Yang Xiao Long

"I want a life where I don't know what tomorrow will bring."

- Yang Xiao Long

Yang Xiao Long (Sun Little-Dragon) is one of the main protagonists and the fifth character introduced in RWBY. Her weapons of choice are the Dual Ranged Shot Gauntlets, Ember Celica. She made her appearance on June 1st at A-Kon in Dallas, in the "Yellow" Trailer, in which she interrogates Junior for information, and later fights him and his henchmen at his club.

Appearance
Yang appears as a beautiful young girl, wearing yellow, brown, orange, and black. She wears a tan vest with gold piping over a yellow, cleavage-and-midriff baring shirt with a black crest that resembles a small body of fire. The vest has puffy cap sleeves with black cuffs. On the sides of the cuffs, there are two small golden buttons. She wears a brown belt with a buckle, a pouch, and a small banner-seeming object. The same black crest appears on this banner, only golden in color. She wears black shorts under her belt, which in the back, resembles a pleated skirt. Over the shorts but under the belt is a white, asymmetrical back skirt.

She wears an orange circle scarf (with no apparent edges) around her neck, but no other discernible jewelry. She wears brown, mid-calf platform boots that look like leather, with orange socks of different lengths. The right leg also has a grey bandanna looking object wrapped around the top of her right boot (reader's point of view). She also wears finger-less black gloves. Her weapons, which look like two yellow mechanized gauntlets with a black design, go over these gloves. Her hair flows loose and messy, with a few tendrils sticking out. She has a pale complexion with Lilac eyes. Her hair seems to burst aflame and her eyes turn red the longer she fights, or when she becomes angry.

While on her motorcycle Bumblebee, she wears yellow goggles and a matching helmet that bears her crest in black. When outdoors, she sometimes wears a pair of yellow-rimmed aviator sunglasses.

Yang's pajamas are an orange tank top with her flame emblem on the front, and brown boy shorts.

Volume 2 Alternate Outfit
In A Minor Hiccup, Yang wears a collared cream top over a black shirt, and over top of the former is a black article of clothing that consists of a raised collar, a strap across her collar bone, and mid-length sleeves that are gold at the end. Around her neck is a pendant that has a smooth, round, purple gem set in a round piece of metal that has a point coming off the left and right sides and a small oval shape coming from the bottom. She has a pair of crooked black belts with gold accents across her hips, and a purple piece of fabric with lilac lace around the edges hangs from her left hip. She has a dark gray article of clothing coming down from under her cream top that is either a mini-skirt or part of her black shirt. It has verticle belted straps going down into her thigh-high black stockings, which have her burning heart emblem printed in yellow on the outer side of each leg near the top and a row of four gold pyramid studs above each knee. She wears a pair of black boots with a series of belted straps across them.

Personality
Yang's voice actor, Barbara Dunkelman, has said that when Yang's character was described to her, she was described as "the kind of person who would teach someone how to swim by pushing them in the water." This speaks volumes about how Yang approaches most things in life. She is very straightforward and confident. She is also described as being an energetic and bright young lady.

This can be seen in her trailer, where she approaches Junior and proceeds to interrogate him in his own club by grabbing his groin. Even as Junior's henchmen surround her she is unfazed and as she takes them all down in battle, she is shown to be smiling the whole way through. This straightforward, brute-force approach can also be seen in how she helps Ruby Rose.

Yang cares a lot about her little sister Ruby. Despite leaving her to go spend time with some friends upon arriving at Beacon Academy, Yang pushes Ruby into talking with other people and encourages her when she feels down about not knowing anyone in Beacon Academy. Of course, this doesn't really work out too well with Blake, who initially makes it clear that she has no desire to talk to them. Yang has also shown to worry a great deal for her sister, such as when Ruby was almost killed by the Deathstalker's attack, but was saved by Weiss. Yang hugs her sister in joy, glad on her being safe.

Yang has a dislike of Weiss Schnee and she sticks up for Ruby after Weiss picks on her again, angrily asking Weiss what her problem is with Ruby who is only trying to be nice. Yang is shown to be unafraid of the opposite gender and has no scruples about sleeping in a room full of both guys and girls. She unabashedly plays the part of the witless beautiful girl to fool Junior and make him lower his guard.

