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Neopolitan,[9] born Trivia Vanille[10] and now better known as Neo, was a character in RWBY. She was the partner of Roman Torchwick, with the two sharing a close and possible romantic bond. Her weapon of choice was called Hush, a parasol with a concealed blade. She first appeared in "Painting the Town...". After the Fall of Beacon, she hunted down Cinder Fall in revenge for Roman's death, but subsequently joined forces with her, shifting her target to Ruby Rose.
In "The Final Word", she was betrayed by Cinder in the Central Location and knocked into the void, finding herself in the Ever After. She is the secondary antagonist of Volume 9.
In "Tea Amidst Terrible Trouble", she got possessed by the Curious Cat (becoming NeoCat) after driving Ruby to ascend, who intended on using her body to leave the Ever After.
After killing the Curious Cat in "Of Solitude and Self", she chose to stay in the Ever After instead of returning to Remnant, undergoing ascension.
Neo was also featured as one of the main characters in the novel, RWBY: Roman Holiday.
Appearance[]
Neo, themed after Neapolitan ice cream, had the appropriate trio of colors in her hair and on her outfit. While sometimes altered via illusion for disguise, her hair color was typically half pink and half brown, with white streaks on the pink side. As of Volume 6, Neo's hair was also styled differently. It was noticeably thicker with a slight wave to it along with shorter bangs and missing her white streaks. The white streaks appeared as an emotional reaction to her parents' deaths in Roman Holiday.[11]
Neo's natural eye color changed between brown, pale pink, and white, and they could alternate coloration in differing combinations, with this ability apparently being entirely under her control. Neo appeared to have a condition known as heterochromia iridum, where the eyes of a subject have two different colors. In her case, it was complete heterochromia, where one iris in its entirety was a different color from the other. During her childhood, her left eye was pink, and her right eye was brown.[12] In Volume 3, she was seen wearing green eyeshadow, starting with her paramedic disguise.
Despite being in her twenties by the start of RWBY, Neo was also rather diminutive in stature, compared to the rest of the main cast, including Ruby Rose, as shown in the height chart presented by Monty Oum. This was demonstrated in "No Brakes", when she stood up against Yang Xiao Long, as Neo was only able to reach her chin despite wearing high heels.
Original (Volumes 2-6)[]
Neo wore a white cropped wide, broad tailed jacket with a pink interior, collar, a single pink button and large pink cuffs. She wore skintight brown leather pants with a dark belt that had a gray buckle and an additional narrow belt under it. Under her jacket was a brown over bust whalebone corset, curved in the middle and at the bottom, which exposed her hips. She also wore a multitude of black beaded necklaces, which hung haphazardly around her neck. Neo also wore black and white spat styled under the knee boots alongside black gloves.
In "The Coming Storm", Neo went through a slight outfit change: she wore Roman's hat, seemingly in remembrance of him, and her clothing was shown to have been torn up over the time since her last appearance, especially on her jacket's left shoulder that revealed a broad shoulder strap of her corset, her coattail and leggings. During her fight with Cinder in this episode, she hid the damage and Roman's hat with an illusion until they moved the fight into an alley.
Post-Timeskip (Volume 6–Current)[]
In "Our Way", Neo sported a new outfit while still wearing Roman's hat. It consisted of a chocolate brown jacket that starts just below her shoulders and above her chest and had a pink interior, two brown belt shoulder straps and twin gray button seams. She wore a gray scarf similar to Roman's, and a white three gray button-up vest style top that was strapless and cropped exposing her midriff. She also wore a pair of chocolate brown detached sleeves with puffy tops and pink trim alongside a pair of white funnel cuffed gloves with gray button detailing. She also wore skintight white belted leather pants and black and white spat styled ankle boots with cutout detail just above the ankle. The back of Neo's jacket was shown to have a small, coned ice cream key chain that was usually covered by her hair.
Notably, Neo's eyes no longer switched colors between each other in her natural state, while she kept her green eye shadow.
NeoCat[]
Neo after getting body snatched by the Cat.
