Cinder Fall (RWBY)

“

I want to be strong. I want to be feared. I want to be powerful.

”

—Cinder Fall

Cinder Fall is one of the main antagonists of RWBY and the primary antagonist of the Beacon Arc. She is a member of a small group of people with malicious goals led by Salem and the leader of her own faction. Her associates include her subordinates Mercury Black and Emerald Sustrai, the criminal Roman Torchwick, and Adam Taurus, a high-ranking member of the White Fang. Her machinations are the driving force behind the events of the first 3 volumes of RWBY.

In "Heroes and Monsters", Cinder becomes the new Fall Maiden, granting her vast power. However, in "End of the Beginning", Ruby Rose unleashed an attack of unexplained nature using her silver eyes, enveloping Cinder in a blinding flash of light. In "The Next Step", it is revealed that she lost her left eye, with massive scarring over that side of her face, and she has incredible difficulty speaking. Emerald initially acts as Cinder's aid when she needs to speak until she is shown to have regained most of her vocal control in "Dread in the Air".

Cinder narrowly survives a battle with Raven Branwen, a pool of water saving her from her fall into an abyss.

Biography

Background

Before the events of RWBY, Cinder began recruiting members for her cause. She first enlists Emerald Sustrai, at the time a petty thief, after seeing her use her Semblance to steal a ring.

She later attempts to recruit the skilled assassin Marcus Black, but as she heads to his home in the mountains, he is killed by his son, Mercury Black. Cinder instead recruits Mercury to her cause after witnessing the fight. At Mercury's suggestion, Cinder enlists Roman Torchwick, a criminal in Vale.

Cinder, Emerald and Mercury then meet with the White Fang leader, Adam Taurus, and attempt to recruit him as well. However, Adam denies their offer on the grounds that they fight for a human cause for which he is unwilling to sacrifice his men.

Cinder's group then plots an attack on Amber, the Fall Maiden at the time, in an attempt to steal her power. After a fierce and protracted battle, Amber is defeated. Cinder uses a mysterious glove to steal Amber's Maiden powers but is interrupted by Qrow Branwen, who severs the connection between Amber and Cinder before Cinder is able to steal all of Amber's power.

Later, Cinder returns to the White Fang camp with Emerald and Mercury. This time, Cinder secures the support of Adam and the White Fang with the threat of violence with her stolen powers, as well as the offer of Dust and large amounts of cash.

Raven suspects her surname can not be a coincidence and that she likely renamed herself as a result of her ambitions to steal the Fall Maiden's power, as well as egomania. An offhand comment by Arthur Watts all but confirms this.

Dust Shop Robbery

Cinder is first seen in "Ruby Rose" piloting the Bullhead that serves as Roman's getaway vehicle following the attempted robbery of the Dust shop, From Dust Till Dawn. Shortly after Roman gets onto the ship to escape Ruby Rose, Glynda Goodwitch appears and attacks the ship. Roman tells Cinder that a Huntress has appeared and Cinder steps out of the pilot's chair to confront Glynda in battle.

Cinder uses the Dust embedded in her dress to cause a series of fiery explosions all around Glynda, stopping her attack on the Bullhead. However, Glynda counters by using the debris from the blast to try and attack Cinder. However, Cinder deflects the attack with several blasts before Glynda instead attacks the ship.

Cinder is knocked around but unleashes a large blast that turns all the debris to ash. Ruby uses Crescent Rose to fire at Cinder, but Cinder easily deflects the attacks. Cinder then creates a group of explosions under Ruby and Glynda, forcing them to jump away, giving her and Roman time to escape.

Episodes Covering These Events

• "Ruby Rose"

Vale Port Heist

She appears with Mercury and Emerald to reprimand Roman for his recent failure at the docks. After he complains about having to work with the "mutts" from the White Fang, she tells him to continue working with them and states that she and her associates have big plans for him.

Episodes Covering These Events

• "Black and White"

Phase Two

When Mercury and Emerald return to Roman's hideout, Roman comments that Cinder sent "the kids again" and deduces that they killed Tukson, a Faunus Cinder had told him to eliminate. This upsets Roman, but just as he is about to threaten the two, Cinder appears, causing Roman to back down and Emerald to appear happy.

