Team RWBY

Two of the team's members, Ruby Rose and Yang Xiao Long, were born to three members of Beacon Academy alumni, Team STRQ: Yang was born to Taiyang Xiao Long and Raven Branwen and Ruby was born a few years later to Taiyang and Summer Rose. Born to a Huntsman family, the siblings inherited their parent's professions and naturally gravitated to becoming Huntresses, with Yang's father training her and Qrow Branwen, Ruby's honorary uncle, training her respectively. While Ruby's interest in the profession came from a sense of duty and legacy, Yang saw it as a way to get involved in "crazy adventures" and find her long lost birth mother. Shortly before the start of the series, Weiss Schnee, heiress of the Schnee Dust Company, decided to attend Beacon rather than Atlas Academy, leading to a "royal test" in which she successfully destroyed an Arma Gigas Grimm. Around the same time, Blake Belladonna, a then active member of a Faunus rights movement known as the White Fang, became disillusioned with the excessive violence and abandoned her partner after a train heist and decided to use her talents to become a Huntress, easily passing the entrance exam to do so. Ruby is a fair-skinned young girl with silver eyes and neck-length black hair with red tips. Ruby is a fair-skinned young girl with silver eyes and neck-length black hair with red tips. Ever since she was little, Ruby has had a romanticized view of the Huntsman profession. She is quick to reveal she wanted to become a Huntress in order to be like the great heroes in fairy tales, and she has described being one as far more "romantic" than being a police officer. Her mentality is described as "I don't have time for my emotions. I've gotta make sure that everybody else is okay." Ruby's mentality is "selfless, but that means she's not dealing with her own issues. Compartmentalizing and internalizing her grief is what might eventually destroy her." She has also shown a distinct lack of ability to pick up social cues due to being a very open and honest person. Ruby is a self-proclaimed dork when it comes to weapons; she is quite intelligent, having designed and built Crescent Rose during her time at Signal, although she admits to going "a little overboard" with its design. She feels that seeing new weapons "is like meeting new people, but better." she relies on Crescent Rose quite often in battle. Ruby has a strong sense of moral justice, a trait she obtained from stories about heroes and monsters that her sister used to read for her, as well as the way her parents raised her. These stories are what gave her the ideals that she wished to live by and uphold throughout her life and are the reason for her love for books. Ruby is shown to be naïve as although she doesn't like to be the center of attention, becoming a Huntress would effectively put her in the spotlight. In addition to her dislike of attention, Ruby prefers to either be alone or with Yang. However, she has become comfortable around Team RWBY and Team JNPR. She does not lack social skills but has problems when meeting new people. This is mostly because of her childish nature and lack of social grace, as she can be bad-mannered (only out of ignorance) and sometimes speaks without thinking. However, because of her enthusiastic personality, she can become very good friends with people who share her enthusiasm. Despite this, Ruby's leadership skills make her a worthy teammate. While she may occasionally act without thinking, sometimes she seems to understand the situation better than most. She can then use this ability to quickly formulate plans. Ruby is also shown to care for all her teammates equally, despite their background. This is seen in how she expresses sympathy for Weiss' bad childhood after she explains her family's history with the White Fang, before showing the same concern moments later for Blake Belladonna when she runs away, having let slip her prior involvement with the group, and by extension indirectly revealing that she was a Faunus. Ruby's concern is further expressed in her desperate search for her teammate. This sense of care is later shown not to be limited to her teammates. She also shows some worry for Penny, telling the latter to stay out of the fight between Roman Torchwick, Blake Belladonna, and Sun Wukong. Although Ruby has no trouble interacting with her friends, she does have trouble actually making them, and once admits that seeing new weapons "is like meeting new people, but better". This could have been a result of her having been accepted two years earlier to Beacon Academy, which forces her to leave her friends at Signal behind, as well as interact with people that are both older and more experienced than she is. Regardless, both she and Jaune Arc toast to being socially awkward during the Beacon Dance. Ruby has been shown to be ruthless at times when it comes to protecting her loved ones, such as when she nonchalantly cuts off Tyrian Callows' stinger in "Punished" after he manages to injure and poison Qrow Branwen. When Neopolitan knocks Yang over the edge of the Central Location in "Worthy", Ruby attempts to cut Neo in half using the same motion she frequently employs on Grimm.