After becoming possessed by the Curious Cat, Neo's body briefly underwent a transformation. Her eyes became those of the Cat's in their normal form, with a light blue sclera and white pupils and her teeth also became much more jagged and sharp. Later, her arms were changed into large light blue claws, partially tearing her sleeves in the process.
She later changed back to her original form after the Curious Cat had left her body.
Disguises[]
While participating in the Vytal Festival Tournament, Neo had a completely different appearance. Her hair was black with lighter streaks where her white streaks would normally be, and her default eye color was green, though she could change it to pink, brown or white at any time. Her hair was done up in a twin tail hairstyle with white bows and her bangs were still in the same usual style from her original appearance.
She wore an outfit with a black and white color scheme. Her attire consisted of a sleeveless black blouse with white frills on the chest and collar and a black ribbon bow hanging from the front of the collar. The blouse exposed her midriff, and she wore medium-length black armbands on both of her wrists. Along with the blouse, she wore a knee-length skirt fastened with a white belt. She wore black shoes with a triple tomoe emblem, a mitsudomoe, on the soles, with white legwarmers. Later, in RWBY: Amity Arena, it was revealed that she wore large, thick white socks over her shoes.
In "Beginning of the End", she disguised herself in a paramedic uniform, with a cap on top of her short hair, and her eye color changed to magenta. In "PvP", she assumed her regular appearance but donned the uniform of an Atlas Military officer. In "Our Way", Neo was briefly seen in a Mistral Police uniform. In "Cordially Invited" and "As Above, So Below", Neo disguised herself in a Schnee waitress uniform with black shoulder-length hair clipped with two barrettes and green eyes.
In "Out in the Open", it was shown that Neo could disguise herself as already existing characters i.e., Ruby Rose. In "With Friends Like These", Neo was shown to be capable of taking on forms of different genders as she took on the appearance of Oscar, however she had never been seen impersonating anyone with extreme size or build differences.
In "Witch", Neo showcased the ability to camouflage herself as inanimate objects, as she turned herself into a wall of Monstra to steal the Relic of Knowledge.
Trivia Vanille[]
Prior to going by Neopolitan, Trivia Vanille originally had only brown hair, but maintained the pink and brown heterochromia in her eyes. In public, her parents made her wear colored contact lens that made both eyes appear brown. At the time, she wore her hair in pigtails, and her clothes consisted of a brown dress with dark brown cuffs and a white collar with a black ribbon attached to the collar with matching ribbons in her pigtails.[12] At the age of twelve, she also had an "adventuring outfit" consisting of a white tank top, brown blazer and matching pants alongside white sneakers with pink hearts.
Image Gallery[]
Outfits[]
Personality[]
Unlike Roman Torchwick, who appeared as a cold and calculating career criminal, Neo was a more unstable unpredictable dangerous killer.
Neo was a mute who cannot speak[12] and as such communicated purely through body language, miming, or text messages. She had been mute since birth.
Neo was stated to be cruel, vicious, and sadistic, as seen in her smile as she prepared to stab Yang in "No Brakes", as well as in "Round One" when she proceeded to brutally stomp on her opponents face with a cruel smile despite him being physically unable to continue their match. [13] However, she did seem to exhibit fear and hesitance when she knew she was outmatched, fleeing if her opponent proved to be as such. This could be seen when Raven Branwen appeared and engaged her on the White Fang cargo train. She was rather perceptive and was able to recognize superior abilities to her own, despite her confidence. Neo was also seen to have a vengeful side by her attempt to kill Cinder Fall in "The Coming Storm" for her part in Roman Torchwick's death, only stopping when she revealed her Maiden powers.
Neo was highly determined when she set her mind to a task, often dealing with any problems presented to her efficiently and competently. During her battle against Team JNPR, Neo took notice of Lie Ren's protectiveness of Nora Valkyrie and took advantage of that by transforming into her using her Semblance to make him hesitate. She also used Emerald Sustrai and Hazel Rainarts's escape as a cover to steal the Relic of Knowledge and skip away in the dust cloud created from Monstra's explosion.