Cinder berates both Roman and her associates; Roman for not completing his mission as she had asked and her associates for going against her orders to keep their hands clean while in Vale. Emerald tried to apologize by saying that she did not think it was a bad idea, but Cinder tells her it isn't her job to think and only to obey, as Emerald responds with an understanding "Yes Ma'am." Cinder then turns her attention to Roman and asks why his mission was not completed, but he simply motions to all the Dust he has been busy collecting.

Roman asks for information on the "grand master plan" to make his next string of robberies easier, but Cinder intimidates him into dropping the subject. She does, however, inform Roman that the first phase of the plan is over and he will no longer need to collect any more Dust, as they are entering the second phase of the plan. Before she leaves, she tells Roman to have the White Fang move the Dust to a new location that she will inform him of later that night.

Sometime later, Cinder is seen alongside Mercury and Emerald within Beacon Academy, having infiltrated the school acting as students. The latter bumps into Ruby and Cinder informs her that the three of them are visiting from Haven Academy. After Ruby redirects them to where they are supposed to go, Cinder thanks her and the trio walk away.

Later in the semester, Cinder is seen sewing an outfit while talking to Mercury and Emerald about students the latter two had studied, the last on their list being Pyrrha Nikos. After the two of them explain that Pyrrha generally only uses her Semblance to a small degree, Cinder approves of Pyrrha taking fate into her own hands. Mercury states that Cinder could easily take her on, but Cinder responds that she does not want to overpower the enemy, but to take their power away. Cinder orders Emerald to add Pyrrha to an unknown list. When Mercury says that he is tired of waiting, Cinder simply states that they have a fun weekend ahead of them as she holds a needle in front of her.

During the Beacon Dance, Cinder uses the distraction of everyone being in the ballroom to sneak into the Cross Continental Transmit System.

She quickly overcomes the Atlas Soldiers guarding the facility and then proceeds to upload into the Tower's systems something that makes a black queen chess-piece appear on all the terminal screens. Just before leaving, Cinder gets interrupted by Ruby. The two have a brief fight which is interrupted by the arrival of James Ironwood. Cinder uses the distraction to escape, leaving Ruby alone. She quickly returns to the academy, transforming her fighting gear into a ballgown as she does so and thus evades Ironwood's troops by vanishing into the crowd in the ballroom. She then dances with Mercury.

Sometime later, during an attack on Vale, alarms are heard in the distance. Cinder is with Mercury and Emerald at the school, where the three of them realize this means a part of the plan started early. Cinder signals for the other two to head on to confront the incoming Grimm. Shortly after the fight, the three of them are seen overlooking the city as Cinder remarks the day to have been successful. When Mercury brings up how they lost many Faunus within the caves, he wonders if the White Fang will ever listen to them, but then, Adam appears and reassures the group that they will listen to him.

Episodes Covering These Events

• "Best Day Ever"
• "Welcome to Beacon"
• "Extracurricular"
• "Dance Dance Infiltration"
• "Breach"

Vytal Festival Tournament

Cinder is fighting on a team with Mercury, Emerald, and Neo Politan in the Vytal Festival Tournament. They performed well in their first match and sent Emerald and Mercury to the second round. Cinder joins Emerald and Mercury in the stands before watching Team JNPR and Team BRNZ fight, saying that even if you know how a fight ends, that does not make it any less fun to watch. As she says this, she pops a popcorn kernel with only her fingers.

After she learns that Qrow is at Beacon, she decides that he is not a large enough threat to warrant a change in her plans. She then uses the virus she put into the CCT to access Ironwood's clearance. She changes the tournament randomizer to match Mercury and Emerald against Coco Adel and Yatsuhashi Daichi of Team CFVY.

After gaining access to Ironwood's information privileges, she looks through his files and finds blueprints revealing Penny Polendina's robotic nature.

She later leaves before Yang Xiao Long and Mercury start their match and appears disguised as a paramedic after their plan to frame Yang is initiated. She, along with Neo, whisk Mercury and Emerald away in an Air Bus to an unknown location, instructing Mercury to keep himself hidden so as to not jeopardize their plan.

