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Spoilers for all works set prior to the end of Volume 8 are unmarked.

Team RWBY

The titular team of four young women who are leading the fight against Salem.

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In General

Amazon Brigade: Team RWBY is composed of four talented female fighters who are fast-tracked in Volume 7 to graduated, licenced Huntresses because Ironwood feels they've been fighting as professionals since Beacon. They are mentored by Atlas's elite Ace-Ops squad, whom they eventually defeat in battle. While Volume 8 clarifies the Ace-Ops' obsession with professionalism sabotages their team-work, Team RWBY's achievement is still regarded as unprecedented enough to cement their reputation as an elite team of female warriors.
Curb-Stomp Battle: After Ruby makes her triumphant return, the team make quick work of the Curious Cat who was forced out of Neo’s body.
Field Promotion: While they originally went to Beacon Academy to become Huntresses and get their licenses, the fall of Beacon caused the school to close with Team RWBY and the remaining members of Team JNPR traveling the world to find the people responsible while most students transferred to other academies like Shade. By the time they reach Atlas, General James Ironwood states that the dangers they've faced during the Battle of Beacon, in the wilds of Anima, and against the forces of Salem, means they're not functioning at the level of students, they're functioning as Huntsmen. Thus, he promotes them to fully licenced Huntsmen on the basis of their field experience even though they haven't completed their schooling.
Floral Theme Naming: The team's weapons have names shared in common with types of flowers: roses for Ruby's Crescent Rose; myrtle and aster for Weiss's Myrtenaster; golden gambol (a type of orchid) for Blake's Gambol Shroud; and celica (a type of amaryllis) for Yang's Ember Celica.
Fun with Acronyms: The team name RWBY is made up of the member's first names and can be pronounced as "Ruby".
Family of Choice: Weiss comes from a broken family (Father is an abusive Gold Digger, mother took to the bottle to cope, younger brother openly hates her, Cool Big Sis off with the military) and comes to view the rest of Team RWBY as the loving family that she never had.
Late-Arrival Spoiler:
- Initially a big reveal near the end of Volume 1, early Volume 4 artwork for Blake still hid the fact that she is a faunus, but post-Volume 4 material no longer attempts to pass Blake off as human.
- Post-Volume 3 material does a great job at hiding Yang losing her arm at the end of Volume 3.

Ruby Rose

Voiced By: Lindsay Jones (née Tuggey) ^{Foreign VAs}Saori Hayami (Japanese)

Debut: Red Trailer

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/rwby_ruby.png

"It's also a customisable, high-impact sniper rifle."

"As a girl, I wanted to be just like those heroes in the books — someone who fought for what was right and who protected people who couldn't protect themselves."

Ruby is a gifted combat student who is admitted to the elite Beacon Academy two years ahead of her class. She is cheerful, optimistic and dreams of protecting the people and making the world a better place. She is the leader of Team RWBY, Yang Xiao Long's younger sister, and her team partner is Weiss Schnee.

Ruby fights with Crescent Rose, a large scythe that can transform into a high-velocity sniper rifle. Her Semblance is called "Petal Burst", allowing her to move at super-human speeds that leaves behind a cloud of rose petals.