After he tries to walk away, she tricks him once again by pretending to kiss him shortly before punching him and sending him across the room. She is also somewhat vain, and is especially protective of her hair. This is shown when she goes into a rage when Junior manages to pull off a few strands in their fight, and again against the Ursa after they sever a small strand of her hair, going so far as to refer to them both as monsters for damaging her hair. Yang also has a humorous side to her, which is far more noticeable than Blake's. Her humorous side is seen twice in episode 9, as she says "Banzai" along with Blake and Ruby. She later laughs at drawing Ruby made of Peter Port.

Abilities & Powers
Yang's fighting style has been shown as much more aggressive than the other members of her team, bearing resemblance to boxing and kickboxing. She is quite agile as she is able to dodge an onslaught of Ursas with ease. She also seems to physically be the strongest of the group. Her strength is displayed on numerous occasions, such as when her punch sent a fully grown man airborne several feet and through a glass pillar without the enhancement of her weapon. Her strength was also shown in Players and Pieces, where she was able to keep the mouth of a Nevermore open with one arm long enough to deliever multiple shots into it's mouth. Yang is also shown to have a high degree of endurance, having no signs of fatigue after the battle with the Nevermore.

Yang's weapon is different compared to the rest of Team RWBY, who each use a type of hybrid blade in combat. She fights using a pair of gauntlets known as Ember Celica, which can retract into wristlets. When Yang throws a punch she can shoot explosive rounds from Ember Celica for mid or low ranged attacks. Ember Celica also has powerful recoil, which Yang uses to her advantage in combat by letting the recoil augment the force of her punch, and in maneuverability by using the recoil to gain speed and altitude.

As she fights, the fire extends to her hair and her eyes turn red. In episode 6, Yang was angered when an Ursa cut off a small piece of her hair, and in the trailer, Yang burst into flames of white when Junior pulled out several locks of her hair, so the cause of this "Wreathed in Flames" is most likely when a piece of Yang's hair is cut off or she is greatly angered. She seems to be able to naturally summon fire around her as well. This is most notable when she prepares to attack Junior again, letting out a burst of fire energy around her. This state is possibly a result of her using her Aura.

Trivia

 * Yang (阳) is the Chinese character for sun and/or light, Xiao (小) is the character for small, and Long (龙) is the character for dragon. Therefore, her name roughly translates into "Little Light Dragon" and/or "Small Dragon of the Sun".
 * In Eastern culture, names are written with the last name coming before the individual's name, as in "Last name First name"; however, although Yang has a Chinese name, it seems she is referred to as Yang as opposed to Xiao Long, which is the Western style of name sequence. Therefore, although her name is Chinese, it is not written in the traditional Oriental style.
 * Yang's weapons and fighting style bears an uncanny resemblance to those of Ieyasu Tokugawa from Sengoku Basara: Samurai Heroes. She also shares the theme of the sun with him.
 * The CGI version looks just like Miki Hoshii from the The IDOLM@STER series.
 * Her similarities to Bullet from BlazBlue are way too many to not notice.
 * In the "Yellow" trailer, Ruby encounters Yang, who calls her "sis". It was believed that this was just a greeting between one another but Monty has recently confirmed on twitter that it was not just a greeting.
 * Among the four protagonists, Yang is the only person to fight humans in her debut trailer.
 * Like Ruby, Yang uses two different sets of ammunition; one is colored gold and the second is colored red.
 * Yang is the only character seen so far that has her own vehicle. She is also the only one who appears to have a cellphone.
 * Yang uses the "Dempsey Roll" when fighting Junior.
 * In the "Yellow" Trailer, it appears that Yang is looking for the "Transient Princess", an artwork by Monty Oum based on Final Fantasy VIII's Rinoa.
 * She has her own official Twitter account at RT_YangXiaoLong, like Ruby and Weiss.
 * Although confirmed to be based on Goldilocks by Monty Oum, many fans have speculated that Yang may be be based off of characters in other fairy tales as well.