Yang Xiao Long

**Yang Xiao Long** (ヤン・シャオロン, *Yan Shaoron*) is a Huntress, having been trained at the now-defunct Beacon Academy. Her weapons of choice are a pair of Dual Ranged Shot Gauntlets, Ember Celica.

## Description

### Appearance

Yang is a tall, fair-skinned young woman with lilac eyes and long, thick, wavy bright golden hair that fades to pale gold at the tips with a cowlick sticking out at the top, greatly resembling her mother. She is muscular. When her Semblance is active, her eyes become red and her hair gains a fiery glow.

She wears a tan jacket that bares her midriff, with golden brown piping and short, puffy sleeves with black cuffs that feature two gold buttons. Underneath this, she wears a low cut yellow crop top with her emblem on the left breast in black.

She also wears a brown belt covered by a pleated brown piece of material reaching from hip to hip around the back of her waist, with her emblem emblazoned on the right-most pleat in gold. Underneath this is a long, white, asymmetrical piece of material reaching to her knee on the right side, as well as a pair of tight black spandex compression shorts that reach her upper thighs. She wears a pair of brown, knee-high boots and orange over-the-knee socks, with the right sock pushed down just below the knee. A gray bandanna is tied around her left knee. She wears a purple bandanna around the same knee. An orange infinity scarf and black fingerless gloves complete her outfit.

While riding her motorcycle, Bumblebee, she wears yellow goggles and a matching helmet that bears her emblem in black on either side. While outdoors, she sometimes wears a pair of yellow-rimmed aviator sunglasses.

Yang's pajamas consist of a dark-yellow short-sleeved shirt with black shorts.

In formal, Yang wears a short, white, halter neck dress with a pale gray hem and white pumps.

### Personality

Yang is hotheaded and energetic, and is a thrill-seeker above all else. She gains great satisfaction from triumph and combat, and is most often confident and adventurous. She is also among the most lighthearted and fun-loving of her group, actively seeking out fun and jokes and participating in games, activities, exercises, and discussions. She has an affinity for bad puns. Despite this, she is also nurturing and protective, and knows when to be serious and help others out. She is also crafty, finding ways to outsmart others and place herself in favorable situations.

However, Yang possesses a temper, and when she is enraged, her hotheadedness and brashness can lead her to fits of rage and fury, as well as make her more single-minded in eliminating the object of her anger. She is especially touchy about her appearance, as rude comments about her proportions or any damage to her hair will lead to extreme rage.

Following her trauma at the Battle of Beacon, Yang was temporarily reserved and emotionless, as well as prone to panic attacks, nightmares, and overwhelming dread. Despite this, she was able to work with her allies to adjust and heal, eventually gaining back her confidence.

Yang is extremely sensitive about being abandoned and her "simmering anger" stems from these abandonment issues. For the better part of nearly two decades, Yang spent her life searching for her mother, trying to understand her reasons for leaving. Their first reunion in "Lighting the Fire" also demonstrated how low her opinion was of Raven, reacting with anger after Raven said that Yang finally decided to visit her, making it sound like she was the one responsible for her mother not being a part of her life. She even ignored Raven's attempts at lightening the mood and became hostile upon her father, uncle and Team RWBY being insulted in "Known by its Song". Even after her team's reunion at Haven, Yang was still guarded and kept some distance from Blake, stating in "Argus Limited" that their relationship would need time to heal. After a rematch against Adam in "Seeing Red" however, Yang fully accepted her partner's apologies, understanding that Blake was not like her mother.

However, unlike her mother, Yang is capable of admitting her wrongs as well as recognizing the qualities of others even when their opinions are different from hers, admitting to Blake that her obsession to search for her mother nearly got herself and Ruby killed when they were young, and during her discussion with Ruby in "Risk", she admitted that her own plan didn't work either after Ruby lamented the failure of bringing Amity Tower up and running, even telling Ruby that her blind optimism wasn't a flaw when she believed she wasted time with it, as it was a necessity in life.

In “A Cat Most Curious“, when Yang’s past offer Yang an opportunity to be whole again by traveling by in time, but Yang declined her offer as losing a part of her self is what’s makes her stronger. It shows that Yang already accepts her losses by learning from her mistake.

## Powers and Abilities

Yang's fighting style is much more aggressive than that of her teammates. She uses a barehanded fist-fighting style and her weapons; Ember Celica. She is quite agile, able to dodge an onslaught of Ursai and gunfire with ease. Since gaining her prosthetic arm, Yang has taken to using its armored surface defensively, shielding herself from firearms, and staving off attacks to gain greater ground on her opponents, incorporating its advantages into her improved fighting style following further instruction from her father, Tai.

