Cinder Fall

**Cinder Fall** is the secondary antagonist of *RWBY*. She is a member of Salem's Inner Circle and was the leader of her own faction. She is also the current Fall Maiden. Her machinations are the driving force behind the events of the first three volumes and cemented her as the primary antagonist of the Beacon Arc. She made her debut in the first episode of Volume 1, "Ruby Rose".

Role in the series

## Personality

Cinder is ruthless and sadistic, as demonstrated when she delivers a killing blow to a clearly defeated Pyrrha Nikos in "End of the Beginning" and when she throws a spear at a defenseless Weiss Schnee in "The More the Merrier". She is relentlessly driven to gain power and determined to cross any line to obtain it. Cinder demonstrates a cunning that shows in her successful manipulation of events and people throughout the first three volumes. Cinder is also arrogant and egomaniacal and, as such, relishes in dominance and gloating, displaying shameless pleasure in the misery she has caused others. She believes that the power she is after is owed to her, having been promised godlike abilities and the Maiden powers by Salem.

She also seems to be ambitious and demanding in the role of a leader, expecting her subordinates to execute exactly as she wishes with what little she gives them. She does not seem to tolerate failure, preferring for her goals to be successful regardless of the situation. Cinder prefers that such problems be solved quickly, is seen to give very direct orders, and keeps her subordinates on a strictly need-to-know basis, sharing a similar leadership style to Salem. However, she does display a cunning streak, as her allegiance revolves around having Neopolitan kill Ruby Rose so Cinder will not be going against Salem's orders to not kill her.

Usually, she maintains a calm and collected demeanor and is willing to take over a fight if necessary. In the rare occurrence in which she is caught off guard, Cinder's monumental temper surfaces, showing her immense shock and outrage. This is most notable when Jaune Arc just barely nicks the edge of her mask during the Battle of Haven resulting in Cinder flying into a childish rage and start to yell and make threats. This explosive response to even the slightest attack on her shows Cinder's intolerance of fear, leading her to react poorly when others see her feel it. Cinder seeks to be feared and therefore detests being made to feel fear by both her enemies and her superiors alike. Additionally, Cinder is stated to be jealous of those with natural talents.

When Cinder first obtained the Fall Maiden powers, she saw it similarly to a brand-new toy that made her feel like she was the best and strongest. Because of this, she became addicted to the feeling and stopped considering the strengths she had acquired before that moment. Because of this, she was humiliated from her defeat and injury by Ruby atop Beacon Tower. As shown in Volume 4, She did not display her usual confidence, instead appearing sullen and taking insults from the other members of Salem's Inner Circle without reply due to her inability to speak, thus relying on her subordinates.

Even after recovering in Volume 5, her deep desire for vengeance against Ruby clouds her judgement, shown when she negotiates a deal with Raven Branwen to stage an ambush in Haven Academy despite protest from Arthur Watts. In the end, this results in Raven betraying Cinder, leaving her for dead and taking the Relic of Knowledge. Because of her actions, Salem was forced to change her plans, focusing on attacking Atlas instead of Vacuo due to the Lamp being taken there.

Cinder's thirst and desperation for power stems from a life of powerlessness and having nothing. This desperation has led to a fear of failure and a hatred towards the elite class, who have held power from others forever. She apparently detests being called out on her actions, as shown when Raven cites Cinder's choice to take the arm of a Grimm. Cinder retorts angrily, showing she sees herself as being beyond judgment or the moral codes of others. She is incapable of accepting any sort of criticism from others. However, in "Taking Control", she is visibly horrified watching as Tyrian Callows maniacally massacres a Beowolf in grief of having displeased Salem, showing that even she has limits with absolute violence. It is implied that Cinder only enjoys the psychological torture she inflicts and dislikes the bloodier brutality of her associates.

Later, the full extent of Cinder's desperation for power is shown in her reaction of again being denied the power of a Maiden, as seen in "The Enemy of Trust". During her battle with Penny Polendina and Winter Schnee and upon being overpowered by Fria, her anger and frustration reached its boiling point as she began viciously lashing out at Winter, injuring her badly and nearly killing her for deterring Cinder's quest for power.

*The World of RWBY: The Official Companion* states that Cinder chose to hasten Pyrrha's demise by incinerating her body, sparing her a slow death after being shot in the ribcage. This hints that Cinder might possess a small sense of mercy.

Although Watts' angry rant regarding her arrogance and short sightedness hinted at Cinder having a change of heart, in reality she does not change at all, merely doubling down on said qualities. In "Worthy", she murders tons of civilians in the central location during the evacuation to Vacuo, and in "The Final Word", betrays and murders her allies without a second thought such as pushing Neo into the void and trapping Watts in the Atlas Command Center before setting it on fire to kill him.

Based on her upbringing shown in "Midnight", Cinder's current personality and desperation for power stems from the abuse she suffered as a child. She faced constant bullying, starvation and abuse from the other children from the home she was raised in and was later abused even further after being adopted by her step-family who treated her as nothing more than a servant and abused her regularly.

Despite no longer being under them, Cinder still retains several psychological scars from their abuse. This is seen in Cinder's behavior, where she had apparently unconsciously adopted the cruel traits of her past abusers into her own personality. Though the electrocution she got from the necklace also had an effect on her, making Cinder disdainful of physical torture.

