Yang Xiao Long

Yang Xiao Long is a former student at Beacon Academy and one of the main protagonists of RWBY. Her weapons of choice are a pair of Dual Ranged Shot Gauntlets, Ember Celica.

She made her first appearance in the "Yellow" Trailer, searching for clues regarding the whereabouts of her mother, who left her when she was very young. At Beacon Academy, Yang becomes a member of Team RWBY alongside Weiss Schnee, Blake Belladonna and her younger half-sister, Ruby Rose.

Original (Volumes 1-3)


Yang is a fair-skinned young girl with purple eyes and dark golden hair worn loose that fades to pale gold at the tips, and has a small ahoge at the top. When she is angry, her eyes turn red.

She wears a tan jacket that bares her lower stomach, 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 longer, white, asymmetrical piece of material reaching to her knee on the right side, as well as a pair of black mini-shorts. She wears brown, knee-high boots and orange over-the-knee socks, with the right sock pushed down just below the knee. A lavender bandana is tied around her left 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.

Pajamas
Yang's pajamas consist of an orange tank top with her emblem on the front in red, and black boy shorts.

At her home in Patch, Yang wears another set of pajamas, consisting of a dark-yellow short-sleeved shirt with black shorts.

Alternate Outfit (Hunter)


During the events of "A Minor Hiccup" and "Painting the Town...", Yang wears an alternate outfit codenamed "Hunter".

This outfit consists of a deep-collared cream vest worn over a low cut black shirt; both are covered by a dark gray shrug with a raised collar, three quarter sleeves adorned with a single black stripe down the outside of each sleeve, and gold cuffs. A black miniskirt is worn under the cream vest.

A pair of crooked black belts with gold accents are slung around her hip, with a purple piece of fabric attached to the left-rear section of the lower belt. She wears thigh high stockings attached to her miniskirt by garter-belts on the front and back of each thigh, decorated with four golden studs above her knee and her emblem on the outside of each thigh in gold. She also wears black ankle boots with multiple buckles and white ribbons on the back tied in a bow. Around her neck is a purple pendant set in silver.

Dance
During the Beacon Dance, Yang wears a short, white, halter neck dress with a pale gray hem, and white pumps.

Uniform
Yang wears the same brown shoes, red tartan skirt, white blouse with maroon trim and thin red bow, brown vest with gold buttons, and maroon blazer with gold trim as every other girl attending Beacon Academy, alongside thigh high black stockings.

Post-Timeskip "DGAS" Outfit (Volume 4)


After the timeskip following the Fall of Beacon, her new design consists of a gray jacket over an orange tank top that bares her hips. The jacket is tied at the right sleeve, indicating her missing arm. The jacket's left sleeve bears her father's emblem. Completing her attire are gray-brown cargo pants, which show the rim of her dark undergarments. High on the left leg of her pants is a red shield-shaped patch with imagery of three Ursa masks, and her emblem is stitched on her right thigh.

The stump of her right arm is covered by a circular, metallic plate. She wears white sneakers with blue laces, and her hair is pulled back into a messy ponytail.

At the end of "Family", she begins wearing a silver and white robotic arm. In "Taking Control", she paints this arm bright yellow and black.

In the concept art her right arm is simply bandaged, and a Bumblebee patch is in the place of her symbol. This same concept art refers to the outfit as her "DGAS" outfit.

Post-Timeskip Battle Outfit (Volume 4 - Current)


In "No Safe Haven", Yang is shown wearing a tan jacket with orange lining and gold edging, unzipped halfway to show an orange crop top. The coat has darker brown short sleeves, a thick collar that completely encircles her neck, and two long gold-trimmed rectangular tails. She also wears fitted black pants, and her hair has been let down again.

Around her hips and over the tails of her coat is a brown belt, which has two pieces of dark brown material trimmed in gold attached to it. The first covers from her left hip to the back of the belt and is folded over the belt, and the second is attached from the right hip and almost around to the other piece of material. She wears knee high brown boots with gold caps on the heel and toe, with the toe cap attaching to a gold strap across the front of her ankle, and a gold zipper on the upper half of the front of the boots. A single small buckled strap is on the upper outside of her boots, and a purple bandana tied around her left knee. A pair of black fingerless gloves with long brown cuffs reaching to mid forearm complete the outfit.

