History Characters / RWBYCinderFall

* CorruptedCharacterCopy: Cinder is what would happen if ''Literature/{{Cinderella}}'''s lifetime of abuse eroded her morals, complete with a "fairy godmother" (Salem) who empowers that evil. Cinder shares Cinderella's background of abusive slavery within a wicked step-family, and a "Prince Charming" who tries to rescue her. The caveat is that her "Prince Charming's" idea of intervention is telling her to escape when she reaches the legal age of adulthood, though he does train her in combat in the meantime. Cinder eventually snaps and murders her family; when her "Prince Charming" tries to arrest her for the crime, she kills him too.

* BareYourMidriff: Her outfit in "Round One" is a {{sarashi}} and an open fur vest.

* CorruptedCharacterCopy: She's based on ''Literature/{{Cinderella}}'', but abuse turned her villainous, and her "fairy godmother" (Salem) empowers that evil. Cinder shares Cinderella's background of abusive slavery within a wicked step-family, and a "Prince Charming" who tries to rescue her. The caveat is that her "Prince Charming's" intervention requires her to endure years of abuse while he trains her to obtain a legal escape only when she's old enough. She eventually snaps, murdering her family and then her "Prince Charming" for trying to arrest her.

* GoodPowersBadPeople: The four Maidens' powers were originally created by [[BigGood Ozpin]], and for centuries, he and his inner circle have been careful to ensure the Maidens' powers don't get passed on to malignant individuals. [[TheSociopath Cinder]] successfully becomes Amber's successor as the host of the Fall Maiden's powers, utilizing the powerful magic it affords her for hers and the other villains' malevolent goals and to cause harm to the heroes and to innocents. Furthermore, Cinder seeks to forcibly absorb the remaining Maidens' powers into herself as well, although all her attempts at that have thus far failed.

* GoodPowersBadPeople: The four Maidens' powers were originally created by [[BigGood Ozpin]], and for centuries, he and his inner circle have been careful to ensure the Maidens' powers don't get passed on to malignant individuals. [[TheSociopath Cinder]] successfully becomes Amber's successor as the host of the Fall Maiden's powers, utilizing the powerful magic it affords her for hers and the other villains' malevolent goals and to cause harm to the heroes and to innocents. Furthermore, Cinder seeks to forcibly absorb the remaining Maidens' powers into herself as well, although all her attempts at that have thus far failed.

!!All {{spoiler}}s for Volumes 1-8 are unmarked. Administrivia/YouHaveBeenWarned.

!!!'''Voiced By:''' Creator/JessicaNigri [EN], Creator/YukoKaida [JP]

* BreakTheHaughty: Cinder is introduced as a calm, collected and cunning individual who enjoys flaunting her power over others. This image is shaken after a series of setbacks beginning with being permanently maimed by the power of Ruby's silver eyes. She becomes consumed with the desire for both {{Revenge}} against Ruby and lust for the more Maiden power, leading to a hasty deal with Raven Branwen against Watts' advice, thinking she can handle all her enemies being in one place and ruining Salem's plans. After atoning, she repeats her mistake against the Winter Maiden. It takes a blistering tirade from Watts over her entitled attitude and refusal to learn from her failures to finally knock her down a peg.

* BrokenFaceplate: Downplayed. During the fight at Haven Academy, Cinder is briefly stunned by Ruby's short-lived use of the Silver Eyes power, and Jaune gets a strike-in. Cinder manages to move her head just in time to avoid a killing blow, and the edge of Jaune's sword cuts a tiny chip out of the black ceramic covering of her ruined eye. Raven ends up breaking the mask altogether when she touches Cinder's face with her [[FacepalmOfDoom lightning-infused palm]], pushing Cinder off the Vault's ledge.
* TheBully: A smug, sadistic bully who enjoys flaunting her power and superiority over those she feels are inferior or weak, she desires to be feared and hates being made to feel helpless. After being permanently maimed by Ruby, she develops an obsessive hatred for her. When fighting Jaune, she toys with him until he almost succeeds in injuring her, whereupon she flies into a rage and fatally injures Weiss in a replay of Pyrrha's death just to spite him. MadeASlave during her childhood by a cruel hotelier and her daughters, she is frequently abused and tortured until she eventually kills them all. Since then, Cinder has treated others like her abusive stepmother did to her.

* LegFocus: Cinder is introduced with her face hidden and the camera focussing mostly on her long, bare legs as well as her glass shoes. In her dueling with Glynda, Cinder's legs are the most prominent part of her body, which hints that her character inspiration is ''Literature/{{Cinderella}}''. Throughout the second and third volumes, as well as the seventh and eighth volumes, her short dresses and catsuits ensure prominent focus on her legs whenever she is fighting, including camera shots [[BetweenMyLegs through her legs]] towards her opponents, such as during her fight with Amber.

