Eyes being targeted and killed, unaware of Salem or her purges.  As a result, Maria did not attend an of the professional Huntsman Academies, instead relying on private tutoring and self-taught experience.  Despite her lack of formal education, she demonstrated an immaculate degree of natural talent, setting a record score on her licensing exam and coming into her own as a legendary though isolated Huntress that became known as the enigmatic Grimm Reaper.
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Aside from her magical eyes, Maria was a conventional yet highly impressive specimen, standing at medium height and distinguished by her black hair, tanned skin, and athletic build.  In her physical performance, the Reaper demonstrated a balanced array of attributes, leveraging her dexterity through her skillful handling of twin scythes and her agility through nimble footwork and energetic acrobatics and flanking maneuvers.  She was agile enough to maintain a protracted midair battle with a Nevermore as well as keep Tock and her party in her crosshairs, all the while deflecting their gunfire and fencing evenly with Tock.  Though she was eventually overpowered by Tock’s ferocity, her ability to maintain her grip on the bucking Nevermore indicates that her strength was also respectable.  However, easily the Reaper’s most impressive trait was her exceptional tolerance for pain and injury.  Her battle with the Nevermore ended with her being violently stuck with the creature’s claws onto the rocky ground, yet she was unfazed when she petrified it with her Silver Eyes and went on to battle Tock’s party to a draw.  In that fight, she soaked up several heavy physical blows that broke her Aura surprisingly quickly, yet she remained composed and continued the fight without any noticeable toll on her performance.  The Reaper was only subdued when Tock staggered her with a headbutt and slashed out her eyes, reducing her to a blind, crawling wreck.  Despite screaming in agony, Maria focused through the pain and managed to pull a narrow victory by blindsiding Tock with one of her sickles.  This powerful ability to focus through pain highlights just how jarringly difficult it would be to realistically put this woman down.
Maria’s choice of wardrobe reflected her inconspicuous nature.  Instead of adopting armor, she wore a simple dark blue tunic and corset with cinched sleeves and a ankle-length combat skirt.  She completed the outfit with rugged boots, a hooded cloak, and her signature skull mask.  Despite providing no protection, her garb left her unencumbered and was practical in the field, supporting her more skill-based approach to combat.
RANKING: Tier 2, Peak Human Fitness
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Despite a great lack of feats, the Grimm Reaper’s athleticism is still highly polished, demonstrating truly exceptional strength, speed and stamina comparable to other master-level huntsmen.  While none of her assailants were bested on the back of raw physicality, her success instead tied more to skill and power, she was still able to match all of them in the areas that counted, leveraging her attributes for maximum effect.  Furthermore, she proved to be extremely tough and did not go to pieces under strain, her ability to focus through even the most horrific of injuries serving as a testament to her will to fight.  She will not be beaten into submission; it’s a death blow or nothing.
(Maria Calavera)
Moving our attention to modern-day Maria, the now jaded former Reaper was an elderly recluse.  As a figure of urban legend during Qrow Branwen’s pre-Beacon days, she was likely in her early to mid seventies by the time of the Atlas Crisis.  Following her blinding, Maria underwent surgery with the aid of Dr. Pietro Polendina to replace her eyes with prosthetic replacements.  The goggle-like eyes were fitted with shuttering lenses that mimicked natural expressions, as well as including built-in computer equipment that allowed her to interface with data terminals.  However, Maria’s eyes required regular maintenance, and she had to make regular trips to Atlas to have them fine-tuned. M ore telling by far was her change in lifestyle, her humiliating defeat causing her to quietly withdraw from the Hunstman community and become even more isolated.  When she met Team RWBY abord the Argus Limited, she was a wandering hermit whose only meaningful interactions with people was her antagonistic relationship with Caroline Cordovin and her much warmer friendship with Polendina.