The next rigged match-up is between the robotic Penny and Pyrrha, whose Semblance is polarity. In the subsequent match, Emerald tricks Pyrrha into violently destroying Penny in front of a worldwide audience. Cinder then hijacks the tournament broadcast and gives a speech that reaches across Remnant.

Cinder places the blame for the incident on the headmasters of the academies. She pointedly asks what purpose Penny, a synthetic soldier disguised as an innocent little girl, could possibly serve against the indiscriminate killers of the Grimm. She calls the students of Beacon Academy lacking in both honor and mercy, citing Yang's unprovoked attack on Mercury and Pyrrha ruthlessly killing Penny. Cinder concludes that peace is fragile and claims that the Kingdoms are at the brink of war while their citizens are left unaware.

The Grimm, drawn to the negative emotion in the city caused by Penny's death and Cinder's speech, breach the defenses of Vale undetected and begin attacking the city, joined by White Fang soldiers led by Adam Taurus.

Episodes Covering These Events

• "Round One "
• "It's Brawl in the Family"
• "Never Miss a Beat"
• "Fall"
• "Beginning of the End"
• "PvP"

Attack on Beacon

From a rooftop in Beacon, Cinder relishes in the destruction alongside Mercury and Emerald. Mercury films the unfolding violence on his Scroll, focusing on rogue Atlesian Knight-200 androids which have been re-programmed by Cinder's computer virus, broadcasting the carnage throughout the world. When Emerald expresses her horror at what they have caused, Cinder remorselessly agrees that the destruction is "horrendous".

The ground below Vale begins to tremble. An enormous Wyvern awakens and erupts from beneath a mountaintop near Mountain Glenn, taking flight and heading toward Vale, spawning lesser Grimm as it approaches.

From the rooftop, Cinder sees Pyrrha Nikos and Jaune Arc following Professor Ozpin into a Vault beneath Beacon, where she finds that Amber is still alive and being kept on life support. Under Ozpin's guidance, Pyrrha is in a machine with Amber's Fall Maiden powers beginning to pass directly to her. However, Cinder finishes what she started, killing Amber with an arrow to the chest. As Amber dies, the Fall Maiden powers instead pass to Cinder. Now imbued with the full powers of the Fall Maiden, Cinder, at last, confronts Ozpin face-to-face. As the two of them prepare for battle, Cinder notes that Salem was right about Ozpin's arrogance.

The pair fight in a tremendous display of power, but the outcome of the fight is not known. Cinder leaves the Vault alone, with Ozpin's fate uncertain.

She makes her way to the top of Beacon Tower, where she begins communicating with the Wyvern. She makes eye contact with it and says that Beacon is its home now. However, she is interrupted by Pyrrha, who attempts to stop her.

After a fierce battle, Cinder defeats Pyrrha with an arrow through the heel. She briefly tells Pyrrha that she had no right to the powers of the Fall Maiden and that she'll use them in ways Pyrrha never could imagine. When Pyrrha asks Cinder if she believes in destiny, she pauses momentarily, before answering that she does. She executes Pyrrha with an arrow through the chest and ignites Pyrrha's remains, scattering her ashes to the wind.

However, Ruby Rose witnesses the event after arriving too late to save Pyrrha. In grief, Ruby unleashes an unheralded power which envelops everything in a blinding white light, much to Cinder's shock and outrage.

Episodes Covering These Events

• "Battle of Beacon"
• "Heroes and Monsters"
• "End of the Beginning"

The Land of Darkness

Cinder survives the encounter, but she is scarred, losing her left eye and the ability to speak clearly, ultimately relying on Emerald to communicate for her.

Cinder attends a meeting in the Land of Darkness, bringing Mercury and Emerald with her. There, she meets with Watts, Tyrian and Hazel. Watts comments on Cinder's condition, saying her attack on Beacon was a failure. Tyrian suggests she get retribution on Ruby by removing one of her eyes. After Salem enters, she criticizes Watts' "malignance", saying Cinder's efforts - destroying Beacon, the CCT and killing Ozpin - were successful. Salem says Cinder's weakness to Ruby is due to her attainment of the Fall Maiden powers. Salem removes Cinder from her previous responsibilities to the group and has her stay behind with Salem for "treatment".