Additionally, she was extremely ruthless, easily turning to murder as a means of achieving her goals and often doing so with a playful demeanor. In "Worthy", she alongside Cinder and Arthur Watts massacred the people stationed at the Atlas Command Center.[14]
Neo possessed a desire to be validated whenever she accomplishes a task, as well as to be treated as an equal by a partner or superior. She was happy with working with Roman, as he often acknowledged her for completing a job. However, while working for Cinder, she was irritated by her lack of recognition or respect towards her. She was further angered when Cinder took the Relic of Knowledge from her without a word of gratitude and failed to give her credit for successfully stealing the Relic, as well as taking credit for her accomplishments to redeem herself before Salem. These actions eventually resulted in her going against Cinder's orders for her own wishes.
Neo was extremely loyal to Roman and very close with him. She willingly carried out his demands and he was the only one she did not show contempt towards. Likewise, Roman never got upset with Neo like he did with others, and they were very proficient in wordlessly coordinating attacks. Neo was shown to be devastated after his death, and wears Roman's hat in memory of him. She is solely driven by a need to exact revenge for what happened to him and has gone to near suicidal lengths to do so, including facing Cinder alone. Neo had a previously lonely life until she met Roman, and after his death her life returned to said state. This is illustrated by her disheveled appearance in "The Coming Storm".
Later, Neo took fights slightly more seriously becoming even more sadistic, cruel, and merciless than before. Previously, during her V2 fight with Yang, Neo toyed with her before knocking the girl unconscious and afterwards unsheathing Hush. Similarly, in her V3 fight against Ruby, Neo opted not to use her sword to fight, and later used it to threaten Ruby, which ultimately turned out to be her undoing when she used Hush to send her flying. Comparatively, in current fights, while she continued to mock her opponents, Neo used her blade more frequently and is shown dispatching foes much more quickly and not dragging out finishing moves any longer than necessary. It's implied that this notable change in behavior may be a result either of her perceived feelings of guilt for having failed Roman when he needed her the most, frustration at all of the constant delays towards avenging him, growing fed-up with all of the ridiculous situations she's found herself in or even a combination of all three.
In RWBY: Roman Holiday, it is shown that Neo was abused by her father and mother for not being the perfect child, due to her inability to speak, heterochromia, and unruly behavior. She had an imaginary friend named "Neopolitan", who she subconsciously used as a scapegoat to take the blame for her own rebellious desires that she had externalized. This was due to her parents simultaneously punishing her for her wants while not taking them seriously, as well as her loneliness and desire to be free—"Neopolitan" was everything Trivia had wanted to be.
Eventually, Trivia realized that "Neopolitan" was an externalization of her own desires—that she and "Neopolitan" were one and the same. All the violently lashing out at those who wronged her, rule-breaking and illegal activities, taunting, freedom and danger "Neopolitan" had pursued was just what Trivia had wanted, but felt she wasn't allowed to after a series of events—including her introducing herself as Neopolitan rather than Trivia to Roman, which she felt was "right" and gave her "a fresh start", with the metaphorical final straw being her mother physically shattering the illusion of "Neopolitan" conjured by Overactive Imagination in front of Trivia. When Trivia took on her new identity and name as Neopolitan, she viciously and fervently enforced her own wants and whims in contradiction to how long she'd been forced to repress them. Similarly, she took great pride in herself and cared little of how other people perceived or felt about her, in contrast to how her parents had insisted their image mattered more than anything else, including Neo's desires.
At the end of Roman Holiday, during the fight at the Vanille Estate involving Neo, Roman Torchwick, Senior Xiong, and Lil' Miss Malachite, Neo made a split-second decision to trick Lil' Miss into triggering a Dust explosion on the third floor in order to escape the fight, though the explosion ended up unintentionally killing her father and she suspected also her mother. This was Neo's first experience with the death of someone known to her, uncertain of how to react and feeling that it didn't affect her, although she gains her iconic white stripes in her hair at this time, indicating she was impacted by their deaths no matter what she thought. Her inability to legitimately process her parents' deaths was indicative of her larger inability to handle grief, as further shown by her single-minded revenge driven handling of Roman's death.
