Ruby Rose


 * For the episode of the same name, see Ruby Rose (episode).

Ruby Rose is the main protagonist, the former leader of Team RWBY, and the first character introduced in RWBY. Ruby's weapon of choice is her High-Caliber Sniper-Scythe (HCSS) known as Crescent Rose.

She first appeared in the "Red" Trailer released on November 5th, 2012, in which she fought Beowolves. Her second appearance was at the end of the "Yellow" Trailer, greeting her older half-sister, Yang Xiao Long, and asking what she was doing at Junior's Club.

Default Outfit


Ruby appears as a young, silver-eyed girl dressed in a black blouse, a black waist cincher with red lacing and a skirt with red trimmings, completed by a red, hooded cloak. She is currently the youngest character in the series. Her entire outfit is made up of various shades of red and black with black as the primary color on the main suit and red on the cloak. Even her shoulder-length hair is black with a red tint to it.

As of her second appearance, Ruby has cross-shaped pins holding her cloak to her shirt. Around her waist is a belt which holds large cartridges (possibly .50 caliber or comparable) in individual loops, as well as a magazine pouch. In the "Red" Trailer, as well as the promotional logo for RWBY, she has a silver cross on her belt, but it was eventually changed into a silver version of her rose emblem.



Ruby's physical appearance resembles the Little Red Riding Hood archetype, which is further reinforced by the appearance of the Beowolves in her trailer. Director Monty Oum confirmed that she indeed alludes to, but is not based on, Red Riding Hood.

Pajamas
Ruby's pajamas consist of a black tank top with a heart-shaped Beowolf design on the chest and white long pants with pink roses as decoration.

She also wears a black sleeping mask with triangular red eyes reminiscent of the Beowolves in her trailer.

At her home in Patch, Ruby's pajamas are a matching dark-gray long-sleeved shirt and pants with faded-red polka dots and a white lining at the front and the collar.

Alternate Outfit (Slayer)
During the events of "A Minor Hiccup" and "Painting the Town...", Ruby wears a long-sleeve, light gray shirt with black belted cuffs near the ends of the sleeves. Over top of the gray shirt is a black pinafore with two vertical lines of red stitching that resemble the lacing on a corset.

She wears a red skirt with a large black-colored print of her rose emblem on the side of it, and the inside of her skirt is black. She still wears the same pitch black stockings, but with a different pair of black-and-red boots. A few pieces of metal arranged in an abstract shape are attached to her sleeve on her left shoulder, likely as a form of armor such as a spaulder. As usual, she wears a red cape with this outfit. This cape is short like the one she wears with her uniform, but with a scarf as part of the hood.

This outfit was codenamed "Slayer".

Dance Outfit
During the Beacon Dance, Ruby wears a short, red, sleeveless dress with a thick black sash around the waist and black edging at the bottom. The dress reaches about halfway down her upper leg. At the chest, the dress splits vertically down the middle and each half covers both of Ruby's breasts. Across this vertical split is black criss-crossing ribbon.

The fabric covering her upper chest, shoulders and upper back appears to be black mesh. The collar of the dress is black, and from midway up each sleeve, a thin black line of fabric extends up to the front middle of the collar. With this dress, she wears semi-transparent black pantyhose and a pair of black pumps, which she has trouble walking in.

Post-Timeskip
After the timeskip following the Fall of Beacon, her new design is updated, now sporting a white-sleeved cotton blouse akin to the Slayer outfit, that reveals part of her cleavage. Her outfit also retains the black and red skirt and corset from her default outfit, along with her belt that contains the magnetic clip for Crescent Rose (albeit smaller) and its ammunition. Additionally, she also wears brown straps on her blouse, that allow her to wear a smaller, brown backpack.

In lieu of her full black stockings, she now wears leggings that show part of her thighs, that also contain partially ripped holes and imagery of a rose on a long stem. Her red-soled black boots contain more straps and buckles, than their previous iterations.

