Yang Xiao Long

Yang Xiao Long (阳小龙 [Simplified]; 陽小龍 [Traditional], literally: Sun Little-Dragon) is one of the main characters and the fifth character introduced in RWBY. Her weapon of choice is a pair of Dual Ranged Shot Gauntlets, Ember Celica.

She made her appearance on June 1st, 2013 at A-Kon in Dallas during the premiere of the "Yellow" Trailer, in which she interrogates Junior Xiong for information, and later fights him and his henchmen at his club.

Appearance
Yang is a teenage girl who wears a tan vest with gold piping over a yellow, low-cut crop top with a black crest that resembles a burning heart. The vest has puffy cap sleeves with black cuffs. On the sides of the cuffs, there are two small, golden buttons.

She wears a brown belt with a buckle, a pouch, and a small banner-like object. The same burning heart crest appears on this banner, except golden in color. She wears black shorts under her belt, which resembles a pleated skirt in the back. Over the short shorts but under the belt is a white, asymmetrical back skirt.

Aside from an orange infinity scarf around her neck, she has no discernible jewlery. She wears brown, knee-high platform boots that appear to be made of leather, with orange socks of different lengths. Her left leg also has a gray, bandana-like object wrapped around the top of her boot. She wears fingerless black gloves underneath her weapons, which resemble two yellow mechanized gauntlets with a black design.

Her long blonde hair becomes lighter in color at the tips and flows in a loose and messy manner, with a few locks sticking out and a small cowlick on top of her head. She has a pale complexion and lilac eyes. Her hair seems to burst into flames the longer she fights. Her eyes turn red and her hair produces more fire when she becomes angry.

While on her motorcycle Bumblebee, she wears yellow goggles and a matching helmet that bears her crest in black. Yang's pajamas are an orange tank top with her flame emblem on the front, and brown boy shorts. When outdoors, she sometimes wears a pair of yellow-rimmed aviator sunglasses.

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. She is also described as being an energetic and bright young lady.

This can be seen in her trailer, where she approaches Junior and proceeds to interrogate him in his own club by grabbing his groin. Even as Junior's henchmen surround her she is unfazed and as she takes them all down in battle, smiling the whole way through. This straightforward, brute-force approach can also be seen when she helps Ruby Rose. She also seems to enjoy making puns, sharing this trait with her voice actor, Barbara Dunkelman].

Yang cares a lot about her little sister Ruby. Despite leaving her to go spend time with some friends upon arriving at Beacon Academy, Yang pushes Ruby into talking with other people and encourages her when she feels down about not knowing anyone in Beacon Academy. This shows that she has a high amount of faith in her sister. Of course, this doesn't really work out too well with Blake, who initially makes it clear that she has no desire to talk to them. Yang has also been shown to worry a great deal for her sister, such as when Ruby was almost killed by a Death Stalker's attack, but was saved by Weiss Schnee. Yang hugs her sister in joy, glad that she is safe. She was also pleased upon knowing that Ruby was announced as leader of Team RWBY.

Yang initially disliked Weiss and stuck up for Ruby after Weiss yelled at her again. It is unknown at this stage how fighting alongside Weiss in the Beacon Academy Initiation Test may have affected her opinion of Weiss.

Yang is shown to not be intimidated by the opposite gender and has no scruples about sleeping in a room full of both guys and girls. She unabashedly plays the part of the witless beautiful girl to fool Junior and make him lower his guard. After he tries to walk away, she tricks him once again by pretending to offer him a kiss, shortly before punching him and sending him flying across the room.

She is also somewhat vain, and is extremely protective of her hair. This is shown when she goes into a rage when Junior manages to pull off a few strands in their fight, and again against the Ursi after they sever a small strand of her hair, going so far as to refer to them both as monsters for damaging her hair. Yang also has a humorous side to her, which is far more noticeable than Blake's. Her humorous side is seen twice in episode 9, as she says "Banzai" along with Blake and Ruby. She later laughs at Ruby's drawing of Peter Port. Further cementing her 'teenage girl' credentials, Yang is a fan of the in-universe boy-band The Achieve Men.