While being "treated" by Salem, she is told to make an unknown being dread her. A Seer comes in to report on their lack of success in finding Ozpin's relic at the ruins of Beacon. This prompts Salem to ask Cinder if she really killed Ozpin. After some hesitation, Cinder signals for Emerald to help her respond, but Salem demands she say it with her own words. With some difficulty, Cinder manages to reply with a throaty "Yes." Though not satisfied with this answer, Salem takes this as a sign for her Grimm messenger to keep looking for the Relic.

Sometime later, Cinder trains to control her new powers by battling several Grimm. She manages to defeat them but collapses in exhaustion. Salem heavily criticizes her for holding back, reminding her that she wanted to be powerful. Afterward, Tyrian appears and reports about his defeat by Ruby. When Salem leaves disappointed, Cinder watches in horror as Tyrian vents out his anger and grief on a Beowolf.

Cinder continues her training using Emerald's ability to create hallucinations, in order to fantasize herself killing Ruby. By "Dread in the Air" she has recovered her voice and expresses her dissatisfaction to Salem that they are not using their strength to take what they want, but are instead working with bandits and leaving Ruby alive. Salem cautions Cinder not to underestimate the usefulness of others and repeats her promise of granting Cinder more power when the time is right.

Episodes Covering These Events

• "The Next Step"
• "Of Runaways and Stowaways"
• "Taking Control"
• "No Safe Haven"
• "Dread in the Air"

Attack on Haven

Following Salem's orders, Cinder travels to the bandit camp with Mercury, Emerald, and Watts. Meeting Raven Branwen, she keeps her cool even when Raven points out the flaws in the group. But Cinder and Watts back her to a corner with the revelation that the headmaster of Haven Academy, Leonardo Lionheart, works for Salem now and the White Fang will launch an attack on Haven Academy in a few days. Raven then demands the death of her brother Qrow in exchange for having Vernal lead them to the Relic of Knowledge. Despite Watts protesting about their covers being blown with this plan, Cinder pays no heed to his warnings and seals the deal with a handshake from Raven.

On the night of the full moon, Cinder, Raven and Lionheart carry out the ambush with Hazel entrapping the heroes from behind, using Raven's portal to travel from the camp directly into Haven. The Fall Maiden then reveals that Raven and Lionheart are working for Salem, mocking the heroes with the death of the Huntsmen and Huntresses of Mistral. Then she is confronted by Jaune, who is enraged at her for all of the murders she has committed with no regrets. Cinder then mockingly asks who he is and he attacks her in response, causing a battle to ensue. She easily overpowers and toys with Jaune, but starts getting serious upon his demand. However, when they charge at each other, they stop when Ruby unleashes the power of her silver eyes, causing Cinder to fall to her knees while holding her left arm in pain. She barely dodges Jaune's attack and a small piece of her mask chipped by his sword. In retaliation and fury, Cinder stomps on Jaune and angrily asks if he thought that he really had a chance at defeating her. Calling him a failure, she learns that he is willing to sacrifice his life to save his comrades. To prove him wrong, Cinders conjures a spear and impales a weakened Weiss, who is unable to block the attack.

Cinder is later shocked to find that Oscar Pine is Ozpin's reincarnation but decides to not waste their advantage and orders Lionheart to open the way to the Vault. Traveling down with Raven and Vernal, Cinder mockingly asks Vernal if she is honored to be the first Maiden to open a Vault, but is surprised that the bandit feels that the task is nothing but a burden. Upon reaching the Vault, Cinder instructs Vernal to open the door with the Spring Maiden's powers. Before Vernal can do so, however, Cinder freezes Raven, impales Vernal with her Grimm arm and claims the Spring Maiden's power is rightfully hers.