In “Tea Amidst Terrible Trouble”, after she drove Ruby to ascend in the Ever After, she became a broken and emotionless person herself as she realized she only wanted revenge, not to conquer the Ever After, and now that she achieved it, she no longer had a purpose. She became so broken that the Curious Cat was able to take over her body to fulfill their own agenda.
In “Of Solitude and Self”, Neo was released from the Curious Cat’s control and upon being exposed to the smoke of the Great Tree’s leaves, Neo was shown to have gone through significant emotional growth, as she eventually realized that revenge wouldn’t make her happy, nor fill the emptiness in her heart and would only consume her entirely, leaving her with nothing. The entire experience in the Ever After caused Neo to finally let go of the past, by letting go of Roman and accepting his death, as instead of trying to continue attacking Ruby or her friends, she decided to go through Ascension in order to find a new purpose for herself and become something new.
Powers and Abilities[]
In "No Brakes", Neo proved herself to be a highly skilled combatant, able to defeat Yang in a one-on-one fight, seemingly playing with her opponent as she was able to defeat her without taking anything more than a glancing hit. Her fighting style was highly evasive, dodging, deflecting or maneuvering around her opponent's strikes until she had exhausted them, or was ready for a counterattack. Neo also displayed incredible reflexes and speed, dodging several of Yang's attacks with ease, even when holding her umbrella in one hand.
This was further shown in "Heroes and Monsters" where she was easily able to keep up with and defeat Ruby almost single-handedly, and in her fight with Cinder in "The Coming Storm", with Neo taking two hits and delivering four back to Cinder in a mostly even fight, only backing down when Cinder resorted to the use of her Maiden Powers. Cinder also commented Neo had 'grown stronger'. An example of that was shown in "The Enemy of Trust" with despite being completely outnumbered by both Oscar and Team JNR, she easily evaded, parried and dodged their attacks and overpowered and outmaneuvered them with quick and powerful strikes while doing so in a joking manner, hinting that Neo herself was not taking them seriously and was toying with them during the majority of their battle.
Neo had also displayed herself to be very acrobatic and exceptionally skilled in hand-to-hand combat relying on her agility to dodge and misdirect enemy movements and attacks, before retaliating with her own kick-based attacks resembling Bartitsu with the way she blocked with her parasol, and Capoeira with her acrobatic kicks. She learned this as a student at Lady Browning’s Preparatory Academy for Girls, where they had a secret program for training chosen students to be assassins with a wide variety of classes in fencing, self-defense, and escape artistry. Neo excelled in all these classes and even trained under a rogue Huntress, her skills reaching the point that she could stand up against the Malachite sisters when they tried to stop her from escaping the academy.
However, Neo had also been shown to immediately back out of a fight she knew she couldn't win. She instantly retreated upon seeing Raven in "No Brakes" and stopped attacking Cinder in "The Coming Storm" when she activated her Maiden powers, despite instigating the fight in the first place. It also appeared that she had more difficulty against opponents equipped with a melee weapon, as opposed to barehanded fighters; she easily bested Yang in "No Brakes" but had a more even contest against Ruby in "Heroes and Monsters" until Roman arrived to reinforce her. During her fight with Cinder in "The Coming Storm", Neo initially held the initiative, but Cinder gradually gained the advantage once she equipped herself with dual swords. During her duel with Maria Calavera, Neo was consistently outmatched until Maria became distracted. When she faced Ruby again in "Worthy" and "The Final Word", she held the initiative, but fell for Ruby's attempt to goad her, lashing out in anger that enabled Ruby to get the better of her.
While using her weapon in sword form, Neo has displayed a sword style similar to Victorian Age fencing, as seen during her battle against Team JNPR and Oscar, where Neo held one of her hands behind her back as she made several swift sword stabs, jabs and swipes at her opponents. Notably, during her first few appearances, Neo never used Hush's blade to fight, only to down fallen opponents like Yang. Later, she is seen using it once, for a split second against Cinder and afterwards begins employing it regularly in fights.
