Cinder Fall


 * For the original Fall Maiden, also called Fall, see Maidens

Cinder Fall is one of the main antagonists of RWBY. She is the leader of a small group of people with malicious goals. Her associates include Mercury Black, Emerald Sustrai and the criminal Roman Torchwick. Cinder herself appears to be working under the guidance of a mysterious individual named Salem. Her machinations are the driving force behind the events of the first 3 volumes of RWBY.

In "Heroes and Monsters", Cinder becomes the new host of the Fall Maiden, granting her vast power. However, as of "End of the Beginning", her fate is currently unknown after Ruby Rose unleashed an attack of unexplained nature, enveloping Cinder in a blinding flash of light.

Appearance
Cinder has ashen-black hair and bright amber eyes, while her fingernails are painted dark red. She wears a dark-red, off-the-shoulders, v-neck minidress with yellow designs. There is a blue feather-like accessory on her right hip, at the top of an open portion of her dress. The dress ends in an upside-down triangular tail in the back, ending just above the knees.

There is a baseball diamond-shaped keyhole on the dress' upper back at the same height as her chest. The sleeves end in a triangle shape, which are wrapped or tied around her middle finger, with the gold designs of the sleeve taking over at the wrists.



She wears black shorts underneath her dress, as well as a black choker on her neck. She wears a gold loop earring with a black gem dangling from it on her right ear. She has dark, glass, high-heeled shoes and a jeweled anklet on her right leg.

On her upper back, in the keyhole of her dress, she has a black tattoo of what appears to be a pair of high heel shoes placed sole to sole, forming a heart shape inside. Whenever she uses her Dust abilities, designs on parts of her dress like her arms, back, and chest light up. Her eyes and earrings also glow.

It is possible that her appearance is influenced by east Asian culture, as the designs on her dress are styled similarly to traditional Japanese or Chinese patterns.

Haven Uniform
When undercover at Beacon Academy, Cinder is seen wearing the uniform of Haven Academy, a more conservative dark gray outfit with a long-sleeved collared top and white armband.

Stealth Outfit
During her infiltration of the Cross Continental Transmit System Tower, Cinder is shown wearing a black infiltration outfit, which she had previously sewn together. The outfit consists of a sleeveless jacket, long gloves, stiletto heel boots, a black glass mask, and several straps with containers of powdered dust lined across her pants. When using Dust, designs on her gloves, boots, and pants glow bright orange. When needed, Cinder can instantly transform her infiltration attire into a formal black evening gown that has black glass designs on it.

Casual
When attending the Vytal Festival Tounament, she wears gray pants and boots; a beige leather, sleeveless jacket with light-beige details; brown gloves, a sarashi tied around her chest and another around her hips, and a pauldron on her left shoulder. She also wears a belt around her waist, which has multiple brown pouches attached to it.

Flashback
During the events of "Beginning of the End", Cinder had shorter hair. Her previous attire looks similar to her current outfit except her dress has separated sleeves, and the dress is held up by straps tied around her neck in a bow. Her heeled shoes are made of a more typical material, rather than glass. She didn't have her characteristic tattoo until after she stole a portion of Amber's Maiden powers.

Personality
Cinder is imperious and cunning. She can also be ruthless and cruel, as demonstrated when she delivered a killing blow to a clearly defeated Pyrrha Nikos at point-blank range. Usually, she maintains a calm and collected demeanor, and is willing to take over a fight if necessary. Although she refers to her partnership with Roman as "cooperation", it is obvious that she has the upper hand, as she very quickly makes an implicit, and not very subtle, threat to Roman by conjuring a fireball in her hand.

Cinder also seems to be ambitious and demanding, stating that she has "big plans" for Roman, and is willing to enlist the White Fang to achieve her goals by any means necessary. Often, she is very direct on the matter at hand, as shown when she quickly jumps to Roman's failure of robbing a cargo hold of Dust.

She doesn't seem to tolerate failure, seen with Roman, preferring for her goals to be successful regardless of the situation. Cinder also prefers that such problems be solved quickly, and is seen to give very direct orders, and doesn't like when she is disobeyed, reprimanding Emerald and Mercury when they failed to obey her orders to keep their hands clean.

When it comes to planning, Cinder is very secretive, keeping Roman on a strict need-to-know basis. Cinder is shown to be an excellent planner as well, often planning ahead to keep her goals in reach, and is also confident in her plans. When it comes to fighting, she is seen to be quite confident, having attacked Atlas soldiers and Ruby Rose head on. This confidence extends to her personality as well, as she shows no worry or concern upon the arrival of Qrow, who has been tracking their actions. She claims that Ozpin's Group have no idea who she, or the rest are, confident that their identity as the group who infiltrated Beacon Academy is still secret. However, as skilled and strong as she is, powerful warriors such as Ruby and Pyrrha have been able to land hits on her, meaning she is not completely invulnerable.

Additionally, she is aware of the weaknesses of her plan. Accordingly, she assigns specific instructions to her subordinates, in order to prevent them from being exploited against her. For example, in her plan to frame Yang and cause an international incident, she instructed Mercury to keep himself hidden after the group escaped to an unknown location, with Cinder disguised as a paramedic.