As Vernal succumbs to her wounds, however, Cinder is shocked to receive no power from her, prompting Raven to reveal herself as the true Spring Maiden. Realizing Vernal had been a decoy the entire time, Cinder figures out that Raven killed the previous Maiden and taunts Raven for having tricked the girl into trusting her, goading Raven into starting a duel. Though Cinder at first shows her usual confidence in the fight, she loses it when a piece of her dust weapon lodges itself in her Grimm arm, which Raven surmises is because her Aura cannot protect it. Raven accuses Cinder of turning herself into a monster in the name of power. Cinder retorts that Raven is guilty of the same before the two Maidens engage in a destructive battle that nearly destroys the Vault.

Though Raven and Cinder initially prove evenly matched, Raven manages to gain the upper hand because of her experience with Maiden powers, with Cinder finding it more and more difficult to hold her own against the Spring Maiden. Exhausted from the fight and with her Aura severely weakened, Cinder is momentarily distracted when a dying Vernal musters enough strength to fire one last shot, which gives Raven an opening to launch a final devastating attack that disintegrates Cinder's eye mask and sends her flying over the Vault floor's edge. Raven freezes Cinder's body with her Maiden powers and watches her fall into the abyss.

Episodes Covering These Events

• "A Perfect Storm"
• "The More the Merrier"
• "Vault of the Spring Maiden"
• "Downfall"

Vengeance After Haven

Cinder regains consciousness in a body of water after her battle with Raven. Panicking, she manages to get to the surface and drags herself onto the shore, her Maiden powers weak. Frustrated, she pounds the ground with her Grimm arm, unexpectedly caving some rocks and revealing an opening with natural light.

Cinder hobbles out of the cave and falls to the ground again, and a woman notices her. Cinder fiendishly looks up to the woman as she notices Cinder's Grimm arm. Cinder activates her Maiden powers, kills the woman^[1] and takes her cloak as a disguise. A month later, Cinder walks the streets of lower Mistral, noticing a broadcast warning of the Battle of Haven's perpetrators, which includes herself. Scowling, she puts up her hood, walks through the rain and notices a spider insignia etched into a post.

Cinder walks into a bar and finds a table with Lil' Miss Malachite, who she had heard of before. She offers Lil' Miss the dead woman's money, which earns spy leader's respect. She allows Cinder to sit. Cinder shows her pictures of Team RWBY and the remaining members of Team JNPR, saying she is looking for them. A regular patron enters the bar, causing loud stirs that startle Cinder. Lil' Miss notices her jumpiness and offers insight on how she overcame her arachnophobia – she made the spiders work for her. Cinder realizes everyone in the bar has a spider tattoo, and she leaves when Lil' Miss says she will fulfill Cinder's request in a week.

A week later, Cinder returns to Lil' Miss, who tells her that her targets have boarded a train heading for Argus. From this information, the Maiden deduces that they are headed for Atlas and begins to leave the bar, but is stopped when Lil' Miss refers to her by name and is further surprised when Neo appears behind her and attacks her. The two women fight each other until Lil' Miss directs them to take it outside. From there, the Maiden surmises that Neo has gotten stronger and shows that she has as well. Upon seeing her opponent wearing Torchwick's hat, Cinder denies responsibility for his death and instead pins it on Ruby. However, an undaunted Neo continues to fight, which forces Cinder to fight more seriously, but when she gets jabbed in the eye by Neo's umbrella, Cinder manifests her Maiden powers to stop the fight. Claiming that they both want Ruby dead, Cinder proposes that they work together to fulfill their common goal.

Cinder then takes Neo to the now empty Vault and explains her mission to get the Relic of Knowledge to Salem before it is taken to Atlas by Ruby's group. As her master does not want her to kill Ruby, Cinder decides to let Neo do the deed because she is under no one's order. The two settle the agreement with a handshake.

Both with new outfits, Cinder meets Neo in a clearing somewhere after the pink-haired girl steals a Mistralian airship. Neo demonstrates her ability to disguise the airship as an Atlesian one with her Semblance. This pleases Cinder so greatly that, boarding the airship, she tells Neo she still believes in destiny.

Episodes Covering These Events

• "Uncovered"
• "The Coming Storm"
• "The Grimm Reaper"
• "Our Way"

Physical description

Original (Volumes 1-3)

Cinder has ashen-black hair and bright amber eyes, while her fingernails are painted dark red. In "Black and White", she wears lipstick and violet eyeshadow. She wears a dark-red, off-the-shoulders, v-neck mini dress with yellow designs. There is a blue feather-like accessory on her right hip, at the top of an open portion of her dress. The dress ends in an upside-down triangular tail in the back, ending just above the knees.