By Volume 8, Neo's combat skills became powerful enough that she could easily fight multiple skilled opponents simultaneously. In "Worthy", she was able to fight against both Ruby Rose and Blake Belladonna and largely keep them on the defensive.
Weapon[]
- Main article: Hush
Neo holding Hush as part of her chrysalis
Neo's weapon of choice was Hush,[9] a parasol containing a long, thin blade hidden within the length of the parasol's tube, which could also project the blade's tip from the top end of it. The canopy of the parasol was made of an extremely dense, durable fabric that could repel minor Dust explosions, allowing Neo to use it as a shield or a glider. Unlike many of the weapons shown in RWBY, Hush did not appear to contain a concealed firearm or projectile weapon, therefore it could only be used for close quarters fighting.
In "Of Solitude and Self", it became a part of her wooden chrysalis when she ascended.
Semblance[]
- Main article: Overactive Imagination
Yang shatters the illusion wall
Neo's Semblance, Overactive Imagination, allowed her to create "physical illusions that can be seen by everyone", as opposed to Emerald's Hallucinations, which usually only affect the person(s) she targets.[15] These illusions were highly convincing and shattered like glass when she dispelled them, or someone broke them. Her most apparent use of them was creating illusions around her body, either to disguise herself or for her opponent to target while she escaped or moved unseen to another point of attack. They also seemed to be somewhat resilient to damage. While fighting Cinder, the illusion concealing Neo’s outfit was not dispelled even after taking or landing some hits. This was revised however in Volume 7, as her disguise was dispelled upon receiving a punch from Oscar. Additionally, in later volumes, she has learned to use her Semblance for psychological manipulation, exploiting the appearance of close friends and families in her enemies to torment and overpower them.
Neo disguising an entire Mistral Airship as an Atlas Manta
In "Our Way", Neo displayed her new mastery over her Semblance, where she managed to completely disguise an entire Mistral Airship to physically resemble an Atlas one, implying that she could maintain the facade long enough to fool the Atlas Military and cross the continental border checkpoint into Atlas.
Neo also used her Semblance when communicating with others in lieu of her muteness, as seen in "Out in the Open" where she transformed into Ruby when arguing what to prioritize with Cinder.
Initially, unlike Emerald's hallucinations, Neo's illusions did not affect a person's hearing, as she was not able to mimic sound or voices; thus, if she was disguised and someone tried to talk to her, her muteness might give her away. Before her time in the Ever After, her illusions also seemed to be limited in their range; they typically only covered Neo herself, and either a short distance around her or something she was touching, such as the Mistral airship that she disguised as an Atlesian Airship in "Our Way". However, as seen in her battles against Yang, Ruby and Cinder, she could maintain an illusion after moving away- until something made contact with it, after which the illusion will shatter.
As shown in "Witch", Neo herself had showcased the ability to create a camouflage illusion across her entire body in order to hide in plain sight. She altered her physical appearance, completely blending in with the dark crimson colors of Monstra's walls. Doing so, Neo was able to observe Oscar, Emerald, and Hazel accessing the Relic of Knowledge.
Neo Clones
In “Rude, Red, and Royal”, Neo’s Semblance evolved further, where she now had the ability to make multiple copies of herself. These clones were semi-autonomous, able to either copy movements of Neo or perform commands given by her. She could also control them at will and the clones themselves retained the ability to physically attack others, such as the Jabberwalker.
Jabberwalker Clones
In “The Parfait Predicament”, it was shown that she could create clones of other beings as well, such as the Jabberwalker, and could even have them mimic the speech and voice of the original.
As seen in “The Perils of Paper Houses“, her Semblance could seemingly replicate another being to the point of copying their unique abilities. This is implied when the Jabberwalker clones attempted to devour Ruby, suggesting that the clones also possessed the original’s ability to permanently kill a Afteran by eating them, though this is currently unconfirmed.
