A Semblance of Reasoning (Part 1)
Letâs take a look at Semblances, the unique power each person in RWBY (The show) has; What is a Semblance, exactly? well, as Ren said in âLighting the Fireâ
Ren: A common philosophy is that a warriorâs semblance is a part of who they are. Some say your personality and character can define your Semblance while some claim that it is the other way around. Of course, there are still many who donât see a connection at all.
In short, a Semblance represents their userâs personalityâŚexcept when they donât. I feel that sometimes Semblances arenât completely shaped by the character, and are equally formed around their specific needs and experiences. Letâs take a look at some charactersâ Semblances, what kind of background they had, and guess how their Semblances were shaped by the first two. Weâll also look at how those powers have evolved or changed over the course of the series and why.
 Given the large cast, weâll be splitting this subject up among multiple posts.
Team RWBY Semblances
Ruby Rose: Rubyâs Semblance, at the beginning of the series, was just speedâŚand leaving rose petals behind her. Typically, characters with speed powers are characterized as impatient, and RubyâŚisnât as bad as most. Of course, she has this tendency in the beginning to just rush in, as shown when she tries to 1-v-1 a Nevermore. Luckily, she learns to outgrow this, but is still ârushedâ into Beacon two years ahead of schedule. When Beacon falls, her first instinct is to head to Haven, while the rest of her team are split up and delayed by their own issues. So, moving ahead quicker than others is what her Petal Burst represents.
The first thing we know about Rubyâs combat background is that, prior to being trained by Qrow, she was âcomplete garbageâ. In Volume 5, she admits that her Semblance kicked in while training. Possibly, Ruby was bottom-tier in a lot of ways, not just combat. Itâs possible that track was also something she was garbage at. So, maybe just being tired of being the slowest, she gained the power to zip ahead of the other kids. Of course, after Volume 3, her Semblance shifts from just being âspeedâ to âflight and bursting into flower petals.â And what does she use this for? Getting around obstacles. What could have provoked such an evolution? Well, letâs think back on the events of Volume 3; She realizes that Emerald is going to use her Hallucination Semblance to make Pyrrha destroy Penny, but before she can stop their match, Mercury gets in her way. He delays her enough so that the evil plan goes off without a hitch. But now she has the power to bypass obstructions and move about with more freedom.
Weiss Schnee: Weissâ Semblance is her Glyphs, which, prior to the reveal of the Maidens and Silver Eyes, the closest thing to magic the series had. But Volume 3 reveals that the Glyphs are a hereditary Semblance, passed on by bloodline. So, they donât really represent her character in of itself. But, how she uses it is what reflects the growth of her character. When Weiss first appears in the main show, sheâs your average Mean Girl- Looking down on our Main Girl Ruby and being quite vocal about it. For all her scorn for her fatherâs ways, sheâs just as attached to her status as a member of the Schnee Family. âI have a legacy to uphold.â And as we later learn, her mastery of her Glyphs are average at best, and sheâs notorious for losing fights. However, there is one aspect of her Glyphs that Winter has that she does not have; Summoning good versions of the monsters sheâs crushed. Despite how hard she tries in the first three Volumes, she cannot do what Winter does.
But as she slowly starts to push herself away from the elitist mentality of the Atlas upper class, Weissâ skill with Glyphs improve as well, mostly as a form of support for others. And in the latter half of Volume 3, she does get a hang of Summons. Where? When she saves Velvet, a Faunus who are normally looked down by the elites. However, when she fights Vernal in Volume 5, her reliance on her Summons nearly gets her killed. At the time, though, she was only fighting for herself (âIâm more than just a nameâ) and that tied into it. When sheâs brought back into the fight by Jaune, itâs because heâs using his Semblance to heal her (Or, technically, amplifying her aura with his), and she fights much better with the Lancer summon. In short, Weissâ evolution comes not just from helping, but from being helped. When she uses her Summons against Marrow, it has full autonomy; She has given her former enemy the trust to act on its own for her behalf.
Blake Belladonna: Shadow, thatâs Blakeâs power to create illusionary duplicates, a diversion to draw a foeâs attention. Blake herself describes this as a manifestation of her self-professed cowardice; âI was born with the ability to leave behind a shadow of myself; an empty copy that takes the hit while I run away!â However, it may also represent loneliness. Blake was once a member of the White Fang during its âpeaceful protestorâ phase, and we even get a visual in âBlack and Whiteâ of lilâ kid Blake waving a sign. Moving around with her parents, itâs possible that she didnât have time to make friends growing up. When the WF became terrorists, she joined that as well, but given how uncomfortable she was with Adamâs increasingly fatal methods, itâs just as likely that she was âodd woman outâ and just as alone in the new WF as she was in the old. As such, her Semblance became the ability to make more of herself, which she uses to escape from danger.
Much like Weiss, the Semblance itself has not changed much, but how she uses it does, representing her change in character. Through Volumes 1-3, she used her Shadow solely as diversions, for escape. But in V4 âOf Runaways and Stowawaysâ, she uses to move closer to the Grimm sheâs fighting. This is perhaps to foreshadow her eventual decision to stop running from the White Fang and start fighting against them. And in Volume 7, during Team RWBYâs fight against the Ace-Ops, Blake allows herself to be briefly captured by Vine she could trick him into catching a Shadow loaded with bombs. This further demonstrates Blakeâs willingness to put herself forward to win the battles.Â
Yang Xiao Long: Her Semblance is Burn, which is basically a limit-break; When she takes enough hits, sheâs able to use that accumulated force to increase her strength and hit back with all of it at once. Also, her hair sets on fire. But that might be a visual effect. Itâs pretty easy to understand the events that caused her to develop this Semblance. With the death of her step-mother Summer, Yang was left to pick up the pieces of her broken family, effectively swallowing her pain and be the one strong enough to carry on. And as the âRWBY: World of Remnantâ data book explains, she has a lot of suppressed anger from her birth mother Raven leaving, which is where the flames symbolize, I think. It reflects how a warm candle can easily become a wildfire if fed and provoked thoughtlessly.
But as her father Taiyang points out, itâs used as a temper-tantrum. Her power is, effectively, âIâve taken all I can stand and I canât stand no more!â If things arenât going her way, she basically explodes in a rage that ends things. Itâs a useful power, but Yang uses it so often that she becomes predictable, especially to foes that specialize in evasion, or are strong enough to take it, as proven with Neo and Adam. Once Tai instructs and dresses her down, Yang begins to control herself more and more, she starts relying on Burn to win fights with it, reflecting that self-control. So far, it hasnât really changed, sheâs just using it less, just like sheâs not throwing fits so often. When she does, (use Burn though,) itâs in more tactful ways, like blocking Adamâs Moonslice in âSeeing Redâ and inhibiting Elmâs root Semblance in âWith Friends Like Theseâ by destroying the floor. Brute force, yes, but with purpose beyond destruction.
And this is only up until Volume 7. Stars (And broken moons) know what will happen further down the road.
