Character Profile: Yang Xiao Long

The older half-sister of Ruby, Yang Xiao Long is possibly the most energetic, confident and carefree member of Team RWBY. However, within she has one overriding concern – the fate of her mother and why she left her father, Taiyang Xiao Long (Ruby's mother is Summer Rose). Yang's concern about what happened to her mother was so great in her youth that, with Ruby in tow in a wagon, she went to search for her mother. But this search only had the two children attacked by a beowulf, one of the creatures of Grimm, and would have been fatal if not for the intervention of the girls' uncle, the hunter Qrow.

Yang's Semblance is an unusual one – she's able to draw strength from being hit, with some of that strength generated from her long mane of blonde hair. Perhaps this is the reason she sometimes goes into a rage whenever a single strand of that hair is displaced. Her weapon, Ember Celica, is also unusual, being a pair of deployable gauntlets which she uses for hand-to-hand combat (her preferred style) or for long distance attacks. She is partnered with Blake. She also may have a connection with Raven, who closely resembles her.