Ruby Rose

"As a girl, I wanted to be just like those heroes in the books. Someone who fought for what was right and protected people who couldn't protect themselves!"

- Ruby, on her motivations for becoming a Huntress

Ruby Rose is one of the main protagonist and the first character introduced in RWBY. Ruby's weapon of choice is a High Caliber Sniper Scythe (HCSS) named Crescent Rose. She first appeared in the "Red" Trailer released on November 5th, 2012, in which she fought Beowolves. She then appears near the end of "Yellow" Trailer greeting Yang and inquiring as to why she was "there".

Appearance
Ruby appears as a young girl dressed in a red cloak, black blouse, and a skirt with red trimmings. Her entire apparel is made up of various shades of red and black, with black on the main suit and red on the cloak and hood. Even her hair is lightly red-streaked. She has gray eyes. The pins holding the cloak to the shirt are cross-shaped.

Around her waist is a belt which holds large cartridges (possibly .50 caliber or comparable) in individual loops, a magazine pouch, and her symbol.

Initially Ruby resembles the Little Red Riding Hood archetype, and this is further reinforced by the appearance of the wolves, in this case the Beowolves. Director Monty Oum has confirmed that she indeed alludes to, but is not based on Red Riding Hood.

Ruby's pajamas consist of a brown tank top with a heart-shaped Beowolf design on the chest and white long pants with rose decorations. She also wears a black sleeping mask with triangular red eyes reminiscent of the Beowolves in her trailer.

Unlike the other female students of Beacon, Ruby wears her red cape while wearing her uniform.

Personality
Although not directly shown in the trailers, Monty has described Ruby as being "innocent" and still a "little sister". This suggests that she is still naive to more serious matters in the world and maybe even a little bit childish. This childish nature is displayed when being scolded by Glynda Goodwitch after the robbery, Ruby responded by saying "They started it!". Oum has said she relies on Crescent Rose quite often in battle, which implies that her weapon is the source of her confidence, and without it she becomes vulnerable. For a seemingly young girl, Ruby doesn't at all seem fazed or terrified by monstrous opponents like the Beowolves. Monty has attributed this to the fact that she has not developed a fear of death yet. She is, however, unabashedly enthusiastic about meeting her role models. She is also prone to becoming very animated and talkative, especially when describing things she's passionate about, gesturing broadly and making accompanying sound effects.

Ruby is a down-to-earth, bubbly young teen who has a strong drive to help others, which also motivates her to become a Huntress. She also displays above-average intelligence as she both designed and built Crescent Rose. This shows that Ruby is quite knowledgeable when it comes to weaponry and is a capable weapons engineering mechanic. Ruby doesn't like for a lot of attention to be drawn towards her, as shown when she told Yang she didn't want people to think she was special. This is odd seeing as how becoming a Huntress would effectively put her in the spotlight. But because of her nature, it is likely that Ruby is doing this to become the best she can be in order to best serve others. This point is made when speaking to Professor Ozpin about why she wants to be a huntress, she mentions that her parents taught her to always help people so she decided to "make a career out of it".

Ruby is a self-proclaimed dork when it comes to weapons and has been seen reading a weapon-oriented magazine in the first episode. She is quite intelligent, having designed and built Crescent Rose during her time at Signal Academy. She feels that seeing new weapons is like "meeting new people but better." Oum has said she relies on Crescent Rose quite often in battle, which implies that her weapon is the source of her confidence in battle. Without it she becomes vulnerable.

Ruby doesn't like for a lot of attention to be drawn towards her, as shown when she told Yang she didn't want people to think she was special. This is odd seeing as how becoming a Huntress would effectively put her in the spotlight. But because of her nature, it is likely that Ruby is doing this to become the best she can be in order to best serve others. This point is confirmed when, during her conversation with Professor Ozpin about why she wants to be a Huntress, she mentions that her parents taught her to always help people so she decided to "make a career out of it." Of course, she is also quick to point out that she could accomplish the same goals by joining the police, but "Huntsmen and Huntresses are just so much more romantic and exciting and cool..." She can be unabashedly enthusiastic about meeting her role models; prone to becoming very animated and talkative, gesturing broadly and providing sound effects.

In addition to this dislike of attention, Ruby prefers to either be alone with Yang more than anyone else. This is illustrated in the second and third episode, when she awkwardly and unsuccessfully tries to befriend Weiss Schnee and Blake Belladonna. With the former, she manages to provoke and antagonize Weiss in every way possible. She succeeds a little more with Blake later on due to Yang's insistence and Ruby mentioning her love of books. She reveals that it was this love of books that gave her the ideals that she wished to live by and uphold throughout her life. From the tales of heroes and monsters that Yang would read to her every night before bed, Ruby has a strong sense of justice and feels the need to protect those who can't protect themselves. Blake is impressed by her ambition but points out Ruby's wishful thinking at believing that the real world could be likened to a fairy tale. Ruby, in turn, points out that the precise reason that Huntsmen were there in the first place was to close that gap and make the real world better. However, Ruby is still seen to be very childish in class, such as drawing Professor Peter Port, with a fatter body, and acting immature in class.

Abilities & Powers
Ruby is suggested to have strong mechanical engineering skills when she reveals to Jaune Arc that she designed and built her weapon on her own. She is shown to be highly adept at using this weapon, which she named Crescent Rose, when she single-handedly fends off a large pack of Beowolves without injury. She is able to seamlessly integrate both the scythe and gun components of her weapon into her fighting style. Ozpin went so far as to compliment her fighting ability by stating that she is of the same caliber as her Uncle Qrow, who is the most skilled scythe wielder Ozpin has ever met.