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As far as Maria’s physical performance was concerned, her capabilities were severely undercut by her age, most clearly visible in her now white hair and hunched diminutive stature.  Her regular walking speed was little more than a trot, she needed a cane to maintain her general mobility, and she even admitted to moderate hearing loss.  Despite this, she was a vigorous old woman, more than able to manage her wandering life unassisted, and was still fit enough to acquit herself surprisingly well in combat.  Though old age had effectively killed her strength, her agility remained polished, able to keep pace with Neopolitan despite the latter’s youth.  To compensate for her limited mobility, she scaled back her use of acrobatics, coasting on momentum rather than actively propelling herself while evading attacks with quick sidesteps.  Her dexterity, while nothing to write home about, was still refined enough to let her fight with Neo and leverage her weapon’s functions with proficiency, notably performing precise binding techniques in close quarters.  However, while she was still quite tough, powering through both the Argus Limited crash and the escape from Brunswick farm, her age had reduced her to a glass cannon.  A few strikes from Neopolitan, a fighter with middling physical strength, was enough to overpower her at Amity, and while never directly stated, fatigue would undoubtedly be a major obstacle for her to overcome in any prolonged engagement.
Despite being retired, Maria’s dress remained largely consistent. Her color scheme remained the same, simply replacing the hooded cloak with a heavy shawl clasped with light pauldrons and covering her hands with rugged leather gloves.  Still lightweight and practical, though reflective of an old woman rather than an active warrior.
RANKING: Tier 5, Decent Human Fitness
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Maria’s ability to fight and arguably beat Neo at Amity proves that she is a tough old bird, but her physical limitations are as obvious as she is snarky.  She’s decades past her prime, her short stature makes it harder for her to contend with people of average height, and her athletic performance, while still polished and strong, has atrophied over time.  Additionally, we have Maria’s physical disability to take into account.  Given the regular maintenance she requires her eyes, it’s reasonable to assume that the electronics are fragile and not designed for combat. If damaged or disabled, Maria is completely blind.  Maria’s still very capable and won’t burn out immediately, but she’s old and has her limits.
MARTIAL
(Grimm Reaper)
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As the Grimm Reaper, Maria Calavera wielded a pair of enlarged kama sickles known as Life and Death.  The handles scaled to about half of Maria’s height and appeared to be composed of simple wooden staves.  The primary blade curved outward with a slight hooked tip while the secondary blades protruded from the back, with the pommels fitted with retractable spikes.  Each piece of weaponry was topped off with a blue skull ornament that protruded a semiautomatic gun barrel from the back, with the triggers situated under the teeth.  Additionally, the kamas could be connected at the pommels to form a two-sided scythe.  These weapons would go on to serve as an inspiration for Qrow Branwen’s Harbinger and, by extension, Ruby Rose’s Crescent Rose, a testament to the reputation of their wielder.
Due to her father’s insistence on keeping a low profile, Maria Calavera did not attend a formal combat school, instead relying on private tutoring and personal combat experience.  Despite this largely informal instruction, Maria’s father was a former soldier and a Silver Eyed Warrior in his own right, and his training produced results, demonstrated when Maria held the highest score on her Huntress licensing exam that year.  Battle-tested and experienced, the Grimm Reaper was unquestionably one of the most accomplished and skilled martial artists of her day, her feats garnering for herself a quasi-legendary reputation even after her disappearance.  Whether she was dual-wielding or with the conjoined scythe, the Reaper’s core fighting technique was aggressive yet fluid, favoring the use of sweeping slashes and powerful chops the quickly overwhelm her opponents.  Fast and agile, she would regularly contort her body and perform running charges to put her full weight behind her strikes, while quickly moving from one target to the next with blinding flanking maneuvers.  She adopted more grounded postures with the scythe-staff, using the increased length to keep her opponents at arm’s length while maintaining her center of balance.  When forced to defend, she utilized flourishing deflection parries to turn aside strikes, and when fighting with her scythe she relied on twirling blocks to endure attacks and wait for an opening.  She reinforced this heavy offensive style with integrated physical combat and gunfire, preferring hard kicks and sudden shots to blindside opponents, and the unique properties of her Gravity Dust and Semblance, using her weapons to help traverse the battlefield and predicting her opponents’ moves so she could more to intercept.