She is also physically the strongest of the group. Her strength is displayed on numerous occasions, such as when her punch sent a fully grown man several feet into the air and through a glass pillar without the enhancement of her weapon, and in "Players and Pieces", where she was able to keep the mouth of a Nevermore open with one arm long enough to deliver multiple shots down its throat.

Like all Huntsmen and Huntresses, Yang has had her Aura unlocked, coating her body with a shield powered by her soul, which helps protect her, especially when her aggressiveness gets her into bad situations. Though she already has the highest level of durability in her team, with her Aura unlocked, her durability is particularly high, as showcased in her doubles match with Weiss against Flynt Coal and Neon Katt during the Vytal Tournament, where she withstands numerous hits from Neon during the bout's opening stages and powers through the effects of Flynt's weapon, knocking him out and securing victory for her side shortly after. Due to the nature of her Semblance and the high durability, Yang would typically absorb enough hits through her Aura to empower herself and then finish the fights with her Semblance, which her father criticizes due to her over-reliance in "Two Steps Forward, Two Steps Back".

Since the end of Volume 3 and her mental recovery at the end of Volume 4, Yang's fighting skills had improved immensely after training again. Notably, she has incorporated more kicking and dodging. Her new robotic arm also gives her a higher degree of strength, able to send full-grown men flying from the intensity of her blows. During her rematch against Adam, she defeats him despite his superior speed by adapting her combat technique and avoiding attacking him until he uses up the energy from his Semblance so that she can disarm him, showing her improved intelligence in combat.

Her fight against Elm and Vine with Blake further showcases her more pragmatic approach to battles. She coordinated her attacks with Blake and refrained from using her Semblance until the last moment to destroy the ground Elm had anchored herself to and deliver the finishing blow. Since Volume 3, her use of her Semblance overall in battle has gone down, as she tends to activate it only as a last resort. Even when she does, rather than absorbing blows to her body, she now tends to deflect or absorb blows with her forearms, as she did in her final battle with Adam Taurus. This enables her to use her Semblance more effectively and runs less risk of her exhausting her Aura when she does so.

### Weapon

*Main article: Ember Celica*
 File:V4 11 00020.png
Yang's weapon of choice is **Ember Celica**, it is radically different compared to those used by her teammates, being a pair of gauntlets which can retract into bracelets. Yang's fighting style involves combining her punches with explosive shots from Ember Celica for moderate or short-ranged attacks.

Ember Celica has powerful recoil, which Yang can use to augment the force of her punch and accelerate her movements. The force is powerful enough to launch her high in the air. The recoil also reloads and prepares the gauntlets for the next shot.

She can also use her Ember Celica as a form of armor when defending against attacks in unarmed combat. After the events of "Heroes and Monsters", Yang only has one Ember Celica, due to her lost arm.

### Semblance

*Main article: Burn*
 File:V3 0600051.png
Yang's Semblance, **Burn**, as Ruby states during the events of "Painting the Town...", lets her absorb kinetic energy from every blow she takes and use it to make herself more powerful; this is a form of kinetic energy absorption, with Yang subsequently redirecting said energy against her opponent with double the amount of force. As a side-effect of her Semblance, Yang's eyes turn red and her hair sometimes begins glowing and even becomes covered in flames. Yang's Semblance does not make her angry, but anger has sometimes led her to impulsively activate it.

Prior to the Fall of Beacon, Yang often used her Semblance to finish a fight, after absorbing enough damage from blows to overpower her opponent. However, after the Fall of Beacon, she begins to use it far less often and more as a final attack due to her improved training in fighting smarter rather than harder with Taiyang. This is demonstrated during her fights against the bandits and the Grimm between Haven and Argus where she doesn't use her Semblance to fight. At the end of her second and last fight with Adam Taurus, she uses it to disarm and overpower him with a very powerful punch.

### Prosthetic Arm

*Main article: Yang's Prosthetic Arm*
 File:YangGunArm2.png
After losing her arm in the Battle of Beacon to Adam Taurus she was given a new robotic arm by James Ironwood. She initially refused it due to depression, but after some time to reflect and heal, at least partially, Yang chose to use it, spray painting the new limb yellow to match her remaining Ember Celica.

 File:Ember upgraded cropped.png
Created by Pietro Polendina, Yang's cybernetic limb possesses great strength. Its power is shown in "Two Steps Forward, Two Steps Back", where a single blow sent her father, a fully trained Huntsman, skidding back several feet even though Tai blocked the attack. It is also outfitted with most of Ember Celica's features, including a shotgun. As seen in "Rest and Resolutions" and "Downfall", the arm can detach from her bicep at will. It is also durable enough to take a fully charged strike from Adam's Moonslice Semblance and continued functioning even after its damage.