Absurd Cutting Power: Crescent Rose is sharp enough for her to nonchalantly cut entire tree trunks in half. Against Grimm, though, she has to exert more effort.
Ace Custom: Ruby built Crescent Rose herself because every student at Signal has to create their own weapons. Ruby admits that she may have gone overboard on designing it.
Alliterative Name: Ruby Rose.
Anchored Attack Stance: Ruby has to perform a Sword Plant when she wants to aim Crescent Rose properly since she specifically designed the recoil to be powerful enough to augment her melee attacks.
Animal Motifs: Animation constraints stopped Ruby from looking "wolf-like", so she has a wolf theme instead. She fights Beowolves in the Red Trailer, retains a cartoon wolf-face on her pyjamas, and uses a wolf-eyed sleep mask. When Jaune knocks her into a tree, her Circling Birdies are wolves, her bedroom shelves contain Beowolf action figures, and her Atlas outfit's ammo pouch displays a wolf's head.
Aside Glance: In the Red Trailer, she gives the screen a side glance and a faint smile just before doing something violently awesome that results in Beowolves dying. At one point, she does it while face-to-face with a Beowolf before decapitating it.
Ass-Kicking Pose: When getting read to open fire on her enemies, she tends to spin the scythe to embed the blade in the ground, giving her a locked line-of-sight on the target. She often uses her sniper rifle this way.
Audible Sharpness: The scythe blade is so sharp that it often hums as it slices through the air.
Awesomeness-Induced Amnesia: Ruby is rendered unconscious after she first unleashes her silver eyes on Cinder and the Grimm Wyvern. Once she regains consciousness, she initially doesn't remember what happened until she learns second hand from Qrow about what she did. Even then, it's not until Volume 6 that she truly begins to learn what having silver eyes means in practice.
Badass Adorable: Ruby is a deadly fighter who can effortlessly slaughter her way through hordes of Grimm using Crescent Rose. That said, whenever she opens her mouth, especially when she's frustrated or excited, she's a massive dork who's as adorable as a box of kittens.
Badass Bandolier: In almost all of her outfits, she always wears a waist bandolier that shows off the bullets for her sniper-scythe. As the wielder of one of the world's most dangerous weapons, and a talented Grade Skipper who achieves her Huntress license at an unusually young age, Ruby is as badass as her bandolier implies.
Badass Cape: Whether her red, hooded cape is intact or tattered from long journeys, it's a part of her fighting style and Semblance. It constantly flips and billows whenever she fights, and it dramatically swirls to engulf her whenever she activates her super-speed Semblance, making her appear like a red torpedo when in motion.
Be Yourself: During the events of the series, Ruby wants to be a hero like the ones she heard about from the fairy tales her mother read to her and like her mother herself. While trying her best, her actions end up having major consequences and she begins to believe she is failing as a hero by the time of Volume 9. At the end of the Volume however, when she sees a vision of her mother and realizes that even she wasn't perfect while remembering her say that she would love her daughter for the way she was, Ruby comes to the realization that she just needed to be herself and returns from ascension as herself.
BFG: When her weapon is in rifle form, the gun alone is almost as long as her body. When the weapon transforms into a scythe, it unfolds to its full length; the blade alone is the same height as her, the handle is at least half as long again, and she can still use it as a gun.
Blade Brake: If she's able to, she'll stab her scythe into the ground to brake herself after being knocked back. During the battle for Beacon, she gets knocked back so far by Roman's firework that her scythe gets embedded into the hull of the ship all the way to the hilt.
Blade Enthusiast: While Ruby Rose adores her custom-built mechanical scythe, she can't help but geek out at all kinds of weapons upon landing on the Beacon Academy courtyard. This is expanded onto her crossover appearance in Blazblue Cross Tag Battle, where you can see her admiring the likes of Ragna and Aegis.
Blood Knight: From recklessly charging the Deathstalker that chases Pyrrha to being disappointed when Oobleck stops her from attacking Beowolves, Ruby enjoys fighting the Grimm. She develops the habit of riding Giant Nevermore into battle and killing them as she jumps off, grins broadly when facing down a horde of Grimm in the Volume 4 Character Short, and has to be tempered by Oobleck the first time she ever sees Goliaths, who warns her that Grimm become smarter and stronger with age.
Blowing a Raspberry: Ruby is willing to blow raspberries to either bait people or express her frustration. While sparring with Oscar, she dars behind him, blowing a raspberry while waving her fingers from her ears to tease him. In Volume 7, when Marrow tells her to scram because he's working security at Robyn's election rally, she blows a raspberry behind his back.
Blow You Away: Ruby can use her Semblance to move so fast that she becomes like a miniature torpedo, whipping up a tornado-like winds in her wake. She can use it to knock people back, pin people to walls and counter the power of Pyrrha's magnetism Semblance.
Cape Snag: During initiation, Ruby is attacked by a Giant Nevermore while fleeing a Death Stalker. Its storm of feathers pin her by the cape, allowing the Deathstalker to almost catch her. This is the only time her cape is ever snagged, and the trope is averted for the rest of the show, regardless of whether she's spinning her scythe behind her back, falling through forest canopies or fighting.
The Chains of Commanding:
- Discussed. After Weiss declares Ruby's leadership a mistake, Ruby asks Ozpin if that's true. He states that leadership is a great responsibility that requires her to always be at her best if she wishes others to respect and follow her. When Jaune's later struggling with his own leadership issues, she passes the advice on to him, pointing out that leaders can't afford to fail because they'll bring their team down with them if they do.
- This ends up coming to a head in the Atlas arc, as Ruby's belief that she has to be perfect and that any weakness she has is the team's weakness leads to her mental and emotional health crumbling under the weight of her responsibilities and the difficult choices she has to make. In the Ever After, the incredible pressure on her drives her to try Ascending so she can be replaced with a better version who won't make mistakes. Fortunately, the Blacksmith and a vision of her mother convince her to let go of her impossible standards and accept herself as enough.
Circling Birdies: During initiation in the Emerald Forest, a falling Ruby gets slammed into a tree and is momentarily stunned. In keeping with her Animal Motif, the cartoons circling her head are wolves instead of birds.
Cleavage Window: Subverted with her Mistral costume, which she wears between Volumes 4-6. She wears a blouse that clasps at her neck, but which exposes her entire chest. However, the bodice she wears over it has a belted seam that creates a firm, straight edge across the top of her bust, covering her cleavage entirely.
Colorful Contrails: Ruby has a speed Semblance that allows her to move extremely fast. Whenever she activates it, she leaves behind a highly stylised trail of red rose petals that then dissipate into the wind.
Companion Cube: She respects all weapons, but coddles her own. When Yang implies her gushing over other weapons means she feels her own weapon isn't good enough, she hugs Crescent Rose, cuddles and caresses it, and refers to it as her sweetheart. Although every character names their weapon, she is the only who has used the name in show to refer to it as if it's a character.
Crippling Overspecialization: Ruby is so well-trained in using her scythe that she sacrificed unarmed combat. In Yang's Volume 5 character short, she complains about having to be trained in hand-to-hand combat and barely keeps up with Yang's punches. When a Grimm does attack Yang, she's paralysed with indecision because she doesn't feel like she can fight without her weapon. While in Mistral, Ozpin calls out Ruby's inability to fight without her weapon and forces her to train in hand-to-hand combat during the month they have to prepare for Salem's next move. She grows out of this somewhat afterwards, but is still usually on the backfoot without Crescent Rose.
Curb-Stomp Battle: Even before her team joins in, Ruby is dishing out one heck of one to the Curious Cat, outpacing and driving them back with practiced ease.
Custom Uniform: She always wears her cape. Even when she's wearing her school uniform, her cape is attached to it. When she's forced to go to the ball in a fancy dress and no cape, she just wants to leave again so that she can put her cape back on.
Dark Is Not Evil: In the first three volumes, Ruby favours a gothic black appearance, with black tights, combat boots and corseted skirt. The black is accented with red and she wears a red cape pinned with crosses. Her weapon is a red-and-black giant scythe that doubles as a rifle. In the Red Trailer, she silently walks through a forest with her face hooded and hidden before violently mowing down monsters as if she's a stoic, solitary Anti-Hero; the main show then reveals she's a bubbly, optimistic Ideal Hero, who always sees the best people and is determined to become a Huntress to make the world a better place.
Deadpan Snarker: Despite usually being an incredibly kind and caring person, she can occasionally express a snarky streak. Weiss falls victim to it a few times in the first few Volumes while their friendship was growing, and in later Volumes she displays it in the form of rather deadpan quips towards human enemies, usually underlings like Neo or Mercury. However, she gets serious whenever she's fighting more personal enemies like Cinder or Salem.
Deconstructed Character Archetype: In the fifth volume, Ozpin warns Oscar possessing an unquantifiable spark to inspire others as The Paragon, even in the darkest times, is a terrible burden to carry. In the Atlas arc, her idealistic resolve increasingly struggles with the reality of their fight: she collapses in tears when Salem uses her Missing Mom to counter her belief they can stop her. She's also briefly shattered by the reason Salem wants Silver-Eyed Warriors captured alive. Later, after learning the failure of her efforts to rescue Penny, she becomes increasingly withdrawn and despairing. Her past self throws her original determination to be the hero everyone relies on back in her face, making it clear she's put everyone else first for so long she doesn't know if she'll help herself; as the burden increasingly destroys her from within, she becomes increasingly unable to help others the way she originally wanted to.
Determinator: Ruby believes in becoming a Huntress to protect people like a fairy tale hero. Yang reveals she's had this dream from a young age, so she trained exceptionally hard to achieve it. Ozpin tells Oscar Ruby's one of the rare people who have a spark inside them that can inspire others even in the darkest times, but also warns it's a great burden few others will ever understand.
Didn't Think This Through:
- At the end of the third volume, Ruby takes Jaune, Ren and Nora on a journey to Haven Academy; they spend the next volume traversing the continent of Anima on foot. When they joke about the fact they're just walking places every day, it's revealed that the reason why is because Ruby had no idea how long it would take. Being raised on a tiny island where everything is within easy reach of her home means that Ruby didn't consider how big the rest of the world is.
- While Team RNJR duels with the Petras Gigas Geist, Ruby's solution to the Geist replacing one of its rock arms with a tree is to shoot a round of fire dust at the tree in an attempt to burn it away. All that manages to accomplish is give the Geist a tree arm that's now on fire, forcing them to avoid being burned as well as hit.
- A Played for Drama example occurs during the ninth volume where Ruby is confronted by illusions that accuse her of never thinking about the consequences of her actions. Neopolitan used her evolved Semblance to create clones of Pyrrha, Penny, Lionheart, Clover, Ozpin and Ironwood form of believing that Ruby failed to save them and had a role in their deaths and uses them to torment her by accusing her of never thinking her plans through such as her actions in Atlas failing to save Penny and destroying the Kingdom anyway while accusing her of being unable to save anyone.
Double Jump: Ruby pulls this off in "Battle of Beacon", leaping off the airship heading for Vale, then using her Semblance to shoot back to Amity Colosseum's dock. She also uses the Recoil Boost of her rifle for this when in battle.
Dragged by the Collar: During initiation, Weiss rejects the idea of having Ruby as her partner until she discovers her alternative is Jaune. She reconsiders her decision, grabs Ruby by the scruff of her neck, and drags her through the forest away from Jaune declaring that this doesn't mean they will be friends.
Dramatic Gun Cock: Ruby's scythe is also a bolt-action rifle. When going for kill-shots, she often plants the scythe blade into the ground and aims with her sniper's sight. After dramatically pulling the bolt to cock the gun, she fires. During the Petra Gigas fight in Volume 4, the camera follows her from the dramatic cock to the bullet's journey through the air towards the doomed geist.
Dramatic Wind: During the Red Trailer, she walks through a snowy forest, her hood hiding her face, with the wind blowing through her cloak. When the Beowolfs surround her, for one tense moment before the begins, the only thing moving is her cloak.
Early-Installment Weirdness: Monty Oum designed the Red Trailer as "more of a weapon résumé"; thus, it shows off the fight choreography and the gun-scythe in action at the expense of making Ruby seem much more stoic and emotionless than she really is.
Elemental Eye Colours: Upon first meeting Ruby, Ozpin cryptically mentions her silver eyes. When she freezes a Wyvern to stone with light that bursts from her eyes, Qrow reveals an ancient legend about silver-eyed warriors possessing the ability to destroy Grimm with a glance. In Volume 6, she learns this is the power to protect life; the God of Darkness created Grimm to destroy life, so Silver-Eyed Warriors possess the God of Light's power of Light to stop them.
Embarrassing Nickname: After she and Jaune both have embarrassing starts at Beacon, she memorialises his travel-sickness with the nickname "Vomit-Boy". He retaliates by memorialising her accidental destruction of Weiss's Dust with the nickname "Crater Face". Ruby almost introduces herself to Blake with the nickname before catching herself and introducing herself properly.
Even the Loving Hero Has Hated Ones: As the pure, optimistic and friendly hero, Ruby tries appealing to the best in everyone. However, she despises Cinder for destroying Beacon, as well as killing Ozpin and Pyrrha. Even though she still struggles to control her innate powers in all other circumstances, her powers always activate while fighting with Cinder.
Every Proper Lady Should Curtsy: Weiss comes from a high society family well-versed in formal, reserved etiquette that accompanies it. Ruby, who has a rougher, informal personality, attempts a ladylike curtsey when first meeting Weiss's older sister, Winter. However, she gracelessly loses her balance instead.
Exotic Weapon Supremacy: Upon first meeting Ruby, Ozpin asks her who trained such a young, adorable girl to fight with a gun-scythe, one of the most dangerous weapon combinations ever designed. There are only two scythe-wielders in the world who have the required level of skill to use them skilfully in battle.
Facepalm: After being interrupted from her comic books, Ruby notices Qrow completely intoxicated on the couch and gives herself a facepalm with a sigh, clearly annoyed that Qrow's once again completely sloshed.
Failure Hero: Discussed. While Ruby tries to be a hero throughout the series, her actions end up having major consequences. Many of her actions include not being able to save her friends Penny and Pyrrha from death, inadvertently causing a Grimm attack after her fight with Cordovin causes negative emotions in Argus, her falling out with General Ironwood and the Atlas Military due to not fully trusting him, and inadvertently destroying the Kingdom of Atlas by using the Relic of Creation to evacuate it's citizens which allows Cinder and Salem to take both the Relics of Knowledge and Creation in the process. By the end of Volume 9, she admits to the Blacksmith every time she tries to help, she feels like she only makes things worse.
Family Eye Resemblance: Ruby strongly resembles her mother, inheriting from Summer the rare trait of silver eyes and its accompanying power to destroy Grimm. In Volume 6, Ruby tries deliberately activating the power for the first time, attempting to achieve the right mindsight through a motage of good memories. The moment she successfully activates the power, the screen segues almost perfectly from a close-up of Summer's eyes into a close-up of Ruby's because of how similar their features are.
Fangirl: When Ruby is aided by Glynda against Roman in the pilot episode, she excitedly asks for her autograph. Unamused, Glynda lectures her about reckless street fighting before Ozpin intervenes with cookies; Ruby then gushes so hard about how cool Huntsmen are that she briefly lapses into unintelligible squees.
Flash Step: Ruby has the ability to use her Semblance to engage in a suddenly movement that's so fast it can seem like she's teleported out of sight. This usually involves a dramatic cape swirl and gust of wind that leaves behind a fluffy of red rose petals.
Flat "What": Delivers one after seeing Pyrrha somehow move Jaune's shield into position at a distance, quickly followed by him beheading a massive Ursa in one blow.
Flower Motifs: In keeping with her surname, Ruby is heavily associated with roses. Her personal symbol is a rose, which she wears as a brooch. Her Semblance creates rose petals when she activates it, and in keeping with her full name, she associates strongly with the colour red, so the rose petals she creates are as red as the cape she wears.
Foil: To Jaune. They both come from a family of heroes (a Huntsman family for Ruby, a long line of heroes for Jaune). However, Ruby is a talented Huntress-in-training who got admitted into Beacon two years early at Headmaster Ozpin's personal invitation, while Jaune is a civilian without an unlocked Aura, let alone combat training, who relied on forged documents to get into the school. Their weapons, the first introduced in-series, are opposites (hand-designed and forged mechashifting scythe-sniper rifle combo vs a sword-and-shield/scabbard hand-me-down), as well as leadership styles during team combat (Ruby goes for flashy combination attacks while Jaune methodically identifies opponents' weak points and directs his team to go for them). Nevertheless, they become each other's first friends at Beacon, co-leaders, best friends and each other's rock of support throughout the series. Both are eventually crushed under the weight of The Chains of Commanding, which leads to them snapping at each other in the Volume 9 episode "The Perils of Paper Houses"—- during their outbursts, they instinctively know where to twist the knife in to inflict maximum emotional suffering on the other (being a Failure Hero for Jaune and It's All My Fault for Ruby). The CRWBY Roundtable for "The Perils of Paper Houses" refer to Ruby and Jaune as two sides of the same coin, who undergo the same Hero's Journey in this Volume.
Friendly Sniper: Her weapon is a gun-scythe. It's designed to function as a sniper rifle, even when in scythe form. This allows her to aim her sights at Grimm and go for kill-shots from a distance. However, she's a very friendly, cheerful girl who believes in protecting people like a fairy tale hero.
The Gift: Ruby is a talented fighter who is pushed ahead in combat school by two years. Born with silver eyes, she possess a mystical ability to become the best of all fighters and slay Grimm with the power of Light. Initially, she doesn't want to be treated as special, but also believes her skills are enough to win any fight without help. She has to learn to value team-work and academic study, that there is more to being elite than just natural talent, and that leadership requires giving her best to receive it from others.
Giving Someone the Pointer Finger: At the beginning of Volume 2, lunch in the school hall abruptly falls apart when Teams RWBY and JNPR turn on each other. When Nora declares herself the Queen of the Castle, Ruby to dramatically points a finger at her while squashing the milk carton she's holding in the other. She loudly declares the opening of hostilities, triggering a massive food fight that sends the rest of the school fleeing from the hall.
Glowing Eyes: When Ruby unleashes her silver eyed powers, her eyes take on a glint and a glow before the power manifests. Cinder, who is very vulnerable to Ruby's power, has learned to look for that glint. When she spots it in the Volume 7 finale, she is able to flee just in time to avoid the burst of silver light that follows.
Grade Skipper: By getting into Beacon, she's moved ahead two years. Weiss particularly picks on Ruby for this reason, initially calling her childish and immature, until she comes to term that Ruby is made the team leader for a good reason.
Grave-Marking Scene: In the trailer and the opening; Ruby is in vigil at the Cliffside Altar; a plaque marker with the inscription "Summer Rose Thus Kindly I Scatter." In the opening, there is a hovering ghostly figure identical to her; except their hood and cape are white.
Hand Behind Head: She does this quite a few times out of nervousness/embarrassment. She attempts it when she first meets Blake, but is ignored. When summoned to discuss with Ozpin, Glynda and Ironwood the fight she had with Cinder, she attempts to break the tension with a joke, but it falls flat. Realising how serious the teachers are, she places a hand behind her head nervously.
Happily Failed Suicide: She drinks tea made of the Tree's leaves after being tormented by Neo, believing that it will Ascend and "fix" her. Once she actually arrives in the Tree, however, she becomes scared and realizes that she doesn't actually want to die but to stop feeling like a failure. The Blacksmith guides her to accept herself as enough, and later affirms to her that she has done good for the Ever After to disprove her feelings that she only makes things worse. Ruby's last words are to thank the Blacksmith for helping her.
Headphones Equal Isolation: Not as severe as many cases, as she's very friendly; but she was wearing her hood and headphones in her introduction in the story, making her unaware of the shop being robbed. In accordance to the trope, she has No Social Skills problems early in the show.
Heroic BSoD:
- During the tournament, Penny's death drives her to her knees, pitifully crying. Even when everyone's fleeing the stadium from a Grimm attack, she remains on her knees in shock. She's only roused from it when a Nevermore breaks through security and threatens the equally-devastated Pyrrha.
- When Salem tries to intimidate Ironwood into surrendering, Ruby defiantly tells her that they'll stop her. Salem calmly observes that Ruby's mother once said the same thing, and was wrong. Ruby is stunned by the response and collapses to the floor in tears for several minutes until she's able to pull herself together.
- During the assault on Atlas, Ruby and her team are stuck at Schnee Manor with a severely injured Nora. Although Ruby's instincts tell her everyone has to work together to survive, she is so overwhelmed by the scale and helplessness of the situation that she wells up with tears. Only when the heroes discuss risk and trust with Ozpin does inspiration finally strike.
Heroic Fatigue: Upon learning about her silver eyes, Ruby tells Qrow being special means she can help. She sneaks off to Haven with Jaune, Nora and Ren, and from there gradually begins taking command of the fight against Salem, especially after both Ozpin and Qrow enter a Heroic BSoD in Volume 6 once the Awful Truth about the Secret War comes to light. Ruby is a source of inspiration and hope to many people, even in the darkest of times, and Ozpin warns Oscar this is a terrible burden. Though she visibly visibly struggles with the scale of the threat Salem poses to Remnant in the eighth volume, the toll eventually catches up to her in the following volume. Her past self verbalises the difference between the reality of being a Huntress and the earlier fairy tale vision of it, leaving Ruby unable to refute it. Once her past self offers her to be something else, she hesitates as if seriously considering it, but the Curious Cat intervenes. However, she begins to believe she only made things worse and ends up Driven to Suicide as a result.
Heroic Willpower: At Brunswick Farm, everyone becomes increasingly sluggish and tired until they just want to give up completely. Ruby initially tries to shake everyone out of it before also succumbing. Shaking herself out of the mood, she becomes frustrated with everyone's lethargy and has to push them to help her rescue the Relic; they discover the farm is infested with Apathy; only she and Maria can shake off their will-sapping powers long enough to activate Ruby's silver eyes.
Human Hummingbird: Ruby gracelessly flaps her wings like a bird whenever she loses her balance. She does it when her attempt to curtsy to Winter fails in Volume 3 and when she she over-extends in Volume 5 during hand-to-hand combat training with Oscar.
I Call It "Vera": She went overboard in designing her weapon, treats Crescent Rose as a child and calls it her "sweetheart". She regards weapons as an extension of the self, so seeing new weapons is like meeting people "but better". All weapons in the show have names, but she's the only character who has referred to her weapon by name in-universe.
I Just Want to Be Normal: She wants to be a Huntress, but she doesn't want to be different to other Huntsmen, so being pushed forward two years stresses her out. At the end of Volume 3, she realises that being special simply means she has the power to help people and embraces it.
In Harm's Way: Ruby is a gifted fighter who wants to become a Huntress to protect people who cannot protect themselves. She enjoys combat and feels more comfortable on the battlefield than a dance floor. Qrow reveals a little-known legend claims silver-eyed people are destined to become great warriors, feared even by the Grimm. However, Roman believes that Huntsmen have a foolish lifestyle, dying young in a dangerous world; he thinks her desire to be a hero is a death sentence.
Insecure Protagonist, Arrogant Antagonist: Ruby and Cinder. Ruby is compassionate, inspirational and protective, but socially awkward, lacks unarmed combat skills, and initially struggles with team-work and leadership. Born with magical ability, she wants normality and only opposes Cinder out of duty. Cinder is sadistic, egotistical, and destroys others for personal gain, but is self-destructive, versatile, and skilled at manipulation. She stole magical power, wants to be special, and seeks revenge on Ruby for hurting her.
The Insomniac: By the ninth volume, the weight of being a leader and the guilt of her failures causes her to have PTSD. One episode shows her laying wide awake while her friends are all asleep. Even a illusion of one of her enemies tells her she is "not looking too good". Her eyes look bloodshot at certain close-ups during the volume.
In the Hood: The "Red" trailer introduces her as a hooded figure brooding over a tombstone, kickstarting the franchise with an air of dark fantasy before she removes it and fights a horde of Beowolves. She is mostly likely to raise the hood when she's feeling nervous or being goofy, but does so rarely even then.
Jumped at the Call: Determined to protect people from an early age, her drive and talent gets her into the elite Beacon Academy two years early where she spends her time tharting local crime boss, Roman Torchwick. After mysterious forces attack her school and discovering she has an innate magical power, she sneaks off with Jaune, Nora and Ren to proactively investigate what's going on. This leads her into the heart of Ozpin's Secret War and eventually de facto leadership of the fight against Salem.
The Knights Who Say "Squee!": Ruby idolises Huntsmen; when she first meets Ozpin and Glynda, she asks for Glynda's autograph and tells Ozpin that she wants to help people as a Huntress because it's cooler and more romantic than being a cop. By the end of her explanation, she's squealing like a fangirl. When she first sees the range of weapons at Beacon, she gushes so much that she briefly transforms into chibi art.
Large Ham: She's enthusiastic, energetic and easily carried away. Her first mission as team leader is to get their dorm room set up, involving lots of fist pumping, whistling and accidentally damaging the curtains by swinging her scythe around too wildly. When initiating a food fight, she dramatically squashes a milk carton while declaring that justice will be swift, painful and delicious; when Weiss is knocked down, Ruby dramatically screams her name as if Weiss has died. When she learns Jaune's hoodie has a cute little bunny rabbit on it, she ends up rolling on the floor, shrieking with laughter; even after she becomes a professional Huntress, she still hams up her excitement to be doing proper missions.
Laugh Themselves Sick: When Ruby finally sees that the hoodie Jaune wears underneath his breastplate has a picture of a cute bunny rabbit on it, she starts laughing and holding her sides. When she hears that it's the cereal mascot Pumpkin Pete and finds out how he got it, her laughing increases until she falls onto her back, weakly kicking her legs into the air.
