List of RWBY characters
This is a list of characters who appear in RWBY, an original anime-style CG-animated web series created by Rooster Teeth Productions. According to series creator Monty Oum, every character's name is tied to a specific color. There are also other teams with their name combining to form acronyms that are also tied to a color.Creation and conception
Oum designed the characters with assistance from artist Ein Lee. Oum had been browsing Lee's DeviantArt work and asked if she wanted to do some designs. The only rule provided for the series was "everyone must be badass." Lee also said that some of the characters were conceived between her and Oum, where he would provide a description followed by her sketching some ideas, or vice versa. Others were from brainstorming with other people. The characters utilize designs inspired by classic fairy tale characters. Each character has an associated color, and it is the first letters of these colors, red, white, black, and yellow, that give the series its name. Lee said that looking to people, Google image searches, and fashion were inspirations: "how people dress−down to the littlest detail—gives many subtle hints about who they are. It's all about giving the characters a unique and memorable look that people can still identify with." Oum also drew inspiration from the Final Fantasy video games and the "ridiculously obnoxious weapons".
The series was written by Oum, along with fellow Rooster Teeth employees Miles Luna and Kerry Shawcross. Oum was initially concerned about a story focusing on female characters being developed by a primarily male crew, but said they managed to do well developing the female characters.Protagonists
Team RWBY
Team RWBY is composed of four female students from Beacon Academy. Each member is associated with a color and alludes to a character in the fairy tale world—reflected in their names and personalities.
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A silver-eyed girl who uses a scythe called Crescent Rose as both a melee weapon and as a high caliber sniper rifle. Her Semblance is called "Petal Burst", which enables her to transform into a fast burst of rose petals, allowing for near-instant short-range intangibility and teleportation. Penny Polendina described Ruby's semblance as "extremely complex and variable. It involves breaking her body down to its molecular components before zooming off in complex paths, negating the laws of mass entirely." Initially, it was thought that Ruby's ability was primarily super-speed, enabling her to run faster than the human eye can catch, and change directions in mid-air. When her mother Summer Rose vanished when she was very young, Ruby was raised on the island of Patch by her father Taiyang and her older half-sister Yang Xiao Long.
Ruby alludes to the fairy tale character Little Red Riding Hood.
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The former heiress to the Schnee family, a powerful high-class family based in Atlas. Their Schnee Dust Company provides much of the worldwide supply of Dust, despite the family being targeted by the White Fang due to the immoral business ethics of Weiss' father Jacques, which included mistreatment of Faunus laborers. While inheriting her family's white hair and blue eyes, Weiss gained a noticeable scar over her left eye as a result of fighting an Arma Gigas. Weiss uses a Dust-loaded revolver/rapier-hybrid named Myrtenaster. Weiss's semblance, called Semblance of Glyphs, is extremely rare because it's hereditary; females of the Schnee family all have the same semblance. This semblance allows Weiss to create glyphs enhanced with Dust that can be utilize in a variety of ways, on either herself, her allies or enemies: perform limited time dilation, manipulate gravity, freezing the terrain, fire projectiles, block attacks, generate midair platforms, and summon creatures. Weiss's fighting style consists of a mixture of these glyphs, Dust and her weapon. Weiss chose to become a Huntress at Beacon Academy with aspirations of restoring her family's honor, as she disagreed with her father's business methods. The Nightmare version of Weiss, known as Negative Weiss, serves as the main antagonist of the Ice Queendom.
Weiss alludes to Snow White, as her full name Weiss Schnee is German for "White Snow". Character designer Ein Lee said that Weiss was her favorite character among the four main girls to draw: "She's so delicate, and I love princess types."
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A cat Faunus with a love for books. She is a former member of the White Fang who left in disgust over the increasing brutality and callous disregard for civilian lives by her former lover and mentor Adam. Blake's weapon is the Gambol Shroud, a "variant ballistic chain scythe" according to Oum with a sharpened sheath that has a pistol in the hilt, which is also attached to a long ribbon. Blake uses blade and sheath in attacking combinations, while also using the momentum of the blade anchored to an object to maneuver herself with the ribbon, even in midair. Her Semblance, "Shadow", allows her to create a hollow clone of herself that functions as an afterimage decoy while she moves in a different direction. Blake can give the clone an additional effect depending on the type of Dust used, such as teleporting between them, or absorbing hits for her or her friends. In Volume 9, Blake and Yang confess their feelings for each other and become a couple.
