How Hazel Rainart Can Work as a Deeply Personal Enemy for Team RWBY
Hazel never directly fought RWBY for most of the series — his hatred was laser-focused on Ozpin. But with just a few logical extensions and revelations, he can easily become an enemy who hits every single girl where it hurts the most: emotionally, ideologically, and personally.
Ruby Ruby is the only actual child soldier in the room, so Hazel’s accusation that Ozpin “uses children and throws them away” lands hardest on her. She can’t fully deny it — she’s living proof. At the same time, she would sympathize with Gretchen’s death (it mirrors Summer’s disappearance), but she’d push back hard: “She died fighting Grimm, the same thing we all signed up to do. Ozpin didn’t force her — Salem did, by making the Grimm in the first place.” If Hazel ever learned that Summer Rose went on a solo mission for Ozpin and never came back… he would 100% blame Ozpin, and by extension blame Ruby for still following “the man who killed both our mothers.” That turns sympathy into something twisted and personal.
Weiss Hazel almost killed her in Haven. One punch would have ended the Schnee heiress forever, and Whitley would have grown up never seeing his sister again. That near-death experience could be the final wake-up call that makes Weiss realize how fragile her family ties actually are. Hazel becomes the living embodiment of “anyone can die at any moment because of this war Ozpin started.” Bonus points if Hazel later mocks her with “Your father sold dust that got my sister killed, little Schnee. I should thank him — he gave me the perfect reason to erase his legacy, starting with you.”
Blake This one is the most fascinating because Blake is the only person who could actually understand Hazel’s rage. She watched Adam spiral into vengeance exactly the same way: a good person, consumed by grief and justified anger, until he became the very monster he hated. Hazel is Adam if he’d been bigger, stronger, and given magic steroids by Salem. Blake would feel sick seeing the parallel. She might even try to talk him down at first… only for Hazel to throw Sienna Khan’s death and the White Fang’s destruction in her face: “You ran. I stayed and avenged them. Don’t lecture me about peace, coward.” That makes him the dark mirror of what Blake could have become.
Yang Perfect foil duo. Both are the big, protective older siblings who fight with raw physical power and Dust infused in their own bodies. Both lost (or believe they lost) a family member because of Ozpin’s war. Yang would genuinely feel for the guy who lost his little sister… right up until he tries to murder Oscar (a literal child) in front of her. Then it flips: “You think you’re the only one who lost someone? I watched my mom disappear, my dad fall apart, and my sister almost die because of this war. But I didn’t start helping the woman who wants to end the world!” Hazel becomes the embodiment of rage allowed to fester too long — the warning of what Yang could still turn into if she ever lets vengeance win again.
Conclusion Hazel doesn’t need to hate RWBY from the start. He just needs to see them as Ozpin’s latest batch of child soldiers willingly marching to their deaths. To him, killing them is mercy — putting down the next generation of victims before they end up like Gretchen. That ideology clashes directly with everything the girls believe, and forces each of them to confront the ugliest truths about the world they’re fighting for.
(Also seeing Yang don this to Hazel would be funny)