Weiss is a pale-skinned young woman with pale blue eyes and long white hair that is often pulled back into an off-center ponytail or braid on the right side and pinned with a silver, icicle-shaped tiara. She stands at 4' 11" (1.5 meters), but typically wears heels that raise her height to 5' 3" (1.6 meters). Weiss has a scar which runs vertically down her left eye and face, gained during her battle against an Arma Gigas. During her attendance at Beacon, she wears a thigh-length strapless dress with a faint color gradation from white to pale blue at the hem. A small piece of black lace sits in the front of her neckline and the hem of the dress is scalloped and stitched to resemble snowflakes, with layers of white tulle under the skirt. Over this, she wears a bell-sleeved bolero with the same color gradation as her dress from shoulder to wrist, lined in red and with a ruffled collar. On the back of the bolero is the Schnee Crest. She also wears a small apple pendant on a silver chain and thin, rectangular silver earrings. Her boots are white, wedged heeled, and higher at the back than the front. They have a small silver decoration across the top of the foot and are lined in red. A thin white sash is tied around her waist with a pouch attached to the back. everything has been decided for Weiss in her life and because of it, she is a bit of a rebel. This manifests itself in her physical appearance as she wears her ponytail to the side of her head, disrupting the symmetry of the rest of her outfit. When Professor Peter Port states that Weiss has received everything she wanted in life, she responds that it is not entirely true, thinking of her father's attitude. She takes pride in her name and the company, though, as seen when she first meets Blake, when she discusses it with her team in Mountain Glenn and when she confronts her father over it. Weiss is "nice but can also be a little bit bitchy." She is irritable and confident in her abilities, though also acknowledges her deficiencies and the need to hone her skills further. Her confidence in her skills and intellect often comes off as arrogance to others.

Blake is a fair-skinned young woman with wavy black hair and amber eyes. Her Faunus trait is a pair of black cat ears on top of her head. During her attendance at Beacon, she wears a black, buttoned vest with coattails and a single silver button on the front. Underneath this is a white, sleeveless, high necked, crop undershirt and tight white spandex compression shorts that reach her upper thighs with a zipper on the front of each leg, emblazoned with the YKK logo of the real-life Japanese zipper manufacturer. She also wears black low-heeled boots and full stockings with a color gradation of black to purple at her ankles. Her emblem is visible on the outside of both thighs just below her shorts in white. On her left arm is a black detached sleeve with a silver cuff around her bicep, and black ribbons are wrapped around both forearms. A small, loose, black scarf is wrapped around her neck, and a gray magnetic backpack is strapped to her back, hidden by her hair. She often keeps her weapon attached to the magnetic backpack when she is not using it. A black ribbon is tied with a large bow on the top of her head, with her cat ears hidden inside the loops. She wears purple eye shadow in cats eye style. She displays a cool, reserved and serious personality most of the time but does not lack a humorous side, which is usually in the form of dry wit and sarcasm. Blake is a righteous person, respecting other people's lives regardless of whether they are Faunus or not. She strongly despises those who judge and discriminate based on racial prejudice. Blake is outspoken, going so far as to indirectly insult the Schnee Dust Company in front of its heiress and defend Faunus of any kind. Despite her generally quiet demeanor, she can be surprisingly charismatic, as when she rallied the Faunus to defend Mistral against the White Fang after the attack on her home. Blake is shown to be an introvert. Although she reads books to distance herself from the discussion at hand, as the series continues, she is shown to be more facetious and friendly. Blake appears most conversant when discussing the history and plight of her people. As a Faunus, Blake has faced discrimination in the past and wears a bow when around Humans in order to be treated for her character and not her species. However, despite having no hate for Humans, she has seen how the real world works and wonders how she can undo so many years of hate and pain.

Yang is a tall, fair-skinned young woman with lilac eyes and long, thick, wavy bright golden hair that fades to pale gold at the tips with a cowlick sticking out at the top, greatly resembling her mother. When her Semblance is active, her eyes become red and her hair gains a fiery glow. During her attendance at Beacon, she wears a tan jacket that bares her midriff, with golden brown piping and short, puffy sleeves with black cuffs that feature two gold buttons. Underneath this, she wears a low-cut yellow crop top with her emblem on the left breast in black.

