Penny Polendina

Penny Polendina  was 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".

In "PvP", Penny is "killed" by her own weapon when Pyrrha Nikos uses her polarity Semblance to deflect what she thinks are thousands of Penny's swords coming at her, when in reality it was Emerald Sustrai using her perception manipulation Semblance to trick Pyrrha into using her Semblance to a devastating magnitude.

Appearance
Penny had short, rather curly orange hair that came down to her chin, and she wore a pink bow on the back of her head. She also had bright green eyes, light skin and freckles. She wore an old-fashioned blouse with short feminine overalls, as well as a black and green collar with a matching pair of stockings. A layer of skin concealed her metallic structure and spherical joints, and her irises bore similarity to the shutter of a camera.

The green lines on the side of her stockings also appear to glow at times. She had 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" and when she fought against Russel Thrush and Sky Lark in "Never Miss a Beat". Otherwise, she is not seen to have this backpack; only her normal clothing is shown.

Personality
Penny spoke robotically, behaved erratically, and was hyperactive in general. All her actions and emotions were rather extreme, possibly as a result of her still learning human nature and how to act human, as Weiss was shown reminding her to get up from the ground. When Ruby makes an unconditional offer of friendship, Penny seems both immensely pleased and somewhat surprised. A small quirk is that Penny hiccups whenever she tells a lie.

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

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

Penny harbors insecurities about not being "a real girl". Upon confiding in Ruby that she is a synthetic being, Penny is worried about how she would take the news. However, after seeing Ruby take it rather well, she is glad that Ruby does not care she is a machine, for what matters is 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.

Despite her early appearances presenting her as spastic, awkward, curious, and excitable, her stranger social quirks appear to tone down over the course of the series. By the time the Vytal Festival rolls around, her demeanor is not far from that of a regular girl, being far more level-headed and less prone to emotional outburst, sharing a simple friendly conversation with Ruby about her plans to stay at Beacon and her by-the-book teammate, Ciel.

Penny's arguably most noteworthy trait is her kindness. She happily greets the recently-met Team RWBY with a jovial "Salutations!" and vows to help Ruby find the missing Blake. She's later shown stopping a truck from hitting Ruby before asking the driver if he was okay. At the Vytal Festival she thanks Team CRDL for "a wonderful time" and upon meeting Pyrrha Nikos in the finals, says that it's a pleasure to finally meet her.

Weapon


As seen in "Black and White", Penny was 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. She can also put her swords into a smaller rings in order to fire multiple weaker beams.

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 and cut through Penny herself 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. She can also use her weapons as thrusters, allowing her to move extremely quickly through the air.

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. According to other references to Aura, this could also imply that Penny truly did have a soul.

It is implied, though never outright stated, that Penny is the result of a project at Atlas to transfer Aura from one thing to another, which was to be used later to remove the powers of the dying Amber before Cinder Fall got a hold of them.

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.
 * Her surname, Polendina, is the nickname given to Geppetto, Pinocchio's creator in the original story, by his neighbors. It referred to his bright yellow wig, and derives from Polenta, a typical Italian dish made from boiled cornmeal.
 * 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 affected by magnets, as seen in "Never Miss a Beat" and "PvP".
 * Penny is apparently very perceptive, as she saw through Blake's disguise and recognized that she was a Faunus, while most people did not.
 * Penny's fighting style resembles that of Naminé as she is depicted in Dead Fantasy, an online series also created by Monty Oum.
 * In turn her fighting style resembles that of Nu-13/Lambda-11 from BlazBlue and Ramlethal Valentine from Guilty Gear.
 * Going along with her robotic theme, her swords have the international stand-by / power symbol on each of them.
 * Penny is the first character to "die" on-screen.
 * The destroyed character model of Penny from "PvP" and "Battle of Beacon" was actually built by her voice actor, Taylor McNee, who is also a 3D artist on the show.