This is a list of characters who appear in RWBY, an original anime-style CG-animated web series created by Rooster Teeth Productions. According to series creator Monty Oum, every character's name is tied to a specific color. There are also other teams with their name combining to form acronyms that are also tied to a color.
Creation and conception
Oum designed the characters with assistance from artist Ein Lee. Oum had been browsing Lee's DeviantArt work and asked if she wanted to do some designs. The only rule provided for the series was "everyone must be badass." Lee also said that some of the characters were conceived between her and Oum, where he would provide a description followed by her sketching some ideas, or vice versa. Others were from brainstorming with other people. The characters utilize designs inspired by classic fairy tale characters. Each character has an associated color, and it is the first letters of these colors, red, white, black, and yellow, that give the series its name. Lee said that looking to people, Google image searches, and fashion were inspirations: "how people dress−down to the littlest detail—gives many subtle (and some not so subtle) hints about who they are. It’s all about giving the characters a unique and memorable look that people can still identify with." Oum also drew inspiration from the Final Fantasy video games and the "ridiculously obnoxious weapons".
The series was written by Oum, along with fellow Rooster Teeth employees Miles Luna and Kerry Shawcross. Oum was initially concerned about a story focusing on female characters being developed by a primarily male crew, but said they managed to do well developing the female characters.
Protagonists
Team RWBY
Team RWBY (pronounced "ruby") is composed of four female students from Beacon Academy. Each member is associated with a color and alludes to a character in the fairy tale world—reflected in their names and personalities.
Voiced by: Lindsay Jones / Saori Hayami
A silver-eyed girl who uses a scythe called Crescent Rose as both a melee weapon and as a high caliber sniper rifle. Her Semblance is called "Petal Burst", which enables her to transform into a fast burst of rose petals. Initially, it was thought that Ruby's ability was primarily speed, enabling her to run faster than the human eye can catch, and change directions in mid-air. When her mother Summer Rose vanished when she was very young, Ruby was raised on the island of Patch by her father Taiyang and her older half-sister Yang Xiao Long.
Ruby alludes to the fairy tale character Little Red Riding Hood.
Voiced By: Kara Eberle, Casey Lee Williams (singing voice), Elizabeth Maxwell (Young) / Yōko Hikasa The former heiress to the Schnee family, a powerful high-class family based in Atlas. Their Schnee Dust Company provides much of the worldwide supply of Dust, despite the family being targeted by the White Fang due to the immoral business ethics of Weiss’ father Jacques, which included mistreatment of Faunus laborers. While inheriting her family's white hair and blue eyes, Weiss gained a noticeable scar over her left eye as a result of fighting an Arma Gigas. Weiss uses a Dust revolver/rapier named Myrtenaster. Weiss chose to become a Huntress at Beacon Academy with aspirations of restoring her family's honor, as she disagreed with her father's business methods. The Nightmare version of Weiss, known as Negative Weiss, serves as the main antagonist of the Ice Queendom.
Weiss alludes to Snow White, as her full name Weiss Schnee is German for "White Snow". Character designer Ein Lee said that Weiss was her favorite character among the four main girls to draw: "She's so delicate, and I love princess types."
Voiced By: Arryn Zech / Yū Shimamura
A cat Faunus with a love for books. She is a former member of the White Fang who left in disgust over the disregard for civilian lives by her former lover Adam. Blake's weapon is the Gambol Shroud, a "variant ballistic chain scythe" according to Oum with a sharpened sheath that has a pistol in the hilt, which is also attached to a long ribbon. Blake uses blade and sheath in attacking combinations, while also using the momentum of the blade anchored to an object to maneuver herself with the ribbon, even in midair. Her Semblance, "Shadow", allows her to create a hollow clone of herself that functions as an afterimage decoy while she moves in a different direction, later using Dust to give the clone an additional effect depending on the type of Dust used. In Volume 9, Blake and Yang confess their feelings for each other and become a couple.
Blake is an allusion to Beauty and the Beast, arguably to both Belle and the beast.