She also has a low tolerance for margin of error, as she instructs her followers to follow the plan as perfectly as possible, when creating the ambush against Amber, stealing part of her Maiden powers.

It seems that Cinder has a desire for power and dominance, as she states in a flashback that she wants to be feared. She enjoys demonstrating the power she has by imposing others under hersel, like when she threatened Torchwick and mocked Pyrrha after she defeated the latter. She showed disdain when Pyrrha defied her one last time before her death, suggesting that Cinder expected a different kind of reaction.

Abilities and Powers
Cinder possesses a high degree of skill that rivals, or even surpasses, that of Glynda Goodwitch. She seems to have a strong command over Dust, as seen in "Ruby Rose" where she makes extensive use of fire based abilities without difficulty. Her primary technique seems to be a highly forceful blast of fire, which is powerful enough to block and knock back some of Glynda's manipulated debris.



Cinder's capabilities also include summoning pillars of fire that erupt from the ground, as well as a powerful blocking technique, easily capable of withstanding Crescent Rose's bullets. This blocking technique may be Aura based, as it strongly resembles a technique used by Lie Ren, but this is unconfirmed. It should also be noted that before her powers were stolen, Amber was seen doing the same thing with Emerald.

Noticeably, some of her abilities emit a high-pitched whistling sound when cast. Her eyes seem to glow brighter whenever she uses her abilities. This could be attributed to her use of Dust-related abilities or her once part way fall maiden abilities.

Of note was her ability to wield and manipulate Dust in battle, transforming a cloud of dust she had previously dispensed into several shards of what appears to be glass, which she proceeded to launch as projectiles. She is even able to conjure a Dust-based pair of dual black glass, possibly obsidian, sword constructs and then seamlessly transform them into a bow with a series of black glass arrows ready to fire. She is also capable of triggering this ability to change the shape of Dust-imbued clothes, as shown by her instantly changing into a dress for the dance.

She is quite skilled in both unarmed combat and swordsmanship, using such skills to fend off numerous Atlas Soldiers at once and easily defeating them without being hit once. She was confident enough in her skills to walk right up to them, despite the fact that this alerted them to her appearance. Such confidence is also seen when she decides to reveal herself to Ruby, smiling while doing so and attacking the young Huntress instantly. She also possesses enhanced speed, strength, reflexes and endurance.

She is also adept at piloting, being able to fly a Bullhead during one of Glynda's attacks.

Cinder has shown to be quite stealthy as well, having sneaked past and behind a guard to easily knock him out. She is also seen to be skilled enough in infiltrating places without getting caught and using the advantages given to herself to blend in, escaping her pursuers from the CCT, and using the dance to instantly lose them.

She also seems to be skilled in manipulating people, having infiltrated Beacon Academy along with her partners Mercury and Emerald without raising suspicion to herself, and having others believe her to be from Haven Academy. However, it is unknown if anyone knows about her affiliation with the criminal world.

Her marksmanship skills are shown during her infiltration and her plan to capture Amber's powers in "Dance Dance Infiltration" and "Beginning of the End", respectively. She is capable of launching three arrows at once with great accuracy and pragmatically exploiting any advantage whenever possible, such as launching an arrow in Amber's back just as the latter was about to kill Emerald.

She is currently the Fall Maiden.

After acquiring the Maiden's powers, she is able to utilize more fire-based attacks and gains the ability to fly. Additionally, she is strong enough to withstand great force, and can reform the shape of her projectiles and use her fire-based power to melt items in her grip.

Trivia

 * Cinder alludes to Cinderella from the fairy tale of the same name.
 * In the Volume 1 cast commentary, it is mentioned that the shoes she wears with her red dress are made of glass. This is supported by the "clink" noises they make in "Ruby Rose". This references the fact that Cinderella wore glass shoes to the ball.
 * Miles Luna and Kerry Shawcross made a joke that they "originally wanted to call her Cinder Ella", using the Spanish word "ella" (pronounced "eya"), meaning "she".
 * Her emblem, which is tattooed on her back, appears to be a pair of high-heel slippers placed sole to sole, making a heart in the empty space between them.
 * In the episode "Dance Dance Infiltration", Mercury tells her that she should return to the dance by midnight, and she manages to make it back just before midnight. On her way back, she transforms her stealth outfit into a black dress and ditches her glass masquerade mask. This references how Cinderella needed to leave the ball by midnight, as that was when the spell that created her outfit and carriage would wear off.
 * The first part of her name alludes to a partially or mostly burned piece of coal or wood, represented in her fire abilities. Her surname alludes to Fall, the American name for one of the four calendar seasons, which brings to mind amber and brown colors.
 * Apart from her Haven Academy uniform, the paramedic uniform and possibly the dress she wore to the dance, all of Cinder's clothing has bright orange Dust sewn into them.
 * Her ability to manipulate Dust woven into clothing may be a possible reference to her voice actress' career as a cosplayer and model (in regards to the production of costumes).
 * Monty Oum confirmed that Cinder is not the mother of Ruby Rose, Yang Xiao Long, or Blake Belladonna.
 * In "Black and White", she wears lipstick and violet eyeshadow.
 * Cinder has the most outfits in the series.
 * She claims to be from Mistral, but it is unknown if this is true.