Due to her abusive childhood, Cinder has shown to possess a docile, fearful and submissive side to her personality when dealing with someone who is superior to her. This side of her was most pronounced in her childhood and later after returning to Salem's side after redeeming herself of her past failures. Despite this, Cinder's lust for power ultimately caused her to disobey Salem's order regardless of the consequences when she decided to go to Amity Communications Tower. In "Amity", Cinder is shown to be a hypocrite, claiming to Penny that she serves no one, yet still serves Salem despite not always following her orders, psychologically projecting herself onto Penny. During their fight, Cinder was shown at her most manic and reckless, which would be one of the last times she went way over her head thinking she could achieve her goals through brute strength alone.

As seen during her childhood, Cinder had a more positive and vulnerable side to her personality. This is was partially due to the positive influence of her mentor Rhodes, who attempted to guide Cinder to a better path in life as a Huntress. This is seen when, after being talked down by Rhodes about her wanting revenge on her step-family, Cinder backed down from wishing to hurt them and expressed her true desire of simply wanting to be free and be strong enough to look after herself without relying on them any longer. With Rhodes' influence, Cinder instead chose to focus on becoming a Huntress and becoming old enough to leave. This would later not come to pass after she kills her step-family due to them finally taking their abuse too far. This showed that Cinder initially was hesitant at the prospect of killing and that she was only resorting to it due to seeing it as her only way out, as was seen after Cinder had killed her step-family and was noticeably repulsed by her own actions and did not actively enjoy or take pleasure in having taken their lives.

Cinder was also shown to have developed a genuine friendship with Rhodes, most likely due to his being the first person in her life to have treated her with kindness. She later felt deeply betrayed after Rhodes made his stance clear that he would take her in for killing her step-family, causing her to enter into a rage for him having betrayed her trust. Later after Cinder successfully killed him, she would shed a single tear for her mentor.

Following her experience at the Glass Unicorn, Cinder began hating being "under someone's thumb". She hates it when other people have power over her and even when she works with someone, she is not content to do as she is instructed. She herself always wants to be at the top and can't be anyone's equal.

## Relationships

### Dark Kieran

Cinder Fall is Dark Kieran's right-hand woman and primary love interest.

### Team RWBY

#### Ruby Rose

Cinder first met Ruby indirectly during a foiled Dust robbery, where she briefly fought Ruby. The two meet again during the second semester, where an undercover Cinder claims she is visiting from Haven, alongside Emerald and Mercury. Ruby remains completely unaware, however, Cinder appears to recognize her. The two fight again during the Beacon Dance at the Cross Continental Transmit System, but Cinder retreats and keeps her identity hidden.

In "End of the Beginning", Cinder kills Pyrrha in front of Ruby, which causes the latter to scream in anguish and release her hidden powers with a bright light. Cinder is caught off guard and is enveloped in the light.

In "The Next Step", the results of Ruby's powers have left Cinder scarred, missing an eye, and almost unable to speak. Cinder harbors a grudge against Ruby, having specifically asked for something to be done about her during her meeting with her allies. In "No Safe Haven", Emerald creates a hallucination of Ruby in a submissive state for Cinder to burn alive.

In "Dread in the Air", Cinder asks Watts if Ruby is with Qrow which he confirms. She later informs Salem that she doesn't understand why she wants Ruby alive.

In "A Perfect Storm", Cinder agrees to Raven's terms so she can obtain the Relic and deal with Ruby in one night.

Later in "The More the Merrier", Cinder ambushes Ruby with a fireball attack through Raven Branwen's portal. However, during her fight with Jaune Arc, she is brought to her knees in pain by Ruby's usage of her Silver Eyes.

In "Uncovered", Cinder still holds a grudge against Ruby, as she decided to go after the girl and her friends instead of returning to Salem. In "The Coming Storm", it is revealed that Cinder is going against Salem's orders to bring Ruby to her alive by plotting to kill her.

Following her arrival in Atlas, Cinder began to re-prioritize her goals, choosing to classify killing Ruby as a "want", rather than a "need", such as obtaining the Relics or Maiden powers. As a result, she elects to wait to hunt down Ruby later on. In "The Enemy of Trust", when seeing Ruby about to use her eyes, she decides to flee from the Atlas Medical Facility instead of attempting to kill her. She later angrily vented her frustrations as she clutched her Grimm arm at the city of Atlas due to being denied the power of another Maiden and Ruby's interference once again.

In "The Final Word", Cinder's hatred for Ruby was fully shown when she stated that she should never have been born, throwing her into the void of the Central Location.

#### Weiss Schnee

Though the two have never had any form of full interaction, in "The More the Merrier", Cinder had no hesitation in throwing a spear at the Aura-less Weiss, incapacitating her, following her fight with Vernal. Cinder showed to having enjoyed her act, sadistically smiling before and after it.

In "The Final Word", Cinder states to Weiss in a mocking tone that she should have expected a Schnee to be the last one standing after using her friends as shields. This attitude towards her is likely for the same reason as to why she holds her elder sister in contempt due to their rich and privileged background as part of the Atlas Elite. She later sends a blast of fire under feet, which explodes and sends her into the void.