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Take... the... girl.
—The Hound

The Hound[3] was a highly intelligent Creature of Grimm created by Salem that could adapt itself to its surroundings. It made its first appearance in "Divide", when she commanded it to hunt down the one who can show her how to use the Relic of Knowledge. It served as a main antagonist in Volume 8.

In "Dark", The Hound was revealed to contain a Silver Eyed Faunus as its core, explaining its intelligence. It was later killed at the Schnee Manor while hunting down Penny Polendina.

Appearance[]

The Hound was a large Grimm who had a short, wide snout with its teeth overlapping over its jaw. The Grimm lacked eyes, but had canine ears and quill-like spines on its back, one of the former notably having been seemingly sliced off. It had a tar-like body, often dripping Grimm Liquid from its primary mouth and body.

The Hound had two mouths in its body, the primary jaws and a second pair of jaws located on the back of its neck.[4]

It appeared in the background of various shots in the episode "Refuge", where its physical form resembled that of a large canine, stalking its prey before making an approach. Upon attack, the Grimm transformed into a humanoid form, resembling a werewolf. Its legs were rearranged to allow the Hound to be bipedal.

Finally, the Grimm further transformed by using its host's vocal cords and sprouting red, bat-like wings in its back, the creature taking on the appearance resembling a gargoyle. It was also able to extend its limbs and even grow and additional arm.

When Ruby Rose used her Silver Eyes and exposed the core, The Hound was revealed to have once been a pale Silver-Eyed Faunus with canine ears as his trait. He was horribly scarred, his face warped and contorted, resembling a severe burn. His right eye was covered by a vein-like mass of white flesh, which faded and extended beyond his eye. White boils bubbled in patches of his skin, and he appeared to have been rotting, as pieces of torn skin exposed his muscle. Black liquids leaked from his remaining eye and ears. Beneath the Grimm mass, it appears the man's flesh had since withered away as his arm had been reduced to its skeleton and blackened.

Personality[]

Like all Grimm, The Hound was loyal to Salem and followed her commands without question. However unlike a majority of Grimm, The Hound was the first one to show genuine Human-like intelligence and cunning. This was seen where it was smart enough to use Oscar Pine as a shield when combating Yang, Jaune, and Ren to prevent them from attacking it or using their firearms against it. Also, prior to its confrontation with them, it showed enough cunning, patience and stealth to first observe the group before attacking in order to find any weaknesses it can exploit. It was through this that it had gained the needed information to use so it could kidnap Oscar. During the attack, The Hound showed enough self-control to break Oscar's Aura without seriously injuring him.

Later during its transportation of Oscar back to Monstra, The Hound showcased enough analytical ability to know it had no time to waste fighting off its pursuers, instead calling for reinforcements to slow them down.

Because The Hound had a Faunus at its core, it showed the capacity to talk and answer when spoken to. When Ren demanded it return Oscar, it uttered the word "No", showing that it understood Human language.

The Hound was shown to display personality traits equivalent of a loyal pet. It followed Salem around, enjoyed being petted by her and would react to her emotions, seen when it snarled and jumped to threaten Cinder when her attempts to force the issue regarding the Winter Maiden was beginning to irritate Salem.

At the Schnee Manor, while hunting for Penny Polendina, The Hound displayed an instance of sadism, letting Whitley Schnee know it knew he was there in the room for no other reason than to terrify him. When The Hound was struck by Ruby's Silver Eyes, exposing the Faunus inside, the man expressed a tortured and single-minded fury in his goal, continuously repeating "take the girl", referring to Penny. He displayed no other cognitive thought or indication, as the Grimm flesh swallowed him back up.

Powers and Abilities[]

The Hound's primary ability was to adapt its own body to fit the surroundings needed. It was shown to be able to rearrange its limbs, sprout bat-like wings, stretch its limbs at great distances and even grow an additional arm. It was also a capable tracker with an immense sense of smell.

Most notably, however, The Hound was immensely intelligent for a Grimm, stunning Jaune when it used an unconscious Oscar Pine as a hostage against a team of Huntsmen and uttering the word "no" in Human speech. This Grimm frightened even other Grimm, such as the Sabyrs who immediately retreated upon realizing they were in its vicinity. The Hound had also displayed an immense level of stealth, as seen where it had apparently stalked Yang's group for a prolonged period of time without being detected. The Hound also had the ability to call forth Grimm to assist it when needed.

Due to its lack of eyes, The Hound was blind and was forced to rely on its hearing and sense of smell.[5]

Because of the liquid-like state of its body, The Hound was immensely durable, able to shrug off hits with ease. Rather than puncturing flesh, they simply impact the ever-shifting surface of the Grimm, which absorbed the force of any impact or quickly regenerated any wound. Even more significantly, the Grimm was shown to be able to regenerate even from the powers of the Silver Eyes. However, it was shown to still be greatly damaged by the exposure, causing its core to be briefly exposed and the monster to be weakened to the point that it could not move as fast as before.

