Let’s 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 “Lighting the Fire”

Ren: A common philosophy is that a warrior’s 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 don’t see a connection at all.

In short, a Semblance represents their user’s personality…except when they don’t. I feel that sometimes Semblances aren’t completely shaped by the character, and are equally formed around their specific needs and experiences. Let’s take a look at some characters’ Semblances, what kind of background they had, and guess how their Semblances were shaped by the first two. We’ll also look at how those powers have evolved or changed over the course of the series and why.

 Given the large cast, we’ll be splitting this subject up among multiple posts.

Team RWBY Semblances

Ruby Rose: Ruby’s Semblance, at the beginning of the series, was just speed…and leaving rose petals behind her. Typically, characters with speed powers are characterized as impatient, and Ruby…isn’t 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 “rushed” 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 Ruby’s combat background is that, prior to being trained by Qrow, she was “complete garbage”. 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. It’s 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 “speed” to “flight and bursting into flower petals.” And what does she use this for? Getting around obstacles. What could have provoked such an evolution? Well, let’s 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: Weiss’ 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 don’t 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, she’s your average Mean Girl- Looking down on our Main Girl Ruby and being quite vocal about it. For all her scorn for her father’s ways, she’s just as attached to her status as a member of the Schnee Family. “I have a legacy to uphold.” And as we later learn, her mastery of her Glyphs are average at best, and she’s 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 she’s 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, Weiss’ 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 (“I’m more than just a name”) and that tied into it. When she’s brought back into the fight by Jaune, it’s because he’s using his Semblance to heal her (Or, technically, amplifying her aura with his), and she fights much better with the Lancer summon. In short, Weiss’ 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, that’s Blake’s power to create illusionary duplicates, a diversion to draw a foe’s attention. Blake herself describes this as a manifestation of her self-professed cowardice; “I was born with the ability to leave behind a shadow of myself; an empty copy that takes the hit while I run away!” However, it may also represent loneliness. Blake was once a member of the White Fang during its ‘peaceful protestor’ phase, and we even get a visual in “Black and White” of lil’ kid Blake waving a sign. Moving around with her parents, it’s possible that she didn’t have time to make friends growing up. When the WF became terrorists, she joined that as well, but given how uncomfortable she was with Adam’s increasingly fatal methods, it’s just as likely that she was ‘odd woman out’ 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 “Of Runaways and Stowaways”, she uses  to move closer to the Grimm she’s 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 RWBY’s 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 Blake’s willingness to put herself forward to win the battles. 

Yang Xiao Long: Her Semblance is Burn, which is basically a limit-break; When she takes enough hits, she’s 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. It’s 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 “RWBY: World of Remnant” 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, it’s used as a temper-tantrum. Her power is, effectively, “I’ve taken all I can stand and I can’t stand no more!” If things aren’t going her way, she basically explodes in a rage that ends things. It’s 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 hasn’t really changed, she’s just using it less, just like she’s not throwing fits so often. When she does, (use Burn though,) it’s in more tactful ways, like blocking Adam’s Moonslice in “Seeing Red” and inhibiting Elm’s root Semblance in “With Friends Like These” by destroying the floor. Brute force, yes, but with purpose beyond destruction.