While Yang is an allusion to the fairytale “Goldilocks and the Three Bears”, I don’t believe she’s the titular character.
Modern audiences fixate on the Rule of Three and its middle path (just right) corollary, owing to a later writer altering the main character from an old woman (silver-haired) into a pretty little girl (golden-haired), but in all versions of the tale and its oral predecessors, the moral is: don’t be a self-absorbed squatter and thief. Goldilocks trespasses, damages property, steals food, uses the stool and/or bed. She’s so entitled and inconsiderate, that she robs a baby. While later versions soften the impact by turning the main character into a somewhat unwitting child, Goldilocks is nevertheless the villain of the story. One must judge by actions, not appearances.
European folktales that invoke bears usually mean the eurasian brown bear, known in America as the grizzly or kodiak. They’re often golden brown, with long dense fur, including a mane along the neck. Asian variants often have a bib of paler russet along the neck, mimicking a bandana. They’re kind of infamous for eating honey due to their tolerance of bee stings. The females can be fiercely overprotective of their cubs, sometimes needlessly fighting to the death.. All told, the brown bear is one of the largest, most dangerous land predators of the northern hemisphere, a true… beast.
Yes, the Gold trailer presents Yang as Goldilocks. She invades Junior’s (baby bear) house, trashes the place in her quest of a personal goal, hurting him the worst. Except, listen to her song, the threatening and aggressive lyrics. Notice how she drops the entire persona in a heartbeat once she encounters Ruby outside. Just as the opening quote warned the audience, we cannot judge Yang by obvious appearance.
Yang only superficially resembles Goldilocks, because hair color isn’t that character’s defining trait. Though she’s blonde, Yang’s primary color is brown: light brown, dark brown, nearly black brown, russets and golds. Fun fact, in some older languages, the words for bear, brown, bronze and burnished (shining) share common roots. She’s a close-contact melee fighter who hits hard, which is how a bear fights, standing on its hind legs to batter an opponent. In silhouette, Yang’s extended gauntlets even make her arms look like chunky, clawed paws. (Slowly leans over to fistbump Beauty and the Beast in one direction, and even more slowly to high-five The Jungle Book in another).
So, what RWBY character hangs around in the woods to invade homes, robbing people of their resources, bringing down ursae in her wake, and is reviled for hurting (discarding) a baby? Who was systematically hunted down by that grown baby, and revealed to be a selfish, frightened woman who had never been worth the effort? And if I’m right about Yang’s primary character allusion, it dovetails neatly into Beauty and the Beast, as well.
Indeed, Yang’s Emerald Forest meeting with Blake combines the two fairytales. Yang fights two ursae instead of three because she herself is baby bear. The second ursa is eliminated by Blake, a faunus (beast) who becomes Yang’s concept of just right, functioning as baby bear to Yang’s nominal Goldilocks. Yang’s eventual character development takes her from too aggressive, to passive, from feigned cheerfulness to PTSD depression, until she reaches equilibrium as an adult. Blake is also a foil to Raven, but the good, polite, respectful version of Goldilocks transmutes into Belle, and an adult brown bear is the Beast.
TL;DR: Yang is Baby Bear to Raven’s Goldilocks, but as an adult bear, becomes the Beast to Blake’s Belle.
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