In the past, the monster's host was once a Silver-Eyed Warrior, though it's unknown if he was aware of his abilities or was able to use them at all after being experimented on by Salem.

Trivia[]

Allusion[]

  • The Hound may allude to the Big Bad Wolf from the fairy tale of "Little Red Riding Hood".
    • The Hound has canine and lycanthropic forms, similar to a wolf.
    • It was sent to hunt Penny, much like how the Wolf hunted Little Red Riding Hood.
      • Ironically, when hunting for Penny at the Schnee Manor, it nearly took Ruby, who alludes to Little Red Riding Hood.
      • It also shares a connection with Ruby, as before its death its is revealed the person inside the Hound had Silver Eyes like Ruby.
    • The Hound had a person inside, which could refer to how the Wolf ate Little Red Riding Hood's grandmother.
  • The Hound could also allude to the black dog from British folklore.
    • The Hound is a black canine.
    • In some cases, the black dog is said to shapeshift. The Hound had the ability to change its shape and extend wings and extra limbs from its body.
    • In one folktale of the black dog, it is referred as the Church Grim.
  • The Faunus in The Hound is likely a fox or dog Faunus, which alludes to the 1967 story: The Fox and the Hound by Daniel P. Mannix. It shares this allusion with Fox Alistair and his uncle, Copper.

Character&Design[]

  • Neither Kerry Shawcross or Kiersi Burkhart can remember which one of them wrote the introductory scene for The Hound, so Kerry decided to give the credit to Kiersi.[6]
  • The Hound's sound design was done by Chris Kokkinos.[7]
  • In the Volume 8 Opening, Salem is shown with The Hound's wings.
  • The Hound's design is inspired by several types of canines, namely Great Danes and greyhounds.[8]
  • The Saybr's running away after spotting The Hound was inspired by a scene in "Halo: Combat Evolved" where the Covenant are shown running away from something for the first time, which left a lasting impression on Miles Luna.[9]
  • During the Volume 8 Directors Commentary, Miles Luna and Kerry Shawcross praised the shot of The Hound attacking Oscar for its brutality. Paula Decanini credits senior animator Megan Pellino for the shot.[10]
  • Miles Luna praised the articulation on The Hound's neck spines and describes the way it moved up the balcony of Schnee Manor as "Xenomorph action".[11]

Story[]

  • The Hound was the first canonical Grimm in the series to display the ability to speak.
    • Prior to The Hound's debut, three other Grimm capable of Human speech appeared in the non-canonical comedy spinoff RWBY Chibi. They were Floyd the Geist and the twin Beowolves Mike and Marty respectively.
    • In The Hound's case, this was because it has a Silver-Eyed Faunus as its core.
  • In "Fault", it was stated by Salem that The Hound was an experiment, indicating that it might be a prototype.
  • To someone who is familiar with how Grimm are supposed to behave, seeing one like The Hound slowly stalk a corridor and go in circles instead of "being 100% aggro all the time" is deeply unsettling.[12]
    • This is shown in Dark, as when it entered Jacques' study, Whitley is visually frightened at how the Grimm simply paces in the room before it says "I know you're here".
  • The Hound's more intelligent behavior and the fact that it didn't prioritize violence all the time are meant to be hints that it wasn't just a Grimm.[13]
    • This is shown specifically in "Refuge", when it stalked Yang's Group until the opportune moment and when it used Oscar as a shield against them. Jaune even mentions the "Grimm aren't that smart".
  • The person in The Hound was the first Silver-Eyed Faunus to appear in the series.
  • The Hound is the only Grimm in the series that left behind a corpse after it was killed.
  • The creation of The Hound might have been inspired by the deleted concept of Grimm Liquid being sold on the black market and being capable of "Grimmifying" any animals it touched while turning them into a hybrid.

References[]

  1. Based on Concept Art
  2. Based on Concept Art
  3. Refuge
  4. Larissa Angus' Twitter
  5. Larissa Angus' Twitter
  6. RWBY Volume 8 Directors' and Writers' Commentary Chapter 1
  7. Chris' Twitter
  8. Larissa Angus' Twitter
  9. RWBY Volume 8 Directors' and Writers' Commentary Chapter 2
  10. RWBY Volume 8 Directors' and Writers' Commentary Chapter 2
  11. RWBY Volume 8 Directors' and Writers' Commentary Chapter 8
  12. RWBY Volume 8 Directors' and Writers' Commentary Chapter 8
  13. RWBY Volume 8 Directors' and Writers' Commentary Chapter 8
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