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I'll take it from here!! After all, I was sworn to protect the people!
—Caroline Cordovin

Special Operative Caroline Cordovin is a character in RWBY. She first appeared in "Dead End" as the leader of the Argus Military Base. She serves as the main antagonist of Volume 6 alongside Adam Taurus.

Appearance[]

Cordovin is a short, elderly woman with short silver hair and brown eyes. She wears an Atlesian uniform with black gloves and a dark gray belt.

A much younger Cordovin makes a brief cameo in a poster advertising the Atlas Military and the Colossus in "Ultimatum", sporting dark brown hair prior to it greying.

Image Gallery[]

Personality[]

Caroline is a prideful, condescending and arrogant woman who deeply venerates the Kingdom of Atlas, to the point where she overly exaggerates Atlas' greatness, denies any weaknesses that her Kingdom or James Ironwood has, and believes that Atlas could take on the world and win. She is shown to look down on non-Atlesians, having a low opinion of Argus' citizens and the rest of the world, who became hostile towards Atlas due to the events of the 40th Vytal Festival.

She takes her job extremely seriously, such as putting Maria Calavera on the additional screening list for life for bringing contraband one time. She is so strict on following Ironwood's order to close Atlas' borders that she refuses to let anyone in, only willing to allow Weiss Schnee to return home to her family if she goes alone.

She also shows contempt towards Blake Belladonna, indicating that she may be discriminatory against Faunus.

Caroline has been shown to be quite unstable and merciless when crossed, as she unleashed the might of an Atlesian Colossus in a display of power despite the risk that such a weapon could pose to Argus and the extremely negative emotions of fear brought out by the massive weapon on the populace of Argus.

However, despite her extremely nationalist and bitter attitude, she does have a sense of responsibility towards defending Argus, as she was able to put aside her anger and help Ruby's group kill the Leviathan, even allowing them to travel to Atlas afterward on a "missing" Manta transport.

This shows that despite letting her emotions get the better of her and her own bitter attitude clouding her judgment, Cordovin is also mature and sensible enough to acknowledge her mistakes and put aside her own negative feelings for both the sake of others and her duties.

Trivia[]

Allusion[]

  • Caroline alludes to the nursery rhyme of the old woman who lived in a shoe.[1]
    • In "Dead End", Nora insults Caroline by saying that her face[2] looks like a boot, comparing Cordovin's old, wrinkly, leather-like skin to the leather of a boot.
    • The guards who work for Caroline are known as Nubuck guards. Nubuck is leather that has been treated in a specific way and is used for boots.
    • Her Colossus resembles a leather boot, referencing the shoe in which the old woman lived.
    • In "Stealing from the Elderly", Caroline enters the Colossus via a door in the toe of its right foot.
    • "Big Metal Shoe", the song that plays during her fight in "The Lady in the Shoe", addresses her with the lyrics "Check you out in your big metal shoe. Fighting so many kids, don't know what to do." This refers to the most common version of the nursery rhyme, which says "She had so many children, she didn't know what to do."
    • Her last name alludes to cordovan, a type of leather used in high-end shoemaking. This references the giant shoe the old lady lives in.
    • Her first name possibly alludes to Queen Caroline of Great Britain, who was believed to be the inspiration for the nursery rhyme.
      • Coincidentally, she had 8 children, and Cordovin was fighting 8 people. There were also 8 kids in Ruby's team (replacing Qrow & Maria for Blake & Yang, who were fighting Adam at the time).

Color Naming Rule[]

  • Caroline may come from Carolina blue.
  • Cordovin either comes from cordovan, a type of leather, or the color cordovan, the same shade of burgundy that can be seen on the lapel and cuffs of her uniform.

Story[]

  • Due to the Special Operatives Unit being made up of Huntsmen in the Atlesian Military, it is currently unknown if Cordovin herself is a Huntress or a regular soldier that became a member of the unit.
  • During Maria and Cordovin's reunion, Maria had sarcastically insulted that Cordovin was stationed in Argus due to the higher ups in Atlas and her own co-workers wanting her as far away from the Kingdom as possible due to not liking her.
    • According to the Volume 6 Director's Commentary, Cordovin was sent to Argus because her coworkers in Atlas considered her a nuisance and wanted her far away from the Kingdom, ironically confirming Maria's statement.[3]

Character & Design[]

  • The plotline involving Caroline Cordovin and the Colossus was initially created as the climax of Volume 2, before being replaced with the mission to Mountain Glenn, as the writers realized it wouldn't have been feasible at the time.[4]
  • The idea for her character and allusion were created by Monty Oum before Volume 1.[5]

References[]

Characters
BRIR
RWBY/Justice League
Super Heroes and Huntsmen
Other
Minor Characters
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