She also wears a brown belt covered by a pleated brown piece of material reaching from hip to hip around the back of her waist, with her emblem emblazoned on the right-most pleat in gold. Underneath this is a long, white, asymmetrical piece of material reaching to her knee on the right side, as well as a pair of tight black spandex compression shorts that reach her upper thighs. She wears a pair of brown, knee-high boots and orange over-the-knee socks, with the right sock pushed down just below the knee. A gray bandanna is tied around her left knee. In Volume 2, she wears a purple bandanna around the same knee. An orange infinity scarf and black fingerless gloves complete her outfit. While riding her motorcycle, Bumblebee, she wears yellow goggles and a matching helmet that bears her emblem in black on either side. While outdoors, she sometimes wears a pair of yellow-rimmed aviator sunglasses. Yang is also described as being a cheerful, energetic, and bright young lady. She is arguably the most flippant, carefree, and adventurous member of her team, frequently making sarcastic comments and jokes even in the heat of battle and often taking combat and hostile situations lightly. Yang is very sociable and extroverted, even in unfamiliar situations. Yang's love of adventure is the main reason that she decided to become a Huntress. Blake considers Yang the personification of the word "strength". According to Ruby, she snores loudly. However, Yang's "brawler" fighting style is evocative of her personality. Her anger, one of her main assets in battle, can lead her to act predictably and has put her into danger repeatedly. She was easily frustrated when she couldn't land a hit on Neopolitan and could not attack precisely because of it, leading to her getting knocked unconscious and almost killed. Yang is also very protective of her hair, becoming enraged when someone touches or rips or cuts even a small portion of her hair, causing her to attack with straight, blunt force the one who did it. However she is comfortable with letting Ruby touch or brush her hair or even use it to toy with her sister by tickling her nose. According to Taiyang, she shares a flaw with her mother: thinking strength is all that matters in a fight. Her thoughtless anger also led to the quick loss of her right arm in a short encounter with Adam Taurus after he angered her by injuring Blake. While recovering from her injuries, her father lectures her about this weakness and guides her in what she needs to do to start overcoming it along with her flaw that she shares with her mother.

Despite this, Yang is quite mature. She is extremely nurturing and motherly, particularly toward her younger sister, Ruby. Yang pushes her into being outgoing and also worries a great deal about her sister across the many battles they fight in. This protective and encouraging nature extends to Blake and Weiss as well. Yang is worried about Blake on several occasions, such as when she runs from her team and when she suffers from sleep and appetite problems, opening Yang to discussing her stubborn past. What Yang does not reveal is that she suffers from abandonment issues, blaming herself for her mother not sticking around.

Yang is also quite guile as she was able to teach Weiss on how to play Remnant: The Game by explaining to her how to use her cards in the game only to better trick Weiss into wasting her armies. She later used a laser to attract Blake so they would be able to talk and even tricked a bandit into revealing the location of Raven's camp. She is also perspicacious as she saw through her mother's facade and attempt to manipulate her into staying with the tribe during their first meeting, recognized her in her corvid form at Haven, and quickly deduced that her mother was the Spring Maiden and had killed the former maiden.

However, after the deaths of Pyrrha Nikos and Penny Polendina, the Fall of Beacon, the losses of her right arm and her partner Blake, Yang sunk into a reclusive depression. The mention of her missing partner agitates her and she gives Ruby the cold shoulder and even outright ignores her sister when she says, "I love you". Over months, Yang rebounds from this reclusive nature. Though she suffers from PTSD, she tries to keep moving forward, partially for her father's sake when feeling she holds him back. After overhearing her father and Bartholomew Oobleck talking about Ruby outside her window, she accepts the earlier wisdom of her father, Oobleck, and Professor Peter Port and dons her new cybernetic arm.

When training with her new limb, she learns how to balance her driven and positive nature without overconfidence or agitation. She paints her arm to match her style, changes to a new outfit, and headed to Mistral although her father believes she has not overcome her personality flaws. Fortunately, she has shown to not be as quick to blind anger in combat anymore and now fights displaying good strategy and intelligence, as seen with her rematch against Adam and when she fought the Ace-Ops. While traveling to Mistral to reunite with Ruby she continues to struggle with her PTSD, which manifests in her left arm shaking when she encounters stress. She, however, appears to have overcome it some time after she and Blake reluctantly killed Adam.