Law of Chromatic Superiority: Silver eyes are stated to be an extremely rare colour. If a person's eyes are silver, they're destined to become the greatest of fighters, and they possess a magical ability that can slay Grimm using the power of light. By virtue of having silver eyes, Ruby is therefore destined from birth to be a superior fighter, even among her exceptionally talented peers.
The Leader: She is appointed leader of Team RWBY by Ozpin, who warns her she needs to perform at her best if she wants to give people a reason to follow her. Thus, she puts the needs of everyone she's in charge of before her own; by Volume 6, she becomes the de facto leader in the fight against Salem by becoming someone who is willing to explain her decisions, who encourages people to always try their best and because she's someone who can inspire others even in the darkest of times.
Leeroy Jenkins: Ruby's impulsiveness frequently lands her in danger. Though Weiss initially believes Ruby is showing off, Ruby says she is simply trying to prove to be a capable leader when she does have a plan. Once she settles and matures, she develops team tactics with creative names that describe the members and powers that will be used when called upon. However, without plans, she can be prone to risk-taking with mixed success or becoming paralysed with indecision until inspiration strikes.
Leitmotif: "Red Like Roses" and "Red Like Roses Part 2" are both used in scenes associated with Ruby. They've had a lot of revamps over the years, but the core refrain always appears in a recognisable way in the background of her scenes.
Light 'em Up: Silver-eyed people possess the ability to create light from their eyes, which can turn Grimm to stone or vaporise them. Ruby's ability unlocks during the Battle of Beacon, turning a giant Wyvern to stone. She later learns that the Light comes from the God of Light, and that it is driven by the desire to protect life. However, Maria warns her to never rely solely on this power and to remember that her training and Semblance are her most powerful tools. The power only works on Grimm, but Cinder is vulnerable because she fused with a Grimm to steal Maiden power.
Like Mother, Like Daughter: Ruby resembles her mother in both appearance and personality, with both favouring hooded capes and being Silver-Eyed Warriors. Raven sourly comments that Ruby's idealistic belief that unity will overcome impossible odds makes her just like her mother; when Ruby tells Salem that they will stop her, Salem calmly observes that Summer once said exactly the same thing, and was wrong. Ruby is so shocked by the unexpected response that she bursts into tears.
Literal-Minded: In the early volumes, Ruby would twist idioms and figures of speech in literal ways whenever she was feeling socially awkward or trying to be humorous. When Yang tells her that meeting new people is part of growing up, Ruby complains that she doesn't have to do that because she drinks milk. When Qrow flippantly tells Ruby and Yang there's no prizes for "almost" winning, Ruby retorts there is and it's called silver.
Little Miss Badass: At the beginning of the show, Ruby is fifteen, small, adorable and looks like an innocent child. However, despite being two years younger than the rest of her peers, she can wield a scythe twice her size and destroy an army of Grimm single-handedly. Her abilities only get stronger, and she eventually graduates to professional Huntress in Volume 7, years before she's scheduled to.
Little Red Fighting Hood: Ruby is inspired by Little Red Riding Hood, so she's a small girl with a bright red, hooded cape. However, she possesses raw natural combat talent that pushes her ahead in combat school by two years. She begins the show as a trainee Huntress and qualifies as one in Volume 7. She's an elite fighter whose job it is to protect the people from the Creatures of Grimm.
Magical Eye: Legend states that people with silver eyes are destined to be the best warriors, able to kill Grimm with a glance. After her power unlocks during the Battle of Beacon, she learns that she inherited it from her mother; she later discovers it is the power of Light and is powered by the desire to protect life.
Missing Mom: Ruby and Yang were raised by their father and Ruby's mother, Summer Rose, until she went on a mysterious mission and never came home. Ruby periodically visits a cliff that contains a memorial stone to Summer, but Yang thinks Ruby was too young to fully understand what was happening at the time it occurred. They were raised by Taiyang, with some help from Yang's maternal uncle, Qrow. It's only in Volume 7 that Ruby starts getting information about her mother's disappearance.
Mix-and-Match Weapon: While her weapon can transform between a rifle and a scythe, it does have the ability to function as both a scythe and Sniper Rifle at the same time. Ruby often uses the recoil from the rifle to augment her extreme speed, and also to help propel her through the air. The scythe head can swivel upwards 90° so it can act more like a spear/war scythe.
Motor Mouth: Whenever Ruby gets nervous or excited, she begins speaking at a much faster pace.
Mundane Utility: Ruby's weapon has a very sharp hook for stabbing during battle; in Volume 2, Ruby uses it to hold up turkey so that her dog will have to jump up to grab it.
No Social Skills: Ruby is initially uncomfortable socialising with anyone other than family, and botches her first few attempts at conversation. Although aghast at the prospect of being partnered with someone other than Yang, once she's made team leader, she becomes much better at interactions but never fully loses her goofy humour and embarrassment.
Nom de Mom: Taiyang Xiao Long has two daughters by two different mothers, Raven Branwen and Summer Rose. While Yang uses their father's name, Ruby uses her mother's. She makes heavy use of rose motifs in her personal design, and her Semblance sheds rose petals whenever it is activated; her mother's name therefore fits her personal aesthetic.
Not Quite Flight: Her Semblance allows her to defy mass, enabling her to travel at tremendous speeds through the air for short bursts in a form that looks almost like a torpedo that scatters rose petals behind her. This ability evolves over time, allowing her to generate high winds in her wake, split into three to "fly" around obstacles, zigzag across the sky while fighting, and carry multiple people without slowing down.
Not So Similar: Discussed Trope. After the heroes turn on Ozpin for hiding the truth about the Relic of Knowledge and Salem's invincibility, Ruby decision to do the same to Ironwood leaves everyone unsettled, despite them agreeing they're sure he can be trusted. When Ruby tells Qrow she's not sure she's right and feels no better than Oz, Qrow confidently declares Ozpin never trusted anyone while she's waiting for Ironwood to earn trust. Ruby isn't fully convinced; by the time Ozpin returns, Ruby and her friends admit they now understand him better, having learned just how risky trust really is.
One to Million to One: In Volume 8, Penny reveals that Ruby's Semblance breaks down her and whatever she carries to molecules, transports them as a super-fast particle cloud, and then resembles everything. She can therefore carry multiple people because mass is negated. Qrow once described it as "the ability to burst into rose petals" and she used to think of it as Super-Speed until Penny explains how she creates the speed.
O.O.C. Is Serious Business:
- During the battle at Haven, Ruby starts out trying to reason with people like Raven and Emerald. Then people started getting hurt. When she leaps in to help her sister, Yang asks if she's okay. Ruby admits she's not; she's angry. The significance of a cheerful, always-positive girl losing her tolerance and getting angry stops the background music cold.
- During the events of "The Perils of Paper Houses" when she doesn't even fight against the Jabberwalkers, starts seeing hallucinations of Cinder, Penny, and Salem, and eventually refuses to even touch Crescent Rose after the fight when Jaune tries to give it to her, everyone present finally realized that something was wrong with Ruby after she uncharacteristically lashes out at her friends and gets into a heated argument with Jaune and decides to leave the group as a result.
Otaku: She's very much a weapon enthusiast. She admits that she's more interested on the weapons people have than the people themselves. She went overboard on designing her own weapon, and is fascinated by how Penny can control so many swords. She even likes simple, classic weapons like Jaune's sword and shield.
The Paragon: Ruby inspires others with her optimistic idealism and refusal to succumb to despair and pain. Blake calls her the embodiment of purity, and tells Ruby that she has rekindled Blake's lost faith in fighting for a better world. Ruby's belief that leaders must not fail their teams inspires Jaune to stand up to Cardin's bullying and her self-recrimination over Qrow's life-threatening injuries and danger she's dragged her friends into, prompts Jaune to reveal they're inspired by her courage. This is deconstructed by Professor Ozpin, who privately discusses with Oscar how possessing a remarkable, unquantifiable ability to inspire others even in the darkest times is a terrible burden to carry. Sure enough, by the time of Volume 9, the stress of having to keep everyone going for the past few volumes (and outright failing to stop Salem in Volume 8) have taken an enormous toll on her emotionally, and she ends up at her breaking point when she lashes out at her friends for seemingly not caring about her state as she leaves the group. Right after, she begins to believe that she only made things worse every time she tries to help and is Driven to Suicide after seeing Little get killed by Neopolitan. However, after meeting with the Blacksmith again and realizing she doesn't have to be a perfect Huntress and just has to be herself, Ruby regains her self confidence and together with her team they easily defeat the Curious Cat.
Past Experience Nightmare: Though distraught over Pyrrha's death, Ruby shows few visible signs of this during Volume 4. However, she does have restless sleep with recurring dreams about the death, waking in a cold sweat with Pyrrha's voice still echoing in her thoughts. The other characters don't know about her nightmares and the only time she ever talks about Pyrrha's death is in Volume 5, when pushed by Oscar into explaining that she keeps going by remembering what Pyrrha fought for.
Perky Goth: In sharp contrast to her red-and-black frilled, laced outfit and fierce-looking scythe, she is a very cheerful, optimistic person, who always tries to see the positives in life.
Petal Power: When discussing how Semblances functioning, he mentions the ability to burst into rose petals. Penny describes her Semblance as the ability to break down into particles, defying mass to travel with enormous speed. Whenever Ruby activates her Semblance, she appears to vanish in a swirl of rose petals, which are left behind when she leaves an area suddenly. Qrow implies that the rose petals aren't illusion or a Dust effect woven into her cloak, but an actual side effect of her Semblance. When Ren's Semblance upgrades in Volume 8, his ability to see the emotions of others manifests to him in the form of petals that shed from their Auras. Ruby's petal-shedding is therefore implied to be a part of her Semblance.
Playful Cat Smile: She does an open-mouthed version in episode 5 after showing off her Flash Step to Weiss, accompanied with pawing hand motions, like a begging dog.
Plucky Girl: Ruby is determined to be like the great fairy tale heroes to protect people who can't protect themselves. When Blake states the real world isn't like a fairy tale, Ruby points out they're training to make it better. When she struggles with self-doubt in the wilds of Anima, Jaune reveals that her optimism and determination gave them all the courage to follow her. She comforts the terrified Oscar by revealing how she copes with fear, leading him to discuss with Ozpin her unique ability to inspire others. In Volume 8, Blake admits that Ruby has inspired her to reclaim the optimism and idealism a difficult life had beaten out of her.
Poor Communication Kills:
- Ruby defies the trope after she and Weiss' initially disastrous pairing in Volume 1. She interrupts Weiss's attack strategy against a Beowolf by appearing out of nowhere and slashing it right in front of her; Weiss is forced to awkwardly divert her momentum and inadvertently sets the forest on fire to avoid hitting Ruby. Weiss angrily calls Ruby out for her lack of communication, but Ruby dismisses it because she hasn't yet learned how to fight with others. By Volume 2, Ruby has learned and become very organised at developing team strategies and attack combinations for her team to use in battle.
- Played for Drama in Volume 9 regarding her mental state to her friends. By the time Ruby enters the Ever After, she has gone through a lot of trauma throughout the series and none of her friends are even aware of it until Ruby refuses to even pick up her weapon. Right after when her teammates focus to consol Jaune right after and expect Ruby to help, she ends up lashing out at them for seemingly not caring about her problems and leaves the group after Jaune lashes out at her.
Post-Victory Collapse:
- After activating her silver eyes for the first time wrecks Cinder and freezes the Wyvern, she spends what is implied to be at least several days in a coma-like state.
- Downplayed in the aftermath of battle of Haven, she drops onto her knees with a loud tired groan, out of exhaustion.
The Power of Love: Ruby's silver eyes are triggered when people she loves are in danger and comes from her desire to protect them. When surrounded by Apathy, Maria triggers Ruby's eyes by instructing her to think of the people who love her, and whom she wants to protect. She vaporises the Apathy in a single blast. Maria later explains that the power is Light that comes from the God of Light, and its requires the right protective mindsight to use.
Pursuing Parental Perils: Ruby's mother was a Huntress who died on the job. Ruby is absolutely determined to become one. She wants to help people and sees being a Huntress as the more glamorous option to be a policewoman. Roman points out that Huntsmen have a tendency to die young, but that reality has never deterred Ruby from wanting to be one.
Recoil Boost: Many of the moves Ruby pulls off are done by firing shots to propel herself short distances, simultaneously attacking and evading an opponent.
Retractable Weapon: The scythe actually folds into the gun itself. Aside from that, two hooks on the back of the blade can fold forward to turn the scythe into a war glaive.
Right Behind Me:
- When Ruby is discussing with Yang her first disastrous encounter with Weiss, she comments on how mean and crabby Weiss was. Weiss is standing right behind her.
- When Weiss lists the reasons why Ruby is a terrible choice for team leader, she declares Ozpin made a mistake and storms off. A dejected Ruby turns around to find Ozpin standing directly behind her and realises he's overheard every word.
Rule of Cool: Ruby can swing around a scythe twice her size without effort. She can also use the recoil from the shots to defy gravity and bisect Beowolves.
Sacrificed Basic Skill for Awesome Training: Because she's a prodigy in fighting and weapon-design, Ruby's more comfortable around weapons than people. While she admits meeting people is important, both Yang and Ozpin have to encourage her to socialise instead of just spending all her time fighting. She's much better at socialising by Volume 4.
Sarcasm-Blind: In the first three volumes, she sometimes has issues detecting sarcasm, especially when it comes from Weiss. It's usually played for laughs and she grows out of it by Volume 4.
Ruby: Hello, Weiss! I'm Ruby! Wanna hang out? We could go shopping for school supplies!
Weiss: Yeah! And we can paint our nails, and try on clothes, and talk about cute boys, like Tall, Blond, and... Scraggly over there! [points at Jaune]
Ruby: Oh, wow, really!?
Weiss: No.
Scarred Equipment: Although there are signs of the weapon being scratched and damaged in Volume 4, concept art reveals Crescent Rose is more damaged than seen in the show. It's in Volume 6 when the animation is improved enough to show just how scarred the weapon is from constant use and low maintenance.
Secret-Keeper: She was one of the few people aware of Penny's true nature prior to the latter's death. The only other people who knew were General Ironwood, Penny's father, and Cinder.
Shell-Shocked Veteran: In Volume 9, following the tumultuous events she's witnessed — culminating in the fall of Mantle and Penny's death — Ruby is clearly suffering from severe PTSD, to the point that she's afraid even to touch Crescent Rose, and freezes up during a battle with Neo's Jabberwalkers. Unfortunately her friends completely fail to notice that she's in pain, and just expect her to go on sorting out everyone else's problems like normal. This ultimately leads to a major blowout between them, resulting in Ruby departing in tears.
She's Back: After going through the emotional wringer during the climax of Volume 8 and all of Volume 9, Ruby finally accepts that she doesn't need to be perfect and reclaims Crescent Rose, emerging from her bark cocoon in the Tree with Red Like Roses Part III playing triumphantly. She then proceeds to dish out a Curb-Stomp Battle to the Curious Cat, joined by her team.
Shy Finger-Twiddling: Ruby occasionally twiddles her fingers whenever she gets upset or anxious. When Weiss lectures her for causing an explosion by sneezing into a cloud of volatile Dust, she twiddles her fingers, and she does it again when she deflates from her achievements over thwarting Roman after Qrow cynically asks her if she really believes Team RWBY is capable of easily ending crime in an entire kingdom.
Silly Rabbit, Cynicism Is for Losers!: Ruby is an idealist who dreams of becoming a Huntress to protect people and fight for the right reasons. Blake cynically suggests the real world isn't like a fairy tale, but Ruby says they exist to make it better. Later, Qrow says medals aren't given out for "almost winning", but she reminds him silver medals exist. Roman's a cynical survivalist who only works with Salem because he doesn't want to be on the losing side. Even when he argues that the world is harsh, cruel, and she should die like every other Huntsman in history, she just shuts him down. After Volume 8 sees the loss of dear friends, the Kingdom of Atlas and Salem obtaining two Relics, Ruby is left reeling in the next volume as she struggles with suicidal depression over her inability to achieve the impossible standards she's been setting herself. Upon learning Summer was unable to achieve the flawless perfection that she expects of herself, she recovers and accepts herself for who she is.
Skilled, but Naive: Ruby is an absolute pro when it comes to wielding her weapon, so much so that she got moved ahead two years in her Huntress training. But she has to learn the hard way that natural talent isn't enough. She has to be able to work with others, develop good judgement, and stop fighting recklessly. When she does learn these lessons, she develops several team attack strategies and combination moves for Team RWBY to use in battle. Plans she does come up with, usually succeed.
Small Girl, Big Gun: In its base form, Crescent Rose is as big as she is; when it's unfolded, it dwarfs her. Physically, she's one of the smallest and youngest members of the main cast.
Something about a Rose: She has taken her mother's surname "Rose" and has a lot of rose symbolism. Her mother's grave contains a rose carving, as does her private journal, and she wears rose symbols on her belt. In keeping with her full name, her rose symbolism combines with her black-and-red colour scheme to evoke red roses; this includes the name of her red-and-black gun-scythe, Crescent Rose. Even her headphones◊ are red and sport rose symbols. Her Semblance enables her to move at extremely fast speeds, but does so by transforming her into massless particles that leave behind a rose petal effect.
Spin Attack: She frequently uses these, since the attack arc of a scythe lends itself towards this. In her first appearance, she takes out groups of Mooks with single sweeps of her weapon. She also spins her weapon before planting the blade to use the sniper sight.
Spin to Deflect Stuff: She deflects incoming gunfire by quickly twirling her scythe.
Spotting the Thread: In "Destiny", Velvet tells Ruby about her team's battle with Emerald and Mercury, revealing that Coco had thought she had seen her teammate with her the entire time when he was nowhere near her. Everyone interpreted them as stress-induced hallucinations, but it allows Ruby to realise that it must be connected to Yang's hallucination against Mercury. When she then sees Emerald in the audience watching Pyrrha and Penny, instead of having flown back to Mistral with Mercury as claimed, Ruby realises she needs to confront her, but runs into Mercury and is unable to stop the fight.
Squee: When Ruby becomes extremely excited, she starts squealing. When first meeting Glynda and explaining to Glynda and Ozpin how amazing she thinks Huntsmen and Huntresses are, she resorts to squealing; when she sees all the new weapons on her first day Beacon Academy, she's beside herself with excitement; and when her uncle arrives in Beacon, she's so thrilled to see him she becomes very high-pitched.
Stepford Smiler: Though Ruby's cheerful, happy and optimistic, she's strongly implied to be hiding despair. In the fourth and fifth volumes, she represses her trauma from Salem's attack on Beacon until Oscar cracks the mask when demanding to know how she can keep going in the face of so much pain, horror and fear; it cracks again after Ruby witnesses Cinder attack Jaune in Haven. Two volumes later, her defiance against Salem ends with her collapsing in tears when Salem throws Summer back in her face; in the next volume, she falls into a Heroic BSoD after learning the Awful Truth about what Salem might have done to Summer. By volume 9, Ruby ends up lashing out at her friends when they seem to ignore her problems right after finding out about them while focusing more on Jaune's recent issues. Right after their falling out, Ruby herself goes over the Despair Event Horizon after seeing Little get killed by Neopolitan and is Driven to Suicide.
The Strategist: Part of the reason why she's the leader of Team RWBY. She alone came up with the plan to defeat the Nevermore during initiation. By Volume 2, she's come up with several attack patterns involving each permutation of two team RWBY members (except for Yang and herself).
Ruby: I have a plan.
Weiss: You always do.
Strong Family Resemblance: Summer and Ruby are almost the spitting image of each other. They have the same dark hair, silver eyes and facial features. The primary difference between them is that Ruby has extremely pale skin.
Super-Speed: Ruby's Semblance is the ability move at extremely fast speeds. She appears to transform into a red torpedo, leaving behind contrails of rose petals, and can even travel for short bursts through the air. Penny explains in Volume 8 that what she's actually doing is breaking herself, and anyone she carries, down into particles that defy mass, and then reforming them at her destination. As a side effect, she can create powerful winds and vacuum tubes as a result of her great speed.
Sweet Tooth: Ruby has five spoons of sugar in her coffee and has a strong taste for cookies. When she first meets Ozpin, he bribes her with a plate full of cookies when drawing information out of her. She demolishes the plate in moments. When discussing Cardin's bullying in the canteen, her lunch consists of a plate of cookies. In Volume 5, Weiss makes coffee for her and comments that it contains blasphemous amounts of sugar.
Sword Plant: Every time she takes out Crescent Rose, she tends to stab its blade into the ground, holding it to the side of her body. It appears to be her standard "ready for combat" stance.
Symbolic Blood: During the Red Trailer, when Ruby kills the Creatures of Grimm, their blood disintegrates into red petals in exactly the same way her cape does whenever she uses her Semblance. The appearance of floating red petals become a symbol for Ruby's presence or departure throughout the main show.
Technician Versus Performer: Weiss and Ruby. Both are combat trained, but Ruby is a brash, immature child prodigy who fights impulsively, instinctively, and alone. Weiss is highly trained, formal, academic, and fights with precision and calculation; she values proper form, organisation and planning. Weiss's demand for a leader she respects forces Ruby to learn how to be mature, responsible and strategic in battle. Meanwhile, Weiss has to learn how to be a good support fighter, who provides most of the skills that Ruby needs to execute her plans, and covers Ruby's overly-specialized combat skills with her wider flexibility and versatility.
Throwing Your Sword Always Works: In Volume 8 battle with Neo, she hurls her scythe, which spins as it's thrown. It misses Neo, but returns to her hand. She also hurls her scythe at Neo and speeds round to catch it on the other side. However, she's distraught over Yang's fall, and Neo effortlessly avoids with with a mocking smirk.
Took a Level in Badass: Ruby is much more powerful in Volume 4 than at the end of Volume 3. A time skip has passed where Team RNJR has been out in the wilds for months. All of them have got much stronger, but Ruby's Semblance has upgraded dramatically, allowing her to make speed copies, tank punishing blows from powerful Grimm, and give her a powerful leaping distance.
Trademark Clothing: Her red, hooded cape is incorporated into every outfit she wears. She even wears it over her school uniform. She seems to incorporate it into her Semblance activation, swirling it to give her the appearance of a red torpedo as she speeds by and scatter petals.
Tragic Keepsake: Her rose brooch was originally her mother's who left it behind before going on her last mission which she never returned from.
Traumatic Superpower Awakening: Witnessing Pyrrha's death in Volume 3 triggers a burst of silver light from her eyes, leaving her unconscious for days and Cinder maimed for life. She learns silver eyes is a very rare trait and marks people as powerful warriors with the power to destroy Grimm with the power of light. Maria, an elderly silver-eyed warrior, starts teaching her how to use her eyes from Volume 6. Together, they discover their power comes from the silver-eyed God of Light, and that Salem has been hunting their kind for centuries, which is why they're now so rare.
The Unchosen One: Professor Ozpin — and his successor, Oscar — is the The Chosen One, inheritor of a divine mandate to redeem humanity. However, after millennia spent fighting an Invincible Villain, Ozpin is burned out and traumatised while Oscar is young and untrained. Ruby becomes involved upon realising there's something wrong and that her abilities can help. Ozpin tells Oscar that Ruby possesses an unquantifiable spark that inspires others — including him — even in the darkest times, making Ruby the de facto leader in the fight to save the world from Salem.
Unique Protagonist Asset: Admitted to the elite Beacon Academy two years early, she has developed astonishing skills from an early age because she is so driven become a Huntress who protects people like storybook heroes. Being born with rare silver eyes gives her the ability to slay the Grimm with the power of Light; it also endows her with the potential to become one of the world's greatest warriors. The Big Bad has been hunting Silver-Eyed Warriors for nefarious reasons, The Heavy has a unique vulnerability to this power, and the Big Good thinks she has an "unquantifiable spark" that allows her to inspire people — including him — even in the darkest times.
Vocal Evolution: Her voice subtly changes from her debut to post season 1, where it gets higher and more cartoony sounding. By Volume 7, it has deepened again as she matures.
Wake-Up Call: After an argument with Weiss and a lecture from Ozpin, Ruby learns that since she's the leader of her team, she needs to actually act the part. She can't goof off all the time, she has to step up and be a proper leader even when not in battle or on a mission. She takes this to heart and is later able to help Jaune step up to his own leadership responsibilities.
Weapon Twirling: Whenever she activates her weapon in preparation for battle, she always does it by spinning it off its collapsed position on her back, extending it into scythe-form as it spins, and coming out of the spin to plant the tip of the blade in the ground. She also twirls it into a sword-plant when about to use her sniper sights.
Weapon Across the Shoulder: When the weapon is in full scythe mode, her default stance is to drape it across her shoulder and down to the ground.
Worf Had the Flu: When investigating the White Fang at Mountain Glenn, Ruby is easily captured after she loses her scythe falling down a sinkhole in the abandoned town. Her punches have little impact on her captors and, while she's normally willing to challenge Roman to fight when she has her weapon, without it she concentrates on trying to escape him. She has to be found by her team and reunited with her weapon before she can successfully fight back. In flashbacks, Yang has unsuccessfully tried to get her to address her inability to fight without her weapon but she doesn't make a serious attempt to correct this weakness until Professor Ozpin confronts her about it in Volume 5. During Volume 9 when Ruby doesn't have Crescent Rose for the majority of the volume, she is forced to rely on her teammates in order to fight despite learning hand to hand combat. When she finally gets her weapon back however, she doesn't really use it against the Jabberwalker clones and almost gets killed because of PTSD which causes Jaune to angrily reprimand her for not fighting back while trying to give her back her weapon until she backed away and refused to pick it up. By this point, Ruby's friends begin to realize that something was wrong with her.