Ruby also has longer, shoulder-length black hair that fades to red, and now has a singular clip in the shape of her emblem on her right side that pins her now tattered cape to her outfit, replacing the cross shaped clips from her default attire. According to the concept art, Ruby also grew a little taller during the timeskip.

Personality
Monty described Ruby as being “innocent” and still a “little sister.” Most of Ruby's personality is shown through her childish nature, as well as her fighting style. She is shown to be impulsive, naïve, and innocent, but when necessary, she can be serious and dependable. In "Battle of Beacon" and "Heroes and Monsters", Ruby can remain quite stoic in the face of a very dire situation, even following a traumatic event.

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 Academy, 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 seems to be fascinated by any type of weapon, even robots, as seen when she became entranced by James Ironwood's presentation in "A Minor Hiccup". Monty has said that she relies on Crescent Rose quite often in battle, which implies that her weapon is the primary source of her confidence 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 in childhood. 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. Because she is shown to be childish even when in class, she tends to study by herself to cover the necessary knowledge.

Ruby is shown to be naïve, as although she doesn't like to be the center of attention, becoming a Huntress has 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 with 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.

Although she is highly skilled in battle, Ruby seems reckless and impulsive, attacking on sight instead of thinking the situation through beforehand, as seen during her first fight alongside Weiss Schnee. Also, Ruby at times doesn't seem to analyze the battlefield at all or take the time to study an opponent, such as when she attacks a Death Stalker on sight before learning of its high resistance to bullets and blades. She seems to lack experience when it comes to fighting as a team, as she demonstrates almost no coordination with Weiss during their fight with a pack of Beowolves in "The Emerald Forest, Pt.2".

Despite this, Ruby's leadership skills make her a worthy teammate. As a leader, while she may occasionally act without thinking, her decisiveness and dedication as one have been apparent on numerous occasions. Examples such as Team RWBY's battle with the Nevermore in initiation, and her hard studying in late hours until dosing off in the middle of the task, respectively. She holds selfless beliefs as a dedicated leader which she would pass down to Jaune Arc, who took the lesson to heart, giving him a newfound sense of responsibility for his team's welfare.

Ruby is also shown to care for all her teammates equally, regardless of their race or background. This is seen in how she expresses sympathy for Weiss' bad childhood after she explains her family's history with the White Fang. She shows the same concern moments later for Blake Belladonna when she runs away, after revealing herself as a Faunus. Ruby's concern is further expressed in her desperate search for her teammate. This sense of empathy is later shown not to be limited to her teammates. She also shows some worry for Penny Polendina, telling the latter to stay out of the fight between Blake, Sun Wukong and Roman Torchwick.

Ruby is seen to have a dislike for formal attire, that being dresses and heels, as shown in "Burning the Candle" during the dance, where she wanted to change back into her hood, and even complaining on how it's possible for Weiss to fight on heels, despite Yang telling Ruby that she looked beautiful in a dress.

Manga
In the second chapter, it is revealed that Ruby has a fear of large crowds, as shown when she froze up during the sparring match against Cardin Winchester. However, she soon overcomes her fear during the fight after re-affirming why she wishes to be a Huntress, and some encouragement from her teammates. Obviously, she appears to have little problem with large crowds by the time of the Vytal Festival.

Abilities and Powers
In order to become a Huntress, Ruby trained at Signal Academy, where her skills and abilities far surpassed her peers. This led Ozpin to accept her into Beacon Academy two years before the usual age of admittance.

While at Beacon, Ruby has shown to be successful as a decisive leader, being able to formulate and execute plans with others in order to take down tougher foes, such as the giant Nevermore encountered during initiation.

Like many Hunters before her, Ruby has had her Aura unlocked, coating her body with a shield powered by her soul. As long as that shield remains, she cannot be wounded, although she can still feel pain when struck.

Weapon
Ruby is a self admitted dork when it comes to weapons, which shows in her complex design and craftsmanship of Crescent Rose, her High-Caliber Sniper-Scythe which she designed herself at Signal, as well as her eye for detail when observing other peoples weapons and tools.