She is extremely quick to begin with, despite her small stature. She is able to move from place to place so quickly that it is almost like teleporting. She does so to avoid the first Beowolf's lunge in the Red Trailer, and later shows it to Weiss during a conversation in the Emerald Forest. Whenever she does this, she leaves a cloud of rose petals in her wake that quickly dissipates. These rose petals are not merely symbolic for the audience and can be perceived by others, as shown by Weiss who waves her hands trying to brush them away.

Her already high agility is further increased by utilizing her weapon's recoil. Only a few times does an opponent come close to striking her before she evades, blocks, or counters the attack. Throughout the trailer, Ruby uses the recoil from Crescent Rose's shots to augment the speed and force of her strikes. However she is also able to spin Crescent Rose with exemplary skill and power without the recoil ability, and often executes chain attacks thus. One example of this is seen in The Emerald Forest, when Ruby is able to fell a tree of approximately 3 feet (91cm) diameter with a single, non-recoil-augmented blow. It is unclear how this is possible; it may be possible that she is able to augment her natural strength through some application of the power of her Aura.

Also, Ruby has enhanced endurance, much of which is similar to Blake, as she shows no signs of fatigue in battle. In Episode 6, shortly after being forced to retreat from a fight with a pack of Beowolves with Weiss, in which the two seem have ran a certain distance, Ruby shows no sign of being tired, while Weiss is seen trying to catch her breath. Her endurance is also seen after the battle with the Nevermore, in she, along with Yang and Blake are shown to not be tired at all, while Weiss was shown to be tired after helping Ruby be launched into the air.

She also uses the weapon itself as a platform from which to attack, as shown when Ruby laid down completely on the handle of Crescent Rose while firing at opponents. This use of Crescent Rose in her fighting style is again demonstrated in Episode 1 of RWBY, when Ruby fights off thugs who tried to rob a Dust shop.

Ruby carries two kinds of ammunition with her: unmarked and Cross Clips. The unmarked magazines will fire off a high caliber bullet with a white muzzle flash. Cross Clips (technically magazines), on the other hand, give off a black muzzle flash and are observed to be far more powerful than the unmarked magazines. This lends her even more speed and power. With this, Ruby is able to use Crescent Rose to propel herself with extraordinary speed, and then rotate herself axially in midair to execute a devastating spinning slash attack.

In addition to her enhanced speed, agility, and endurance, Ruby possesses enhanced strength as well. The limits of her strength is unknown, but she's accomplished feats that would be impossible for a girl of her size and age to do. She's kicked two fully grown men clear across a room, which was seen in the first episode, and sliced a full grown tree in half with one swing of her scythe. But perhaps her greatest display of strength was illustrated when she dragged a Nevermore up the side of a cliff (Weiss enabled her to scale this cliff by use of her seal) and forcibly cut the massive bird's head off.

Ruby's fighting prowess could be the result of Ruby herself being extremely light; or the recoil from Crescent Rose is incredibly powerful and Ruby possesses unusual strength; or Ruby has superhuman mastery of the ability to leverage Crescent Rose's ferocious kinetic energy to move and attack.

It is possible that she has some sort of power involving roses that is activated by emotion, as rose petals are seen to disperse from her when she is standing in front of the Cliffside Altar and when she first starts the fight with the Beowolves. This could be further supported by the fact that the Beowolves dissolve into rose petals after being killed. But, this could have simply been artistic preference.

The Cliffside Altar seems to have some ties with Ruby. Possibly a monument from her past, or a grave marker for a relative or friend. If closely inspected, the inscription reads "Summer Rose. Thus Kindly I Scatter". This scatter statement also supports the ties to her, as Monty has said that Ruby's emblem means, or is called, "Scatter" (in contrast to Adam's "Wilt").

Trivia

 * She was the first character introduced in the series, appearing in a trailer released on November 5th, 2012.
 * She bears a striking resemblance to the famous fairy tale character Little Red Riding Hood. However, when asked by fans, Monty Oum stated that Ruby and the other girls will have no ties to any fairy tale at all. Although in a recent interview he did say Ruby's design was influenced by Little Red Riding Hood and that all the other main characters' physical appearances will be majorly influenced by other fairy tales and mythological tales.
 * Ruby's cross pins for her hood are not present in her trailer.
 * Ruby's design used to include a cross on her belt, this was later replaced by her symbol.
 * Monty has confirmed that Ruby is left handed; however, she is seen wielding with her right hand just as well, which stated by Monty is "common to switch both hands while fighting, especially to make it interesting."
 * Her possible connection to the Cliffside Altar (which bears a resemblance to a grave marker as stated above) implies she could be a reaper of sorts. This is further enforced by her hooded cloak, as well as her scythe, both of which are associated with the Grim Reaper.
 * When Ruby uses the cross clips, the muzzle flash turns black from the standard white.
 * She also shares a resemblance to Adam sporting a similar red and black motif.
 * Monty has confirmed that they are indeed not related to each other, and that their emblems differ from each other in terms of "scatter and wilt".
 * 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.
 * Ruby is the only character that appears in more than one trailer.
 * Ruby possesses a set of large headphones with the same color scheme as her outfit.
 * Her scatter symbol is also stamped on them.
 * Ruby has demonstrated the ability to consume frightening quantities of baked goods in a short amount of time. It is unknown whether or not this is due to her youthful metabolism or some other unknown cause.
 * Additionally, this may be a reference to the cliche "cute anime girl" theme around certain anime characters.
 * Ruby's favorite food is strawberries.
 * She has her own official Twitter account at RT_RubyRose, like Weiss and Yang.
 * Ruby is possibly the first character to use Aura, not Yang. This is shown by her ability to know when she is about to be attacked at times in the "Red" trailer. One of the powers of Aura is heightened perception, as said by Pyrrha.