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As a young Huntress, the Grimm Reaper was natural talent but prone to arrogant posturing, causing her to develop into a cocky and daring adventurer.  While not unintelligent, her tactical outlook was very straightforward, simply relying on direct heavy offense to overcome her opponents while freely showboating.  To be fair, she was extremely formidable, as what few feats we have for her speak to her well-earned reputation, though they also showcase her overconfidence.  When attacked by a Nevermore in the wilderness, she almost casually dodged its initial attack, stabbed it in the wing, and forcibly pulled it towards the rocky cliffs to make it kill itself.  However, this did not finish the job, and the Reaper was blindsided by the recovered bird, forcing her to quickly unleash her Silver Eyes to petrify it.  Immediately after this, she was confronted by a small band of mercenaries under the leadership of one of Salem’s agents, the Faunus assassin Tock.  In the ensuing battle, the Reaper felled Tock’s trio of redshirts with aggressive power blows, each strike aimed at ending her opponent so as to move on to the next and focus on the greatest threat.  However, Tock herself was a greater challenge due to her invulnerable Semblance, making it impossible for Maria to overpower her and leaving her exposed to the crocodile’s vicious twin blade onslaught.  After her Aura broke, Maria conjoined Life and Death, allowing her to engage Tock and her surviving henchman more easily, even putting Tock on her back foot. However, Tock’s invincible Aura again allowed her to endure and power through, destroying Maria’s weapon, staggering her with a headbutt, and slashing out her eyes.  Reduced to a crawling wreck, Maria was forced to resort to a desperation tactic to survive, using the Dust in one sickle to call the other into Tock’s back and giving her a chance to instinctively decapitate her.
RANKING: Tier 3, Standard Mastery
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While a prodigal talent who took no shortcuts, the Grimm Reaper’s success was predicated on the successful execution of a specific, singular fighting style.  She was a flexible, devastating warrior who boasted a performance level well above most of her peers, able to engage multiple opponents, including one at or near her own level, when dropped in cold, and very nearly came out on top.  However, she lacked adaptability, unable to adjust her tactics to deal with people she couldn’t simply overpower, and her fallback options tended to amount to reacting to the problem rather than controlling the fight.  The Reaper is a product of coasting on raw talent, developing her style according to her aptitudes rather than tactical consideration.  The Grimm Reaper is a sledgehammer. If she can’t overwhelm you, she can’t make a dent.
(Maria Calavera)
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Maria’s humiliating defeat caused her to withdraw from the Huntsman community, exploiting her anonymity to quietly retreat into a wandering hermit.  Though she was retired, she still retained one half of Life and Death on her person as a walking cane, and clearly made a point of keeping her skills honed.  Due to the limitations of her age and stature, Maria’s fighting style underwent a significant reconstruction, swapping out her heavy offensive barrage with a slippery defensive retreat.  She would use her cane to execute warding deflection parries, knocking aside the enemy’s strikes while conserving her own energies.  Once she had their measure, she would take the initiative herself, but instead of laying into them with blinding aggression, she relied on counters, turning their attacks around and getting inside their guard.  She would use the hook of her scythe to trap and manipulate the opponent’s weapon, forcing it out of line and leaving them open to retaliation.  While rarely employed, she was perfectly willing to resort to physical combat when necessary, coasting on momentum to deliver flying kicks.
Maria’s tactics and conduct in her old age served as a perfect example of how she learned from her mistakes in her youth.  Having learned the hard way the dangers of overconfident overcommitment, she played it safe and avoided taking unnecessary risks, making efforts to warn the next generation the dangers of such recklessness.  Appropriately, Maria Calavera’s revised strategies revolved around defense, subversion, and retaliation.  She took a slow and steady approach, opening defensively to test the waters and get a feel for the opponent’s fighting style and tactics.  Instead of flinging herself at the enemy and steamrolling them, she allowed the opponent to make the first move, giving her breathing room and buying time so she could assess the threat and work around their own guard.  Where the Grimm Reaper used heavy offense to overwhelm, Maria Calavera used active defense to subvert.  While still prone to sarcastically taunting her opponent, she typically employed these taunts in a more measured approach, using psychological warfare to aggravate the opponent and provoke them into overextending.
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Maria’s capabilities as both a tactician and fighter shone through during the battles in Argus and at Amity Tower.  She proved her ability to coordinate as part of a larger strategy by commandeering a Manta airship with Weiss Schnee, though her attempts to blend in were thwarted by Caroline Cordovin’s recognition of her voice.  When Cordo unleashed the Colossus mech, Maria piloted the Manta to provide support for her allies on the ground, using the craft to probe the Operative’s defenses and harass it with missiles, giving Ruby and co. time to slowly chip away at the robot’s weapons and defenses.  Though she did draw a fine line between goading Cordo and actively provoking her, intentionally mocking the specialist with a needless taunt, she reined it in during the battle proper, her comments aimed at manipulating Cordo into overextending rather than simply insulting her.  When confronted by Cinder Fall, Emerald Sustrai and Neopolitan at Amity Tower, Maria initially sought to defend Penny with a bulk loader, but was blindsided by their shuttle, the subsequent wrestling match settled by Sustrai’s illusions allowing Neo to ambush her.  When Neo threw Maria from the mech, the Reaper hit the ground fighting, fending off Neo’s attacks while turning her own counters against her, staggering the underworld assassin with a flying kick and a few scythe strikes to the face.  Neo’s inexperience as the aggressor was worsened by Maria’s cackling laughter, getting under her skin and hampering her ability to press an advantage.  However, Maria would be distracted by Penny, giving Neo an opportunity to strike her unawares, surviving by dint of Penny's interference.