This weapon can transform between a scythe and a sniper rifle, and can fire Dust rounds in either form with massive force, as demonstrated in the "Red" Trailer when she used a Gravity Dust magazine. Rather than compensate for it, Ruby harnesses the recoil to enhance her mobility in combat, firing shots to propel herself short distances, simultaneously attacking and evading opponent.

Ozpin has noted upon meeting Ruby, that he has only ever seen one other scythe wielder as skilled with such a dangerous weapon; that person is none other than Qrow Branwen, Ruby’s teacher and uncle. According to Ruby, prior to learning under Qrow she was “completely garbage”, although it’s unclear if that only applies to her scythe skills.

Despite showing a preference for engaging enemies in close combat, Ruby does posses enough accuracy to land headshots against Grimm, but notably needs to stand still to do so consistently, usually by anchoring her scythe to the ground to act as a monopod.

Semblance
Ruby’s semblance allows her to dash with unnatural speed in whatever direction she chooses at the cost of aura. This happens so fast she sometimes gives off the illusion of teleporting.

She has displayed the ability to use this semblance midair, as well as to create a powerful whirlwinds that can suck in and knock away objects and foes caught by it.

Notably, whenever she uses this semblance, she leaves off a trail of rose petals in her wake that dissipate over time. It is unknown what causes this, but these rose petals are not merely symbolic and can be perceived by others, as shown by Weiss who once waved her hands to brush them away.

Silver Eyes
Through her mother, Summer, Ruby comes from a line of legendary warriors who possessed powerful abilities related to their silver eyes, said to be an ultra rare trait. Upon seeing Pyrrha die in "End of the Beginning", Ruby accidentally uses this power in her grief and freezes the Dragon. However, she has no memory of doing this. Later in the episode, Qrow describes a fairy tale about warriors with silver eyes who are so powerful that even the Grimm fear them.

The full extent of this ability is still unknown.

Weaknesses
Ruby is heavily reliant on Crescent Rose. In contrast to her sister, her hand-to-hand capabilities are rather poor, making her easy to be taken down by mere grunts. Without her weapon, there's not much she can do in a fight, and her best bet is to run away with her speed.

Trivia

 * Ruby alludes to the fairy tale character Little Red Riding Hood.
 * This allusion has affected her appearance, causing her to almost constantly wear a red hooded cape.
 * In the "Red" Trailer, she fights a large pack of Beowolves, possibly a reference to Little Red Riding Hood coming face to face with a wolf in the story.
 * Her name alludes to a type of gemstone that is often found in red. Furthermore, "Ruby" is the name of an actual shade of red. Meanwhile, her surname, "Rose", alludes to another shade of red and a type of flower that is also found most often in red.
 * Ruby's alternate outfit, "Slayer", appears to be somewhat based on the early sketch shown in the second production diary.
 * Early designs for Ruby were set aside and later used for Miltia Malachite, one of Yang's foes in the "Yellow" Trailer.
 * Despite sharing similar emblems and a red-and-black color scheme, Monty confirmed that Ruby and Adam Taurus are not related to each other and that their emblems differ from each other in terms of "scatter and wilt".
 * Ruby shares her emblem with her mother.
 * Ruby takes her mother's maiden name rather than her father's surname. The reason for this is unknown.
 * Monty has confirmed that Ruby is left-handed. However, she is seen wielding her weapon with her right hand just as easily, implying trained ambidexterity. Monty has stated that it is "common to switch both hands while fighting, especially to make it interesting."
 * Although Ruby is often depicted to favor sweets like cookies, her favorite food is actually strawberries.
 * Ruby, alongside Nora Valkyrie, is one of the few characters who owns an object in sale at the Rooster Teeth store – in this case, her Rose Pajama Pants.
 * Ruby is the only character to appear in more than one trailer, appearing in both red and yellow trailers.
 * At the RTX Australia 2016 RWBY Panel, Ruby's Skype username was RlyRlyKoolKid.