There is a baseball diamond-shaped keyhole on the dress' upper back at the same height as her chest. The sleeves end in a triangle shape, which are wrapped or tied around her middle finger, with the gold designs of the sleeve taking over at the wrists.

She wears black shorts underneath her dress, as well as a black choker on her neck. She wears a gold loop earring with a black gem dangling from it on her right ear. She has dark, glass, high-heeled shoes and a jeweled anklet on her right leg.

On her upper back, in the keyhole of her dress, she has a black tattoo of what appears to be a pair of high heel shoes placed sole to sole, forming a heart shape inside. Whenever she uses the Dustthat is sewn into her dress, the designs on the arms, back, and chest glow bright orange. Her eyes and earrings also glow.

It is possible that her appearance is influenced by East Asian culture, as the designs on her dress are styled similarly to traditional Japanese or Chinese patterns.

Haven Uniform

When undercover at Beacon Academy, Cinder is seen wearing the uniform of Haven Academy, a more conservative dark gray outfit with a long-sleeved collared top and white armband. Unlike most female students, who wear silver knee-high socks, Cinder wears black tights.

Stealth Outfit

During her infiltration of the Cross Continental Transmit System Tower, Cinder is shown wearing a black infiltration outfit, which she had previously been seen sewing together in "Extracurricular". The outfit consists of a sleeveless jacket, long gloves, stiletto heel boots, a black glass mask, and several straps with containers of powdered Dust lined across her pants. The gloves, boots and pants have black mosaic designs that are infused with Dust, which glows bright orange when in use. When needed, Cinder can instantly transform her infiltration attire into a formal black evening gown that has black glass^[3] designs on it.

Tournament

When attending the Vytal Festival Tournament, she wears gray pants and boots; a beige leather, sleeveless jacket with light-beige details; brown gloves, a sarashi tied around her chest and another around her hips, and a pauldron on her left shoulder. She also wears a belt around her waist, which has multiple brown pouches attached to it.

Flashback

During the events of "Beginning of the End", Cinder had shorter hair. Her previous attire looks similar to her current outfit except her dress has separated sleeves, and the dress is held up by straps tied around her neck in a bow. Her heeled shoes are made of a more typical material, rather than glass. She did not have her characteristic tattoo until after she stole a portion of Amber's Maiden powers.

Post-Timeskip (Volume 4-5)

After the time skip following the Fall of Beacon, Cinder's appearance went through a drastic change. Her hair is much shorter. She wears a black mask that appears to be made of black glass over her missing left eye, and the scarring from said injury extends into a slight x-shape over the bridge of her nose, as well as having deformed and degraded the tissue of her left ear. She wears a long, dark red dress with one long, wide sleeve hiding her left arm. The edges of the collar and the opening for the right arm are gold-colored, and the upper chest and left sleeve are decorated with golden designs.

The right side of her dress is open from the hip down with two gold-colored straps made up of interwoven ropes connecting the front half to the back half of her thigh. Under the dress, she appears to wear black pantyhose. On the right hip, the dress has a black rhombus-shaped gem set in a gold-colored metal of the same shape, with feathers of varying shades of blue extending from the bottom of it. On her right arm, she wears a long, gray glove, the top of which has a gold-colored metal ring with curvy branching extensions going up her arm. Her right ear has a new, ring-shaped earring higher up than the dangling black gem earring.

In "Vault of the Spring Maiden", Cinder reveals that her left arm has been replaced with the arm of a Grimm.

Mistral Disguise (Volume 6)

After the Battle of Haven, Cinder kills a woman passerby and takes her cloak. This outfit consists of a light brown robe worn over a white dress with a shawl, sash and skirt of a matching dark brown color, black socks and light brown sandals. Her left Grimm arm is now wrapped in bandages, and she no longer wears her black mask.