In "Tea Amidst Terrible Trouble", Neo created clones of Penny Polendina, Pyrrha Nikos, Ozpin, Leonardo Lionheart, Clover Ebi, James Ironwood, Oscar Pine and Roman Torchwick. Her clones were able to perfectly replicate their voice, facial expressions and even to a degree, their personalities and fighting styles. She could also construct complex constructs such as appliances and even entire buildings, having replicated a copy of the Vanille Manor, complete with functioning lights and furniture and portraits of her memories. She could even create functioning weapons using her Semblance, as shown where she recreated Miló and Akoúo̱, Floating Array, The Long Memory, Stalwart, Melodic Cudgel, Due Process, had Milo and Akouo, Due Process, Melodic Cudgel and Stalwart fire rounds, and Milo and Akouo change forms.
Neo speaking through her clones
Furthermore, as implied in "The Perils of Paper Houses", Neo possessed a connection to her constructs and could project her psyche through them, first shown where she remotely transformed one of her Jabberwalker clones into herself to send Ruby a message of her targeting her. Later, she projected her thoughts and feelings through her clones of Ruby’s friends and acquaintances, signified when their eyes turned into her heterochromia of pink and brown.
Neo's power was shown at its strongest when she had her final confrontation with Ruby in "Tea Amidst Terrible Trouble": she created a large Tea Room for Ruby to walk in, hosting a tea party of sorts with fallen comrades of Ruby. Her projections had enough autonomy to speak, fight and even bleed. They speak in Neo's stead, acting as a way for her to verbally communicate what she hated about Ruby and how she had personally failed them, all which quickly broke Ruby's spirit.
Other Skills[]
Neo herself proved to be a competent getaway driver and a highly skilled infiltrator, as shown in "Beginning of the End", where she, disguised as a paramedic, drove Cinder, Mercury Black and Emerald Sustrai away to an unknown location in an Air Bus after they initiated their plan to frame Yang.
This has been proven to be one of Neo's greatest talents, as she showed that combined with her Semblance, she could easily infiltrate military compounds no matter how well guarded or secure they are. One of the best examples was when she was shown walking through an airship full of Atlesian soldiers she presumably killed to free Roman and later Neo again showed her skills in infiltration and hijacking, when she managed to easily acquire a Mistral airship after presumably infiltrating a Mistral air base to steal it without being detected or noticed by the Kingdom's military or officials. Later she showcased that she could even easily infiltrate the highly secured Atlas Academy and later escape from it with no one noticing her at all and managed to again hijack and steal an Atlesian Manta.
Neo has displayed a high level of cunning and skill in acting when using her Semblance, as seen when she observed and notices the close relationship between Lie Ren and Nora Valkyrie and was able to use it to emotionally manipulate Ren into giving her an opening to attack and escape. After her Semblance evolved, Neo’s ability to psychologically manipulate others using her Semblance had also increased, as shown where she was able to make her clones of Penny, Pyrrha, Ironwood, Ozpin and Oscar act, behave and sound like the originals to the point that they were able to effectively illicit emotional anguish from Ruby. Neo also showcased the ability to make her clones of Yang, Blake, Weiss, Jaune, Nora and Ren behave similarly realistic.
With the aid of her Semblance, Neo was shown to have expertise in pickpocketing, as she was easily able to steal the Relic of Knowledge off of Oscar without him knowing until it was too late.
Weaknesses[]
Although Neo was an exceptionally skilled melee fighter, she had a habit of dropping her guard when she decisively gained the upper hand, either out of smugness or anger; this sometimes allowed opponents to make a successful counterattack. Examples included her gloating after defeating Yang in "No Brakes" and Ruby in "Heroes and Monsters"; in both cases, this gave her opponents (Raven and Ruby) time to turn the tables on her. In "The Final Word", after Neo disarmed Ruby, Ruby provoked her anger over Torchwick's death, causing Neo to impulsively attack and fall straight into Ruby's trap. In "Tea Amidst Terrible Trouble", when Neo had Ruby at her mercy, she left herself open to a surprise attack from the Curious Cat, temporarily disrupting her attack on Ruby.