RANKING: Tier 4, Advanced Application
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Maria Calavera’s performance against Neopolitan indicates the high level of skill she retained to her age, and her revised tactical analysis arguably made her a far more effective fighter than she was in her youth. However, she is still significantly out of practice and down a weapon, and she cannot retain the performance level she once had.  Furthermore, she wasn’t really put under any serious pressure against Neo, and it’s not unreasonable to assume that more focused offensive heavyweights would be harder for her to deal with.  Maria Calavera’s success in her old age is predicated on her ability to manipulate and control fights rather than slugging it out, and when put between a rock and a hard place, she runs the risk of burning out.  Regardless, her functional defeat of Neo proves that, even with a reduced technique, she is still a force to be reckoned with.
SPECIAL
(Grimm Reaper)
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Maria Calavera named her semblance “Preflexes”, providing her with above-average senses that allow her to react to the world around her more effectively.  In practice, it functions as a form of low-level precognition, giving the Grimm Reaper a feel for approaching danger and providing her with the time to respond.  In her prime, the Reaper used the advance warnings of her Semblance primarily for defense, anticipating incoming attacks and allowing her to block or evade them quickly and efficiently.  Against the Nevermore, she leapt off the bridge she was crossing at the exact moment to avoid being struck, giving her an opening to launch her kamas into its wings.  Though nearly bucked off several times, Maria’s Semblance likely allowed her to adjust her weight and positioning to maintain her balance.  Against Tock’s band, she regularly deflected gunfire and blocked attacks from range, even those outside her field of vison.  However, this did not always translate into an automatic ability to avoid injury, as the advance warning still required Maria to act on it appropriately.  Tock was able to dig deep and power through, denying the Reaper the opportunity to respond and ultimately spelling out the doom for her eyes.  Regardless, the Grimm Reaper’s last act was a masterful use of her Semblance, providing her with enough special awareness to blindside and decapitate Tock even while completely blind.
As advanced and tricky as her Semblance was, the Reaper’s far more notable, albeit obscure, special ability was her status as a Silver Eyed Warrior, a divine gift she inherited from her father.  Powered by a desire to preserve life, Silver Eyes allowed the warrior to channel the emptions of their bonds to friends or loved ones to produce power against agents of destruction, specifically Creatures of Grimm.  This power manifested as withering flashes of light that could blind, petrify or simply destroy the target. By Maria’s own admission, this power cannot be properly trained, the only opportunities for such being to go through a trial by fire.  That being said, the power of the Eyes can still be called upon by forming a disciplined state of mind.  It was this power that made Maria such a legendary Huntress, as she was capable of obliterating Grimm in an instant, while her practiced use allowed her to unleash her powers on a whim.  When attacked by the Nevermore, Maria was dazed by a strike from the Grimm, yet was able to almost casually release a flash of power that completely petrified it, its body crumbling to dust upon hitting the ground.  However, this power only has effect on Grimm, making it relatively useless against conventional enemies and forcing Maria to rely almost wholly on her martial arts when faced by more conventional adversaries.
In addition to her native abilities, Maria supplemented her loadout with the unique properties of Dust, using elemental combat to reinforce her fighting style.  Specifically, she incorporated two Gravity Dust cylinders into Life and Death, this substance allowing them to be influenced by gravitational fields as a form of limited telekinesis.  The Reaper’s integration caused the sickles to attract to each other like magnets as well as fly around chosen trajectories.  The Reaper utilized her Dust primarily for tactical support, retrieving her weapons when disarmed and using them as cable-less grappling hooks to traverse the arena.  In the event that her Aura and Semblance were rendered inoperable, she would unleash the Dust to repel her aggressors and give her time to regain her composure.  However, while this did give her someting to fall back on, she almost never used this Dust as a weapon in combat, her only offensive applications being to swing them around as a safe zone around her body and later to pull her discarded sickle into Tock’s back, a clear act of desperation on her part.
