When a fictional world is populated by characters who fight monsters on a regular basis, the audience already knows those characters have to be strong. If something akin to a magical ability is added in, however, the characters don’t always have to focus on their physical strength since they have other powerful skills to lean on in a fight. Both of those assertions are true in the animated series RWBY.
An anime-inspired series where characters fight the fearsome Grimm to protect their people, RWBY has a lot of strong characters. They might all measure their strength in different ways, but who’s the strongest of the bunch, putting the rest to shame?
10 Emerald Relies Too Much On Her Semblance
As a new member of the team, Emerald hasn’t had the chance to show her skills in a fight too much. Most of the time, she’s using her Semblance, which allows her to make people see what she wants them to see.
As a result, Emerald hasn’t really had to work on becoming physically stronger. Her weapons are even smaller, meaning she’s not carrying around a heavy scythe or axe that makes the audience recognize she has to be strong either. Until she makes an impressive physical feat, it’s hard to gauge her strength level, but she’s clearly not as strong as the other main characters.
9 Oscar Has The Least Experience Of The Main Characters
Before Oscar met up with the teens at the center of RWBY‘s story, he was working on his family’s farm. That does require a certain amount of strength, especially since the audience sees him doing work by hand. That definitely makes him stronger than the average teen, but not stronger than those training to be Huntsmen.
This is pretty evident in a lot of his training sessions. He’s often outmatched by the others both because he doesn’t have practiced fighting skills, but also because he’s not trained to use his strength in the same way the others are. As Oscar relies more and more on Ozpin’s magic within him, he’ll be less likely to use physical strength in a fight as well. While he might gain mental and magical strength over the course of the series, he likely won’t gain much physical strength.
8 Weiss Uses Glyphs To Make A Statement
Like Emerald and Oscar, Weiss doesn’t need to have superior strength to utilize her skill set. Unlike the two of them, however, she does wield a weapon that demands at least a little bit of upper body strength. Weiss carries a sword. It’s not a broadsword, but it does mean she’s used to lifting heavier weapons than some of her teammates.
Weiss, of course, isn’t quite as physically strong as the others because she doesn’t need to be. Utilizing Glyphs, Weiss is able to jump from place to place, and the added use of Dust means her moves pack a punch without her needing to use full strength most of the time.
7 Ren’s Actions Speak Louder Than Words
Ren might just be the quietest character in RWBY other than Neo, who canonically doesn’t speak. He waits until he has something important to say before he voices his opinion. That quiet attitude is also how he approaches demonstrating his strength.
Ren is stronger than he looks. While his weapons are pistols, they also feature blades on the back. The short blades, unlike Weiss’ long sword, mean that Ren has to be able to get close to the Grimm he goes up against to drive the blade in. That requires more strength than the audience might have anticipated at the start of the series.
6 Blake Learns To Believe In Herself
Blake might not always have faith in her own strength, but both emotionally and physically, she’s stronger than she knows. She spent her formative years in the thrall of a criminal who cared more about himself than the cause she thought he believed in.
In terms of her physical strength, Blake progresses in leaps and bounds as a fighter throughout the series. She doesn’t always use her Semblance and run, leaving her copy behind. Instead, she uses her small frame to leverage her strength. Her weapon of choice also doubles as a grappling hook, so she’s used to having to pull herself up on a regular basis.
5 Cinder Knows How Much She Can Handle
Cinder might be a villain, but she’s very in tune with her strengths and weaknesses. She knows how to make the best use of her Semblance, superheating objects with the help of Dust. It might seem like she wouldn’t need to be physically strong when she’s got such great control over her Semblance.
Cinder, however, is also a great hand-to-hand fighter, often able to overcome her opponents by leveraging her strength against them. She also has an added strength later: one of her hands is made into a Grimm limb. It’s stronger than a human hand – once she learns how to use it.
4 Jaune Finds The Leader Within Him
Jaune is the least experienced student at Beacon Academy. His weapon is a family heirloom and his papers are forged. It’s not easy for him to pick up the same training that everyone else already has, but with the help of Pyrrha, he starts to improve his fighting skills without knowing his Semblance, which is why his physical strength grows as well.
Jaune isn’t someone who can rely on his Semblance for the first few volumes of the series. That requires him to learn how to hold his sword, which is designed to be much heavier and broader than the rapier that Weiss yields. He has to train his body to wield his sword and shield as though they weigh nothing. The training continues even after Pyrrha’s gone, and Jaune transforms into a leader the team can be proud of.
3 Ruby Makes Scythes Look Like Feathers
Ruby Rose is one of the smallest main characters in the series. She’s initially the youngest student at Beacon, admitted a year earlier than most, but she becomes the youngest team leader. Her prowess with her scythe was already phenomenal then and she only becomes more practiced as the series goes on.
Her scythe, Crescent Rose, is bigger than Ruby is when completely extended. It should be heavy and unwieldy, but Ruby makes it look as light as a feather as she cuts enemies down in battle.
2 Yang Packs One Of The Biggest Punches
While most of the characters don’t have Semblances that boost their strength, the strongest characters in the series do. Yang is one of them.
She’s already physically stronger than most of her friends without using a Semblance. Yang is able to use her bare hands to pull apart the jaws of Grimm in the very first volume of the series, and she only gets stronger. Her mechanical arm is just as strong, if not stronger, than the arm she was born with. With her Semblance – which takes the energy absorbed by blows to her body in a fight – taken into account, she becomes impossibly strong, able to launch enemies across a room with a single punch.
1 Nora’s Strength Is Quite Literally Electric
Yang might be incredibly strong, but Nora is the one character who has her beat. The two are evenly matched before their Semblances are taken into account, and like Yang, Nora’s Semblance appears to make her even stronger.
Nora channels lightning. Sometimes she channels it with the help of her hammer and can practically launch her enemies into the next town when she does. Nora always makes lifting items, punching Grimm, and swinging her hammer look effortless. It’s entirely possible she still hasn’t hit the limit of her strength by the end of the eighth volume.
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