While riding Bumblebee, Yang no longer wears her helmet or goggles, instead donning a pair of black-rimmed aviator sunglasses.

In the promotional material for Volume 4, Yang is shown wearing the same coat and pants shown in the series. A gold metal plate covers her missing right arm, which matches the accessories on the heels and toes of her boots.

Personality
Yang's voice actor, Barbara Dunkelman, has said that when Yang's character was described to her, she was described as "the kind of person who would teach someone how to swim by pushing them in the water". This speaks volumes about how Yang approaches most things in life. She is very straightforward and confident.

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.

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. When her hair is cut during battle, her resulting anger leads her to attacking with straight, blunt force. Additionally, a grudge against Neopolitan led to frustration on Yang's part, which quickly cost her the battle and almost her life. Her thoughtless anger led to the quick loss of her right arm in a short encounter with Adam Taurus.

Despite these things, Yang is deceptively mature. She is extremely nurturing, particularly toward her younger sister, Ruby. Yang pushes her into being outgoing and also worries a great deal for her sister across the many battles they fight in. This protective and encouraging nature extends to Blake and Weiss as well. Yang is worried for 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.

Yang’s love of adventure is a main reason she decided to become a Huntress. However, after the deaths of Pyrrha Nikos and Penny Polendina, the losses of her right arm and her partner, Blake, Yang sinks into a reclusive depression. The mention of her missing partner agitates her; she gives Ruby the cold shoulder and outright ignores her sister when she says, "I love you".

Over months, Yang rebounds from this reclusive nature. Though she experiences flashbacks, she tries to keep moving forward, partially for her father’s sake when feeling she holds him back. She accepts the wisdom of her father, Doctor Oobleck and Professor Port and dons her new robotic arm.

When training with her new limb, she learns how to balance her carefree nature without overconfidence or agitation. She paints her arm to match her style, changes to a new outfit and heads to Mistral, though Taiyang believes she has not overcome the personality that cost her arm.

Powers and Abilities
Yang's fighting style is much more aggressive than that of her teammates, bearing resemblance to boxing and kickboxing. She is quite agile, able to dodge an onslaught of Ursai with ease.

She is also the physically strongest of the group. Her strength is displayed on numerous occasions, such as when her punch sent a fully grown man several feet into the air and through a glass pillar without the enhancement of her weapon, and in "Players and Pieces", where she was able to keep the mouth of a Nevermore open with one arm long enough to deliver multiple shots down its throat.

Like all Huntsmen and Huntresses, Yang has had her Aura unlocked, coating her body with a shield powered by her soul, which helps protect her, especially when her aggressiveness gets her into bad situations. Even with her Aura unlocked her durability is also noticeably high, as showcased in her doubles match with Weiss against Flynt Coal and Neon Katt during the Vytal Tournament, where she withstood numerous hits from Neon during the bout's opening stages, and powered through the effects of Flynt's weapon, knocking him out and securing victory for her side shortly after.

Weapon


Yang's weapon is radically different compared to those used by her teammates, for theirs all include some sort of blade. Yang's primary weapon is a pair of gauntlets known as Ember Celica, which can retract into bracelets. When Yang throws a punch, she can shoot explosive rounds from Ember Celica for moderate or short ranged attacks, although not every single jab activates the weapon, as seen in her fight against Neo. Ember Celica also has powerful recoil, which can be utilized to augment the force of her punch and accelerate her movements, the force being able to launch her high in the air. She can also use her Ember Celica as a form of armor when defending against attacks in unarmed combat. After the events of "Heroes and Monsters", Yang only has one Ember Celica, due to her lost arm.

Semblance


As Ruby states during the events of "Painting the Town...", Yang's Semblance lets her use the energy from every blow she takes to make herself more powerful, showcased when Yang completely shatters the Atlesian Paladin-290 in a few hits after being battered by it; this seems to be a form of kinetic energy absorption, with Yang subsequently redirecting said energy against her opponent. After a sparring match with his daughter in "Two Steps Forward, Two Steps Back", Taiyang states that the amount of energy Yang's Semblance grants her is equal to twice the strength she is hit with. However, she does still take the full force the attack, meaning that quickly dealing lots of damage is the key to taking her down.

As the combat becomes more intense or she is angered enough, fire appears around her hair. During the final state of her Semblance, her eyes turn red and her fire is capable of bursting out of her.

