Blake Belladonna

"Unfortunately, the real world isn't the same as a fairy tale."

- Blake, responding to Ruby's childhood dreams

Blake Belladonna is one of the main protagonists and the third character introduced in RWBY. Her weapon of choice is a Variant Ballistic Chain Scythe (VBCS) dubbed Gambol Shroud. She, along with Adam, first appeared in the "Black" Trailer on March 22, 2013 during the PAX East 2013 event, infiltrating a train and doing battle with futuristic robots.

Appearance
Blake appears to be a young girl of pale complexion, similar to Ruby and Weiss. She has long, curly black hair, and her eyes are amber, complimented by a light purple eye shadow flaring backwards. Her eyes are slightly titled upwards at the ends, giving her a somewhat catlike appearance. Blake wears a black bow in her hair, which resembles cat ears, making her seem even more feline. She wears black pointed heeled shoes and stockings that start off black at her hips, but gradually fade to purple as they near her shoes. There is a small, white, flame-like marking on the outside of both stockings, indicating affiliation with a group of some sort. There are black wristbands on both of her arms, but she also wears a black detached sleeve with a silver banding on her left arm. Blake wears a black buttoned vest with coattails that exposes part of her midriff, and a white, sleeveless undershirt and white shorts that may be connected to her shirt, although it is partly obscured by the vest. Blake also has a detached scarf-like collar around her neck.

Pajamas
Her sleepwear appears to be a black yukata, with gray and white as a secondary color setup.

Volume 2 Alternate Outfit
In A Minor Hiccup, Blake wears a white v-neck zip-up shirt that is black along the bottom and has mid-length sleeves. She wears black pants that have a vertical gray stripe on the outer side of each leg, and she wears a black belt with them. Her black high-heel boots come halfway up her calves and have a pair of belted straps across them. She still wears her black ribbons on her arms and her black bow overtop her cat ears.

Personality
Blake is described as being "mellow" by her voice actor, Arryn Zech. She displays a cool, reserved and serious personality most of the time but doesn't lack a humorous side. Blake is a righteous person who has respect for other people lives, whether they are faunas or not, she treats everyone equally and strongly despises those who judge and discriminate others on first assumptions. She is also an open person and is not afraid to speak her mind. She would go as far as indirectly insulting a famous company in front of one of it's members.

Blake is shown to be a bit of an anti social person who prefers to be alone and when she is not, sometimes, she excludes herself from conversations and shows no interest, specially when she is reading which also shows her fond for books. Due to her Fauna's heritage, she is a realist person who has seen how the real world works leading her to lack faith for a righteous world.

Despite her traits of a loner, Blake doesn't lack social skills, she is shown to be sarcastic and optimistic. Due to her open way to treat other, she can be a mocker who tends to say the obvious and points details in a sarcastic manner, generally, making fun of other people. She can also lose her temper if provoked, causing her to speak everything that's on her mind without any self-control.

Blake seems concerned about people learning she is a Faunus, attempting to hide her Faunus traits and running away when she accidentally let the truth slip out. However, she all the same insists on defending the Faunus whenever someone mistreats or speaks ill of them, possibly having a fear of what others would think of her.

Abilities and Powers
Blake's most remarkable quality is her speed. Her speed is such that she is actually able to leave behind multiple after-images during her fight with the AK-130 Androids. This is useful for surprising or disorienting enemies. Blake's first use of "after-image" in the series was in Players and Pieces, while fighting the Nevermore. However this is all later revealed to be her semblance "Shadow" and not her speed.

Blake also shows above average agility and endurance, as shown when fighting multiple enemies, yet maintaining motion and energy without fatigue.

Blake also exhibits a high level of skill when handling Gambol Shroud. She can slash away at opponents with startling speed and deflect incoming machine gun fire using just her blade. There are three forms to Gambol Shroud. When sheathed, her weapon is able to slice opponents in two with its cleaver-like cover. However, when unsheathed, it becomes even deadlier, and Blake is able to use both the katana and sheath in tandem against her opponents. She also appears to be able to freely and quickly change the way she grips them. Blake can then fold the sword into a gun-blade which is attached to an extending ribbon, similar to the Japanese kusarigama or sickle-and-chain. Her technique with this form of Gambol Shroud is similar to Ruby's with Crescent Rose. She uses the recoil from the gun attached to her blade to increase the speed of her attacks, and can slice multiple enemies with Gambol Shroud from the ground or in the air through a whirling attack. She also uses the momentum of the weapon on the ribbon as an anchor to maneuver herself in midair, and can grapple other opponents or objects from medium range to bring them into melee distance. She is quite accurate as well, and able to kill a Ursa with one strike during her meeting with Yang in the Emerald Forest.

Being a Faunus suggests that she has the ability of night vision and better than average hearing.

Trivia

 * Blake is the first of the four girls to actually have speaking lines, compared to Ruby who was mute in her trailer, and Weiss who was singing (though not in her actual voice) and could only be heard grunting during the battle in the White trailer.
 * Blake means "black" in Old English. Belladonna means "fair lady" (Bella donna) in Italian, and it is also the name of a deadly nightshade.
 * Blake seems to follow the pattern set by Ruby and Weiss in that the characters are in large part inspired by fairy tale characters: Blake's last name, Belladonna, may have been based on Belle, the name of the Beauty in Beauty and the Beast.
 * Additionally her partner in the trailer, Adam, also shares his name with the Beast.
 * When she is first introduced in the regular series she is seen reading a book, much like Belle.
 * It is also shown that she has a candelabra in her possession, possibly referring to Lumière from the Disney adaptation.
 * However, it has also been speculated that the pair are alluding to the Grimms' tale The Thief And His Master.
 * Given her feline traits, some fans speculate that Blake is actually a Faunus or part Faunus, and was revealed in RWBY Volume 1 The Stray, that she is a Faunus, having two black cat ears hidden underneath her bow. This could mean she is a composite of Beauty and the Beast.
 * The lyrics to Red Like Roses supports the connection to Beauty and the Beast by referencing Blake as "Black the beast."
 * "Bellona" (a potential root word in Blake's last name, Belladonna) is the Roman goddess of war.
 * Blake's symbol on her stocking seems to have a purple holographic shine to it. Seen in Players and Pieces when she throws Gambol Shroud to Yang.
 * Blake's book "Ninjas of Love" may be a reference to the fictional "Makeout Paradise" novels from the Naruto series.
 * She has her own official Twitter account at RT_BlakeB, like Ruby, Weiss, and Yang.
 * The RoosterTeeth crew said Blake was one of the hardest characters to write for during Volume 1, because they wanted her to be calm, but not "boring," so they eventually settled on giving her a snarky sense of humor.
 * It was confirmed in Episode 15 that she is a Faunus with cat-like features (ex: cat ears that are usually concealed under her bow).
 * The lyrics to Red Like Roses supports the connection to Beauty and the Beast by referencing Blake as "Black the beast."

Similar Heroes

 * Donatello (TMNT series)
 * Belle (Beauty and the Beast)
 * Homura Akemi (Puella Magi Madoka Magica)
 * Raven (Teen Titans)
 * Zakuro (Tokyo Mew Mew)
 * Rina Toin (Mermaid Melody)