Yang also shows sympathy for the Faunus such as after seeing Velvet Scarlatina being bullied by Team CRDL, stating it must be hard to be a Faunus. Later on in The Stray, she questions some of the more hyperbolic statements Weiss makes about the White Fang and, when Blake runs away upon them learning she was a member, Yang shows little concern about it and just wants to find Blake, saying that "either way, she's missing, and we've got to find her."

Abilities & Powers
Yang's fighting style has been shown as much more aggressive than the other members of her team, bearing resemblance to boxing and kickboxing. She is quite agile as she is able to dodge an onslaught of Ursi with ease.

She also seems to physically be the 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. After equipping her gauntlets in the same scene, she causes a massive shockwave with one punch and later destroys Junior's weapon with a single punch.

In The Emerald Forest, she was able to easily knock a sizable Ursa through several trees after being frenzied. Her strength was also shown 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 into its mouth. Yang is also shown to have a high degree of endurance, showing no signs of fatigue after the battle with the Nevermore.

Her level of durability is also noticeably high, as she was able to withstand a barrage of missiles from Junior's Bazooka exploding in front of her with little to no damage, merely being thrown back by the force. Yang has also shown to have exceptional accuracy when firing her Ember Celica at incoming attacks, intercepting missiles from Junior's Bazooka mid-flight and being able to land several shots on the Nevermore while it was in motion, with one shot making contact with the avian's eye.

In addition to her phenomenal level of sheer strength, Yang also possesses great reflexes. In the "Yellow" Trailer, she was able to dodge and weave her way through a continuous hail of machine gun bullets fired by one of Junior's henchmen without being hit once, and notably without using the recoil of her gauntlets to further boost her speed.

Yang's weapon is radically different compared to those used by the rest of Team RWBY, as the other weapons all include some sort of blade. Yang's primary weapon is a pair of gauntlets known as Ember Celica, which can retract into wristlets. When Yang throws a punch she can shoot explosive rounds from Ember Celica for moderate or short ranged attacks. Ember Celica also has powerful recoil which can be utilized to augment the force of her punch and accelerate her movements. She can also use her Ember Celica as a form of armor when defending against attacks in unarmed combat.

As she fights, fire appears in her hair and, if angered, her eyes turn red. In episode 6, Yang was angered when an Ursa cut off a small piece of her hair, and in her trailer, Yang burst into flames of white when Junior pulled out several locks of her hair, so the cause of this "Wreathed in Flames" is most likely when a piece of Yang's hair is cut off or she is greatly angered. She seems to be able to naturally summon fire around her as well. This is most notable when she prepares to attack Junior again, letting out a burst of fire energy around her. This state is possibly a result of her using her Aura or Semblance.

Trivia

 * The Chinese characters that make up Yang's full name, Yáng Xiǎo Lóng (阳小龙) can be roughly translated to "Little Light Dragon" or "Small Dragon of the Sun."
 * Despite Yang having a Chinese name, she is addressed by her first name. In Eastern culture, however, she would be addressed as "Xiao Long" or simply "Long." However, this can be explained by the world of RWBY having different customs.
 * Yang's name would also be pronounced as "Yah-ng She-ow Loh-ng" in a more traditional Chinese accent. However, Monty reasons that, since there is no China in Remnant, the proper Chinese pronunciation does not apply.
 * In Malay, the word "Yang" is a popular slang term which is based from the word "Sayang"(love/care) that means 'honey'/darling'.
 * Thus, when Junior Xiong calls Yang "sweetheart," he may be calling Yang a translated version of her name.
 * In her trailer, Yang is looking for the "Transient Princess," an artwork by Monty Oum based on Final Fantasy VIII's Rinoa.
 * She has her own official Twitter account at RT_YangXiaoLong, like Ruby and Weiss.
 * Although Yang and Ruby do not have the same last name, Monty Oum has confirmed that they are sisters related by blood. Neither of them is adopted, they are not step sisters, and they are not cousins.
 * It was announced during the RWBY panel at RTX 2014 that Yang would be the next playable character in RWBY: Grim Eclipse.