Personality

Cinder is ruthless and cruel, as demonstrated when she delivers a killing blow to a clearly defeated Pyrrha Nikos at point-blank range and later throws a spear at a defenseless Weiss Schnee. Relentless in her imperious pursuit of power, Cinder demonstrates a cunning that shows in her successful manipulation of events throughout the first three volumes. Usually, she maintains a calm and collected demeanor and is willing to take over a fight if necessary.

Cinder relishes in dominance and gloating. She is strict with her subordinates and displays shameless pleasure in the misery she has caused others. Although she refers to her partnership with Roman as "cooperation", it is obvious she has the upper hand, for she very quickly makes an implicit, and not very subtle, threat to Roman by conjuring a fireball in her hand. Cinder also seems to be ambitious and demanding in this role. Often, she is very direct on the matter at hand, as shown when she quickly jumps to Roman's failure of robbing a cargo hold of Dust. When Jaune gets the slight upper hand in a fight, Cinder's lack of dominance leads her to show how superior she thinks of herself, calling him "a failure with a deathwish".

Cinder expects her subordinates to execute exactly as she wishes with what little she gives them. She does not seem to tolerate failure, seen with Roman, 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 Roman on a strict need-to-know basis.

After the Fall of Beacon, Cinder is utterly humiliated from her encounter with Ruby atop Beacon Tower. She no longer displays her usual confidence, instead appearing sullen and taking insults from the other members of Salem's Faction without reply due to her inability to speak and thus relying on her subordinates. Later, in "Taking Control", she is visibly horrified by watching Tyrian Callows maniacally massacre a Beowolf. In "No Safe Haven", Cinder is shown to have a deep desire for vengeance against Ruby, going as far as to have Emerald create a hallucination of Ruby in a submissive state for Cinder to imagine burning alive. However, Arthur Watts notes that her desire for revenge against Ruby affects her judgment, shown when she negotiates a deal with Raven that would allow the latter to betray her by stealing the Relic from Haven Academy.

Cinder is overconfident, so new conflict elements do not faze her. Despite this, however, 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 nicks the edge of her mask during the battle at Haven Academy and when Raven bests her in Haven's Vault. The explosive response to even the slightest attack on her shows Cinder's utter disdain to the fallibility and weaknesses of her humanity, especially in response to having them exploited by a perceived inferior foe.

Despite Cinder's continuous descent into megalomania and the lengths she has gone to obtain power, she apparently detests being called out on it 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. This shows just how little she thinks of others, feeling that none have the right to pass judgment on a superior being such as herself, indicating that she is amoral, seeing no point to limiting oneself or ambitions based on a code of ethics. In this way, Cinder proves that she is willing to do anything to achieve power, even forsaking her own humanity, seeing herself already as being beyond Human.

However, Cinder's detesting of fear leads her to react poorly when others see her feel it, including Jaune Arc during their fight, Raven in the antechamber outside the Vault of the Spring Maiden, and most notably by Salem during her training. Cinder seeks to be feared and therefore detests being made to feel fear by both her enemies and her superiors alike.

Cinder's arrogant and confident demeanor also brings out a tendency of hers to gloat in the face of her enemies. However, this tendency of hers is known to backfire, for it distracts her at the Fall of Beacon from the imminent threat that Ruby poses, catching her off guard. Of Cinder's many personality traits, her compulsion to bask in her enemies' defeats and her own triumphs often proves to be her undoing.

Powers and Abilities

Cinder possesses a high degree of skill that, in "Ruby Rose", rivals or even surpasses that of Glynda Goodwitch. She can make extensive use of raw Dust without difficulty. Her primary technique at the time of their battle was a highly forceful blast of fiery projectiles, which is powerful enough to block and knock back some of Glynda's manipulated debris. It was later revealed by the presence of her tattoo that Cinder had obtained half the Fall Maiden power prior to this confrontation, although the Maidens were not added as a story element until after Volume 2 and thus were not a canon aspect of the show at the time.

Cinder's capabilities also include summoning orange and black circles that can explode from the ground, as well as an Aura-based blocking technique, easily capable of withstanding Crescent Rose's bullets. It should also be noted that before her powers were stolen, Amber was seen doing the same thing with Emerald.

Noticeably, some of Cinder's abilities emit a high-pitched whistling sound when cast.