RANKING: Tier 3, Specialized Combat
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Maria’s Silver Eyes, Preflexes, and the gravity Dust in her scythes were all very potent tools that enhanced her combat viability to a very high degree, providing various practical and situational assets.  However, these traits only had a small handful of uses, and her approach to battle reduced them to a collection of specialized hammers.  Silver Eyes are only effective against Grimm, making them useless in standard combat, her use of her Preflexes only warned her of danger so she could defend, and the Dust functions were usually only for utility.  While the Dust could be used for tactical subversion, the Reaper only used it once out of duress, making it unclear if something like that is in her usual repertoire.  She was flexible and deadly, but as in all other things, the Grimm Reaper’s special abilities were overspecialized and narrow, defined by her aptitudes rather than active skill construction.
(Maria Calavera)
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With her eyes slashed out by Tock and one of her weapons lost, the elder Maria was left only with her Semblance as a special ability in her old age.  Despite her arsenal being so heavily reduced, Maria still proved able to utilize her powers in combat, and to a much higher degree than she had before. Much like her martial arts, Maria’s use of her Semblance underwent a revision accounting for her life experiences, and her use of her powers served as the greatest representation of her new defensive approach to combat.  Instead of passively responding to incoming attacks, Maria now actively utilized her Preflexes to intercept and interrupt her enemy’s offensives, taking the initiative and manipulating the flow of the fight.  As previously stated, the elder Maria’s primary strategy was to turn aside incoming attacks and slip in counters, capitalizing on overextentions on the opponent’s part.  And what better power to enable this than precognition?  Calculate where the bullet is going to fly move out of the way before the trigger is even pulled, then move to engage the opponent by intercepting their evasions.  Instead of striking where the enemy is, she strikes where the enemy is going to be.  It was this more calculating use of her powers that allowed her to pose such a serious threat to Neopolitan at Amity.  Neo’s entire schtick is to goad her opponents into overextending before slipping inside their guard, yet Maria’s ability to intercept her attacks before they were even executed before countering immediately made her Neo’s worst nightmare.
Additionally, despite losing her Sivler Eyes, Maria still retained her academic knowledge of them.  Her life of experience had taught her many of the finer practical elements of the magical powers, knowledge that was further elevated by Jinn’s revelations about the Gods of Light and Darkness.  It was this knowledge that allowed Maria to provide limited tutoring to Ruby Rose about her powers, stressing to her the importance of protecting life and the strength that could come from drawing on her friends.  She encouraged her informal protégé to focus on those she loved and how they made her feel, likely stemming from her own application of the power.  Instead of seeing the Silver Eyes as a weapon for destroying evil, she viewed them as a tool to protect the innocent, this calm and comforting focus enabling Ruby to partially petrify a giant Leviathan mere days after the old legend’s instruction.
RANKING: Tier 3, Specialized Combat
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Despite losing many of her special talents after going blind, Maria’s revised application of her Semblance has more than made up the difference, allowing her to retain her Tier 3 effectiveness.  Slippery and subversive, Maria’s powers allowed her to manipulate and the opponent, reinforcing her tactical viability in a way she never had before.  Where her former ranking was determined by coasting on raw talent, her current ranking is determined by focused specialization in a specific skill, a result of her supplementary powers being stripped away from her.  Maria still has her limits and lacks any direct offensive ethereal talents, but she has learned to use what she has far more effectively than she once did, retaining potent supernatural ability even with a lesser bag of tricks.
OVERALL RANKINGS
The Grimm Reaper: TIER 3, ADVANCED HUNTRESS
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I consider the Grimm Reaper to be an archetypical Tier 3 combatant in the same mold as Adam Taurus and James Ironwood.  All of her skills and abilities are elevated to the master level, and her performance level is more than sufficient to overcome most enemies with raw intensity, but her success is predicated on the direct application of her core abilities, dominating through focused power rather than true versatility.  Her rock-solid physical performance levels are more than sufficient to enable her top-notch fighting style, her marital arts are high performance and overwhelmingly powerful, and her special abilities made her even more deadly by way of supplementary tricks and powers.  However, Maria’s tactical outlook was very straightforward, wielding all of her tools a blunt instrument, and those she couldn’t overpower were more than she could handle.  The Reaper is a prodigy to coasted on natural talent rather than actually building her skill set, and major holes in her style were left unaddressed because they never came up.  When they did, Maria paid the price.  However, much like her young contemporary Yang Xiao Long, Maria Calavera learned from her catastrophic defeat, rebuilding herself to avoid the same oversights that nearly killed her.