Weiss Schnee

Voiced By: Kara Eberle, Casey Lee Williams (singing voice) ^{Foreign VAs}Yōko Hikasa (Japanese)

Debut: White Trailer

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/weiss.png

"I'm... not... perfect. Not yet."

"When I said I wanted to honour my family's name, I meant it. But — it's not what you think. I'm not stupid; I'm fully aware of what my father has done with the Schnee Dust Company. Since he took control, our business has operated in a 'moral grey area' ... which is why I feel the need to make things right. If I had taken a job in Atlas, it wouldn't have changed anything. My father was not the start of our name, and I refuse to let him be the end of it."

Weiss is a member of the super-wealthy Schnee family, owners of the Schnee Dust Company megacorporation. As per her station in life, she is graceful, well-mannered and highly trained in etiquette, but can also come across as haughty and aloof.

Her weapon is Myrtenaster, a rapier with a revolving chamber that allows her to use many different types of Dust. Her Semblance is "Glyphs", allowing her to generate Instant Runes that create various effects: from simple platforms, to gravity manipulation, projecting her Dust, and even summoning ice-clones of the Grimm she's slain in battle.

Academic Alpha Bitch: She yells at Ruby for falling into her suitcases, and then gives her a verbal thrashing about why she shouldn't be at Beacon. And while she remains haughty, the heart of gold is slowly and subtly starting to peek out, as of Episode 6. But in Episode 9, she's the one taking class the most seriously, and she gets fed up with Ruby, who's using the time to goof off.
Affectionate Nickname: While they romantically interested in her, both Jaune and Neptune independently came up with the nickname "Snow Angel". However, "Ice Queen" is the nickname that catches on in Beacon. Although Weiss is indignant about it, when everyone is reminiscing about Beacon in Volume 5, Weiss all but admits she did actually like the nickname.
Alliterative Family: Weiss Schnee's name means "white snow". Her mother and two siblings all have a name beginning with W that evokes the colour white and can be combined with their surname to create a snow association: Willow ("snow willow", a real-life tree species), Winter ("winter snow"), and Whitley (either "snowy white glade" or "snow-white glade").
Ash Face: Her whole body gets covered in ash after she inadvertently makes Ruby sneeze with the Dust she kept waving around; it vanishes when she stamps her foot in rage. It happens again during the tournament match when she pushes herself and Flynt into an erupting geyser, sacrificing her Aura to save Yang. After the fight, Yang cradles the sooty Weiss and jokes that she doesn't think Weiss used proper form.
Back-to-Back Badasses: During the Battle of Beacon, she and Blake end up fighting a mixture of Atlesian robots and White Fang members. Weiss takes out an army of robots while Blake takes out the same amount of White Fang. After demolishing both sides, their finishing moves bring them back-to-back, ready for more.
Bait-and-Switch Comment: She's initially dismissive of keeping Zwei, but her attempt to chastise Ruby trails off as she succumbs to Zwei's cute stare.
Weiss: Are you telling me, that this mangy...drooling...mutt...is going to wiv with us fowever? Oh yes he is, yes he is! Arf! Arf!
Barrier Warrior: Weiss can produce different kinds of barriers with her Semblance and Dust, and is Team RWBY's only source of shielding. Her runes can create circle barriers that act like shields while Dust allows her to produce elemental barriers, such as walls of ice or rock. She is therefore able to defend herself and others from Grimm, combatants or even technology, such as the energy cannon of Cordovin's giant mech-unit.
Beneath the Mask: Due to a privileged, yet abusive, family environment, Weiss learned to navigate the world in an aloof, arrogant, sarcastic and selfish manner; her family's war with the White Fang also encouraged racism against Faunus. However, her unpleasant demeanour hides both great loneliness and determination to change her family's legacy for the better; as a result, she excelled as a Huntress to enable her to escape her family environment and enrol at Beacon Academy to pursue a more honourable lifestyle; this has enabled her to turn her life and attitude around, allowing her to become a much more openly kind and considerate person who fights for what is right and is no longer racist.
Big Damn Heroes: Ruby recklessly attempts to take on a Death Stalker during initiation just to prove herself, but is pinned by a Nevermore's giant feather. As Yang struggles to rescue Ruby from certain death, Weiss arrives in the nick of time to freeze the Death Stalker.
Big Sister Worship: Weiss worships her older sister Winter and values her advice in training to become stronger as a fighter and independent person. When Winter arrives in Vale, Weiss rushes to meet her and her formal etiquette gives way to outbursts of enthusiasm. After Jacques detains her in Atlas, she flees the house and kingdom in search of her sister. Flashbacks reveal just how important Winter was in helping Weiss develop the strength and power she needed to escape their father's control.
Blade Run: In the White Trailer, she races up the massive blade of the Arma Gigas that she's fighting. Both the knight and blade so enormous that she's even able to do an Unnecessary Combat Roll on it. From Volume 7, she adapts her landing strategy to include summoning the giant sword of her Knight avatar, so that she skate down it towards the ground.
Blank White Eyes: At the end of "Field Trip", her eyes blank out when she discovers that their incredibly academic history teacher will be the Huntsman that they will be shadowing during their first mission.
Blemished Beauty: Weiss has a vertical scar running down her left eye, which was received during her duel with the Arma Gigas in the White Trailer. It doesn't stop her attracting the attentions of Jaune and Neptune in the first three volumes, who both independently call her "Snow Angel". In Volume 4, she also attracts the attention of Henry Marigold, who thinks she's "pretty".
Blood Upgrade: In the White Trailer, Weiss initially struggles to fight the giant knight, which sends her flying. When she rises to her feet, there is blood streaming down her left eye. From that point, Weiss begins using Dust, increases her attack power, and quickly defeats it.
Blow You Away: Weiss's sword carries all Dust types. During the tournament with Team FNKI, she activates Wind Dust to counter the sonic waves that Flynt is producing from his trumpet.
Butt-Monkey: On occasions, Weiss can get easily flustered when someone or something defies conventional logic or rationality, which usually results in her being humiliated in increasingly funny ways. By the ninth volume, Team RWBY's stranded in the Ever After, which does not follow the rules of logic in Remnant, and Weiss stubbornly tries sticking to her home world's principles when navigating the land. She thus becomes the butt of several jokes as the new world seems to have it in for her, such as making her run in circles or suddenly fall into holes. Weiss ends up more and more exasperated the more she stays in here, but also becoming more blasé after a while:
Weiss: "How perfectly, stupidly Ever After-en. (sigh) This place really is the pits."
(a literal pit opens up under her, making her fall, screaming, and land painfully on the same spot she was seconds before)
Weiss: (in a resigned tone) "OK, I asked for that."
Character Catchphrase: Weiss often confronts someone's questionable attitude by saying "What's that supposed to mean?" She does so with Blake when she doubts Yang's innocence after attacking Mercury, when Yang dismisses Blake's absence in Mistral, and when Caroline Cordovin refers to Blake as a "questionable character".
Cleavage Window: Her Volumes 4-6 outfit is a low-cut dress finished with a bolero that is fastened at her neck. It exposes most of her chest along with cleavage. Her Volume 7 outfit significant decreases the size of the cleavage window with a layered dress that covers more cleavage and a bolero that clasps across her chest.
Color-Coded Elements: Weiss's Semblance glyphs can change colour depending on which Dust effect she's combining them with. White appears to be their default colour, used when summoning, moving through air, or speeding people up. When combined with Dust, they turn pale blue for ice-attacks, black for gravity effects, and orange for fire attacks.
Color-Coded for Your Convenience: The barrel of her sword has six color-coded chambers for different Dust types. As each Dust type produces its own unique range of elemental effects, each time the barrel locks a colour in place, it identifies which elemental effects she will be fighting with.
Combat Stilettos: Despite her high wedge-heeled boots, Weiss is an extremely artistic fighter, engaging in acrobatics, pirouetting, and ice-skating like a dancer. When Ruby is forced to wear heels to the dance, she complains that she can't understand how Weiss fights in them.
Ruby: Can we have a serious talk about how Weiss fights in these?!
Cooldown Hug: After the heroes illegally enter Atlas in a stolen airship, Winter angrily rants about the dangers in doing so. Seconds later, however, Weiss calms Winter down by hugging her tightly, apologising for worrying her and reassuring her they did what they had to do.
Cranial Eruption: Upon arriving at Beacon, Winter smacks Weiss on the head to silence her. It leaves Weiss with a comedic swelling on the side of her head that Ruby playfully pushes back in.
Cuteness Proximity: Weiss tends to gush while using Baby Talk when exposed to cuteness, such as when succumbing to Ruby and Yang's pet dog, assuring it that they will be "Best fwends". When Jaune's baby nephew attempts to mimic Jaune's grumpy body language, Weiss is completely smitten with how adorable he is.
Dance Battler: Her fighting style is based on ballerina and figure skating poses and moves, including spins, pirouettes, and flourishes. It makes her look graceful, balletic and acrobatic, incorporating her Semblance to produce speed glyphs or ice that she can ice-skate on, and Dust to activate when she reaches the end of her sequence of movements. The complexity of her movements usually indicate the complexity of the use to which she puts her Semblance at the end of the move.
Deadpan Snarker: Often uses harsh sarcasm when angered at the target of her annoyance. Ruby often bears the brunt of this in the early Volumes, and it returns full-force in the Ever After.
Deflector Shield: In Volume 5, Weiss has become skilled enough with ice Dust that she can use it to create a barrier around herself to deflect projectiles.
Defrosting Ice Queen: After receiving Professor Port's advice on being the perfect team-mate, Weiss begins modifying her attitude; initially aloof, selfish, haughty and racist towards Faunus, she becomes more compassionate, empathic, supportive, kinder and stops being racist. Her nickname "Ice Queen" sticks because she never entirely loses her haughty demeanour, but she becomes so much warmer that she melts into baby talk after first meeting Zwei and Jaune's baby nephew.
Determinator: After a lifetime of being controlled by her father Jacques, she has to fight for her right to follow her dreams; he organises a lethal combat test she has to win just to attend Beacon Academy, then drags her back home after Beacon falls. Once Jacques disinherits her for insolence, she resolves to master her summoning ability so that she can flee. Despite persistent opposition, she never gives up and her return to Atlas in Volume 7 is solely because of the mission she's on, where she arrests Jacques for treason.
Doesn't Trust Those Guys: The Schnees and the White Fang have been at war for years. Because she's witnessed the fallout from murders, theft and other criminal activities by the White Fang, she doesn't trust any Faunus, assuming they're all willing to become members of the White Fang if given half a chance. Having a Faunus team-mate who used to be a member of the White Fang helps Weiss overcome her prejudice in the long-term.
Dramatic Thunder: Both times she gloats, there's thunder in the background, which immediately gets cut off when she's interrupted.
Dueling Scar: She has a scar over her left eye which she got during a sword fight with a giant animated suit of armour.
Early-Installment Weirdness: Like Ruby, she's much more stoic in the trailer that introduces her than she is in the actual series; as with Ruby's trailer, her trailer was probably intended to demonstrate her weapon and abilities rather than her character.
Elemental Eye Colors: She has pale, clear blue eyes in keeping with her powers over the elements, particularly ice and snow.
Elemental Motifs: Based on Snow White, Weiss and her entire family have a snow/ice theme: snow-white hair, pale skin, a snowflake family emblem, and a white colour motif that possesses a secondary colour association of blue. Weiss's father, who originally had black hair, fully adopted the theme when he married into the family and took over the company. Weiss and her older sister Winter have both been nicknamed "Ice Queen" by others for their cold, aloof personalities and preference for using Ice Dust in battle.
Entertainingly Wrong: In her match against Neon and Flynt, Yang asks her what to expect from Atlas students. She lists off "strict, militant fighters with advanced technology and carefully rehearsed strategy". Cue Flynt showing up to the battlefield with a trumpet and Neon zooming around behind her in a wave of rainbow.
Every Proper Lady Should Curtsy: Raised as a wealthy heiress to the Schnee Dust Company, Weiss has been trained in high society manners and etiquette. She therefore curtsies gracefully whenever the situation is appropriate: she finishes her songs in the White Trailer and Volume 4 with a curtsey and also curtesies when her sister arrives at Beacon in Volume 3.
Eyes Are Unbreakable: Although her vision is unimpared, she has a small, jagged scar across her left eye from a blunt impact that hit her brow and cheek but didn't strike the eye itself.
Family of Choice: Although she is close to her older sister Winter and her butler Klein, she doesn't get along well with her father Jacques nor her younger brother Whitley. Thanks to her close relationship with Team RWBY, however, Weiss eventually comes to see them as her real family as opposed to Jacques.
Fanservice Pack: From a modest dress style and knee-high boots that partially hide her legs and make her look flat-chested, Weiss's style evolves over the volumes to expose a curvier figure and corresponding Cleavage Window. It contributes to making her look older and more mature as the teenagers get older.
Fantastic Racism: Because of the war between the Schnees and the White Fang, she loathes them and mistrusts all Faunus as potential White Fang members. When Sun plays loose with the law, her prejudice is triggered, leading to an angry confrontation with Blake. However, after getting to know Blake better, she also undergoes a shift in her treatment of Faunus, stops thinking of the Faunus as terrorists-in-waiting, and begins actively protecting them when they're in danger or being insulted by racists. In Volume 7, she apologises to Blake for her family's role in abusing Faunus miners and how complacent about it she used to be.
Finishing Move: Weiss's final move in the White Trailer mimics Ruby's starting move in the Red Trailer. Like Ruby, she leaps high into the air until she framed against the moon. The markings and chamber on her weapon glows white and then she dives towards the knight, blade first to pierce it, to land on one knee. She then rises as the knight crashes to the ground and dissipates behind her into snowflakes.
Foil: Weiss and Blake. Their polar opposite backgrounds and history of enmity causes stress in Volume 1. As the daughter of Menagerie's chieftan and former White Fang leader, Blake is a Faunus who has fought her entire life for equality by fair means or foul. Weiss was born a wealthy heiress to an exploitative global megacorp that abuses Faunus. The White Fang and Schnee Dust Company have warred for years, but they are both disillusioned with their upbringings. Originally intractable, they have learned from each other and become outcasts for opposing their abusive male authority figures, Blake by voluntarily deserting the White Fang and Weiss by being disinherited. Both seek to become Huntresses to restore their legacies to honour.
Formal Characters Use Keigo: The Japanese dub uses very formal speech patterns to reflect Weiss's high-class, well-bred upbringing; this includes using such Japanese Pronouns as "watakushi", an extremely polite, old-fashioned term that is appropriate for her depiction as a princess-like heiress of a powerful megacorp.
Geometric Magic: Weiss' Semblance creates complex spinning glyphs, whose designs are linked to their effects. White glyphs repel and move targets away from them while black glyphs attract targets and fix their location. Some glyphs can speed a target's motion, others summon avatars of her fallen foes, and combining glyphs with Dust can produce elemental attacks. She often combines glyph activation with geometric movements akin to ballet dancing, but relies less on these as her skills develop.
The Glomp: Upon realising Yang is in the bandit camp, Weiss openly summons her knight avatar to escape her prison. While she and Yang are initially prepared to fight the bandits back-to-back, Raven de-escalates the situation and summons the girls' for a private chat. Just before they follow, Weiss tackles Yang with a fierce hug, emphatically declaring how much she's missed her. Initially startled, Yang returns the hug and sentiment.
Good Scars, Evil Scars: She carries a thin, pale scar over her left eye which blends in with her face and is therefore easy to ignore even when looking straight at her.
Gravity Master: Her white glyphs allow her targets to Wall Run. Combining the glyphs with gravity Dust turns them black, allowing her to attract, repel, slingshot, and yank enemies into the path of her next attack; she can also root people in place to balance them or slow down targets that are falling from the sky.
Green-Eyed Monster: Weiss is shocked with Ozpin's decision to appoint Ruby team leader, becoming uncooperative and argumentative. Upon debating with Port whether Ozpin was wrong, he observes she's used to getting what she wants, telling her to stop obsessing over what she doesn't have and focus instead on being the best person she can be. She later tells Ruby she will be the best team-mate anyone could ever have.
Hair Color Dissonance: Weiss has white hair and artwork keeps it white. However, to give it life and body in the animation, tints of blue and grey get used.
Heroic Sacrifice: During the Vytal Festival double rounds, she pushes herself and Flynt Coal into an erupting fire geyser to keep him from attacking Yang with his sonic blasts. This act weakens him enough that he and his partner Neon end up easy prey for a vengeful Yang.
Hypocritical Humor:
- While she snaps at Ruby for knocking over her Dust supplies because of Dust's volatility, she shakes a bottle of Fire Dust while gesticulate, producing a cloud of particles that causes Ruby to sneeze. The resulting explosion further infuriates Weiss.
- When crying over losing the round in a board game, Ruby tries to hug her. She snaps "Don't touch me!" while returning the hug.
An Ice Person: Although Weiss can use all types of Dust in her weapon, she heavily favours Ice Dust, using it for a range of things from ice attacks to walls of ice to freezing opponents. She can encase the entire team in ice to protect them from explosions, such as when their train crashes into downtown Vale in the Volume 2 finale, "Breach".
Icy Blue Eyes: She has pale, clear blue eyes in keeping with her cold personality.
Image Song: Weiss sings "This Life is Mine" during the Volume 4 fundraiser, after her father coerces her into doing so as a PR exercise to remind Remnant a Schnee fought on the front lines at Beacon. She sings about defiance, claiming her right to control her own life from her father. By the end of the volume, she manages to escape him and take back control.
Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: In the battle for Haven, Jaune is alarmed when Vernal breaks Weiss's Aura. When Cinder realises he's willing to die for his friends, she targets the vulnerable Weiss instead of killing him. She uses a magically created spear to stab Weiss in the gut while Jaune looks on in horror.
Improvised Weapon: Uses a swordfish in "Best Day Ever"'s Food Fight as a substitute for her rapier. She also uses condiments in lieu of her ice attack.
In-Series Nickname: "Ice Queen" is a popular nickname for her among both friends and enemies alike. She confused and indignant about why people insist on calling her that, but she admits in Volume 5 that she does sort of like it.
Insufferable Genius: At Beacon, she's working on becoming the best in the year, and never misses a chance to correct others or show off her knowledge. She eventually mellows out and stops showing off in this manner.
Insult of Endearment: "Ice Queen" starts as a straight-up insult, but gradually grows into a term of affection as the series goes on and Weiss becomes a nicer person. By the time of Volume 5, she reluctantly admits to actually being somewhat attached to the nickname.
Internal Reformist: The Schnee Company has a long proud tradition, but ever since Weiss's father took control, the company has slipped into a "moral grey area". Weiss is determined to make sure her father's actions do not finish off the family name by following in her grandfather's footsteps to become a Huntress.
Weiss: My father was not the start of our name, and I refuse to let him be the end of it.
Instant Runes: Her Semblance produces glyphs that resemble snowflakes; these can be used for a range of things, such as increasing a target's speed or allowing targets to Wall Run. Combined with Dust, her range of options increases: she can defy gravity, root people to the ground, produce fire, wind or ice attacks, and summon ice avatars of fallen Grimm foes, including the White Trailer's knight. Her versatility effectively makes her the team "mage".
Jerkass Has a Point:
- With Ruby goofing off in class, Weiss is furious that her team leader isn't taking the job seriously. While Port checks her resentment over not becoming the leader instead, Ozpin warns Ruby that Weiss is right to demand the best from her; leadership responsibility means always performing at their best to give others a reason to follow them.
- Weiss's bigotry towards Faunus results in her arguing with Blake about her hatred of the White Fang and mistrust of Sun just for being a Faunus and stowaway. However, she is right about the White Fang being murderous terrorists; Blake abandoned them because Adam's extremist leadership has made the Vale branch exceptionally violent towards humans.
Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Initially judgemental, arrogant and hyper-critical, she values life and will protect those in danger even when angry with them, such as saving Ruby from a Death Stalker despite initially disliking her. After Blake flees the team when her past is revealed, Weiss uses the time to consider her own prejudice about the White Fang, only chastising Blake for not trusting her team with her problems. Her jerkassery decreases over time as her kindness, empathy and compassion increase.
Kicking Ass in All Her Finery: Weiss's combat clear is styled on evening wear. Her Beacon outfits include intricate lace, droplets and boleros. In Volume 4, she dresses very smartly as befits a wealthy heiress; as she's wearing these clothes when she flees Atlas, she spends the next two volumes looking very elegant compared to her peers. By Volume 7, her outfit is almost a "battle ballgown", complete with puff shoulders, opera-style gloves, droplets on her skirt, and frilled knee-high boots.
Lady of War: Her fighting style is very graceful, elegant and refined. It seems to combine fencing with balletic and figure skating movements. She also has a cool, collected demeanor in battle. This is emphased after Volume 4, as her clothing becomes more elegant and refined in keeping with her wealthy, high-class status.
Leader Wannabe: When Ozpin selects Ruby for team leader, she initially doesn't take it seriously and goofs off in class. An enraged Weiss engages in attention-seeking acts to make the teachers notice her and make her leader instead. Port informs Weiss that her egotistical behaviour only convinces the teachers that Ozpin was right not to choose her, and that she should instead focus on becoming the best person she can be. Although she doesn't know it, Ozpin warns Ruby that Weiss is right to have high expectations and that leaders must always rise to the occasion if they want people to follow them. Both girls learn that leadership has to be earned, not demanded or taken for granted.
Leitmotif: In the White Trailer, Weiss sings "Mirror, Mirror" as she remembers her duel with an armoured knight; it's a song where she's asking who she is and whether she can switch off her emotions. That song is often played in the background of her scenes in the main show.
Likes Older Men: In Volume 9, it's revealed that Weiss has a preference for older men when Team RWBY meets the Rusted Knight; she sultrily purrs over his maturity before she realises what she's doing; her attempt to salvage her decorum leaves both Blake and Yang highly amused. The Rusted Knight is actually Jaune, who spends decades in the Ever After waiting for them after a mishap with a Clock Fruit sends him back in time. Jaune isn't in the best mental health after being trapped alone with his trauma for so long; after her initial embarrassment wears off, Weiss becomes increasingly protective and supportive of him as the volume progresses.
Lonely Rich Kid: Raised an heiress by an abusive father and alcoholic mother, she sings about her loneliness and turning her heart to stone to survive. On her tenth birthday, her father revealed he only married Willow to obtain the Schnee Dust Company, triggering her mother's alcoholism. While Weiss idolises an older sister who escaped the family, she doesn't get along with her younger brother, whose own survival tactic is to become Jacques' "mini-me". During Volume 4's fundraiser, she sings a song of defiance about taking control of her life; three volumes later, she bluntly tells Jacques Team RWBY is her family, not him.
Lovable Alpha Bitch: Introduced as a high-achieving, hyper-critical jerk who is judgemental about others, she slowly mellows over time into a much kinder and more compassionate person who works well as a team and seeks to protect people who need help.
Magic Knight: A subverted example. Weiss primarily fights with her Semblance and Dust, so her sword is designed with a revolving chamber that holds different Dust types. Instead of her weapon transforming into a gun, it becomes wand-like, producing long-range elemental attacks. Her Semblance can produce a range of effects from increasing speed to producing elemental attacks when combined with Dust; she can also summon avatars of her fallen foes to aid her in battle. However, despite her "battle mage" style, Dust and Semblances are not true magic, which is something very few people can use.
Magic Wand: Weiss's use of her sword for Dust makes it a "magical" wand, allowing her to launch different kinds of long-range, elemental Dust attacks.
Mini Dress Of Power: Weiss is a highly talented fighter who is capable of tackling challenges and opponents far beyond her student age-group's level. She even graduates to fully-qualified Huntress before she's completed her schooling. For the first six volumes, her mini-dresses reflect her wealthy, high-class upbringing, adding elegance to her combat style.
My Friends... and Zoidberg: Weiss is subjected to a running gag in Volume 2. Ruby declares "Friends, sisters... Weiss!" in the first episode, and Sun addresses every member of Team RWBY by name but ends with "Ice Queen" for Weiss. Even the villains do it, with Roman greeting Team RWBY collective while appending "Ice Queen" when they confront him on the highway.
Noble Bigot: Years of war between the Schnees and the White Fang left her dismissive, intolerant and mistrustful of Faunus. Having an ex-White Fang team-mate helps her grow out of this, becoming much more accepting and sympathetic towards them. In Volume 7, she finally apologises to Blake for how badly her family's company treats Faunus, and her past complacency about it.
Non-Idle Rich: After Oobleck asks her why she wants to be a Huntress, Weiss is left second-guessing the answer she gives him. It helps her identify her true motivation and that a Huntress's duty is not about themselves or their families, it's about the people they're trained to protect.
Not So Above It All: Weiss is usually the team-mate with the straightest laces, but her enthusiasm can sometimes get the better of her. When Glynda discusses the upcoming tournament, Weiss is as thrilled as the boisterous Yang before checking herself. An errant pie to the face fires her up for a food fight that wrecks the school canteen. To counter Blake's moodiness, she balances on a chair while dramatically pointing a finger and demanding Blake reveals what's wrong. When Ruby and Yang's father sends the family dog to them through the mail, Weiss's initial indignance quickly succumbs to the dog's cute stare.
Not So Similar: To May. When discussing Atlas and Mantle's situation in Volume 8, Weiss plans to help Atlas because of her estranged blood-ties and is surprised May doesn't feel the same conflicting loyalty. May explains her fight for Mantle's rights strained her family relationship years ago. Her family disowned her without acknowledging her trans identity and May disowned them in turn. She's surprised by Weiss's dilemma since Whitley reminds her of her cousin, Henry. Whitley surprisingly proves May's comparison wrong, which implies there is hope for Weiss's family relationships whereas no such hope exists for May.
One-Woman Wail: Weiss sings two songs In-Universe. She sings "Mirror, Mirror" during the White Trailer, where her crescendos and faster vocals add tension to the fight she's remembering. At the Volume 4 fundraiser, she sings "This Life Is Mine", which is about her quest to live life on her own terms. Her scene is introduced by her wailing lyrics transitioning between scenes. Her in-universe use of transitioning wails is therefore a signature aspect of the songs she sings.
Parental Neglect: On Weiss's 10th birthday, Jacques revealed he only married Willow to take control of the Schnee Dust Company. Faced with this realisation, a devastated Willow resorted to drinking alcohol. Eventually, Willow stopped participating in Weiss's recitals and social events, opting to drink every day in solitude.
Passed-Over Inheritance: Weiss is initially the heiress of the Schnee Dust Company but Jacques disinherits her in Volume 4 in favour of her younger brother, Whitley.
Perpetual Frowner: In the first volume, Weiss initially looks cross or serious, only smiling if she thinks she's being lauded in some way. When she does genuinely smile and become excited in episode 15, Ruby comments that it's weirding her out. It stops after that.
Politically Incorrect Hero: Weiss is initially prejudiced against the Faunus and will voice her mistrust to all who will listen. It was triggered by years of war between the Schnees and the White Fang; even as a child, she knew board members were being murdered. With an ex-White Fang team-mate, she grows out of her racism and apologises to Blake in Volume 7 for the way her family treats Faunus, and her own past complacency about it.
Power Incontinence: Though Weiss has a very versatile Semblance, she struggles to master summoning. She admits her trouble to Winter in Volume 3, who gives her some tips, enabling her to accidentally and partially manifest the sword arm of the White Trailer's knight during the Battle of Beacon. When Weiss snaps at a woman during the next volume's fundraiser, she inadvertently summons a Boarbatusk; towards the end of the volume, she successfully masters the ability.
Revolvers Are Just Better: Although her weapon is a sword, it has a revolver-like mechanism in the guard that allows it to switch between different types of Dust.
Rich Bitch: On the first day at school, she is aggressive and angry when Ruby falls into her luggage, insulting her intelligence in the process. When Blake recognises who she is, Weiss laps up the fame until Blake points out her family's questionable business practices. When she tries to team up with Pyrrha, it's because she thinks she's the smartest girl in class and Pyrrha's the strongest girl in class. She grows out of this behaviour over time.
Inner Monologue: This is perfect! The smartest girl in class combined with the strongest girl in class; together, we will be unstoppable! I can see it now: we'll be popular; we'll be celebrities; we'll get perfect grades! Nothing could come between us now!
Royal Rapier: Her weapon is a rapier, and Weiss is a high society heiress who wields it with elegance and grace.
The Runaway: To escape Jacques's harsh treatment and seek out Winter in Minstral, Weiss goes on the run by using the manor's secret escape route with her butler Klein's help, and stows away on a cargo aeroplane just before Atlas is locked down. Though Weiss fears being returned to Jacques when the heroes travel to Atlas to protect the Relic of Knowledge, she achieves closure and independence in the process.
Scars Are Forever: Although Aura can heal wounds, Weiss has a small scar on her left eye from the White Trailer's Arma Gigas hitting her in the face with its armoured fist.
Sigil Spam: She is heavily associated with the snowflake symbol. They appear on her boleros, in her Semblance glyphs, in the architecture of Schnee Manor. It's first introduced in the White Trailer, and their presence on train crates being stolen in the following Black Trailer is the earliest depiction of the conflict between the White Fang and the Schnee Dust Company.
Skilled, but Naive: When she first meets Ruby, she mentions that Beacon isn't like the combat schools that preceed it because the students have to actually fight monsters. Her inner monologue during initiation does indicate that she has very little practical experience of fighting Grimm directly; she has to talk herself through a proper fighting stance.
Speed Blitz: Weiss can create multiple floating glyphs that allow a target to bounce around an opponent at extremely high speed, creating multiple attacks from many directions. Her time dilation glyphs speed up a target so that they can perform actions at super-speed; she uses it on Blake when the team fights Roman's Paladin in Volume 2.
Spell Blade: By loading her sword with Dust, she can use her weapon to create elemental attacks like ice, fire, wind, rock, and gravity. She can also combine her blade with her Semblance as well as the Dust to create even more effects, such as multiple blasts of ice instead of just one.
Spikes of Doom: Her sword is able to create ice spikes from the ground that are mainly used to entrap enemies.
Spoiled Brat: When she complains to Professor Port that Ozpin was mistaken to make Ruby team leader instead of her, Port concludes she is "a girl who spent her entire life getting exactly what she wanted". Weiss admits that isn't entirely wrong, prompting Port to observe she's throwing a temper tantrum because someone else got what she wanted, which will not convince Ozpin to reconsider. She starts growing out of this behaviour after that lecture.
Stance System: Her sword's "Dust revolver" chamber is loaded with different kinds of Dust. When she goes with one type, she spins the revolver part to lock the desired Dust chamber into position.
Stepford Smiler: While riding an elevator in Volume 2, she practices smiling in preparation for a video call to her father's headquarters; the smile disappears as soon as the call ends. She later tells Yang that, on her tenth birthday, Jacques revealed that he only married Willow for the inheritance; her devastated mother then descended into alcoholism and stopped parenting. Her father is controlling and abusive, using his children only as tools to further his ambitions. He disinherits both daughters when they rebel, favouring his son because his survival tactic is to allow Jacques to mould him into a "mini-me". The family's situation begins improving after Jacques' arrest in Volume 8.
Summon Magic: The Schnee family has an inherited Semblance that allows them to summon ice avatars of foes they can only defeat by becoming more than they were before the fight began. Although Weiss initially struggles to master her ability, once accidentally attacking an insulting woman with a Boarbatusk, she achieves mastery by Volume 5. During the battle at Haven, her attempts to rely on summoning almost get her killed; by Volume 7, she has developed strategies to give her enough cover to summon mid-battle. Although she generally favours the knight from the White Trailer, she prefers summoning a Queen Lancer when flight is needed.
Super Sliding: She can use her Semblance to create a series of glyphs on the ground that allow her to slide swiftly across any surface as if she is skating. She often combines this with Ice Dust to make it seem as though she's ice-skating, and the glyphs even allow her to skate across air.
Surrounded by Idiots: She initially feels this way about all her peers, except for Pyrrha. When faced with Ruby becoming her partner, she turns and walks away... only to discover her next option is Jaune, who is hanging from a tree. Realising Ruby is the better option, she accepts her fate. She grows out of this attitude over time.
Swiss-Army Superpower: Weiss creates glyphs with her Semblance, a mystical circle of runes and symbols in patterns that change with the intended effect. She uses them creatively, even combining them with Dust to broaden their scope. White glyphs repel targets, summon wind, allow people to Wall Run or distort time to speed up people and attacks. Black glyphs use gravity Dust which manipulate gravitational forces; she can hang people in the air, use them as mid-air platforms, or even slow down a crashing airship. Orange glyphs allow her to use fire, and blue glyphs allow her to use ice.
Sword Beam: Her sword can fire off blasts of elemental energy from Dust. She normally favours ice attacks, but will use fire and wind as well.
Sword Plant: Weiss activates her weapon's area-of-effect abilities by thrusting her sword into the ground. She can then create icy floors, hedges of ice spikes or summon avatars of her fallen foes.
Tactical Withdrawal: During initiation, Ruby's accidental disruption of her attack, results in her setting the forest on fire; she has to pull Ruby away from the fight to escape the flames and smoke.
Taking You with Me: Low on Aura and realizing she can't beat Flynt Coal's sonic blasts without her weapon, she chooses to tackle him into an erupting lava geyser to protect Yang. This depletes her Aura, thus disqualifying her. Although Flynt can still fight, it depletes his Aura enough for a vengeful Yang to take him and his partner Neon out.
Technician Versus Performer:
- Weiss and Ruby. Both are combat trained, but Ruby is a brash, immature child prodigy who fights impulsively, instinctively, and alone. Weiss is highly trained, formal, academic, and fights with precision and calculation; she values proper form, organisation and planning. Weiss's demand for a leader she respects forces Ruby to learn how to be mature, responsible and strategic in battle. Meanwhile, Weiss has to learn how to be a good support fighter, who provides most of the skills that Ruby needs to execute her plans, and covers Ruby's overly-specialised combat skills with her wider flexibility and versatility.
- Discussed by Weiss and Winter. As a team-oriented Huntress, Weiss prioritises flexibility, inventiveness and creativity. She use glyphs and summoning ability for a range of effects, augmenting them with Dust for assaults and enhanced movement, combined with ballet moves to make it look like she's ice skating instead of running or fighting. As a military officer, Winter favours strict discipline and self-control, discarding flash in favour of pragmatic, sparing summoning and augmenting physical attacks. In Volume 7, Winter comments that Weiss's technique is "maddeningly sloppy" but accepts she's learned how to make that work for her. Weiss accepts it as a compliment.
Team Mom: Following her defrosting and Character Development, Weiss has settled into this role for the heroes overall. While initially looking after Ruby under her promise to be the "best teammate", after escaping Atlas and rejoining the others in Mistral, she tends to express concern over the others, talks to them when they need to discuss something serious or concerning, and makes sure they don't cause trouble and/or scolds them for doing so. Oscar and Nora in particular she's taken to looking after, defending the former from everyone's misplaced anger at Ozpin, and acting as a supportive figure for Nora following her falling out with Ren.
Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: When Weiss and Ruby first meet, Ruby tripping her Weiss's luggage triggers a Dust explosion that annoys Weiss. She is horrified to be partnered with Ruby during induction, only begrudgingly accepting it when realising her alternative is Jaune, whom she feels is even worse. They spend the mission arguing constantly and struggling to fight together. Although they figure it out by the end of the day, Weiss resents Ozpin making Ruby team leader until Port advises her to re-prioritise her goals.
Time Master: She has a "time dilation" ability where she can use her Semblance to create time glyphs that increase the speed of a target's movements. In Volume 2, she vastly increases the speed of Blake's movements, allowing her to hit all of the projectile attacks from Roman's Paladin.
Took a Level in Cheerfulness: In Volume 1, she smiled so little that her giddiness for the Vytal Festival weirded out Ruby. However, she loosens up considerably in the next volume, engaging in silly behaviour such as balancing theatrically on a chair, cooing over Zwei, and attempting puns.
Took a Level in Kindness: She promises to be nicer after saving Ruby from the Death Starker, but readjusts her attitude significantly after Port lectures her on becoming a better person. She offers to treat the team to noodles for being selected for the tournament's doubes round, and then sacrifices herself to protect Yang in the match. When Yang is framed and disqualified, the first person to defend her reputation is Weiss. By Volume 7, she has changed so much that she apologises to Blake for her family's treatment of Faunus, and her own past complacency about it.
Tragic Bigot: She hates the White Fang for striking hard against her family's company and murdering board members, leaving her painting all Faunus as potential White Fang recruits. This also contributed to her father's behaviour at home, who is abusive and controlling even at his best; he married into the family solely to obtain the company and his family are mere tools to be used for either PR or as targets for his frustration. As she learns to give up her racism, she also becomes strong enough to gain her freedom, too. Once Weiss point-blank tells Jacques she considers Team RWBY her family, she does so while holding hands with Blake, an ex-White Fang Faunus.
Tragic Ice Character: Associated with ice and snow, she has an aloof, cold personality, comes from the cold northern continent, her name means "white snow", and her emblem is a snowflake; early in the series, two love interests independently refer to her as "Snow Angel", while several characters call her "Ice Queen". However, behind her initially frosty exterior is a girl who grew up with an alcoholic mother and an abusive father; all her theme songs use cold and snow imagery to describe her lonely quest for freedom and self-discovery.
Trap Master: During the White Trailer, she lures the Arma Gigas into a rune that flings him upward, setting him up for her final attack.
Unwanted Assistance: Weiss is initially furious that Ruby both became team leader and doesn't take it seriously. So, when Ruby tries to encourage Weiss during a Boarbatusk fight, Weiss tells her to shut up. Despite that, she does follow Ruby's advice to target its unprotected underbelly.
Wall Run: Weiss can create a series of glyphs up a vertical face, such as a wall or a cliff. This allows people to race up the side in defiance of gravity. She uses it during initiation to allow Ruby to run up the side of a cliff to kill a Nevermore and again during the Battle of Beacon so that Ruby can race to the top of Beacon Tower as fast as possible.
Worth It: When Blake inadvertantly insults a drunk local, her apology fails when he insults her Faunus heritage. Weiss retaliates by throwing him into a dumpster with her glyphs, and telling her surprised companions that it was worth it. They then flee when the authorities arrive because they're in Mantle illegally, and can't afford to be caught.