In Atlas, Yang's arm is modified. It is now larger with more mass and more gold plates around. It more resembles the design of Ember Celica.

### Superpowers

In *Justice League x RWBY: Super Heroes and Huntsmen, Part Two*, Yang loses her Semblance and Aura upon arriving on Earth. In exchange, she gains the superpower "Fire Fists", enabling to fire energy bursts from her hands, akin to Ember Celica.

### Weaknesses

 File:V3 11 00124.png
Although Yang gets stronger from taking damage, her frustration and anger can be exploited by skilled opponents. This weakness is perhaps best expressed in her very brief first confrontation with Adam, her anger causing her to recklessly charge him and lose her right arm in the process. However, this drawback is more or less under control after her father Taiyang told her to focus on using her opponent's force against them.

While taking hits from an opponent vastly increases the power of her Semblance, Yang still takes damage in the process. Despite her high reserves of Aura, too many hits can deplete it completely, breaking her defenses and rendering her Semblance counterattack useless. Conversely, activating her Semblance too soon (as she did against Adam and later Neo) will also weaken her Aura's defenses in exchange for an under-charged counterstrike. Yang is also noted to be weak against kick-based fighting styles, seen when she struggles against Neo, Melanie, and Mercury Black. As time progresses however, she has since adapted to kick fighters.

As seen in her fight with Neo, fighters well-versed in dodging attacks can frustrate Yang, making her attacks predictable and easily avoided, which also renders the added power with her Semblance useless. The fact that she fights barehanded as opposed to using a melee weapon also limits the reach of her close-quarters attacks, enabling opponents with greater agility to evade her strikes.

While not necessarily a form of weakness, her emotions can also cause her to unintentionally activate her Semblance even if she is not in a battle. Examples of this include her frustrated outburst in "Players and Pieces", her moment of anger toward Blake in "Burning the Candle" and two times in her doubles round tournament fight in "Never Miss a Beat". In "Worthy" she instinctively activates her Semblance to protect Ruby from Neo's attack, breaking her Aura and being knocked into the Abyss.

Taiyang somewhat jokingly defines her Semblance as "basically a temper tantrum" and a liability against stronger and more experienced opponents; if they can evade or outlast the duration of her onslaught, she is left weak, tired, and vulnerable to a counterattack. For this reason due to her improved fighting style in "Two Steps Forward, Two Steps Back", Taiyang tells her it's best left as a last resort rather than a crutch like how she used it in the Vytal Festival and due to her over-reliance of using it to win every fight before.

## Etymology

* Yang's name in Chinese is *Yáng Xiǎo Lóng* (Simplified: 阳小龙; Traditional: 陽小龍), which can be roughly translated to "Little Light Dragon" or "Small Dragon of the Sunshine".
	+ In "Family", Taiyang calls Yang his "sunny little dragon".
	+ Yang's name may be a reference to Bruce Lee, whose given name is also Xiao Long (小龙).
	+ Despite having a Chinese name, Yang's given name and surname are inverted. "Yang" would be the surname and her given name would be "Xiao Long". Furthermore, Chinese surnames are usually only one character. This can be explained by Remnant not following real-world customs.
	+ Despite Yang's name being Chinese, it is not pronounced in typical Chinese. This is due to the fact that since there is no China in Remnant, the proper Chinese pronunciation does not apply.

## Trivia

* Yang alludes to Goldilocks from Robert Southey's *Goldilocks and the Three Bears*.
* According to Lindsay Jones, a little bit of the power for Yang's Semblance comes from her hair, similar to the story of Samson and Delilah. They said that the reason Yang's hair glows is because "it's basically charging up her energy."
* Yang's Huntress license number is 63600-13592-88610.
* At the RTX Australia 2016 *RWBY* Panel, Yang's Skype username was Fireballin17.
* During RTX@Home 2020 RWBY Panel, Yang's birthday has been confirmed to be July 28th, making her a Leo. This was also included on some of her merchandise.
* Yang losing her arm was one of the first things Monty Oum revealed to Barbara Dunkelman, and the quote in the "Yellow" Trailer, foreshadows Yang losing her right arm.
* Originally, they were going to do more with Raven Branwen and Yang Xiao Long in Volume 3, but weren't able to due to time restraints.
* Yang Xiao Long getting a hoverbike like the HVB Rhino was a concept they had before Volume 1 was made.