Dust Manipulation

Cinder has a strong command over Dust, often wielding and manipulating it in battle. In "Dance Dance Infiltration", she is seen transforming a cloud of dust she had previously dispensed into several shards of what appears to be glass, which she proceeded to launch as projectiles. She also displays the ability to do this with ordinary dirt, after she kicks dirt into the air while fighting Amber in "Beginning of the End".

She's able to conjure a Dust-based pair of dual black glass swords, as well as seamlessly transform them into a bow with a series of black glass arrows ready to fire. Her most notable use of reforming her weapons occurs when she melts down and reforms an arrow as Pyrrha Nikos shatters it with her shield, maintaining its forward force and successfully piercing Pyrrha's ankle. Cinder is also capable of triggering this ability to change the shape of Dust-imbued clothes, as shown by her instantly changing into a dress for the dance in "Dance Dance Infiltration".

In "The More the Merrier" she shows the ability to summon more various weapons of scalding hot glass such as swords and spears which she can shatter to form weapons of pure flame.

Combat

She is quite skilled in both unarmed combat and swordsmanship, using such skills to fend off numerous Atlas Soldiers at once and easily defeating them without being hit once. She was confident enough in her skills to walk right up to them, despite the fact that this alerted them to her presence. Such confidence is also seen when she decides to reveal herself to Ruby, smiling while doing so and attacking the young Huntress instantly. She possesses enhanced speed, strength, reflexes and endurance.

Stealth

Cinder has shown to be quite stealthy as well, having sneaked around a guard to easily knock him out. She is skilled enough in infiltrating places without getting caught, able to calculate so that she can escape and blend in, as seen in "Dance Dance Infiltration". She also successfully infiltrates Beacon Academy along with her partners Mercury and Emerald without raising suspicion to herself and having others believe them all to be from Haven Academy.

Marksmanship

Her marksmanship skills are shown during her infiltration of the CCT and her plan to capture Amber's powers in "Dance Dance Infiltration" and "Beginning of the End", respectively. She is capable of launching three arrows at once with great accuracy and pragmatically exploiting any advantage whenever possible, such as launching an arrow in Amber's back just as the latter was about to kill Emerald.

Grimm Arm

Cinder's left arm is replaced with a Grimm limb that resembles that of a Geist. Her arm is able to stretch very far and has incredibly sharp claws, which she uses to easily impale Vernal in the stomach. She can also use it to siphon the powers of a Maiden.

Other

After fully acquiring the Maiden's powers, she is able to utilize more elemental attacks, though she most often chooses fire-based attacks, and gains the ability to fly. Additionally, she is strong enough to withstand great force and uses fire-based power to melt items in her grip. As the Fall Maiden, she has access to the chamber of the Relic of Choice.

Cinder is also adept at piloting, able to fly a Bullhead during one of Glynda's attacks.

Weaknesses

In "The Next Step", Salem states that Cinder gained a vulnerability to the powers of Silver-Eyed Warriors through her attainment of the Fall Maiden powers. This leads to Ruby's powers having a very powerful effect on her. However, Salem does not elaborate on why this is. Sometime after the Fall of Beacon, Cinder's left arm is replaced with that of a Grimm which is vulnerable against the powers of Silver-Eyed Warriors, due to said warriors' ability to harm Grimm with their magic. This Grimm arm cannot be protected by her Aura; it maintains its soulless and empty nature despite being grafted to her body. Raven takes advantage of this during their battle.

Trivia

• Cinder alludes to Cinderella from the fairy tale of the same name.
• Miles Luna and Kerry Shawcross made a joke that they "originally wanted to call her Cinder Ella", using the Spanish word "ella" (pronounced "eya"), meaning "she".^[4] This joke references the fact that Cinder alludes to Cinderella.
• The first part of her name alludes to a partially or mostly burned piece of coal or wood, represented in her fire abilities. Her surname alludes to Fall, the American name for one of the four calendar seasons, which brings to mind amber and brown colors.
• Similarly to both the Remnant and Qrow Branwen pages, a user account registered as Montyoum made an edit, adding the surname "Fall" to Cinder's name on November 10th, 2013.