Blake Belladonna

Voiced By: Arryn Zech ^{Foreign VAs} Yu Shimamura (Japanese)

Debut: Black Trailer

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/blake_6.png

"Don't be so dramatic."

"All my life, I fought for what I thought was right. I had a partner named Adam. More of a mentor, actually. He always assured me that what we were doing would make the world a better place but, of course, his idea of a perfect future turned out to be not perfect for everyone. I joined the Academy because I knew Huntsmen and Huntresses were regarded as the most noble warriors in the world, always fighting for good, but I never really thought past that. When I leave the Academy, what will I—? How can I undo so many years of hate?"

A mysterious, quiet, no-nonsense young woman, Blake doesn't easily open up to others and is fond of reading. She was the first to appear with full-fledged voice acting in her trailer, as well as the first to be partnered with another character, Adam Taurus. Her team partner is Yang Xiao Long.

Her weapon is Gambol Shroud, a katana with a gun attached to it. The trigger is attacked to a ribbon, allowing her to use it as a chain-weapon. The sheathe resembles an oversized cleaver and can be used as a weapon in its own right. Her Semblance is "Shadow" and allows her to create shadow clones that enable Blake to dodge attacks and misdirect her foes.

Alliterative Name: Her first and last name start with "B".
Anti-Hero: A Faunus rights activist who became a White Fang freedom fighter until she realised it was terrorism, she hopes that becoming a Huntress will allow her to use her skills for good instead of evil. She is aloof, antisocial and believes she is a coward. Every time her past comes back to haunt her, she distances herself from her team; when her Psycho Ex-Boyfriend helps destroy Beacon and maims Yang, she flees Vale. Only after reconnecting with her family does she find the courage to stand up to Adam, return to her team, and begin working through her problems in a healthy way.
Animal-Eared Headband: Inverted trope. Instead wearing of a headband with animal ears, Blake wears a bow that creates the illusion of cat ears and twitches occasionally. It hides her real cat ears so that people don't realise she is a Faunus. Only when she returns home to the Faunus island of Menagerie does she remove her bow. After that, she never hides her ears again.
Animal Motifs: Blake has a cat motif because she is a cat Faunus. She is stealthy, aloof and prone to secrecy. Her bow gives her the appearance of having cat ears, and does hide actual cat ears. Ruby claims she likes tuna a lot and, when the team eats noodles at the Vytal Festival, she has hers with fish. Yang is able to irritate her into following a laser pointer like a cat, and she's horrified by Ruby and Yang's dog, using the same avoidance behavior as a tree'd cat.
Anthropomorphic Personification: A discussed example occurs in Volume 5, where she tells Sun she sees people as the embodiment of a word. Ruby is "purity", Weiss "defiance", Yang "strength", and Sun is "earnest". She had a lot of trouble categorising Adam, until she realised he represents spite.
Aside Glance: During initiation, she throws an aside glance twice. When she takes down Yang's second Ursa, she sheathes her sword with a side smile and glance towards Yang; when Ruby takes charge of the group to deal with the Giant Nevermore and Deathstalker, she repeats the gesture upon realising how proud of Ruby's leadership Yang is.
Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: The trip to Menagerie causes great friction between the introverted, secretive Blake and the extroverted, open Sun. When Sun is badly wounded by a White Fang spy, Blake rushes to his side, tearfully crying out for help and telling him to hold on. In a call-back to Adam maiming Yang, Blake is upset it's happened again, blaming herself for her friends' injuries at the hands of the White Fang.
Badass Bookworm: Blake loves reading, and often has her nose in a book, even when walking. She's very academic in class and her obsession with the White Fang's activities manifests as her spending all hours in the library engaging in academic research. However, she is an ex-White Fang terrorist who aced an elite combat school's entrance exams despite no prep schooling. Along with the rest of her team, she is promoted by Ironwood to fully-qualified Huntress because she's already proven she can function as a professional Huntress in real world combat situations.
Battle Couple: In addition to being an Official Couple with Yang, they are also this when they protect the Paper Pleasers and their village from the Walkers.
Big Damn Kiss: Finally has one with Yang in Volume 9.
Bizarre Human Biology: Blake has two pairs of ears, giving her four in total. In keeping with normal humans, she has a normal pair of human ears on the side of her head. However, as a cat Faunus, her animal trait is feline ears, which sit on top of her head.
Blade Lock: During the Battle of Beacon, Blake intervenes just in time to save a student from being killed by Adam. Their blades lock, with sparks flying, while Blake declares that she won't run. He confidentally tells her she will before breaking the lock by kicking her backwards.
Brooding Boy, Gentle Girl: Gender-inverted with her and Sun. She is a moody, melancholic loner with a very Dark and Troubled Past, who doubts her courage, refuses to share her problems and avoids attachments. Sun offers her comfort, companionship, and good cheer, refusing to give up even when she's cold and dismissive. In Volume 4, he tells her that shutting out friends hurts far worse than any injuries her enemies could inflict. In Volume 5, she thanks him for never giving up on her and decides to do the same thing for Ilia that Sun did for her. He leaves for Vacuo at the beginning of Volume 6, telling her that she no longer needs his help, and it's her team she needs to be with now.
Broken Bird: She starts the show nervous, suspicious and mistrustful. She hates herself as a coward and has a self-destructive obsession with trying to understand the White Fang's motives and activities. Although Beacon's friendly atmosphere begins to bring her out of her shell, Adam's role in destroying it and maiming Yang makes her flee to Menagerie, regressing back into paranoia, fear, aggression and isolation. Although upset that Sun followed, he helps her climb out of the rut, giving her the confidence to reunite with her team; from there, she is able to stop Adam for good with Yang's help.
Casual Danger Dialog: In the Black Trailer, she and Adam enter the train carriage only to find themselves surrounded by security robots. Adam states they'll have to do this the hard way, but Blake just tells him to stop being so dramatic.
Cat Girl: She's a cat-eared girl with almond-shaped golden eyes. She also engages in some feline behavior, liking tuna and treeing herself to avoid Ruby and Yang's dog.
Cat Ninja: Blake's fighting style depends on feinting and misdirection, using her clones to enhance her ability to do that; she's also willing to take the stealthy route into battle and ambush from shadows or trees. As a cat Faunus, she has some stereotypical cat motif traits, such as being quiet, aloof and secretive.
Category Traitor: When Blake's father Ghira reveals to Menagerie Adam's plan to take over the White Fang and attack Haven Academy, he asks people to travel to Haven to protect Humans. Ilia interrupts his speech to denounce Blake's entire family as the worst kind of Faunus — traitors who side with Humans against the very organisation that's trying to save them from Humanity's crimes.
Closet Key: Blake has been a Love Interest for several characters, at least one of whom didn't realise what sexual preferences they had until meeting her. Yang had no idea she was attracted to women until she fell in love with Blake.
Cloth Fu: Blake is able to swing her sword-pistol around in battle at the end of a long ribbon that's attached to her weapon. This allows her to fire at range and while moving, as as if she's using a chain weapon.
Color-Coded Eyes: Blake is a cat-Faunus and her black colour scheme, with her black hair and cat-ears, means she's effectively a black cat. As is very common for black cats, her eyes are gold, and more almond-shaped than the other characters to give them a more feline shape.
Combat Stilettos: Blake typically wears block heels, but it doesn't stop her from fighting in an acrobatic, athletic way: she can spin, flip, slide down cliffs and even move silently, without the heels interfering in any way.
Covert Pervert: When Blake unpacks after initiation is over, she's organising her books on the bookshelf until she realises what book she's holding: it's called Ninjas of Love. She turns bright red, looks around furtively, and quickly hides the book away before anyone can see it. The book is strongly implied to be erotica.
Cowardly Lion: She is a highly skilled warrior who can fight alongside adult Huntsmen and who wants to become a Huntress to fight against hate; however, Blake believes she was born a coward who flees her problems because her Semblance creates decoys that take the hits for her. She fled the White Fang when it became too violent for her, she fled her team when they learned she was a Faunus, and she flees Vale when Adam threatens her friends' lives. However, despite standing her ground against Adam at Haven, she can't put this belief to bed until her final confrontation with him in Volume 6, when Yang reassures her that she believes Blake's promise to never run again.
Dark and Troubled Past: Having fought for Faunus equality her entire life, she falls in with a bad crowd when siding with Adam in a coup against her parents to transform the White Fang from peaceful protest to militancy. When she finally accepts the White Fang, especially Adam, have become terrorists, she defects and decides to become a Huntress to make the world a better place. Initially hiding her Faunus nature and feeling like a criminal who's hiding in plain sight, she stops hiding who she is after mending bridges with her parents. After receiving a much needed pep talk in the value of friendship from Sun, she mends bridges with her team and is able to resolve the Adam situation in Volume 6 with Yang's help.
Dark Secret: She defected from the terrorist organisation known as the White Fang and hides her Faunus nature while training to become a Huntress. Her own teammates don't learn this until the Volume 1 finale, after she's confided in Sun, another Faunus. When Ozpin reveals he knows she's a Faunus and asks her why she hides the truth, she claims it's because she wants people to see who she really is, not what she is. Strongly implying he knows what her secret is, Ozpin asks her to confide in him should she ever want to talk.
Death Glare:
- When she complains about Sun needlessly stealing apples, Sun retorts by claiming she used to be in a cult. The glare she shoots him makes him back off very quickly.
- When Team RWBY fights Roman and the Paladin, he knocks Sun and Neptune off the highway. Blake's reaction is to glare at him with bared and gritted teeth.
Declaration of Protection: While the team is holed up in an abandoned farm during a blizzard, Yang has a PTSD flashback to Adam. Blake declares she'll be at Yang's side and vows to protect her from Adam. Initially pleased at the promise to not run, Yang becomes offended by the vow of protection and moodily storms off. When Blake reiterates the vow during the pair's confrontation with Adam, she this time makes it clear that she and Yang are protecting each other; this helps relax Yang from having her PTSD triggered by Adam's taunts.
Decoy Getaway: After Adam maims both her and Yang during the Battle of Beacon, she uses her Semblance to distract him long enough to grab Yang's unconscious body and escape. He doesn't realise what she's done until he decapitates her, only for the clone he's attacked to vanish in front of his eyes.
Depending on the Artist: Inconsistencies exist between Blake's 3D model, official artwork and merchandise. The amount of exposed midriff and presence of zippers on her shorts can vary. Her ears are occasionally purple instead of black.
Determinator: Upon learning that Roman is working with the White Fang, she becomes obsessed with stopping whatever they're up to. It takes a toll on her grades, social life and health. Yang tells her a story about how her own obsession with finding her birth mother almost got herself and Ruby killed, which taught her to master her desire. She helps Blake transform her obsession into a healthier form of determination; during the Battle of Beacon Blake saves Yang's life by carrying her unconscious body away from her Psycho Ex-Boyfriend, despite having been stabbed in her stomach.
Dirty Coward: Blake believes she's a coward who always flees her problems; she abandoned Adam in the Black Trailer, her Semblance creates decoys that take hits for her, and she flees her team when they learn she's ex-White Fang. After fleeing Vale without explanation to protect her friends from Adam, Yang is deeply hurt and Sun calls her out, saying she's being hurtful, not selfless. Although she stops running and takes the White Fang off Adam, she only sheds this belief after confronting Adam in Volume 6; she sobs in Yang's arms that she'll never break her promise to stop running, and Yang reassures her that she believes her.
Disposable Decoy Doppelgänger: Blake's Semblance allows her to create copies of herself to escape attacks or tank hits that she would otherwise be unable to handle, like decapitation strikes from vengeful exes.
Dope Slap: When she's attacked on the open ocean by a huge Sea Feilong, Blake discovers Sun is also on the ship when he steps in to help her fight. Once the fight is over, she angrily slaps him across the face for following her without her permission, the impact occurring in slow motion.
Elemental Powers: Blake is able to combine Dust with her clones to give them elemental effects. Fire and lightning clones cause explosive damage when hit while Earth and Ice clones can act as shields and traps for weapons and limbs.
The End Justifies the Means: Discussed. She once thought it necessary for the White Fang to transform from peaceful protest to militancy until she realised they had crossed the line into terrorism. She abandons it in favour of trying to change the world as a more noble and respectable Huntress. Although Blake admits to Weiss that the White Fang is very misguided, she also observes that they got tired of being pushed around. However, Blake later confesses to Sun that the White Fang wasn't obtaining respect this way, only fear.
Exhausted Eyebags: In Volume 2, Blake is so worried about what Roman is planning with the White Fang that she stops eating, sleeping and getting good grades, as she obsessively researches what they're up to. The bags under her eyes become increasingly noticeable during Episodes 5 & 6, forcing Yang to intervene to bring her back to her senses.
Expressive Ears: Blake's ears act as mood indicators. They prick up and turn towards something that has caught her interest, or fold and flatten when she becomes distressed. The more distressed she becomes, the more her ears fold, often more like a dog's ears than a cat's.
Expressive Hair: When she first meets Ruby and Yang's dog, Zwei, her reaction is to leap backwards like a startled cat with her hair standing on end like hackles. It's played for comedy.
Falling into His Arms:
- During the Black Trailer she and Adam try and hijack a train that's carrying Dust. However, there are robotic guards that are alerted to the presence of intruders and prove quite tough to fight. As one sends Blake flying, Adam manages to catch her in his arms before she falls.
- When she and Sun fight a Sea Feilong, Sun is knocked down from a great height. Blake rushes forward and catches him in her arms just in time. Later on during the same fight, she is the one who falls from a great height and Sun returns the favour by catching her in the same way.
Fantastic Terrorists: The White Fang was originally a peaceful organisation until a coup forced out the peaceful leader, transforming it something more militant and violent. Despite being the daughter of the deposed leader, Blake originally sided with the coup and became estranged from her family. She abandons the White Fang after realising it's fallen into terrorism and now seeks equality as through the respected Huntress career. She reconciles with her parents in Volume 4, and her father tells her that he's proud of the strength and courage she's shown in facing her mistakes and learning from them.
Fashionable Asymmetry: Her primary combat outfit for Volumes 1-3 is mostly symmetrical except for a detached sleeve that she wears on her left arm, which ends at her wrist and is held in place by a silver band that circles her bicep.
Fatal Flaw: Blake's issues stem from a deep self-loathing about her own failings, such as perceived cowardice and guilt about things she has no control over, often fleeing those who would help her. She asks her father why her parents would still love her after what she's done, and tells Sun that she isolates herself to prevent others suffering the consequences. Yang, Ghira and Sun all point out in different ways that Blake's self-flagellation isn't helpful: Yang notes the self-destructiveness of obsession; Sun reveals that pushing friends away is the worst kind of hurt; and Ghira simply states that she will always be loved, no matter what.
The Fettered: Intensely troubled by the White Fang's violence under Adam's command, Blake defects to find a better way to help the world, but spends the first two volumes obsessing over the White Fang's activities. Her self-imposed guilt over the White Fang's role in fall of Beacon drives her actions in subsequent two volumes. Even in Volume 7, lingering issues with her past drive her to want to help Robyn more than Ironwood is willing to permit, as she empathises with the position that Robyn's in.
First Love: Blake has been a Love Interest for several characters, at least one of whom had never been in love before meeting her. She is Yang's first love, a revelation that also made Yang realise she was attracted to women.
Flash Step: Although her Semblance creates momentary shadows of herself that take hits and distract her enemies, the consequence is that she appears in a different location when her clone vanishes, as if a momentary burst of speed or teleportation occurred.
Foil: To Weiss. Their polar opposite backgrounds and history of enmity causes stress in Volume 1. As the daughter of Menagerie's chieftan and former White Fang leader, Blake is a Faunus who has fought her entire life for equality by fair means or foul. Weiss was born a wealthy heiress to an exploitative global megacorp that abuses Faunus. The White Fang and Schnee Dust Company have warred for years, but they are both disillusioned with their upbringings. Originally intractable, they have learned from each other and become outcasts for opposing their abusive male authority figures, Blake by voluntarily deserting the White Fang and Weiss by being disinherited. Both seek to become Huntresses to restore their legacies to honour.
Foot Popping: During her and Yang's Big Damn Kiss in Volume 9.
Friend-or-Idol Decision: While fighting a White Fang spy, Sun targets the spy while Blake has to choose between helping him pin down the spy or go for the dropped scroll that might reveal the White Fang's true goals. Upon seeing her hesitate, Sun tells her to choose the scroll. As she does, Sun's Semblance reaches its limit and his Aura breaks; he is left badly injured when Blake refuses to hand over the scroll to Ilia.
Gender-Blender Name: "Blake" is a gender-neutral name but is more commonly chosen for boys than girls.
Had to Be Sharp: The normal qualifying process for entrance into the prestigious Beacon Academy is through years of combat education and examinations. Ozpin observes that Blake is one of the very few who did not, so she tells him how hard life is outside the protected kingdoms; if a person cannot fight, they will die. It's pure survival.
Hair-Contrast Duo: She and Sun are polar opposites. Blake is an aloof, moody, reserved black-themed Faunus with black hair and a Semblance based on defensive shadow-clones. Sun is an overprotective, cheerful, outgoing yellow-themed Faunus with blond hair and a Semblance based on offensive light-clones. An ex-White Fang member who still fights for Faunus rights, she objects to mundane crimes such as petty theft; while he engages in petty theft for fun, he views the White Fang as an unwanted, self-appointed cult who give Faunus a bad name. Sun encourages Blake to lighten up, loosen up, and protect her back until she figures out her problems, while she encourages him to learn restraint and take responsibility for his actions. When they part ways in Volume 6, it's because they've both grown beyond the need for each other's support.
Heroic RRoD: After Blake's obsession with the White Fang take a toll on her health and grades, and her team-mates stage an unsuccessful intervention, Yang confronts her privately about handling obsession. She has to shove Blake into a desk to prove how broken down Blake's physical abilities have become. Blake's inability to do more than nudge Yang when she tries to strike back makes Yang's point for her: if she can't even stop Yang from pushing her, she cannot possible fight Roman or the White Fang. Blake gets the message.
Heroic Self-Deprecation: Blake berates herself for her perceived cowardice, musing that she always runs from her problems and her Semblance is proof because it creates decoys that take hits for her. Although those decoys save Yang's life from Adam, Blake still blames herself for Yang's injuries and abandons the team to flee Vale. She believes distancing herself protects her friends and that she doesn't deserve to be loved. When her father explains that her parents will always love her and Sun confronts her about the pain she's inflicting on the friends she pushes away, Blake begins to turn her attitude around.
Hide Your Otherness: She views herself as a criminal hiding in plain sight because she's a Faunus who defected from the terrorist White Fang organisation. She achieves this by hiding her cat ears underneath a girly hair bow, disguising her Faunus heritage from everyone. She discards the bow in Volume 4 when she returns to her home on the Faunus island of Menagerie. Even after she returns to her team, she never hides her ears again.
Hurricane of Puns: In volume 9, after learning Yang had her prosthetic arm stolen, Blake wastes no time in teasing Yang with several arm puns over the situation.
Improvised Weapon: During the food fight, she mimics her normal weapons by dual-wielding a pair of baguettes to replace her blade and sheath combination. She later uses a chain of sausages as a whip in lieu of her weapon's ribbon.
The Insomniac: In Volume 2, Blake becomes so obsessed with the White Fang's activities that she stops sleeping, barely eats and her grades slip. She develops bags under her eyes, becomes impatient and irritable, and dismisses concerns about her wellbeing. Her behaviour only resolves when Yang intervenes to teach her a lesson about obsession.
Interspecies Romance: Most of Blake's love interests have been Faunus, such as Adam and Sun. However, her relationship with Yang, a human, becomes increasingly romantic as time goes by. In Volume 9, the Empathic Environment they're trapped in forces them to profess their love for each other, upgrading their relationship to being an Official Couple.
It's Personal: When a coup topples Blake's father, Ghira, to transform the White Fang from peaceful protest into militancy, Blake sides with the coup. When she realises the organisation has become terrorists, she defects to Beacon Academy to become an honourable Huntress. She remains obsessed with investigating White Fang activities until Beacon is attacked and Adam vows to destroy everything she loves. Blake flees and only stops running after mending bridges with her parents and resolving her guilt about the injuries Yang and Sun receive just for trying to help her. Realising Haven Academy is Adam's next target motivates Blake into taking back the White Fang from Adam.
Jerkass Realization: She repeatedly lashes out at Sun in Volume 4, verbally and physically, who is trying to bring her out of her shell and trust others to help her. When Sun is badly injured by Ilia, it reinforces Blake's belief that it's her fault her friends get injured because of her connection to Adam. Sun calls out her attitude, stating that abandoning her friends isn't selfless; it hurts them worse than injuries ever could. It brings her back to her senses and sets her on the right path to overcoming Adam and reuniting with her team.
Katanas Are Just Better: Her weapon is based on a katana, which is the default form of the weapon.
Knight in Sour Armor: By the time she enrols at Beacon, she's already an experienced fighter who is disillusioned with the world. She has fought for Faunus equality her entire life, transitioning from peaceful protest to militancy, until she abandons the White Fang for becoming terrorists. She feels her only option left is to try the more noble, respected route of becoming a Huntress. Although she doesn't know how to fight hate and inequality, she eventually admits to Ruby in Volume 7 that seeing Ruby fighting for hope has reminded her of the person she used to be and given her the heart to keep fighting, too.
Lady of War: She relies more on acrobatics, speed and stealth than brute strength or large weapons when she fights. Normally very composed, she becomes deadly and focused when emotionally-charged in battle. She is willing to wait, completely still, to lure in Grimm from behind before killing them all and uses a clone version against human opponents; when fighting Roman in Mountain Glenn, she takes him out as fast and efficiently as possible. The few times her composure has broken, it has been life or death, and she still makes calculated, graceful decisions to retreat and regroup rather than continue a hopeless battle.
Leaning on the Fourth Wall: After accidentally revealing to her team and audience that she's an ex-White Fang Faunus, she doesn't come back that night. As the team searches, Ruby wonders if Blake is okay and the scene cuts to Blake drinking tea with Sun; she looks directly into the camera and states "So, you want to know more about me." and the episode ends. Although she's talking to Sun, the camera takes Sun's position, making her address the audience as well.
Leave Me Alone!: She feels personally responsible for what the White Fang do to others, so believes she should isolate herself for everyone else's good. Although she is gradually brought out of shell by her team-mates, Adam plays on her instincts during the Battle of Beacon, telling her that he will destroy everything she loves. She abandons her team, flees from Vale and reverts back to her solitary ways. Sun follows her, and she repeatedly lashes out at him for refusing to leave her, sometimes physically. After Ilia injures Sun, Blake tries to use it as an excuse to push Sun away only for him to deconstruct her behaviour in a lecture that helps her to see that she needs to change her attitude.
Leitmotif: During the Black Trailer, she and Adam are taking part in a train heist while "From Shadows" plays, a song of defiance from an oppressed race to its oppressors. Throughout the show, refrains from this song regularly play during scenes involving her.
Lost Food Grievance: When Team RWBY stops for noodles between tournament bouts, everyone receives the same bowl of noodles, except for Blake, who has a huge fish with hers. The moment she sees it, she drools and becomes starry-eyed. When Weiss's card is unexpectedly declined, Blake tries to sneak her meal away but the chef confiscates it. With a piteous "no!", she slumps over the counter top until Pyrrha offers to pay. Team RWBY start to politely decline, but Blake hastily begs for a change of heart.
Luminescent Blush: When Team SSSN win their first tournament match, Sun and Neptune begin doing a silly victory dance in the middle of the stadium. Sun suddenly stops dancing, locates Blake in the watching crowd and winks at her. Blake responds by blushing furiously and agreeing with Yang that Sun and Neptune are still dorks. It happens again during her and Yang's Love Confession in Volume 9.
Meaningful Name: To "gambol" is to run or jump around in a playful manner, and shroud refers to something that conceals or hides. The chaotic, mutable fighting style Blake's weapon requires, Blake's ninja-like abilities and her hidden personality, make the name of her weapon descriptive.
Mental Health Recovery Arc: Blake struggles to trust and open up from the beginning of the show, and flees the team after her past returns to haunt her in Volume 3. She is a past victim of Domestic Abuse and her Psycho Ex-Boyfriend has made it his mission to destroy her happiness and her loved ones just for walking out on him. She spends Volume 4 reconnecting with her roots to rebuild the person she wants to be, and not the terrified, self-loathing coward he made her feel like. She begins this journey with Sun, who has the sunny, determined personality to weather her toxic lashing out without taking it personally; once she's on the road to recovery, she rejoins Team RWBY to continue working through her issues with their support.
Mix-and-Match Weapon: Gambol Shroud is a katana that can be used as a weapon when sheathed, dual-wielded with said sheath, transform into a pistol and then be used as a kusarigama, thanks to a ribbon that's attached to the weapon. The sheath can also be used in this manner as it also has a ribbon attached.
Motive Misidentification: Blake originally believes that Adam shared her desire for peaceful co-existence between Humans and Faunus, even after she abandons him for becoming too extreme. Only at the end of Volume 3 does she learn that he is helping destroy Beacon Academy, believes equality is impossible, and will kill everyone she loves for abandoning him. Blake later tells Sun that, while she initially thought he stood for justice or passion, she now knows it's just spite. When confronting Adam together, Yang suggests Blake's misidentification was caused by deliberate deceit when she asks him if Blake promised her loyalty to him or the person he was pretending to be.
My Greatest Failure: Blake criticised her parents for leaving the White Fang, openly calling them cowards, only to eventually understand that her parents understood just how far the White Fang was falling from its original goals. When discussing the incident with her father, she tearfully admits she can't understand why they still love her.
Blake: I should have left the White Fang with you and Mom. I should’ve listened to you, and I’m sorry. I’m so, so sorry.
Ninja Log: Blake can make shadow-clones of herself to misdirect opponents from being able to strike her. The basic clones only vanish into thin air and don't need objects to form. However, she can combine her Semblance with Dust. The Dust shadows look normal until struck, whereupon Blake-shaped Dust is left behind. Ice and Earth Dust create statues that trap an opponent's weapon or limbs whereas Fire and Lightning statues explode upon impact, causing fire or electricical damage.
Not Afraid of You Anymore: The events of Volume 3 leave her so terrified of Adam, she abandons her team and goes on the run. Sun is eventually able to make her understand that she's dealing with her problem the wrong way. Once they learn Adam's plan to overthrow the High Leader and attack Haven Academy, Blake decides to stop run and fight back. After rallying Menagerie against the White Fang, she thwarting Adam's plans, and tells him that he no longer intimidates her. This time, he's the one who is forced to go on the run.
Blake: You can try and make me regret coming here, Adam, but honestly ... I've got more important things to deal with.
Not What I Signed on For: Blake helps a coup overthrow her father's peaceful leadership to transform the White Fang into a more militant organisation under Sienna Khan. However, Adam's command of the Vale branch turns it into an extremist terrorist organisation; unable to stomach indescriminate killing of innocents, Blake defects in favour of training at Beacon Academy to become a more honourable Huntress. She is horrified to learn at the end of Volume 3 that Adam was never interested in Faunus equality, only in beating, breaking and enslaving humanity. She later tells her father he was right about the White Fang and apologises for her past behaviour.
Oblivious to Love: When Ilia captures Blake while the Albain brothers carry out an attack on her parents, Blake attempts to convince Ilia that this isn't in keeping with Ilia's normal personality. Ilia reveals that Blake doesn't know her as well as she thinks she does; she didn't even know that Ilia was in love with her because she was too busy falling for Adam to notice.
One Degree of Separation: A Volume 3 flashback reveals how Cinder first made contact with Adam; initially, Adam rejects her request for them to work together and sends her packing. As Cinder, Emerald and Mercury leave, Blake doesn't get a good look so approaches Adam and asks what that was all about. Adam doesn't tell her and instead orders her to prepare for the train heist they'll be doing in the morning. Blake therefore nearly met Cinder face-to-face the night before the events of the Black Trailer.
Parrying Bullets: By using her pistol-blade and ribbon, Blake can parry a hail of bullets when she has to. When up against Roman's Paladin in Volume 2, Weiss uses her Semblance to speed up Blake's movements, enabling her to parry absolutely everything the Paladin throws at her.
Personality Powers: Discussed Trope. Blake tells Yang and Weiss that she believes she's a coward because she has a history of running away from her problems. She cites her Semblance as evidence of this cowardice because she personally interprets the ability as allowing her to flee combat strikes by creating clones to take the hits for her.
Playful Cat Smile: After their confrontation with Ilia, when Sun strains his injury trying to argue with Blake, she involuntarily dissolves into giggles that leave her with a wavy smile on her face◊.
Purple Is Powerful: Blake is an exceptionally gifted fighter, who was one of the few students able to enter Beacon Academy without having first gone through years of preparatory combat schooling. She is also the daughter of the original creator of the White Fang and current leader of Menagerie. Her family name is Belladonna, and her personal symbol is the belladonna plant, which is a purple flower the same colour as her Aura. She always accents her clothing with purple as a result.
Purple Is the New Black: Her colour symbolism is officially black, but she's always used a colour scheme of black-and-white with purple accents. Her Aura is also purple. When the show needs to surround her with her colour symbolism, purple is used rather than black, such as the Volume 9 opening's radiant light framing her body; it's still intended to represent her association with the colour black, but it makes her stand out rather than obscuring her with too much dark shading.
Rapid-Fire "No!": When Sun is injured by a White Fang member who is a former acquaintance of Blake's, Blake panics and repeats the word 'no' four times in rapid succession as she hurries over to his side. She blames herself for his injury, seeing it as a repeat of Adam maiming Yang just to get back at her for abandoning him.
Rebellious Rebel: Originally a member of the White Fang, a Faunus equal rights group, she joins a coup to take it in a militant direction, ousting her own father's leadership. Upon realising it's fallen into terrorism, she defects in favour of training at Beacon Academy. After the White Fang helps Cinder Fall destroy Beacon, she goes on the run again until she learns to face her fears. To save Haven Academy from the same fate, she raises a misfit army of Menagerie Faunus to confront the White Fang at Haven. This time, the organization is destroyed for good, the Faunus is given credit for saving the school, and her father has the opportunity to persue a new peaceful organization to capitalise on the good will.
Red Oni, Blue Oni: Yang is the Red Oni to Blake's Blue. Yang is a brightly-coloured sun-themed, brash, physical fighter who appears to be carefree and light-hearted. Blake is a shadow-themed, acrobatic fighter who is aloof, brooding and burdens herself with society's problems. Yang learned to address her issues the hard way, making her much more confident in both combat and social situations, as well as capable of helping Blake to gain control of her problems when she's wallowing in feelings of obsession, inadequacy and cowardice.
Reverse Grip: When she dual wields her katana and sheath, she often goes into a battle stance involving both weapons being held in a reverse grip, one arm behind her body and the other in front.
Rousing Speech: Ghira's attempt to rouse Menagerie to protect Haven Academy from the White fails when Ilia's counter speech cuts off his attempt to get Blake to speak from the heart about her experience at the Battle of Beacon. After the Albain brothers fail to assassinate Ghira and Kali, Blake uses their burning house to point out that Faunus are capable of hate crimes against their own people, and that they need to stop letting the White Fang speak for them if they really do oppose that attitude. When Ilia volunteers to help Blake, and Blake forgives her, others begin volunteering, too.
Saying Too Much: When Blake and Weiss argue over the White Fang, Weiss declaring them a group of liars, thieves and murderers triggers Blake into shouting "Well, maybe we were just tired of being pushed around!", inadvertently revealing she's both a Faunus and connected to the White Fang. Upon realising her mistake, she flees the room.
Scars Are Forever: After Adam stabs her in the stomach in Volume 3, a scar is left behind on her stomach, which is visible in certain scenes from Volume 5 onwards.
Secretly Wealthy: When Blake points out her family home, Sun is shocked to see it's the largest residential building, a huge, sprawling mansion with steps leading up to a giant front door with an enormous, intimidating knocker. There are multiple large rooms inside and, unlike Weiss's cold, empty, echoing family mansion, Blake's family mansion uses rich, warming wood effects that incorporate many plants. What Blake never revealed to her friends and team-mates is that her father is one of the most influential Faunus in the world, the original peaceful leader of the White Fang and current chieftan of Menagerie.
Self-Duplication: Her Semblance leaves behind copies that she calls "shadows". When contemplating why she wants to be a Huntress, she confesses that she thinks of herself as a coward who uses her clones to take the hits that are meant for her.
Sexy Cat Person: Blake is noted both in and out of universe to be very sexy. Her design is made to be androgynous and form fitting to be attractive to both sexes and many characters proclaim their attraction to her. She is also the only member of the Team who has a confirmed relationship before the series.
Sheath Strike: The sheath of this weapon is just as sharp as a blade and can be used as such. She can therefore dual wield the blade and sheath together. Both also have ribbons, allowing her to use sheath as a chain weapon as well as her actual weapon.
Signature Headgear: For the first three volumes, Blake wears a large, black bow that dominates the top of her head, standing out like a pair of animal ears. The bow is designed to hide feline ears so that people won't realize that she's a Faunus. It fools everyone except for Professor Ozpin, Penny and fellow Faunus, Sun. She only makes the decision to stop wearing the bow at the start of Volume 4, when she travels home to the Faunus island of Menagerie.
Silly Rabbit, Idealism Is for Kids!: Blake is initially cynical, telling Ruby that her vision of a better world is ambitious, and the real world isn't a fairy tale. She also initially struggles to believe Yang's story after her tournament disqualification because it reminds her of how Adam fell into darkness. In Volume 8, Blake tells Ruby that she used to be the same as Ruby until life jaded her, revealing that she looks up to Ruby because Ruby has made her feel like she can become that person once again.
Single Woman Seeks Good Man: After everything Blake's been through in the past, what most interests her in a love interest is their cheerfulness, bravery and honesty. A same sex example is with Yang in Volume 9, her Love Confession consists of admitting that she thinks Yang is an extraordinary person because of these traits and it's why she's in love with her.
Strong Family Resemblance: She has inherited her height from her mother, Kali. Like Kali, she has wavy black hair and black cat ears. Her facial structure and eyes are also shaped like her mother. The only difference between them is that they wear their hair at different lengths, and her mother both has larger ears and slightly darker skin.
Super-Senses: Blake has two pairs of ears, one human pair and one feline pair. Her feline hearing is far superior to her human hearing. When fighting for her life against Adam, she can hear the distant sound of Yang's approaching motorbike and identify the direction from which Yang is coming. Adam only has human hearing, so he is oblivious until Yang's motorcycle crashes into his body; Blake is unharmed, having known the right moment to move away.
Tears of Remorse: Blake habitually blames herself for poor decisions or for the things Adam does to people she cares about just to spite her. She tends to start crying when she apologises. She weeps as she apologises to unconscious Yang after Adam maims her and when apologising to her father for turning against them during Sienna's coup, wondering how he can still love her. After she and Yang are forced to kill Adam in self-defence, she collapses in tears, sobbing that she will never run away again.
Tired of Running: After he's injured by Ilia, Sun tells Blake friends stay by each other's side and how shutting out a friend hurts them far more than it helps. Boosted by this, Blake announces they're going to stop Adam from assassinating Sienna Khan, take back the White Fang from his militant faction, and rescue Haven Academy from falling. When Ilia later asks her why Blake isn't taking her advice to leave before it's too late, Blake retorts that she runs away too much.
Took a Level in Cheerfulness: Introduced as serious, aloof and quiet, she gradually learns to open up, trust her team-mates and follow well-meaning advice, such as how to handle her obsession with the White Fang in Volume 2. By Volume 3, she's much more fun-loving until the Battle of Beacon sets her back after Adam vows to destroy everything she loves. She regresses into paranoia, isolation and unhappiness until Sun's persistence helps straighten out her understanding of the value and importance of friends. Once she reconciles with her team-mates and resolves the issue with Adam for good, Volume 7 sees her re-learning how to relax and have fun, such as going clubbing with Yang and Team FNKI.
Took a Level in Idealism: Discussed trope. When they first meet, Ruby reveals she wants to be Huntress to be a storybook hero who fights for what's right and to protect others. Blake cynically observes the real world isn't a fairy tale, so Ruby states they exist to make it better. Ruby always pushes herself and others to do what's right and put the needs of others before their own. When Ruby struggles with the scale of Salem's threat in Volume 8, Blake reveals that she used to be like Ruby as a child until life jaded her; Ruby has made her believe such a person can survive the world, and she's been inspiring Blake ever since.
Trademark Favorite Food: When the team first learn Blake is a Faunus, Ruby seems to think it explains why she eats so much fish. At the tournament, she doesn't simply eat a bowl of noodles like everyone else, she has an extra portion of fish cooked specially for her. Not only is she left drooling over the fish, but she becomes very unhappy when it's taken away from her and dives on the opportunity to take up Pyrrha's offer to pay for it.
Tsurime Eyes: Her eyes are notably pointier than the other girls' to accentuate her cat-girl themed appearance.
Variable-Length Chain: Her weapon has a ribbon that seems to have no limit on actual reach.
Visual Pun: A feline Faunus with the power of self-duplication... she's a literal copycat.
Weak, but Skilled: As a highly trained fighter, Blake specialises in dodge-based and deceptive combat styles. With her Gambol Shroud, which can be wielded in hand or via a ribbon, she can switch her attacks between swords, guns, and chain-weapon versions. Her Semblance enhances her dodges and her clones can be used like elemental mines when combined with Dust. Instead of being an overpowering opponent, she is extremely skilful, clever and tricky.
Wrecked Weapon: Blake's sword is cut in half by Adam during their Volume 6 battle, which he interprets as symbolising her being as alone and abandoned as he feels. However, her feline hearing can detect Yang's approach, so she protects herself with her clones until Yang arrives. Even with Yang's help, the fight only ends when they each grab one half of the broken sword and stab Adam from two different directions. Like the sword, Adam broke both of them, but they were able to overcome the damage he did to defeat him.
Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: Befitting her cat-nature, Blake reacts like a cat when Ruby and Yang's father posts them their pet dog. She leaps upwards like a startled cat, retreats to the top bunk and then behaves like a treed cat when Zwei barks at her from the ground. She eventually figures out an escape route from the room that mimics a cat racing across furniture; she even knocks a lamp as she goes.
You Are Better Than You Think You Are: Blake, believing that she betrayed her family by leaving them to follow the White Fang's new leader, no longer considers herself worthy of their love. When Ghira realises this is how she feels, he explains that eventually leaving and setting herself back onto the right path proves she is a far stronger person than most people ever manage, and that he's incredibly proud of her.
You Are Not Alone: Blake believes she has to face her problems alone. She flees her team when she accidentally reveals she's an ex-White Fang Faunus, after which Weiss makes her promise to share her problems. When Blake obsesses over the White Fang activities, her team intervenes for her own wellbeing. When Adam tells Blake that he'll destroy everyone she loves and then maims Yang, Blake flees Vale but is followed by Sun, who stubbornly refuses to leave until she learns to face her fears and accept help and friendship. After she uses that lesson to save Ilia from the same fate, she reunites with her team; in Volume 6, she is able to overcome Adam once and for all by relying on Yang's help and support.
Zipperiffic: Blake's Beacon outfit includes a pair of shorts that have a decorative zipper on each leg. Her Atlas outfit has zips all down the legs of her catsuit, zips at the wrists of her long coat, and zips down the full length of the coat. The design of the longcoat only allows the zip to function down a short length of the coat that covers her torso, so the rest of the zipline is for fashion.

Yang Xiao Long

Voiced By: Barbara Dunkelman^{Foreign VAs} Ami Koshimizu (Japanese)

Debut: Yellow Trailer

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/yang_resize.png

"Great! The gang's all here. Now we can die together!"

"At least you two have something that drives you. I've just kinda always gone with the flow, you know? And that's fine; I mean, that's who I am, but how long can I really do that for? I wanna be a Huntress, not really because I want to be a hero, but because I want the adventure. I want a life where I won't know what tomorrow will bring and that will be a good thing. Being a Huntress just happens to line up with that."

Ruby Rose's older sister, Yang is an energetic blonde-haired woman with an adventurous personality and a violent streak. She is proud of her baby sister's achievement in being advanced two years and her team partner is Blake Belladonna.

Yang's weapon is Ember Celica, a pair of retractable gauntlets that can fire shotgun shells. Her Semblance is called "Burn" and allows her to absorb the energy from the blows that strike her body and convert it to dramatically enhance her strength.

