Penny Polendina

Penny is a character who was introduced in the episode "The Stray", when she was found lying on the ground after Weiss Schnee crashed into her, whilst chasing after Sun Wukong.

In "Painting the Town..." it is revealed that Penny is a robot, with her telling Ruby that "most girls are born, but I was made".

Appearance
Penny has short, rather curly orange hair that comes down to her chin, and she wears a pink bow on the back of her head. She also has bright green eyes, light skin and freckles. She wears an old-fashioned blouse with short feminine overalls, as well as a black and green collar with a matching pair of stockings.

The green lines on the side of her stockings also appear to glow at times. She has what appears to be a small and thin backpack, though it has only been seen when she came to the aid of Ruby Rose in "Black and White". Otherwise, she is not seen to have this backpack; only her normal clothing is shown.

Personality
Penny speaks robotically, behaves erratically, and is overly active in general. All her actions and emotional states are rather extreme and overacted. When Ruby unintentionally made an unconditional offer of friendship, Penny seemed both immensely pleased and somewhat surprised. Another small quirk is that Penny hiccups whenever she tells a lie.

She also seems to place great value on friendship, as she was greatly angered at the sight of Ruby getting knocked down by Roman's flare in "Black and White". She also placed trust in Ruby based on the latter promising that she is her friend in "A Minor Hiccup".

Furthermore, Penny seems to be immensely curious. Upon hearing that Blake had run away, she asked Ruby numerous questions, all being related to Blake and friendship in general. Despite being told not to wander off, she still wanders Vale on her own.

Upon confiding in Ruby that she was a synthetic being, Penny was worried about how she would take the news. However, after seeing how Ruby took it rather well, she was glad that Ruby didn't care if she was a machine, for what mattered was her heart and soul.

In "Dance Dance Infiltration", she is shown to enjoy dancing, as she is seen dancing by herself between two Atlas Soldiers. Later that night, she's seen doing "the robot" with one of the soldiers.

Weapon
As seen in "Black and White", Penny is able to control numerous swords, kept in what appears to be a small mechanical backpack, with simple movements from her hands. She is able to manipulate every sword simultaneously without any difficulty at all, and can fire energy blasts when she brings them together, with the swords going into a special rotating configuration. This blast of energy is powerful enough to simultaneously slice multiple Bullheads in half, shooting them down.

The swords are connected to her (and possibly operated by) the use of thin strings attached to the hilts. Penny's 'strings' seem to be quite strong and durable, as they were able to pull down a Bullhead easily. The swords are able to fold in half lengthwise for easier storage.

Mobility
She can allow the swords to pull her around or anchor herself and use them pull large objects, including pulling down an airship in flight despite the mass and thrust power of the vehicle. Such feats seem to indicate enhanced strength as well as the ability to anchor herself in some way to the terrain.

Penny is able to jump great distances, with the force of her jump being enough to break the ground. She can also use her wires to catapult herself. She also seems to have a high amount of speed or stealthiness, as seen when she appears in one spot before quickly showing up in another. For example, when she appears in front of Team RWBY out of the blue and when she inexplicably appears behind Weiss, Yang Xiao Long and Ruby two days later.

Strength
Penny seems to possess immense physical strength, made evident when she managed to bring the From Dust Till Dawn truck in "A Minor Hiccup" to a complete stop with her bare hands, even causing the ground beneath her feet to buckle and crack. Her strength is attributed to her being a robot which she admits to in the same episode.

Aura
In the episode "Painting the Town..." Penny is revealed to be the first synthetic entity to be capable of generating an Aura.

Trivia

 * Penny alludes to Pinocchio from the fairy tale of the same name.
 * The fact that she is a living robot references the fact that Pinocchio is a living puppet.
 * In "A Minor Hiccup", her line "I'm not a real girl" references how Pinocchio says he wants to be "a real boy".
 * It seems that Penny hiccups whenever she lies, a clear reference to how Pinocchio's nose grows longer whenever he lies.
 * She manipulates her swords through the use of very thin strings or wires, similar to how a puppet is controlled with thin strings.
 * Penny's name seems to be derived from the name Pinocchio, who in turn was named that way by Geppetto, since he made the boy out of a log of pinewood.
 * Penny's name can bring to mind the color of copper, which pennies are coated in. It can also bring to mind the green color that copper takes on when it is oxidized.
 * In her debut episode, when Ruby tells Penny that she is her friend, Penny exclaims, "We can paint our nails, and try on clothes, and talk about cute boys!" which is a callback to Weiss' sarcastic rebuttal of Ruby's friendship in "The Shining Beacon, Pt.2". Ruby acknowledges this.
 * Penny is apparently very perceptive, as she saw through Blake's disguise and recognized that she was a Faunus, while most people did not.
 * It is also possible that she is able to see Aura or heat signatures, which would allow her to see Blake's cat ears inside the bow.
 * Despite being prevalent in more than one episode, Penny's last name and whether she has one is unknown. Abnormally, her last name does not appear in the credits, nor does it appear on Monty Oum's official Facebook image galleries, as it does for the majority of other characters.
 * In a tweet by Monty the possible surname "Polendina" was shown in the background of the picture. Polendina is the nickname given to Geppetto, Pinocchio's creator in the original story, by his neighbors.
 * Penny's fighting style resembles the one Monty gave to Naminé, a character from the Kingdom Hearts series, as she is depicted in Dead Fantasy, an online series also created by Monty Oum.
 * Going along with her robotic theme, her swords have a power symbol on each of them.