Velvet Scarlatina is a former student of Beacon Academy and a member of Team CFVY. Her weapon of choice is Anesidora, a camera which can produce hard-light copies of weapons after she has taken pictures of them. She made her debut in "Jaunedice", where she was being bullied by Team CRDL for her Faunus heritage.
Following the Fall of Beacon, Velvet and her team transfer to Shade Academy.[3]
Appearance
Velvet has long, brown hair and brown eyes. She also has a pair of brown rabbit ears, identifying her as a Faunus.
Velvet is first seen wearing the Beacon Academy uniform, which consists of a maroon blazer with golden brown lining and twin buttons over a brown button-up vest and white blouse with pleated looking neckline and a red ribbon tied around her black-lined collar. She also wears the traditional red checked with black stripes with golden brown outlining alongside white tulle. She also wears a pair of black tights accompanied by a pair of brown lace-up wedged sole boots
Her combat gear is comprised of a short, long-sleeved brown jacket with a golden zipper, brown shorts with golden detail and black leggings. She wears a black, semi-translucent undershirt beneath her jacket, along with golden spaulders and vambraces on both arms, as well as a similar belt, and her heel and toes are likewise protected.[4]
Personality
Velvet is very shy and quiet and tends to keep to herself, either by choice or because she is isolated by others for being a Faunus. Even when being picked on by others, she tends to act very reservedly and refuses to fight back. She could even be described as timid. However, when around her team, Velvet displays much more sassiness in comparison to her usual shyness around others.
Later, when Bartholomew Oobleck asked if anyone had been discriminated against for being Faunus, she was hesitant to even raise her hand and only did so after seeing another classmate raise their hand first. Monty Oum describes her as having modest fashion tastes.[5] Due to tormentors in Pharos and Beacon, she has a deep-seated hatred towards the kingdom of Mistral, generalizing people from the kingdom in a negative light, the reason for this has yet to be explained. Additionally, she dislikes Vacuo at first due to the lack of comfort in the kingdom, but slowly grows an attachment to it.
However, despite her shy personality, she seems to get along with others, as seen with Team RWBY, and being a second-year student, she wishes them safety on their mission.
In battle, shown in "Breach", Velvet continues to display her timid nature. When not attacking or finishing an attack, her stance is much more closed than the others, even hiding under Yatsuhashi Daichi when Fox Alistair destroys an Ursa with Sharp Retribution, sending its spikes flying everywhere within the vicinity of the area.
In addition to this, she unquestioningly obeyed Coco Adel's suggestion to avoid using Anesidora in the fight against the hordes of Grimm, though she seemed a little disappointed. When Coco tells her to use it during "Heroes and Monsters", she immediately gets excited.
Powers and Abilities
According to Monty, Velvet is an extremely adept mage with skills highly valued by her teammates. She is also said to have a significant amount of experience in working with her team on the battlefield, being a great asset to them.[5] Velvet also shows in her first onscreen battle in "Breach" that she is fairly adept in martial arts, making good use of jumps and kicks.
She is very agile and athletic, as well as being a capable climber. Velvet has excellent night vision, as shown when she was able to track a sleepwalking Edward Caspian during their time at Feldspar, as well as informing Fox that the bottom of the quarry they were in was too deep to drop to, as she couldn't see the bottom.[6] With her rabbit ears, she has superior hearing, which is at least as effective as Fox Alistair's, which she used to help locate survivors during team CFVY's mission to Lower Cairn.[7] It appears that she was able to adequately detect the direction of their calls despite echoes caused by the tunnel walls, which gave Coco greater difficulty.[8]
Velvet has also displayed great engineering skills, creating the initial designs for Anesidora by herself. Later she was able to upgrade Coco's glasses with multiple features.
Weapon
Velvet's weapon, Anesidora, uses Hard-Light Dust to make copies of weapons she has photographed, which last for a few hits. Using this weapon in conjunction with her Semblance gives her the ability to mimic the fighting styles and abilities of other Huntsmen. However, she is not able to fully utilize a copy of a weapon, as she does not have the power to mimic the Semblance relating to a weapon's full capabilities. Each weapon copy can only be used once, after which point she must take a new photograph to have access to the copy again. As such, she rarely uses her weapon, deferring to Coco to let her know when the time is right and resorting to martial arts in most engagements.
While Velvet is a less skilled hand-to-hand fighter than Nebula Violette, she is a quicker combatant. Still, this doesn't keep her from being defeated in a sparring match.[9]
Semblance
- Main article: Semblance#Velvet Scarlatina
Velvet's Semblance, Photographic Memory[10], allows her to mimic the exact moves that other people have learned and used in combat to a degree. However, her Semblance does not allow her to mimic the Semblances and capabilities of others or perform moves that are a direct result of another person's Semblance.[11]
Velvet uses her Semblance in conjunction with Anesidora in order to accurately wield the weapons that she copies.
Trivia
- Velvet is a type of woven tufted fabric and Scarlatina is an alternative name for scarlet fever.
- Velvet alludes to the stuffed rabbit from The Velveteen Rabbit. For more information on this allusion, as well as other choices the creators made for this character, see Velvet Scarlatina/Behind the Scenes.
- Velvet's weapon "Anesidora" is Ancient Greek for "sender of gifts", and was an alternate name for Pandora, who opened a box that held all the evils in the world. This connects to how when Velvet "opens" her camera to unleash destructive powers.
References
- ↑ RWBY: Before the Dawn
- ↑ RWBY: Before the Dawn
- ↑ RWBY: After the Fall novel
- ↑ RWBY Volume 2: Production Diary 1
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Monty Oum's Rooster Teeth Journal
- ↑ RWBY: After the Fall
- ↑ RWBY: After the Fall
- ↑ RWBY: After the Fall
- ↑ RWBY: Before the Dawn Chapter 7
- ↑ RWBY: After the Fall
- ↑ Volume 3 Directors Commentary