Yang is extremely sensitive about being abandoned and her "simmering anger" stems from these abandonment issues.[11] For the better part of nearly two decades, Yang spent her life searching for her mother, trying to understand her reasons for leaving. Their first reunion in "Lighting the Fire" also demonstrated how low her opinion was of Raven, reacting with anger after Raven said that Yang finally decided to visit her, making it sound like she was the one responsible for her mother not being a part of her life. She even ignored Raven's attempts at lightening the mood and became hostile upon her father, uncle and Team RWBY being insulted in "Known by its Song". Even after her team's reunion at Haven, Yang was still guarded and kept some distance from Blake, stating in "Argus Limited" that their relationship would need time to heal. After a rematch against Adam in "Seeing Red" however, Yang fully accepted her partner's apologies, understanding that Blake was not like her mother.

Despite her fear of Salem, she was still strongly willing to continue fighting against her and to take the Relic of Knowledge to Atlas, despite knowing that it may put a target on her back. Even after learning about Salem's immortality and knowing that she wasn't a match for her, Yang still went against her in order to allow her friends to escape and did not hesitate to call Salem out on her actions. She also has a good degree of heroism and selflessness, being willing to takes the attacks from an Ursa and from Neo to protect Ruby as seen in the "Volume 5 Yang Character Short" and "Worthy" respectively, and even attacked Salem to save Emerald despite her enmity and distrust for her actions.

She has an opposition to keeping secrets. In "Rest and Resolutions", she had Ozpin swear not to lie or tell half-truths and later, in "Uncovered", she is upset with him for keeping the nature of the Relic of Knowledge a secret from the group as well as covering up Leonardo Lionheart's treachery. In "A New Approach", she was willing to trust Ruby's judgement in not telling James Ironwood the full truth about Salem and the Lamp, but questioned this decision privately later. When sent to apprehend Robyn Hill in "Worst Case Scenario", she and Blake instead revealed Ironwood's plans for the Amity Communications Tower to her. Despite her staunchness towards half-truths, she is not above telling some herself. In "Haven's Fate", Yang told an account of what happened in the Vault without explicitly bringing up how Raven was the Spring Maiden the whole time.

Following the events of Volume 7, Yang hardens herself in order to prepare for the overwhelming situation that they were in. She was hurt by what had happened to Mantle and wanted to do whatever she could to help them, hinting at her reason for criticizing her younger sister.

Despite her good qualities, Yang has a tendency to deflect. In "Divide", she deflects blame by criticizing Ruby's leadership, despite the fact that it was due to her and Blake's actions with Robyn that partially led to Ironwood losing faith in them and bringing about the current situation. In "Fault", when Ren brings up some concern that they were not ready and that their actions will lead to people dying, Yang avoids his direct criticism and tries to deflect by offering counterpoints without addressing his actual arguments. Finally, in “Tea Amidst Terrible Trouble”, she sheepishly deflected responsibility for her part in worsening Ruby’s mental decline, simply stating she shouldn’t have expected herself to be perfect.

However, unlike her mother, Yang is capable of admitting her wrongs as well as recognizing the qualities of others even when their opinions are different from hers, admitting to Blake that her obsession to search for her mother nearly got herself and Ruby killed when they were young, and during her discussion with Ruby in "Risk", she admitted that her own plan didn't work either after Ruby lamented the failure of bringing Amity Tower up and running, even telling Ruby that her blind optimism wasn't a flaw when she believed she wasted time with it, as it was a necessity in life.

In "A Cat Most Curious", when Yang’s past self offers Yang an opportunity to be whole again by traveling back in time to regain her lost organic arm, Yang declines her offer as losing a part of herself is what makes her a stronger person. It shows that Yang already accepts her losses by learning from her mistakes.

In "Boba", Yang felt guilty about putting everything on her sisters shoulders along with her teammates, she vows to Ruby, that from now on, the entirety of Team RWBY will share the burden, and even use the word "Boba" as a save word if they ever feel overwhelmed.

Blake and Yang are dating each other and are lesbians.