She also had a one-track mind, which while admirable in achieving her goals, presented some drawbacks. She did not care what happened to her so long as her goal was achieved, as seen in "A Place of Particular Concern", where she attempted to kill Ruby even while the two were falling through the void to their apparent deaths. This one-track focus also meant she did not consider what she'd do next if she ever achieved it. In "Tea Admist Terrible Trouble, after she tortures Ruby into ascending, she falls into a catatonic state, not knowing what to do with her life now and leaving her free for the Curious Cat to possess due to her empty heart.
Trivia[]
Allusion[]
- Neopolitan alludes to Hecate, the Goddess of Witchcraft and Necromancy from Greek Mythology. She could also allude to the Mad Hatter from Lewis Carol's "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland". For more information on choices the creators made for this character, see Neopolitan/Behind the Scenes.
Color Naming Rule[]
- Neapolitan is a flavor of ice cream that combines strawberry (pink), chocolate (brown) and vanilla (white) flavors. Neo's eyes are capable of switching between these three colors, and her hair and outfit also follow this color scheme.
- Neo- (νεο-) is also a Greek prefix, meaning "new". In English, neo- is also used as a prefix to denote something that is contemporary, recent, modern or new. The word "Neopolitan" itself derives from the Greek Neápolis (Νεάπολις), meaning "new city". Neo also means 'young' and 'immature' in Greek, usually in medical terms.
- Neo's full name has been written in two different ways.
- It was originally spelled Neopolitan by Monty in an image album that he uploaded to Facebook, which featured images of her model from different angles.[16] This spelling is used in all media directly created by Rooster Teeth, including merchandise and RWBY Chibi.
- The staff of the mobile game, Amity Arena, later revealed that the reference files they received from Rooster Teeth labeled her as Neo_Politan, leading them to question Rooster Teeth on the matter. They incorrectly spelled her name Neo Politan, with Politan being her last name,[17] a spelling also used in BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle.
- The debate was resolved by The World of RWBY: The Official Companion, which settled on the single word spelling of her name.
- This also makes her one of two villains to have no last name given, the other being Salem. However, in Neo's case, this is because Neopolitan is not her original name, as suggested by the lyrics of One Thing and later confirmed in "RWBY: Roman Holiday".
- Her birth name is Trivia Vanille. "Vanille" is a French name meaning "vanilla" bringing a creamy white color to mind.
- "Trivia" means "where the three roads meet", which could relate to the three flavors of Neopolitan's namesake: chocolate, vanilla and strawberry.
- Trivia is also the name of the Roman Goddess of sorcery, witchcraft and crossroads, with her Grecian counterpart being named Hecate.
- Trivia also contains the prefix tri, which speaks of groups of three.
- "Trivia" means "where the three roads meet", which could relate to the three flavors of Neopolitan's namesake: chocolate, vanilla and strawberry.
Story[]
- Neo can change the color of her eyes at will, usually alternating between pink and brown. They can also turn white (completing the ice cream theme) although rarely; one turns white as she removes the sword from her umbrella, and both turn white when Raven appears. Later, she also changes her eyes to green as part of her tournament disguise and magenta as part of her paramedic disguise.
Character & Design[]
- From the 8th to the 11th of July 2014, Monty hinted at Neo's Neapolitan ice cream theme by tweeting pictures of Neapolitan ice cream, long before the character's first appearance in the show, a few days after her appearance in the Volume 2 Trailer.[18][19][20]
- It is possible that this may have been in response to some fans noticing Neo in the Volume 2 Trailer (published July 4th, 2014) and discussing her, as these tweets began shortly after she was noticed.
- Though Gray G. Haddock has confirmed that Neo was created for a "casting opportunity",[21] she has not spoken once onscreen. She does make some nonverbal sounds in the episodes "Round One" and "Heroes and Monsters".
- In The World of RWBY: The Official Companion, it is revealed that the casting opportunity was going to be Sarah Silverman, though Neo was opted to have been made mute instead.