Maria Calavera: TIER 4, EXPERT HUNTRESS
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Maria’s revisions to her tactics and technique arguably make her a far more effective fighter than she used to be, but these new advantages are counterbalanced by a slew of new weaknesses that hold her back, most visibly her old age.  Maria is a tough, vigorous old woman who can more than handle herself in a fight, but the limitations of age and her physical disability hampers her ability to leverage her body in battle.  As a fighter, her martial arts have clearly atrophied over the years from the lack of real combat experience (relentless training can only make up for so much), yet she still retained expert-level skills that more than qualify her as a master in her own right, able to contend with much younger reigning masters.  Though her special abilities have been severely crippled due to the loss of her eyes and one of her weapons, her revised application of her Semblance enables her more calculating approach to battle, seizing the initiative with clever tricks instead of brute force.  Maria lost a lot with her eyes, but she has learned from her experiences, rebuilt her tactics accordingly, and uses what she still has to the best of her ability.
Between the two versions of the character seen, Maria Calavera’s story is that of someone who rose above a critical failure to make themselves something greater.  As formidable as the Grimm Reaper was, she had her limitations and nearly paid for them with her life, but instead of stewing in self-pity for the rest of her days, she took her failure to heart and made efforts to learn from her mistakes.  Aside from rebuilding herself as a fighter, she also became more aware of the mission Huntsmen are supposed to uphold, remaining dedicated to the core of her mission.  Despite her sarcastic personality, she was extremely compassionate, wise, and hopeful for the best, whether that was being the best she could be within her handicaps or working the make the world a safer place for the next generation.  However legendary the Grimm Reaper was, Maria Calavera remains just as worthy of the distinction of a truly great Huntress.
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*originally posted on RoosterTeeth Community page on 1-30-21*
*images taken from RWBY Wiki and @blackdagger456*
RWBY Combat Analysis
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rocknroll7575 · 11 months
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Sunshine - Chapter 14: You Are My...
Read Here
(you can also find it on Wattpad and A03!)
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bestgirlpenny · 2 years
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maria calavera is from the v1 of humans. shes so old
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cinnaworm · 6 months
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my first page for the rwby prism zine - leftover sales are open :]]
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i cope with making memes. good thing i already have this series going
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brokentrafficknight · 10 days
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hadesisqueer · 1 year
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Part II because istg this guy
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dummybirdnero · 2 months
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I'll be the weirdo and ask DWR goobers doing anything you want them to be doing. (Ruby, Weiss, and Young Maria is the girls)
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SUMMONING CIRCLE
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erros429 · 10 months
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i’ve said this before and i’ll say it again. crwby absolutely wasted making two of the hottest designs and then doing nothing more with them. i am referring to, of course, sienna khan and young maria calavera
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superiorsturgeon · 5 months
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DeadPyr:
Adam: *tosses tied-up Jaune on the ground*
Jaune: Oof! What do you assholes want?!
Cinder: *crouches down in front of Jaune* Don’t worry, blondie, we’re not going to hurt you. You’re just bait for your girlfriend, Pyrrha!
Jaune: My girlfriend is dead!
Cinder: Yeah…see, that’s what I thought! But she just keeps coming back!
———————————————————————
Pyrrha: *at the laundromat, trying to scrub bloodstains from her suit*
Maria Calavera: *doing her laundry beside Pyrrha* Use lemon juice and baking soda to clean blood out of clothes.
Pyrrha: 😲
Maria: …idiot…
———————————————————————
Garbage Truck: *pulls up beside shady hideout building*
Pyrrha: *half climbs, half falls out the back*
Pyrrha: Thanks for the ride! Sorry for bleeding all over your garbage!
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Pyrrha: *tearing through a hideout of bandits*
Vernal/Shay D Man: *run to safe room and slam the door behind them*
Pyrrha: *trying to break into safe room* Come on! It’s my anniversary today and I’m running late! 😫
———————————————————————
Neo: *behind the bar* So you’re back from the dead, huh? Have you told your boyfriend?