All There in the Manual: Some of Yang's official descriptions call her a "party girl", yet she never displays any attributes of it. The closest she gets is in the "Yellow" trailer and that is a deliberate facade to drop Junior's guard.
Ambiguously Bi: During their first night at Beacon, the students sleep in the hall where Yang voices her appreciation for the topless boys she sees. However, later volumes focus solely on her growing intimacy with Blake and the emotional rollercoaster Blake's Psycho Ex-Boyfriend puts them both through. Their friends comment at times on just how close they are, with Nora speculating in the seventh volume there may be more going on. They finally get together two volumes later.
Arm Cannon: Her gauntlets allow her to fight with ballistic weapons and explosions as well as close up. Her cyberarm has its own independent barrel that extends from the forearm, giving the prosthetic the same functionality as as the gauntlet it replaced. By the ninth volume, Yang reveals she can still use the gun if the arm is detached when she blasts a Toy Soldier for trying to take it from her.
Artificial Limbs: After Adam chops off her arm in the Fall of Beacon, Yang falls into depression as she struggles to come to terms with her loss. She only accepts the state-of-the-art cybernetic replacement that Ironwood sends her when she realizes how much a burden she is on her father. Once she puts on the arm and starts retraining, she's impressed by how light, flexible and powerful it is and paints it yellow-and-black to suit her colour scheme; a Volume 7 upgrade allows it to fire sticky bombs.
Badass Biker: A keen motorcyclist who favours biker-influenced outfits, Yang is an elite Huntress whose pride and joy is her orange-and-black motorcycle, Bumblebee. Junior's nightclub fears her because every time she rocks up on her bike, it's to cause trouble, and Neptune is impressed when she bursts through the club's blast doors, unfazed by the club's defences. When biking through Anima, she punches a bandit for hitting on her and later sacrifices her bike in battle against Adam to save Blake; In Volume 8, she field tests a new hoverbike by performing somersaults, and later leads the bike chase through the mountains when Oscar is kidnapped.
Battle Couple: In addition to being an Official Couple with Blake, they are also this when they protect the Paper Pleasers and their village from the Walkers.
Bear Hug: In the first volume, Yang is prone to giving her sister enthusiastic hugs when she's proud of her. Due to her strength, these can be painful for Ruby to experience. She smothers Ruby with one upon discovering that Ruby will be attending Beacon with her and smothers Ruby again during initiation after Weiss saves Ruby from a Giant Deathstalker.
Ruby: Please, stop...
Beneath the Mask: A cheerful, compassionate and nurturing thrill-seeker, Yang's haunted by the knowledge of her biological mother Raven's abandonment. She only learns the truth after her step-mother Summer's death and becomes so obsessed with finding Raven that she almost gets herself and Ruby killed by Grimm. After that, she continues searching without letting her obsession control her or bring others to harm. By the eighth volume, Ren tells her she doesn't have to always use a cheerful, jocular façade to hide her fear.
Berserker Tears: Once Adam stabs Blake during the Battle of Beacon, Yang angrily yells at him to get away from her while shedding tears from her eyes and activating her Semblance to power up her intended punch. Unfortunately, her rage leaves her wide-open for Adam to chop off her right arm.
Big Damn Kiss: She and Blake finally confessed their feelings to each other and the two share a passionate kiss.
The Big Gal: Yang is the power-fighter of Team RWBY, the only one to fight with her fists. She's designed her weapons to be shotgun gauntlets that increase the attacking and damge power of her strikes. Her Semblance allows her to tank damage from attacks, powering her up to able to dish out even more powerful attacks than before, meaning that she gets stronger the longer she fights and the more hurt she becomes.
Big Sister Instinct: She always comes to Ruby's defence if she thinks her sister is in trouble, ranging from defending her from Weiss' insults in Volume 1 to trying to rescue her when attacked by Grimm. It's the need to return to Ruby's side and help her that motivates Yang to overcome the loss of her arm and return to fighting fitness; when given a choice between staying with the birth mother she's always searched for and fighting by her sister's side in Volume 5, Yang chooses Ruby over Raven.
Yang: Save your breath. You can spout off whatever you want, but nothing is going to keep me from my sister.
Blemished Beauty: Like the fire she's associated with, Yang favours asymmetry as a mark of beauty, so her fashion choices reflect this aesthetic. After coming to terms with the loss of her arm in Volume 4, she makes a feature of her plain cyberarm by painting it vivid yellow, with black accents. It doesn't stop her from being a head-turner; a bandit in Volume 5 unsuccessfully makes a pass at her because he thinks her appearance is "just right".
Blinded by Rage: After Adam stabs Blake in the Battle of Beacon, Yang recklessly charges him, fists first. He cuts off her leading arm with a single stroke, resulting in Blake having to rescue both of them. Yang spends Volume 4 learning how to cope with the loss of her arm, and the PTSD she's been left with. Her father also uses the opportunity to retrain her mentality towards both battle and her Semblance, pointing out that she treats it like a super-powered temper tantrum.
Blood Knight: Yang is a thrill-seeker who seeks danger, enjoys picking fights, and originally trained as a Huntress because it's an unpredictable, adrenaline-fuelled career that suits her adventurous, belligerent spirit. She only begins to question this when challenged by Oobleck to consider what a Huntress is really supposed to be, and only begins to learn how to fight smarter after losing her arm. Although she still enjoys battle and adventure, she prioritises the protection of others over her own desires.
Boisterous Bruiser: A thrill-seeker who wants adventure and a high-octane lifestyle, she initially thinks becoming a Huntress will fit the bill. As she matures, she increasingly embraces the importance of being a protector of the people and rethinks her entire mentality towards battle after losing her arm. Although she retains her adventurous spirit and love of fighting, protecting others has become her priority.
Bottomless Magazines: Yang does have to reload, but she only ever does so when she needs to switch to more powerful ammo, or whenever it's dramatically appropriate for her to pause in the middle of a fight and reload by throwing the bullet bandoliers up into the air. How much ammo she fires off before reloading is therefore inconsistent; she can go entire fights without reloading, or reload in fights where the amount of ammo she expends before and after the reload are vastly different.
Boxing Battler: She is primarily a fist fighter. Her blocking and footwork, especially how she slides to dodge attacks, are very similar to how boxers fight and move. She also has some overall martial arts style for her leg attacks, which play a secondary role in her fighting style. Like most Huntresses, she has been formally trained in fighting from an early age, having spent her life going through the combat school system to prepare her for life as a Huntress.
Break the Badass: During the tournament, she is framed on global television. Due to her predictable fighting style, Emerald tricks her into attacking Mercury on live TV; while she thinks she's being ambushed, all the world sees is her attacking an opponent she's already defeated for no good reason. She's disqualified and her reputation left in tatters. During the Battle of Beacon that follows, she loses the school, her arm while trying to save Blake from Adam, and then Blake, who flees Vale. Yang is left devastated, bitter and lost to depression for months until she gets back on her feet and rejoins her sister in Mistral. Even so, the experience has left her with PTSD.
Bragging Theme Tune: "I Burn" is the song that plays during the Yellow Trailer, when Yang is fighting in the bar. It features the singer baiting her opponents into attacking her so she can prove just how badly she's going to defeat them.
Broken Bird: In Volume 3, Yang is framed for mercilessly hurting a downed opponent, everyone but her close friends think ill of her, she watches several of her friends die in the Grimm attack, and loses her arm trying to save Blake. By the end of the volume, she is a blank shell who cannot get out of bed, feels betrayed by Blake, and who cannot muster a response when her own sister says she loves her. The next volume reveals she's suffering from PTSD flashbacks to the fight with Adam that cost her the arm, and at first she can't face dealing with the cybernetic arm General Ironwood has custom-made for her. Her arc in the volume concerns her overcoming this problem.
Bruiser with a Soft Center: A tough-as-nails brawler, Yang dotes on her younger sister and can crush her with Bear Hugs. She is loyal to her friends and team-mates; after the tournament fight with Team FNKI, she rushes to Weiss's side, who sacrificed herself to protect Yang, cradling her while checking if she's okay. After months of depression from losing her arm and PTSD, Yang gets back on her feet so that she can reunite with Ruby and help her. When Salem kidnaps Oscar, all her focus is on trying to find a way to rescue him.
Burning with Anger: Yang's Semblance can turn her hair into fire. Initially, her Semblance and temper are so closely linked that her hair catches fire whenever she becomes angry. After losing her arm in her efforts to rescue Blake from Adam, Yang learns to fight smarter and to separate her temper from her Semblance. Since then, her hair only ignites whenever she activates her Semblance and not when she gets angry.
Cannot Spit It Out: When exposed to a "punderstorm" in Volume 9, Yang is forced into a situation where she has to figure out the right thing to say to escape from the mental and emotional puzzle the storm has put her in. Even when she finally figures out what she needs to say, she's initially not confident in how she tries to express it. The punderstorm puts her and Blake on a precarious rope bridge where they have to make it to a safe platform in the centre of an abyss. To solve it requires full honesty about their feelings, something Yang struggles with more than Blake. Eventually, Blake gently saying "just say it, Yang" encourages Yang to admit she's in love with her, and is instantly reciprocated by Blake saying the same. This automatically transfers them to the safe platform where they have their first kiss; transforming the nature of their relationship frees them from the storm.
Casual Danger Dialogue: She's willing to engage in cheerful, casual conversation in the middle of fight if she feels comfortable about the odds being in her favour of victory. She will address her foes with a smile or wink, and make light-hearted jokes when the stakes aren't very high, such as when Pyrrha gets knocked across the ruins by a Giant Deathstalker. Even when her opponents are the voiceless Grimm who don't talk back, she strikes up a conversation, only relenting once she loses a strand of her hair. If the stakes are high, or she's struggling, she doesn't engage in small-talk. After the Battle of Beacon, she stops using casual dialogue in battle completely.
Yang: Great, the gang's all here, now we can die together!
Cleavage Window: Yang usually wears a low cut top and then uses layering at her neck to create a cleavage window. Her Volumes 1-3 outfit uses a scarf, her alternative Volume 2 outfit uses a strap across her collarbone, her Volumes 5-6 outfit uses a belted neck collar, and her Volume 7-9 outfit uses a neckerchief.
Contralto of Strength: Her voice is the lowest on Team RWBY, and she also serves as their muscle, being a tough, fight-loving Boxing Battler.
Cool Big Sis: Yang helps Ruby to break out of her shell, connect with people, and supports Ruby's instincts and leadership. In Volume 5, she chooses reuniting with her sister over spending time with the birth mother she's spent her life search for. Three volumes later, Yang's loss of faith in Ruby's leadership unsettle the heroes because they've never seen the pair fall out; the sisters, however, are so confident about their relationship that neither of them take the fall-out personally.
Cool Bike: Yang's mode of transportation is a fast, sleek yellow-and-black motorbike called Bumblebee. She uses it whenever she goes to Junior's club and rides it across Anima in Volume 5 in search of Ruby. She thrashes a group of bandits when they try taking it from her. In the next volume, she sacrifices the bike so she can rescue Blake from Adam, having learned from her reckless charge three volumes earlier where she lost her arm. The move knocks Adam flying but sends the bike crashing into the rapids below. In the eighth volume, Pietro gives her a Rhino hoverbike; she immediate tests its ability to perform somersaults.
Cooldown Hug: When Yang talks to Blake about her obsessive hunt for the White Fang, Yang shoves her down on the desk to prove Blake can't fight. She then wraps her arms around Blake, hugging her tightly and pleading with her not to self-destruct. It works; Blake finally starts sleeping and eating properly, and agrees to go to the ball she'd previously been refusing to attend.
Cool Shades: During initiation, the new Beacon students are launched off a cliff and have to use their own landing strategy to avoid falling to their deaths. Yang whips out a pair of aviators that she puts on just before she's sent flying into the air. They protect her eyes when she crashes through the treeline as part of a controlled descent to slow her fall.
Crippling Overspecialization: When critiquing Yang's tournament fights, Taiyang observes she's a predictable fighter who rushes into battle, relying on her Semblance to tank her hits, effectively using it like a super-powered temper tantrum to get her out of trouble; this is how she lost an arm. She spends Volume 4 learning how to fight smarter instead of harder, and to stop using her Semblance as a crutch.
Tai: But you gotta keep your emotions in check, keep a level head, and think before you act! Your Semblance is a great fall-back, but you can't let yourself rely on it. It won't always save you... obviously.
Dark and Troubled Past: When Yang and Ruby lost their mother as children, their father fell into depression and then had a busy schedule at Signal Academy, leaving Yang to raise Ruby. When she learns Summer is her step-mother and her biological mother abandoned her at birth, Yang becomes obsessed with finding Raven, almost getting herself and Ruby killed in the process. In Volume 5, Yang tells Weiss that she still has lingering resentment about the loneliness and pressure she felt at having to raise Ruby while still only a child herself.
Deadpan Snarker: Yang sometimes shoots off very blunt put-downs to her often sillier friends, most notably Jaune, Weiss, and Neptune. When Weiss says she doesn't trust Jaune with her card deck, Yang replies "You attacked your own forces three times in a row".
Deconstructed Trope: Hot-Blooded. Her Semblance makes her stronger the more kinetic energy she takes from damage, often leaving her Burning with Anger. She's an expert in brawls and come-from-behind victories, but her predictable, anger-fuelled style makes her easy to frame as well as easy for Adam to maim when she charges him in an attempt to save Blake. While recovering in Volume 4, her father directly addresses this to teach her to fight smarter and only use her Semblance as a last resort. Volume 6 then revisits the fight with Adam to show she's learned her lesson.
Determinator: As a child, Yang was obsessed with finding Raven, following up every clue no matter how exhausted the pursuit left her, and almost getting herself and Ruby killed in the process. After Adam maims her, she learns how to pick herself up and keep going, despite her PTSD, so that she can protect her sister in the fight against Salem. In her final fight with Adam, she shakes off the PTSD he tries to trigger to help Blake end his threat forever.
Disowned Parent: An implied example. While fighting Salem at Monstra, Yang says Summer is her real mother instead of Raven, her biological mother who re-abandoned Yang to continue saving herself from Salem.
Dramatic Gun Cock: When Yang prepares to enter battle, she activates the guns on her gauntlets with a twist of her wrist. Her cyberarm contains the same function, allowing her to keep activating her weapons this way after losing her arm. In the middle of battle, if she needs to reload, she will toss ammo into the air, hold out her arms and dramatically cock the gauntlet guns to reload them.
Dual Wielding: Yang's weapon consists of gauntlet guns that are strapped to her wrist, allowing her to fire ammunition while punching. She can also fire at range by effectively punching the air to pump out the bullets. When she loses her arm, her cyberarm is designed with her gauntlets in mind, thereby replicating the function of her gauntlet guns.
Elemental Hair Colors: She has shining blonde hair which reflects her connection to the sun and fire. It even catches fire whenever her Semblance activates. Until she learns to separate her temper from her Semblance in Volume 4, her hair ignites when she's angry, too.
Energy Absorption: Yang can absorb kinetic energy from the damage she takes. Her Semblance converts that attack power into strength, empowering her to strike back even harder than before. The longer a battle goes on, the more she absorbs, and the stronger she becomes. When powered up this way, she can wreck hardened objects like an Atlesian Paladin with just a punch.
Every Bullet is a Tracer: During the Yellow Trailer, some of the ammunition Yang fires at Melanie and Miltia look like little comet streaks and are accompanied by a whistling sound like a firework launching through the air.
Extremity Extremist: She rarely uses her legs for anything other than running and jumping, preferring to let her fists and shotgun gauntlets do the talking. This can get her into trouble with leg-specialists, such as Melanie or Mercury, or with anyone who can counter her habit of attacking fist-first, such as Adam. From Volume 4, she starts learning to fight smarter and think more about how she's fighting, but her primary skill remains fist-fighting.
Eye Color Change: Whenever Yang becomes angry or her Semblance activates, her eyes change from their normal purple colour to the same red shade as her mother's vivid red eyes.
Fashionable Asymmetry: Yang always makes she her fashion is asymmetrical. In her Volumes 1-3 outfit, she wore one stocking higher than the other, an asymmetrical hem on her skirt and a purple scarf on one leg. In her Volumes 5-6 outfit, she retained the purple scarf around her one leg, and more a jacket with an asymmetrical buttoning design. While in Atlas, her otherwise symmetrical jumpsuit has an unzipped leg fold, exposing the skin of her right thigh, and she wears a belted pouch on her left thigh. Her purple leg-scarf is worn closer to the ankle and on a different leg to previous outfits.
Fatal Flaw: Her impulsive personality makes her impatient, quick to anger, and prone to thrill-seeking, obsession and dangerously thoughtless acts. As a child, she almost got herself and Ruby killed by Grimm while obsessively searching for her birth mother. While she now controls her obsession, her predictable, temperamental fighting style allows her to win fights quickly, but makes her so predictable that the villains frame her as someone who will hit an opponent who is already down, and Adam cuts her arm off when she charges him. Her father addresses this flaw during her Volume 4 recovery; while she hasn't fully outgrown the flaw, she manages it much better.
Feed It with Fire: With every hit she takes, her Semblance converts it to Super-Strength. The more she gets hit, the stronger she becomes. This only works for as long as her Semblance can convert hits. If a hit is too powerful for her Semblance or Aura to cope with, she'll take damage like a normal person, which is how she loses her arm during the Battle of Beacon.
Flaming Hair: Whenever Yang's Semblance activates, her hair transforms into fire. The more power Yang receives from her Semblance, the brighter her hair burns and glows.
Frame-Up: During the tournament, she's framed for breaking Mercury's leg after she wins their fight. Cinder's machinations ensure that while Yang witnesses Mercury attacking her, all the stadium and television audience sees is her brutally attack an unsuspecting, passive combatant after the fight was already over and without provocation.
The Gadfly: Yang likes screwing with her friends every now and then for kicks. She uses a laser pointer to entice Blake to follow it over to her. When playing board games, she explains the rules of the game to Weiss, states Weiss has the upper hand and is about to win the game... then pulls out her trap card to destroy Weiss' forces. When arm-wrestling with Nora, she releases her prosthetic into Nora's grip, which freaks Nora out. She later pulls the same trick on Penny, too.
Girlish Pigtails: During a flashback to when she was a small child searching for her mother, she wore her hair in pigtails on either side of her head.
Ground Punch: She initiates the fight at the nightclub by punching the ground, creating a shockwave that knocks over a lot of goons at once. She also does it to knock Mercury off his balance when he attacks her, though without success.
Grin of Audacity: During the Yellow Trailer, she grins viciously when she successfully sucker-punches Junior across the room after tricking him into thinking she's going to kiss him. She grins aggressively when she spots Junior's men preparing to attack her and continues to display fierce grins throughout the fight whenever she's about to attack or gain the upper hand against an opponent.
Hair-Trigger Temper: She goes from calm to extremely angry with minimal provocation just from getting trash talked, not having things go her way during a fight, or having her hair damaged. It gets to the point where she can easily destroy everything in her area.
Heroine With Bad Publicity: After Yang and Mercury's battle ends, Cinder's machinations ensure the entire world witnesses Yang suddenly shoot Mercury in the leg for no apparent reason. The stadium crowd's reaction is so ugly, it causes a spike in Grimm activity, and Yang's apparently vindictive action doesn't just damage her reputation but also Beacon's and Ozpin's, too. Ironwood is therefore forced to disqualify her.
Heroic BSoD: After being framed and disqualified from the tournament in Volume 3, Yang morosely stays in her room until the school is attacked. After losing her arm in the ensuing battle, she spends Volume 4 struggling to overcome depression and PTSD. Initially, she can't face the cybernetic arm Ironwood sends her, but she begins to get back on her feet once she realises that her father was forced to choose which of his daughters to help. She retrains with the new arm, rebuilding herself physically and mentally to reunite with Ruby in Volume 5.
Hot-Blooded: Yang is a boisterous, care-free thrill-seeker, who's also quick to anger. While it powers up her Semblance in battle, it makes her predictable and easily exploited by enemies. Neo, Neon and Cinder are all able to exploit her for their own advantage, leading to her being framed and disqualified in the tournament, and losing an arm in the Battle of Beacon. This is lampshaded by Taiyang in Volume 4, who trains her to fight smarter not harder, and to separate her temper from her Semblance.
Hypocritical Humor: During initiation, Yang witnesses the following in quick succession: her sister randomly falls out of the sky, a girl rides in on an Ursa before killing it, and another girl is chased into view by a giant Death Stalker. The random madness blows her fuse, and she demands that everyone just chill out for two seconds. In the background, a clock ticks down and, two seconds later, Weiss rides in on a Giant Nevermore. Yang slumps in defeat.
Yang: I can't take it anymore! Can everyone just chill out for two seconds before something crazy happens again!?
Image Song:
- "Gold", one of the Volume 1 ending credits song, is about Yang's love for her little sister Ruby and her desire to protect her.
- "Armed and Ready", the Volume 4 finale song, sings about how Yang has overcome her fears, now stronger for the experience, and how she's coming back better than ever.
- "Ignite", featured in her Volume 5 character short, is all about how Yang will decimate her opponents.