- Although Neo is currently the only character known to have complete heterochromia, Blake was originally going to have it as well, as evidenced by early concept art in which she had a yellow eye and a blue eye.[22]
- It has been confirmed that Neo does not allude to the Cheshire Cat.[23]
- Another character introduced in Volume 9 named the Curious Cat alludes to it instead.
- Ironically Neo eventually ends up becoming possessed by the Curious Cat turning into the NeoCat.
- Another character introduced in Volume 9 named the Curious Cat alludes to it instead.
- During the first update to RWBY: Amity Arena, where Neo and a handful of other new cards were added to the game, the last part of her description talks about how she may or may not be capable of speaking. This bit has since then been removed for unknown reasons.
- Neo's parasol contains a blade connected to the handle. This type of cane sword was originally called a "dolon" and was first used by the ancient Romans. It is yet unclear whether this design choice was a deliberate allusion to her partnership with Roman Torchwick.
- The animation for Neo's Semblance has improved over the course of the show, with three different versions. The first version appeared as a line of light moving over Neo's body while spitting out small fragments, then became a more complicated line made up of pink fragments in Volume six. In Volume 7, it changed drastically, appearing as an amorphous pink shape and losing its crystalline properties.
- According to The Official Companion, Overactive Imagination was created because Monty needed Roman and Neo to exit during "Painting the Town..." but having them escape was hard to animate, and it was decided having them shatter instead would be easier.[24]
- As per E.C. Myers, originally, Neo's birth name was going to be Kat, in reference to Kit Kat chocolate bars. After doing research on the name Catherine—the full name Kat is based on—which originates from Hecate, the name of the Greek Goddess of Three Way Roads, Myers instead decided to make Neo's birth name Trivia—Hecate's Roman God equivalent—as he felt it sounded better and was more thematic.[25]
Media[]
- On August 4th, 2019, Neo, along with Yumi from Senran Kagura and Akatsuki and Blitztank from Akatsuki En-Eins, were revealed as Season 2 DLC for Cross Tag Battle. She is voiced by Casey Lee Williams.[26]
Miscellaneous[]
- Whenever Neo appears to be fighting or initiating combat, there seems to be a waterphone-esque instrument that plays in correspondence to her movements.
References[]
- ↑ RWBY: Roman Holiday Chapter One: Imaginary Friends
- ↑ RWBY: Roman Holiday Chapter 3: Painting the Town Pink
- ↑ RWBY: Roman Holiday Chapter 5: Hard Lessons
- ↑ RWBY: Roman Holiday Chapter 7: Falling Out
- ↑ We are E. C. Myers, Eddy Rivas, and Kerry Shawcross, here to answer questions about the new RWBY: Roman Holiday novel from Scholastic. Ask us anything!
- ↑ "Amity"
- ↑ Roman Holiday
- ↑ Kerry Shawcross on Twitter
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 The World of RWBY: The Official Companion
- ↑ Confirmed by EC Meyers
- ↑ We are E. C. Myers, Eddy Rivas, and Kerry Shawcross, here to answer questions about the new RWBY: Roman Holiday novel from Scholastic. Ask us anything!
- ↑ 12.0 12.1 12.2 RWBY: Roman Holiday
- ↑ RWBY: Amity Arena Neo card bio
- ↑ RWBY Volume 8 Directors' and Writers' Commentary Chapter 13
- ↑ Volume 3 Directors Commentary
- ↑ Monty Oum's Facebook
- ↑ RWBY: Amity Arena's Twitter
- ↑ Monty Oum's Twitter
- ↑ Monty Oum's Twitter
- ↑ Monty Oum's Twitter
- ↑ RWBY Aftershow
- ↑ Blake Belladonna Concept Art
- ↑ AfterBuzz TV
- ↑ The World of RWBY: The Official Companion
- ↑ We are E. C. Myers, Eddy Rivas, and Kerry Shawcross, here to answer questions about the new RWBY: Roman Holiday novel from Scholastic. Ask us anything!
- ↑ Kerry Shawcross Tweet