Pyrrha: No…! I’m terrified of what he’ll say when he sees my face…😭
Neo: Oh, come on, how bad can it-
Pyrrha: *pulls back her hood, revealing her scars*
Neo: WHOA!! Your face looks like an avocado face-fucked a topographic map! 😨
Pyrrha: Thank you…😑
Neo: It must’ve been serious hate-fucking…there was something wrong in the relationship…😰
Pyrrha: Thank you…😓
Neo: I’m sorry, but you look…haunting…!
Pyrrha: *face on the table*…thank you…😭
———————————————————————
Pyrrha: *smashes phone down* AAAARGH!!!
Neo: Shit, they’ve got Jaune?!
Pyrrha: …I need guns!
Neo: Which guns?
Pyrrha: ALL OF THE GUNS!!! 🤬
———————————————————————
Pyrrha: Okay…I need your help…! They’ve got Jaune! 😓
Nora/Ren: 🤨
Ren: All right, but in return we’d like you to consider joining us!
Pyrrha: Okay…FINE…
Pyrrha: *muttering as she turns away* …it’s funny…all the other teams have four members, but I only ever see two of you…
Pyrrha: …it’s almost like the writer was too lazy to add more characters…
———————————————————————
Pyrrha: *standing on Cinder’s body*
Cinder: 😵
Pyrrha: …I’m just a girl…standing in front of a boy…
Pyrrha: …Oh my gods, what the hell am I going to say to him?!?!
Ren: *turning away* Well, you’d better think of something quick…!
Nora: 🤭
Pyrrha: What…? *turns around*
Jaune: 😡
Pyrrha: 😱
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eviltomb · 6 months
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Rewatching vol 6 and oof, Maria really saw how through Ruby.
“you don’t give yourself enough credit. That’s not a good thing.”
And here she is, 3 volumes later, Ruby taking too much negative credit and not seeing enough of the good actions she takes.
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Penny: Jaune? Might I borrow you for a moment?
Jaune: Uh, yeah? What For?
Penny: First and foremost, Please wash your hands and dry them completely, then meet me in my quarters.
Jaune: Okay?
Penny: Sensational. I will see you in a few minutes.
~~~~~
Jaune: Okay Penny, What -
Jaune: You are naked! You are, Naked.
Penny: Yes?
Jaune: Uh, wha- what do you need help with?
Penny: Oh! I simply require lubricant applied to certain areas I cannot reach on my own.
Penny: *Back opens* While it is not immediately necessary, I would feel better if it were handled sooner, rather than later. Are you able and Willing to help?
Jaune: I - Uh - Yes. Yes I am. Why not someone else?
Penny: You were simply the first person I found. (Hic)
Jaune: You can hiccup?
Penny: It is a response to low fluid levels. (Hic!)
~~~~~
Jaune: So that's where I was.
Ruby: ...
Blake: Huh. That was nice of you.
Yang: Heh. First time in a girl and it wasn't even sexy.
Ruby: Not sexy?
Jaune:I mean she was naked but-
Ruby: Not sexy?!?!
Yang: Well-
Ruby: HOW DARE YOU TAKE HER FOR GRANTED!
Jaune: Rubes-
Ruby: DON'T YOU 'RUBES' ME YOU LUCKY, DENSE SON OF A SELLSWORD!
Weiss: Oh Ruby's Angry.
Ruby: SHE BARED HER MOST DELICATE, IMPORTANT PARTS TO YOU!
Nora: (Sell-sword?)
Ren: (Mercenary)
Ruby: Of course you of all people wouldn't get it! Why not me!
Jaune: What- Ruby I get you like weapons but-
Ruby: She HICCUPED, YOU MUD-FILLED M16-
~~~~~
Penny: Jaune was inside me today.
Pietro: *Chokes on his coffee*
Maria: *Cackling* HA! HAhahahahHA!
Pietro: *Ahem* Dear, Do your remember the conversation about Idioms, Turn-of-phrase, and similes?
Penny: Yes. Does Someone being "Inside" another carry inappropriate connotation?
Pietro: Yes, It has sexual implication to it.
Penny: *Blushing* Oh. That is intriguing information.
Maria: And yet she doesn't deny it's accuracy!
Pietro: Maria!
Penny: *Blushing Harder* Miss Calavera, Be Quiet!
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