Cinder Fall is… obviously a complicated character for me. I’m genuinely mixed on her. I don’t completely hate her—she’s just very complicated.
The Good
Her intellect and combat prowess were genuinely impressive. She consistently outsmarted the heroes and absolutely demolished most of her opponents.
Her design and color scheme are still some of the coolest in the show.
Her early mystery was captivating. In Volumes 1–3, she felt like a real independent threat with her own skills, resources, and agenda. That made her stand out compared to Roman, Mercury, Adam, Emerald, or even Neo at the time.
She genuinely seemed to be building toward something bigger than what we ultimately got.
The Ruby vs. Cinder rivalry had massive potential and was being set up beautifully.
She worked great as an evil mirror/foil to RWBY, JNPR, and Ozpin’s circle through her own faction.
The Bad – Everything after Volume 3 Pretty much all of what made her compelling got stripped away and replaced with a smug, faux-competent lackey who’s obsessed with power. She was arrogant before, but it felt earned back then, and she at least had some entertaining dynamics with her allies. Now she’s played completely seriously, has zero redeeming or likable traits, and never evolves—which just makes her look pathetic.
Her once-elegant fighting style has been dumbed down, her strategic mind is basically gone, and Salem ended up inheriting all the clever traits Cinder used to have. She barely uses Maiden powers creatively, her relationships with Watts, Emerald, Mercury, and Neo devolved into her treating everyone like trash (so nothing fresh ever happens there), and the story just keeps repeating the same “Cinder wants power → Cinder screws up because of ego → Cinder throws a tantrum” cycle.
Even when she’s technically “exiled,” she’s still just following Salem’s orders in the most boring way possible. On top of that, aside from Jaune (and maybe Ruby), literally no one on Team RWBY or their extended friend group seems to care that she exists anymore.
So yeah, I don’t outright hate Cinder, but post-Volume 3 she became really obnoxious and stagnant. I get why she has to stick around—she’s one of the major big bads—but she’s almost never used in an interesting or satisfying way anymore.