Although a powerful Semblance, Yang is unable to power it up without taking damage first, weakening herself in the process. As seen in her fight with Neopolitan, fighters well-versed in dodging attacks can frustrate Yang, making her attacks predictable and easily avoided, rendering the added power useless. Her anger also causes her to unintentionally activate her Semblance, even if she is not in a battle. Examples of this include her frustrated outburst in "Players and Pieces", her moment of anger toward Blake in "Burning the Candle" and two times in her doubles round tournament fight in "Never Miss a Beat".

Robotic Arm
Yang's cybernetic limb possesses greater strength than her original arm. Its power is shown in "Two Steps Forward, Two Steps Back", where a single blow sent her father, a fully trained Huntsman, skidding back several feet.

Weaknesses
Although Yang gets stronger from her anger and from taking damage, her frustration can be exploited by skilled opponents. This weakness is perhaps best expressed in her very brief fight with Adam Taurus, her anger causing her to recklessly charge him and lose her right arm in the process. Aside from that, knocking her unconscious before she can reach her final stage completely negates her Semblance. Yang is also noted to be weak against kick-based fighting styles, seen when she struggled against Neopolitan, Melanie Malachite, and Mercury Black.

Trivia



 * Yang's full name is Yáng Xiǎo Lóng (Simplified: 阳小龙; Traditional: 陽小龍), which can be roughly translated to "Little Light Dragon" or "Small Dragon of the Sunshine".
 * In "Family", Taiyang calls Yang his "sunny little dragon".
 * Yang's name may be a reference to Bruce Lee, whose given name is also Xiaolong (小龙).
 * Despite having a Chinese name, Yang's given name and surname are inverted. "Yang" would be the surname and her given name would be "Xiao Long". Furthermore, Chinese surnames are usually only one character. This can be explained by Remnant not following real-world customs.
 * Despite Yang's name being Chinese, it is not pronounced in typical Chinese. This is due to the fact that since there is no China in Remnant, the proper Chinese pronunciation does not apply.
 * The characters 阳小龙 appear on an official T-shirt released by Rooster Teeth parodying Akira.
 * Yang alludes to Goldilocks from the fairy tale Goldilocks and the Three Bears.
 * In the Volume 1 directors' commentary, Monty mentions that, when he chose Yang's voice actress, he said "Barbara should play Goldilocks." According to J.J. Castillo, Monty had a habit of referring to characters by the names of who they are inspired by, rather than their actual names in the show.
 * In the "Yellow" Trailer, Yang fights a DJ wearing a bear mask and Junior, whose real name, Hei Xiong, is Chinese for Black Bear.
 * The first enemies Yang fights in the series are a pair of Ursai, which are bear-type Grimm.
 * The pants of her first timeskip outfit have a patch with imagery of three Ursa masks on them.
 * The younger Yang's pigtails, seen in the flashback sequence of "Burning the Candle", were inspired by Barbara, who also had pigtails when she was younger.
 * According to Lindsay Jones, Yang's power comes from her hair, similar to the story of Samson and Delilah.
 * In her trailer, the photo that Yang shows to Junior is the "Transient Princess", an artwork by Monty Oum based on Final Fantasy VIII's Rinoa Heartilly. The artwork is used as a placeholder for her mother Raven, as revealed in the episode "Burning the Candle".
 * Yang was a contender in the 54th episode of ScrewAttack's web series, Death Battle, and she fought against Tifa Lockhart from Final Fantasy VII. Her Aura granted the ability to endure Tifa's strongest attacks long enough for her to activate her Semblance, granting her the victory.
 * After the fight ends, Yang dons a pair of custom, pixel-shades from the "Deal With It" Meme. Barbara Dunkleman, Yang's VA, owns the same pair of glasses in real life.
 * The opening of the fight is similar to the "Yellow" Trailer in RWBY. Yang enters a bar looking for someone and orders a strawberry sunrise with no ice.
 * At the RTX Australia 2016 RWBY Panel, Yang's Skype username was Fireballin17.
 * Yang appears in Racial Super Texas - Rooster Teeth Animated Adventures. A doll of her also appears in Spooky Scary Ghost Stories - Rooster Teeth Animated Adventures.
 * Although for somewhat goofy reasons, Yang gets her purple eyes from Tai’s being blue and Raven’s being red.