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For the member of the Allen Family, see Nora Allen.
For the anime character, see Nora Valkyrie (Dream Actor).
When my mom ran from the Grimm, and left me behind, you found me. We became Ren and Nora. But I realized on this mission apart...I don't know who just Nora is. And if I'm ever going to find out, then I have to do it alone.
—Nora Valkyrie

Nora Valkyrie is a Huntress, a former student at Beacon Academy, a member of Team JNPR and formerly Team RNJR. Her weapon of choice is Magnhild, a hammer that can transform into a grenade launcher. Her Semblance is High Voltage, which allows her to absorb electricity and send it to her muscles, making her stronger.

She made her first appearance in "The First Step" where she is seen talking excitedly to her partner and close friend, Lie Ren.

Appearance[]

Nora is a fair-skinned young woman with orange hair and turquoise/jade/aqua eyes (her eye color changes throughout the series).

Child[]

As a child, she wore a white shirt with a pink heart design on the chest. Over the shirt, she wore a black hooded jacket, faded pink pants and matching shoes with black tape bound around them. Nora's hair was straight as a child, though it eventually became wavy.

Original Outfit (Volumes 1–3)[]

V3 02 00024

During her attendance at Beacon Academy, she wears a collared black sleeveless vest, with a blue central front section with red accents, her vest has her emblem, on the back. Under the vest, she wears a white sleeveless t-shirt with a heart-shaped cutout above her breast line in the center accompanied with a pair of white detached sleeves on each arm, and a pair of light pink fingerless gloves. She sports a short pink skirt with a single white layer under it. Her white ankle boots sport pink soles with part of her emblem, the lighting bolt, on them and low heels with pink laces, the tops are folded over revealing the pink lining. She also wears a silver armor piece that wraps around waist, under her breasts and around the back on her neck with metal connecting each piece together at the front . In Volume 1, Nora has a turquoise bow at the back of her skirt, but it is later removed in Volume 2 due to difficulty with its animation.

Beacon Uniform[]

For her school uniform, she wears the standard Beacon Academy uniform comprised of a maroon blazer with golden brown lining and twin buttons over a brown button-up vest and white blouse with pleated looking neckline and a red ribbon tied around her black-lined collar. She also wears the traditional red checked with black stripes with golden brown outlining alongside white tulle. She also wears a pair of dark brown socks pulled up over her calves accompanied by a pair of brown lace-up wedged sole boots. As shown in Volume 2 Nora wears her pink fingerless gloves with her uniform.

Pajamas[]

During her time at Beacon, her pajamas consist of a dark gray T-shirt with the word "Boop" written on it, which also includes her hammer emblem in place of the second letter "O". With this shirt, she wears pink shorts patterned with white thunderbolts.

Dance Outfit[]

At the Beacon Dance, she wears a pink strapless dress with a white skirt. Notably, the seam joining the two sections tapers to a point, which gives the top part of her dress a resemblance to a pink heart-shape.

Gym Outfit[]

While talking to Pyrrha Nikos about the finals round of the Vytal Festival Tournament, she puts on a white and pink V-neck T-shirt, which has a pink heart with a white thunderbolt on the chest, pink gym shorts with white stripes running down the sides, matching pink wristbands and sweatband, white knee-high socks with pink stripes near the top, and a pair of pink converse-style shoes with white laces.

Mistral Outfit (Volume 4–7)[]

V7 01 00058

After the timeskip following the Fall of Beacon, her hair is now shoulder-length, she has pink eyeshadow around the far upper corners of her eyes and her design is updated. She retains her gloves and wears a white sleeveless turtleneck top that is similar to her old one, though the heart cut-out on the top has a diagonal cut through it. She also wears a shorter, detached white sleeve on her left arm. Over the shirt, she wears a open cropped, short-sleeved navy blue bomber jacket with a damaged print of her emblem visible on the back and pink stripes along the sleeves alongside pink buckled cuffs. and red lining on the collar. According to the concept art the jacket is has a worn leather material. She wears a pleated pink skirt with two wide belt loops for matching belt, the skirt has a white layered tulle. She wears knee-high pink socks just visible above her white calf-length boots with pink laces and black low heels, soles and toes.

Atlas Outfit (Volume 7-Current)[]

Nora-V8

After arriving in Atlas and meeting with James Ironwood, Nora cuts her hair to its length in Volumes 1-3, and she gains a new outfit. She wears a long, pink and white sleeveless coat with light blue lapels and white-collar belted closed by a black belt with a pouch on the left side, over a black short dress. The front of the coat has two heart shape cutouts near to the bottom. On the upper back of her coat is a small pair of decorative metal wings with a magnet in the middle that she can attach Magnhild to. She also has long detached white sleeves with black fingerless gloves, white stockings light blue socks and black boots with silver heels, sole and toe plates. In addition, she wears matching metal bands on her upper arms with her emblem on them alongside silver metal bands around her thighs. According to the concept art for Volume 7, Nora also wears black shorts under her dress.