Implied Death Threat: When battling with her opponent, Yang offers him only one last chance to give up and walk away. When Adam spots her left hand trembling, he laughs and asks her if she really believes that, or whether she's really hoping he'll just leave so that she doesn't have to die trying to protect Blake from him.
Yang: Leave. Us. Alone. This is your last chance.
Improvised Weapon: During the food fight, she uses a pair of roasted turkeys as Power Fists in exactly the same way she'd use her gauntlet guns.
Incendiary Exponent: Yang's Semblance absorbs attack energy and converts it into Super-Strength. To make this more visible and visually interesting, her hair bursts into flames while her Semblance is active, and her eyes turn red.
In Harm's Way: A discussed example: Yang wants an adventurous life where she lives for the moment and doesn't know what tomorrow will bring. She thinks being a Huntress will help her achieve that. It's not until their first mission to Mountain Glenn that she begins to understand how serious the job really is. However, it's during her Volume 4 convalescence that she retrains her mentality. While she still enjoys adventure, she has fully embraced the responsibility of a Huntress to protect the people.
Interspecies Romance: Her feelings for Blake become increasingly clear over time, making her love interest a Faunus rather than a human. In Volume 9, the Empathic Environment they're trapped in forces them to profess their love for each other, upgrading their relationship to an Official Couple.
Jiggle Physics: As the character with the biggest breasts on the team, Yang's more prone to jiggling breasts than the others. Any time she moves suddenly, folds her arms, or fights, her breasts tend to move a lot. The production team admitted the physics on Yang's model is too sensitive and they're normally toning it down rather than adding it.
Kiai: In the Japanese dub, Yang shouts out oraoraora when she fights.
Leaning on the Furniture: Parodied in Volume 7 when Ironwood interrupts the heroes' training to instruct them. While the rest of the group are serious and attentive, Yang interjects an air of casual attentiveness by using Oscar's shoulder as a leaning prop, much to his silent surprise. He doesn't object, so they remain in this position for the entire conversation. Yang lost some of her adventurous, thrill-seeker personality after losing her arm, but this moment is one of several scenes in Volume 7 that show she has recovered enough for some of this personality to return.
Leg Focus: In the Yellow Trailer, there is a close-up of Yang's legs as she gets off her motorcycle. The camera then pans to behind her, producing an upshot of her legs and backside as she walks into the nightclub.
Leitmotif: The straight-forward, hard-rock version of "I Burn" is about her belief she will not be stopped, even if people get in her way. It can very often be heard playing in various guises as a signature of Yang and her actions.
Meaningful Name: Yang (阳) is the Chinese character for sun and/or light. Xiao (小) Long (龙) means "Little Dragon". Her hair catches fire whenever her Semblance activates, and her father's nickname for her is "my sunny little dragon".
Megaton Punch: In the Volume 5 premiere, "Welcome to Haven", she punches a drunken creep who approaches her and touches her hair so hard that he loses a tooth and bounces around the room like a pinball.
Mental Health Recovery Arc: In Volume 4, Yang is the only main character who remains behind at home to recover from the trauma she experienced in the previous volume. She struggles with PTSD and depression as she comes to terms with her situation and begins the journey to reunite with her sister at the end of the volume. She still suffers from PTSD, occasionally experiencing trauma flashbacks or hand tremors in high-stress situations. However, she refuses to let it define her, and keeps working through it, despite it leaving her more cynical and mistrustful than she used to be.
Misery Builds Character: Yang initially wants to become a Huntress because she's a thrill-seeker, but Beacon slowly forces her to start lamenting her aimlessness and lack of altruism. After losing an arm, her father bluntly tells her she lost it because she thought she could charge her way through any problem, using her Semblance as a crutch. He teaches her to fight smarter instead of harder. By the time she's recovered, her priorities have shifted to the protection of those in need, even if means opposing the mother she's always wanted to meet, or friends like Ironwood and the Ace-Ops.
Missing Mom: Raven Branwen abandoned Yang at birth; initially obsessed with find her to learn why, Yang learns to control the desire when she almost gets herself and Ruby killed. Though she still wants an answer, she won't prioritise it at any cost. While searching for Ruby, Yang only visits Raven because her Semblance can teleport her straight to Qrow and her sister. Yang eventually realises and call out Raven's cowardice, causing Raven to flee in tears; she also breaks down once Raven is gone.
Most Common Superpower: In part two of the Justice League/RWBY crossover film, Yang's already curvy figure is transformed into a classic superheroine physique, including visible arm musculature and a vastly increased bust size.
Ms. Fanservice: Yang's Beacon outfits show off her tall, athletic figure, long legs and cleavage, whether through hotpants or mini-skirts, low-cut tops, or thigh-high boots. It's averted in Volume 4, where she wears a grunge style as she struggles with depression and PTSD, and then becomes more downplayed in future volumes, where she shows off some cleavage or other skin, but not excessively.
Ms. Vice Girl: Yang's desire to become a Huntress originally stems from a love of battle, not a desire to save lives, and she's the team's most ruthless fighter. She eventually learns to prioritise the protection of the people over her adventurous spirit and is horrified to learn that Qrow and Raven originally joined Beacon to learn how to kill Huntsmen to protect the bandit tribe that raised them; she's also disgusted when she realises her mother killed the Spring Maiden years ago.
My Greatest Failure: During her childhood, Yang was obsessed with finding Raven to the point where she almost gets herself and Ruby killed when chasing clues lead her straight into a nest of Beowolves. They were rescued by Qrow, and she learned to never let obsession control her again.
Never Heard That One Before: When a sleazy bandit at the Just Rite gas station starts hitting on Yang, he leads into his compliment by calling her "not too bulky, not too lean, you're—", Yang finishes his pick up line of "just right" in a bored, unamused tone, indicating she thinks his attempt to pun the place's name is obvious and awful.
Nobody Touches the Hair: It is really not a good idea to mess with Yang's hair. Every time her hair gets damaged, she snaps at the person who has damaged it. If it happens in battle, she reaches a new level of power and strength and pummels the opponent. Taiyang regards her first haircut as a particularly memorable experience.
"No. Just… No" Reaction: After the fight with Roman's Paladin, Roman escapes with the help of Neo's Semblance, which shatters the illusion of Neo like glass to reveal where she and Roman really are. Weiss comments that Neo "really made our plans fall apart". Yang's response is "No. Just no" before explaining to an offended Weiss that the timing of the joke was fine, it was just a terrible pun.
Not So Similar:
- As discussed by Taiyang, he is proud to see something of Raven in Yang but is relieved that he doesn't see all of Raven in her. He implies Yang inherited her strength of will from Raven, but suggests she should avoid her mother's mistake of bulldozing through problems instead of learning how to work around them. He vaguely mentions that Raven's flaws tore Team STRQ apart and caused much of the emotional fall-out for their family; when Yang confronts Raven in Volume 5, she learns that she has courage while her mother's flaw is cowardice.
- Yang and Adam have both been Blake's mission partners, permanently scarred by others and share a power-up Semblance. However, Yang is a thrill-seeker who learned to protect the people, rise above her scars, and gains strength by tanking physical damage. Adam gains power by absorbing energy through his sword and is a manipulative abuser who descended from Faunus rights activist into a vengeance-obsessed monster. In Volume 3, Blake observes that Adam's violence was a pattern while Yang's tournament disqualification was a genuine one-off. During their Volume 6 fight, Yang rejects Adam's gaslighting of Blake, accusing him of lying to Blake about his true self — something she's never done.
Not Quite Flight: When launched into the air, Yang can use her weapons to prolong her movements through the air, by creating bursts of forward motion from the recoil generated by her ammunition. This enables her to effectively fall through the air in a controlled manner rather than actually flying.
Official Couple: In Volume 9 she becomes one with Blake, after they profess their feelings to each other.
Only Friend: She defies the trope. Ruby says that she's fine with Yang being her only friend at Beacon, but Yang knows that's an unhealthy way for Ruby to think and encourages her to socialize, even dragging her off to talk to Blake just because Ruby said she'd encountered her once before.
Parental Abandonment: Her mother Raven left her just after she was born. Years later, her adopted mother Summer disappeared. While Summer is presumed dead, Raven is very much alive and is the leader of a bandit tribe in the wilds of Anima. Yang doesn't know the details of Summer's disappearance nor Raven's abandonment.
Parental Neglect: When Yang was a child, Taiyang became depressed over Summer's death and he also frequently worked at Signal Academy instead of being there for his daughters. These events forced Yang to personally become Ruby's parental figure.
Past Experience Nightmare: Throughout Volume 4, Yang is sidelined while she learns how to deal with the trauma of losing her arm and comes to terms with her PTSD. She experiences nightmares of Adam coming for her, where she desperately tries to fight back against him but finds herself stripped of her abilities, too powerless and terrified to stop him.
Patchwork Kids: Her physical appearance is a general mix and match of that of her father's and mother's appearances. She has Raven's long voluminous hair, Taiyang's exact shade of blond hair and Raven's facial structure and skin tone; her eyes are purple, a shade that's supposed to be a mixture of her mother's blood-red eyes and her father's baby-blue eyes.
Playing with Fire: Yang is themed on fire and the sun. Her Semblance acts as a Super Mode, powering up her punches and shotgun rounds by absorbing attack energy so that she can redirect it back to the enemy. When her Semblance activates, her hair bursts into flames. As part of this theme, she favours Fire Dust ammunition in her gauntlet guns, producing explosive effects whenever she punches. From Volume 7, she starts incorporating sticky bombs that explode her enemies from a distance.
Power Fist: Her gauntlet guns are introduced in a close-up that reveals how they work. They appear as wrist bracers until activated, whereupon they extend to cover her arm from elbow to knuckles. With an ammo belt around each wrist, she can augment her punches with explosive bullets and reload with a flick of her wrists.
Promotion to Parent: Following Summer's disappearance, Taiyang suffered a Heroic BSoD and wasn't around much to raise his daughters because he worked at Signal Academy. Because of these events, Yang was forced to become Ruby's mother figure.
Recoil Boost: She can use her weapon's recoil to improve her mobility. During initiation, she achieves Not Quite Flight from the recoil alone, allowing her to soar over the forest canopy before making a controlled descent through the trees to land safely. Using recoil from her weapons is always a primary part of her landing strategy by boosting her against gravity to control and slow her descent.
Red Oni, Blue Oni: Yang is the Red Oni to Blake's Blue. Yang is a brightly-coloured sun-themed, brash, physical fighter who appears to be carefree and light-hearted. Blake is a shadow-themed, acrobatic fighter who is aloof, brooding and burdens herself with society's problems. Yang learned to address her issues the hard way, making her much more confident in both combat and social situations, as well as capable of helping Blake to gain control of her problems when she's wallowing in feelings of obsession, inadequacy and cowardice.
Red Eyes, Take Warning: Whenever she gets really mad or has taken enough hits to activate her Semblance on its own, her eyes will turn bright red and her hair will catch on fire. Even when moderately angry, her eyes can turn a paler shade of red.
Retractable Weapon: When not in use the gauntlets appear as braces on her wrists. When extended for use, they cover the lower arm and back of the hand.
Roaring Rampage of Revenge: She tends to go on an angry warpath when her friends get injured. During the tournament, seeing Weiss sacrifice herself to take out Flynt causes Yang to furiously take out both Flynt and Neon by herself. However, when she tries this again after Adam stabs Blake, her reckless charge leaves her wide open for him to chop off her arm.
Rocket Jump: She can use the shotguns in her bracers to launch herself into the air.
Rocket Punch: After splattering the incoming watermelons during the foodfight, she promptly puts Jaune down by launching the turkeys she's using as gloves right off her fists and into his stomach.
Scarf of Asskicking: During the first three volumes, she wears an orange scarf around her neck. In the Yellow Trailer, she busts up a mob-owned nightclub, beating up the owner and all his henchmen. As the team's power-fighter, she represents her team during the Vytal Festival Tournament because she has the better fight record. Her Atlas outfit also has a scarf, where she graduates to fully-licensed Huntress years before she's scheduled to.
Schmuck Bait: She tricks Junior into letting his guard down by offering to kiss him as an apology in the Yellow Trailer, giving her a chance to punch him.
Second Love: She becomes one to Blake after they confess their true feelings to each other in the Ever After.
She's Back: Yang spends the first half of Volume 4 struggling with PTSD and depression in the wake of losing her arm. Once she learns her father can't protect Ruby while looking after her, she decides to address the situation and begins training to get back on her feet. She transitions from being unwilling to wear her cybernetic arm, to discovering how impressive it is to use. By the end of the volume, she's given the cybernetic arm an artistic make-over, changed her signature clothing, and set off in search of Ruby.
Shell-Shocked Veteran: In the fourth volume, Yang is traumatized by the events of the Battle of Beacon; simply dropping a glass on the floor causes her to flashback to the moment she lost her arm to Adam. Even after she gets back on feet, some of it lingers; in Volume 6, she hallucinates Adam while searching Brunswick Farms and panics, visibly shaking afterwards.
Yang: I was just seeing things. I'm sorry. I still get flashes from that night.
Shockwave Stomp: By using her fists, she can hit the ground so hard that it causes shockwaves which knock people over. She first uses it in the Yellow Trailer to knock all her opponents over at once.
Shut Up, Hannibal!: In "Seeing Red", after Blake tells Adam that she made a promise to her friends that won't leave them, he tries to make Yang distrust Blake by pointing out she once made that promise to him and didn't keep it. Yang's response is simply to ask him if Blake was making that promise to Adam or to the person Adam was pretending to be.
Showgirl Skirt: In the first three volumes, she wears hotpants surrounded by a skirt that doesn't fully wrap around her body, showcasing her legs.
Single-Target Sexuality: Yang has only ever fallen in love with a single person. Blake is Yang's first love; she doesn't even know she was attracted to women before meeting Blake.
Single Woman Seeks Good Man: Yang is looking for a partner who isn't intimidated by her, who has strong moral fibre and is determined to help those in need. A same sex example is in Volume 9, her Love Confession reveals these are the qualities she admires in Blake, who is willing to help those in need if even they've hurt her. She's shocked and deeply touched when Blake lists the positive qualities about Yang that she in turn has fallen in love with.
Sink or Swim Mentor: To force Ruby to socialise in Beacon, Yang abandons Ruby in the courtyard and runs off with her friends. According to Dunkelman, Yang's the sort of person "who would teach someone to swim by pushing them in the water".
So Proud of You: Yang is extremely thrilled that Ruby got into Beacon two years early, and proud of her leadership instincts. She admires how Ruby had a driving ambition from an early age, and how selflessly she helps people. In the fifth volume, her faith in Ruby's instinct for doing the right thing keeps her on board with Ozpin's mission despite his habit of obfuscating the truth. When she loses faith in Ruby's leadership three volumes later, it unsettles the heroes and splits them into two teams. However, although they disagree on what to prioritise, they never view the argument as a threat to their relationship.
Sore Loser: A Played for Laughs example. After losing to Neptune in a board game, she angrily storms through her room and grumpily remarks that they never should've let him play. She similarly reacts negatively when she loses a match in a video game after Qrow distracts her with a perverted comment.
Standard Power-Up Pose: A deconstructed example. In the first three volumes, Yang activates her Semblance by entering the power-up pose, activating her gauntlets while bringing her arms into power fists, then charging. In Volume 4, Taiyang points out this style is just a temper tantrum designed to fix her problems, making her predictable. He teaches her to fight smarter instead of harder, and to only use her Semblance as a last resort. She learns her lesson and stops broadcasting when she's about to use her Semblance.
Stuff Blowing Up: Yang's weapons are gauntlet guns that fire explosive Fire Dust, which explode on impact. In Volume 7, she gets the upgraded to fire timed grenades which she can stick to a target and then blow them up like bombs when she's cleared the blast radius.
Stealth Pun: If her hair is damaged, she explodes with rage. If her hair is damaged in battle, she puts a major beat down on the opponents who dared to strike it. She therefore has a hair-triggered temper.
Strong and Skilled: While all of Team RWBY are exceptionally skilled fighters, Yang's Semblance makes her exceptionally tough as she can tank the damage taken from attacks and redirect it into empowering herself. After her father spent Volume 4 teaching her to fight smarter instead of harder, she becomes even more skilled to balance her strength.
Super Mode: Her Semblance allows her to power up, with her eyes turning red and her hair catching fire. The more energy she is hit with, the stronger she becomes.
Supermodel Strut: Yang walks into Junior's nightclub with a sassy, hip-swaying walk. While Junior's henchmen are afraid of her and see her as trouble, Junior is implied to be a little besotted with her.
Super Rug-Pull: Despite being made of glass, the dance floor at Junior's club uncharacteristically flexes to the shockwave from Yang's powerful fist strikes, rather than shattering on impact.
Super-Strength: Yang's Semblance converts attack damage into super strength, so that she becomes stronger the more damage she takes. As a result, she can destroy a Paladin after it's thrown her around like a ragdoll. She also shows some feats of strength when not using the Semblance, such as carrying an enormous sound system on her shoulders that's even bigger than she is.
Tell Me About My Mother: While Taiyang tells Yang about her mother's positive traits, he glosses over Raven's flaws. Once Yang finally meets her, she learns Raven is a coward who puts herself above everyone, and will put people in harm's way to protect herself. She lampshades the discrepency between what her father told her and what her mother really is.
Theme Music Power-Up: During her fight against Team FNKI, a jazz remix of "I Burn" plays as she turns the tide and wins the match.
Theme Naming: Ember refers to fire and Celica is from the Latin Coelica meaning Heavenly or Celestial. Like Yang, her weapons are named after the Sun.
Tomboy with a Girly Streak: She's a crude, rowdy, tough, aggressive Blood Knight who rides a motorcycle. In Volume 8, she is briefly shown to have enough skill as a mechanic to know how to fix a hoverbike model she's only had access to for a few hours. However, she also adds impractical girly twists to her outfits such as a fine, frilly half-skirt to her main outfit and huge delicate bows to her secondary outfit. From Volume 4, the girly twists disappear and her outfits become entirely practical, but her love of her cascading, golden hair is life-long.
Trauma Conga Line: In Volume 3, Yang is framed for assault on global television, is told her mother cares very little for her, is forced to witness her team partner Blake get stabbed, loses her arm and two friends, and then the person she lost an arm for flees Vale with no explanation. By the end of the volume, she's bedridden with depression and has given up the fight. It takes her the whole of Volume 4 to recover enough to get back on her feet again, and until the end of Volume 6 to emotionally recover enough for her relationship with Blake to fully heal.
Unorthodox Reload: She reloads by throwing a belt of ammunition in the air before swinging her gauntlets back into them with a dramatic gun cock.
Unwitting Pawn: Yang's predictable fighting style makes her an easy pawn for framing Ozpin and Beacon Academy; Emerald tricks her into thinking Mercury is attacking, leading to the expected response of Yang's Semblance exploding into action as she hits him hard. All global television sees is her attacking a defenceless person while he's down. This triggers world-wide negativity spikes, riling up Grimm. It's the first stage in triggering a Grimm invasion and turning people against the Huntsmen Academies as part of the Big Bad's long-term machinations.
Vague Age: The way Yang discusses when Summer Rose died introduces vagueness about her and Ruby's ages at the time. On two separate occasions, she claims that Ruby was too young to understand Summer's death and couldn't talk yet, even calling Ruby a "toddler", while also stating that she had to pick up the pieces given their father's situation; as Yang is only two years older than Ruby, she effectively implies that they were much older than she's detailing in order to have been capable of looking after a house and sibling in their father's absence.
When All You Have Is a Hammer…: Her battle strategy consists of charging opponents and punching the crap out of them in combination with her shotgun shells for extra power. That fails? Get angry and hit it even harder with flames added on. That fails? Take enough damage to power up to the max and blast it away. She wins nearly every fight this way, but her defeats to Neo and Adam have been catastrophic. Her father deconstructs this because relying on strength alone wears people out quickly, leaving them weak, tired and vulnerable. If Yang is fighting someone stronger than her, it'll get her killed. Taiyang feels her lost arm proves his point.
Wreathed in Flames: As she powers up in battle, her golden hair takes on the quality of flame, as if she's catching fire. Also, when she's angry enough for her eyes to turn red, her hair will also appear to catch fire. In the Yellow trailer, she powered up to "white hot" and her hair correspondingly became white flame.
You Are Not Alone: Yang's advice to Blake about handling obsession ends with her embracing Blake and telling her that there are people who want to help her and care about her. While this solves the immediate problem, Sun has to repeat the same lesson to her two volumes later. Once she does accept that it's okay to rely on friends' support, she is able to reunite with Team RWBY in Volume 5 with a much improved attitude towards sharing, although it takes her until the end of Volume 6 to fully understand it.
You Wouldn't Like Me When I'm Angry!: Yang's an outgoing, fun-loving person who destroyed a Paladin and singlehandedly took out multiple members of opposing teams during Team RWBY's fights in the Vytal festival tournament, earning her team a victory. Port even announces that Team FNKI wouldn't like Yang when she's...upset.