Blake is an allusion to Beauty and the Beast, arguably to both Belle and the beast.
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A blonde-haired girl and Ruby's older half-sister. She wields twin shotgun gauntlets called Ember Celica. After she loses her right arm to Adam Taurus in Volume 3, her replacement bionic arm is installed with a shotgun mechanism at the wrist. In Volume 7, Yang has Pietro add sticky grenades to her arsenal. Her Semblance, "Burn", works on a "recoil-based system"; it lets her store up energy from taking hits. The harder enemies hit her the harder she's able to hit them back. In Volume 9, Yang and Blake confess their feelings for each other and become a couple.
Yang is an allusion to Goldilocks.Team JNPR
Team JNPR, renamed JNR after the loss of Pyrrha, is inspired by historical figures who had taken on the appearance of the opposite gender. In Volume 4, Ruby temporarily joins their group and they informally rename themselves Team RNJR.
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A blond-haired student and the leader of Team JNPR who uses a sword and shield combination called Crocea Mors, an heirloom formerly belonging to his great-great-grandfather. His shield can fold into a sheath for his sword, although it retains its weight. In Volume 4, Jaune upgraded the shield so that it can act as a second blade for the sword. In Volume 7, the shield is further upgraded by Pietro with hardened light Dust on the sides that Jaune can use to act as a glider in air, and the crest can now hold Dust. His Semblance, "Aura Amp", allows him to amplify his Aura or that of others, and he can quickly recharge his Aura even when broken by Volume 7. After arriving in the Ever After in volume 9, Jaune picked a fruit that sent him decades back in time which resulted in him becoming the Rusted Knight, a fairytale character from the Girl Who Fell Through the World.
His name is a reference to the French heroine Joan of Arc.
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An orange-haired student at Beacon and old friend of Ren who carries Magnhild, a war hammer that can be converted into a grenade launcher. In Volume 4, Nora has upgraded Magnhild, so that it can apparently hold a stronger electric charge. Her Semblance, "High Voltage", is the production and manipulation of electricity, allowing her to channel the energy to her muscles and gain superhuman strength. Nora is very talkative and hyperactive, which tends to annoy her teammates, but she's also the most positive member of the team. Nora was living on the streets of Kuroyuri when she was a child. When the village was attacked by Grimm, Ren saved her, beginning their friendship. Nora eventually admits her love for Ren but wants to find her own identity before entering a relationship with him.
Her first name comes from the Nora Barlow Columbine, while her last name, "Valkyrie", is inspired by the female warriors found in Norse mythology. She alludes to the Norse god Thor. According to the show's producers, the concept of her weapon was based on the annual Festival of Exploding Hammers in Mexico.
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A red-haired student with a long ponytail and bright green eyes. She wielded Miló, a javelin that could transform into a rifle or a xiphos sword, and a shield called Akoúo̱. Her Semblance is "Polarity", which is the ability to manipulate objects with magnetism.
Due to her many achievements, Pyrrha has earned a reputation that makes forming relationships with others difficult because others often assume she is "too good for them". As such when Jaune treats her normally, she chooses him as her partner during the initiation and becomes attracted to him. Pyrrha was chosen by Ozpin as the next Fall Maiden which she initially hesitated to accept, but decides to go through with it, but Cinder kills Amber and takes the full power for herself. After confessing her feelings to Jaune, Pyrrha faces Cinder alone but is killed.. After the fall of Beacon, a memorial statue of Pyrrha was made in her honor in Argus.
Monty Oum stated that Pyrrha was given her name for her red hair, and her full name is a reference to a Pyrrhic victory. She also alludes to Achilles from Homer's The Iliad.
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A black-haired student at Beacon who dual wields machine pistols with attached blades, collectively called StormFlower. In Volume 7, Pietro upgraded StormFlower so the blades can be projected from the guns to act as grappling hooks. His Semblance, "Tranquility", masks negative emotion, which allows him and his targets to avoid detection from Grimm, Which was unlocked when he lost his village and family in a Grimm attack, leaving him and Nora as the only survivors.. Ren's Semblance eventually evolves, allowing him to see the emotions of those around him in the form of lotus petals with various colors. He eventually admits his feelings for Nora.
While his name in Chinese translates to "huntsman", Ren is also Japanese for "lotus", which is his emblem. He alludes to the legendary Chinese hero Hua Mulan.