After absorbing a vast amount of electricity that overwhelmed her Semblance, she permanently gains Lichtenberg scars all over her arms to her neck.

Image Gallery[]

Personality[]

A happy-go-lucky, bubbly and playful young woman, Nora is mainly characterized by her boundless enthusiasm. When Nora talks, many of her words may sometimes come out randomly without her actually giving much thought to anything she comes up with. This is caused by her tendency to jump into a different topic most of the time and her rather peculiar imagination. Because of this and her free-spirited attitude, Nora's personality changes according to her mood, and she is prone to becoming a nuisance to the people around her, losing the point of a conversation, or even experiencing anxiety attacks. However, Nora is more insightful than one might think and is capable of being serious when most necessary. This rare sense of seriousness of hers is most prominently displayed during the battle against the Nuckelavee, where she literally slaps sense into Lie Ren who was consumed in his need for revenge against the Grimm who wiped out his village and family. She explained this by telling him: "I won't let you kill yourself like this."

Nora is very open with her companions and quickly grows fond of them. Because of her motor mouth, she is very open to conversation and plays with her friends almost all the time she is interacting with them, making her a very social and likable person. She can also be protective and supportive when she sees teammates need it. She is also considerate of their personal space and respects their decisions even if she doesn't agree with them. Nora does not doubt the talents of her friends and places her entire faith in Pyrrha Nikos and Ren's fighting skills while following Jaune Arc's orders as her leader without question. She also appears to be good at reading people, as seen during interactions with Jaune and Pyrrha in "Burning the Candle" and "Destiny".

Although Nora retains her joyful personality even in combat, she is seen to be more focused and in control of herself during an encounter. She can be patient, obedient and smart. If she does not see the need for her assistance, she will stand back and choose to observe. Whenever she receives an order from one of her teammates, she always follows it with no doubts. When she follows Jaune's plans and finds herself in a position that gives her the advantage, she's able to figure out a way to defeat her enemies on her own, indicating an ability to strategize quickly and efficiently.

It is suggested that Nora's happy-go-lucky nature in part disguises any pain and stress she may have retained from being abandoned by her mother, or the Fall of Kuroyuri, the town that was destroyed by the Nuckelavee and many other Grimm.

Nora also seems to have a sweet tooth, as she ate the red sap that Ren and Pyrrha had collected, as well as all the syrup that Team JNPR was going to have on their pancakes, and it is also inferred that Nora is a big fan of pancakes. In "Welcome to Beacon", she is heard mumbling "pancakes" in her sleep and shouting it again when woken up.

Nora is an extremely compassionate individual. When faced with the reality of what the actions of James Ironwood, though for the perceived greater good, are putting the people of Mantle through, she vehemently speaks out against it. This is likely due to having previously lived in squalor herself as an orphan. After the events of "With Friends Like These", Nora changes her perspective on the situation and begins to see the bigger picture, choosing to follow Ruby's Group in "Divide" because she believes that warning all of Remnant about Salem should be a high priority.[3]

Despite all this, Nora has a double standard regarding keeping secrets. In "Worst Case Scenario", she is furious with Ironwood and his secrets, wanting to tell everyone in Mantle about the Amity Communications Tower and Salem, even though she went along with Ruby's decision to lie to Ironwood and keep Ozpin's disappearance, how many questions left in the Relic of Knowledge, and Salem's immortality a secret from him.

In "Strings", she realizes that she doesn't know exactly who she really is without Ren and starts to think she is worthless without him. Later in "Risk", she states to Ren that she wants some time to figure out her own identity without him.

Powers and Abilities[]

Weapon[]

Main article: Magnhild
1108 Players and Pieces 13174

Nora with her hammer, Magnhild

Nora's weapon of choice is Magnhild, which can transform into a grenade launcher and a war hammer, which Nora uses proficiently in combat. She uses the grenade launcher form for ranged strikes on her opponent. In its ranged form, the face of the launcher can unhinge, revealing six grenades that can be fired at once for maximum damage. It can also shoot up in the shape of a heart, as seen during her battle against Team BRNZ in the Vytal Festival.

While using the hammer form, she is a lot more versatile in close-range attacks and movement. Nora uses the recoil of the grenade explosions fired from the face of the hammer to propel her certain distances or to add force to her strikes. In "Players and Pieces", she uses the recoil of her hammer to launch herself from one end of a broken bridge to the other, and in "Breach", she is seen traveling a considerable distance through the air by the same method. Her attacks are powerful enough to finish off an injured Death Stalker and kill a large King Taijitu in one hit.