Characters / RWBY: Team RWBY
aka: RWBY Ruby Rose

Spoilers for all works set prior to the end of Volume 8 are unmarked.

Team RWBY

Ruby Rose

Voiced By: Lindsay Jones (née Tuggey) ^{Foreign VAs}Saori Hayami (Japanese)

Debut: Red Trailer

Weiss Schnee

Voiced By: Kara Eberle, Casey Lee Williams (singing voice) ^{Foreign VAs}Yōko Hikasa (Japanese)

Debut: White Trailer

Blake Belladonna

Voiced By: Arryn Zech ^{Foreign VAs} Yu Shimamura (Japanese)

Debut: Black Trailer

Yang Xiao Long

Voiced By: Barbara Dunkelman^{Foreign VAs} Ami Koshimizu (Japanese)

Debut: Yellow Trailer

Alternative Title(s): RWBY Weiss Schnee, RWBY Blake Belladonna, RWBY Yang Xiao Long, RWBY Ruby Rose

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Characters / RWBY: Team RWBY aka: RWBY Ruby Rose

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Spoilers for all works set prior to the end of Volume 8 are unmarked.

Team RWBY

Ruby Rose

Voiced By: Lindsay Jones (née Tuggey) Foreign VAsSaori Hayami (Japanese)

Debut: Red Trailer

Weiss Schnee

Voiced By: Kara Eberle, Casey Lee Williams (singing voice) Foreign VAsYōko Hikasa (Japanese)

Debut: White Trailer

Blake Belladonna

Voiced By: Arryn Zech Foreign VAs Yu Shimamura (Japanese)

Debut: Black Trailer

Yang Xiao Long

Voiced By: Barbara DunkelmanForeign VAs Ami Koshimizu (Japanese)

Debut: Yellow Trailer

Alternative Title(s): RWBY Weiss Schnee, RWBY Blake Belladonna, RWBY Yang Xiao Long, RWBY Ruby Rose

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Index

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Characters / RWBY: Team RWBY
aka: RWBY Ruby Rose

Voiced By: Lindsay Jones (née Tuggey) ^{Foreign VAs}Saori Hayami (Japanese)

Voiced By: Kara Eberle, Casey Lee Williams (singing voice) ^{Foreign VAs}Yōko Hikasa (Japanese)

Voiced By: Arryn Zech ^{Foreign VAs} Yu Shimamura (Japanese)

Voiced By: Barbara Dunkelman^{Foreign VAs} Ami Koshimizu (Japanese)