After the Fall of Beacon, Nora upgrades Magnhild to be able to build up electricity in the hammer's head, allowing her to power herself up. This upgrade is first put to use in the fight against the Geist in "The Next Step".

Nora's fighting style is built around an overwhelming and explosive physical force. This can be seen in her tendency to swing her hammer in wide arcs to build up momentum before striking. This is also noticeable in her use of either her hammer's recoil or nearby tall structures to achieve heights that allow her to come crashing down into her adversaries, crushing them under the combined impact of both natural momentum and her own raw power.

Strength[]

Her ability to easily carry and use Magnhild in its hammer form suggests that she possesses a high level of strength that rivals that of Yang's own immense strength. This is further demonstrated when she sends Weiss flying across the canteen during their food fight despite not using Magnhild. She also showed her strength when she sent Yang Xiao Long flying away through the roof in one hit, and the latter lands back in the room nearly two minutes later. She later states she can bench press five times her own weight, a feat that would stand consistent with her other displays of strength, and she has been seen jumping several feet without aura, high enough to jump the length of a small building.

Semblance[]

Main article: High Voltage
V3 02 00017

Nora using her electricity-absorbing Semblance

Nora's Semblance, High Voltage, is the ability to produce and channel electrical energy into her muscles, giving her enhanced strength. Although she can absorb electricity from a direct blow, she can also use Magnhild as a lightning rod.

Her Semblance can be exploited by her allies, such as when Ruby Rose shoots a Lightning Dust round at her during Team RNJR's battle against Tyrian Callows in Oniyuri.

Her Semblance does not make her outright immune to being electrocuted. When Hazel Rainart grabs her after enhancing himself with Lightning Dust in "Downfall", she screams in pain as he holds her down and electrocutes her. As shown in "Strings", if Nora absorbs too much electricity, it can gravely injure her.

In "Lighting the Fire", it is revealed that Nora discovered her Semblance after she was struck by lightning and subsequently did not die, an event she refers to as a crazy Thursday.

In "Strings", Nora overcharges her Semblance by striking her hammer into an electrified door, which gives her the strength to break through its energy shield, however Nora's Aura broke as a result and she was knocked unconscious, gaining permanent scars all across her body.

Trivia[]

Allusion[]

Color Naming Rule[]

  • The name Nora may be an abbreviation of the Greek Eleanor or Eleonora, meaning light, or the Latin Honora, meaning honor. Nora, alternatively spelled Nóra or Norah, is also a given name in several European languages. In Arabic, "Nora" is another form of Noor or Nur (نور), also literally meaning 'light'.
    • Nora's name may reference her color via the Nora Barlow Columbine, a pink flower named after the granddaughter of Charles Darwin. Given the abundance of pink in relation to her, especially in merchandise, this is most likely what her name is supposed to reference.
    • Nora's name may have come from the Japanese word "nora" (野良) which means "stray". In her shown past with Lie Ren, her origins were not given, meaning that she strayed into Ren's village.

Story[]

  • The song "Boop" from the RWBY: Volume 2 Soundtrack is about Nora and her relationship with Ren. The song makes multiple references to her, including some of her lines from the series, like "Boop!" as well as the name of her weapon, Magnhild.
    Nora lightning heart symbol

    Nora's lightning heart symbol

  • Nora's Huntress license number is 63600-22473-91513.
  • Nora overcharging her Semblance was an early idea in development for Volume 8 and it was originally going to happen at a power plant with an electrified security fence. The initial idea behind it came from Kerry Shawcross looking at Reddit and coming across an image of a person who had been scarred by lighting and he thought that kind of scarring would fit great with Nora.[4]

Character&Design[]

  • While Nora has an Emblem, she also appears to have a secondary symbol that appears on her possessions; a heart with lightning going through it appears on Magnhild and her workout outfit.
  • Nora's eyes are originally turquoise in Volume 1 and RWBY Chibi, but in Volume 2 and 3, her eyes are jade. As of Volume 4, her eyes have changed to aqua.
  • Nora still possesses her ribbon on her back in RWBY: Grimm Eclipse.

Miscellaneous[]

  • Nora, alongside Blake Belladonna, Ruby Rose and Jaune Arc, is one of the characters who owns an object sold in the Rooster Teeth store: her "boop" shirt. The shirt is now sold out.
  • At the RTX Australia 2016 RWBY: Grimm Eclipse Live Let's Play, Lindsay Jones, the voice of Ruby, said they recorded some lines for Nora.

References[]

  1. RTX Austin 2023 RWBY Panel
  2. "No Safe Haven"
  3. RWBY Volume 8 Directors' and Writers' Commentary Chapter 1
  4. RWBY Volume 8 Directors' and Writers' Commentary Chapter 3
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