* MsFanservice: She is a voluptuous individual who is first introduced to the show with her upper body in shadow and her legs entirely exposed; this sets the stage for MaleGaze camera angles frequently [[LegFocus showing off her legs]] and curves, including a [[http://i.imgur.com/UCmDocQ.gif butt shot]] as she does a SupermodelStrut in ''Dance Dance Infiltration''. Most of her clothing is designed to show off her curves and legs; her mini-dress is designed to show off her hotpants, which are laced over her right hip; from Volume 4, she wears a body-hugging gown that hides the left side of the body but exposes the right side of her body, being held in place by two chains across her right thigh; her Volume 7 outfit is a black catsuit, cut off at the legs and accompanied by thigh-high boots.

* BreakTheHaughty: Cinder is introduced as a calm, collected and cunning individual who enjoys flaunting her power over others. This image is shaken after a series of setbacks beginning with being permanently maimed by the power of Ruby's silver eyes. She becomes consumed with the desire for both revenge against Ruby and lust for the more Maiden power, leading to a hasty deal with Raven Branwen against Watts' advice, thinking she can handle all her enemies being in one place and ruining Salem's plans. After atoning, she repeats her mistake against the Winter Maiden. It takes a blistering tirade from Watts over her entitled attitude and refusal to learn from her failures to finally knock her down a peg.

* BrokenFaceplate: Downplayed. During the fight at Haven Academy, Cinder is briefly stunned by Ruby's short-lived use of the Silver Eyes power, and Jaune gets a strike in. Cinder manages to move her head just in time to avoid a killing blow, and the edge of Jaune's sword cuts a tiny chip out of the black ceramic covering of her ruined eye. Raven ends up breaking the mask altogether when she touches Cinder's face with her [[FacepalmOfDoom lightning-infused palm]], pushing Cinder off the Vault's ledge.

* TheChessmaster: Cinder is carrying out Salem's long-running plan, which endangers Remnant. Her mission is to obtain the Fall Maiden's powers and bring down Beacon. She predicts most of the cast's moves and adapts with great flexibility when something occurs that hasn't been accounted for. She recruits Mercury and Emerald, saps half the Fall Maiden's powers, recruits Torchwick and the White Fang, then commands Dust robberies and infiltrates Beacon. From there, she takes control of almost every defense available through the CCT Tower, including the Vytal Tournament match-ups and Penny. At the end of Volume 3, she succeeds in her mission, although she is badly injured in the process. Four volumes later, she deliberately presses Ironwood's TraumaButton by leaving a glass chess piece in his office; attempting to secure the Winter Maiden's powers inadvertantly leads him to reveal her secret location to Cinder.
* ChoiceOfTwoWeapons: While the rest of the cast uses a single weapon and their Semblance to base their fighting style around, Cinder uses different weapons, powers and styles. She used a pair of twin swords called Midnight that could transform into a bow, and paired it with her Semblance before gaining the power of the Fall Maiden. Afterwards she uses the powers to create close range weapons for melee combat or a bow for long range, while supplementing them with elemental magic or vice versa.

** Cinder enacts all of her plans with a smug attitude of expecting everything that's thrown at her, or easily adapting to the few curveballs thrown her way. However, when Ruby unleashes a previously unknown ability at the end of Volume 3, Cinder's composure vanishes with a shocked shriek of ''"What!?"''. The Volume 4 premiere reveals that Ruby's powers have left her badly scarred, rendered near mute, and utterly humbled.

* LegFocus: Cinder is introduced with her face hidden and the camera focussing mostly on her long, bare legs as well as her glass shoes. In her duelling with Glynda, Cinder's legs are the most prominent part of her body, which hints that her character inspiration is ''Literature/{{Cinderella}}''. Throughout the second and third volumes, as well as the seventh and eighth volumes, her short dresses and catsuits ensure prominent focus on her legs whenever she is fighting, including camera shots [[BetweenMyLegs through her legs]] towards her opponents, such as during her fight with Amber.
* {{Leitmotif}}: Her appearances tend to be accompanied by a chilling low string motif in contrast to Salem's piano motif. Said motif also gets fuller and longer if she's overwhelming her opponent or making major progress in her plans, always adding an equally low set of intense choral vocals when she engages in battle. It reaches a climax of [[OminousLatinChanting sinister chanting]] when she kills Pyrrha, and is silenced when Ruby cripples her using her silver eyes. For the majority of volume 4, it's absent, only to make a return when she breaks out of her depression and burns an illusion of Ruby without hesitation. In Volume 5, the sinister chanting returns when she creates a copy of Pyrrha's javelin in a deliberate attempt to kill Weiss in a way that mimics Pyrrha's death, just to torment Jaune. An orchestral version of the tune plays when she falls to her assumed demise after her duel with Raven in "Downfall".

* MsFanservice: She is a voluptuous individual who is first introduced to the show with her upper body in shadow and her legs entirely exposed; this sets the stage for camera angles frequently [[MaleGaze showing off]] her legs and curves, including a [[http://i.imgur.com/UCmDocQ.gif butt shot]] in ''Dance Dance Infiltration''. Most of her clothing is designed to show off her curves and legs; her mini-dress is designed to show off her hotpants, which are laced over her right hip; from Volume 4, she wears a body-hugging gown that hides the left side of the body but exposes the right side of her body, being held in place by two chains across her right thigh; her Volume 7 outfit is a black catsuit, cut off at the legs and accompanied by thigh-high boots.

* TheBully: A smug, sadistic bully who enjoys flaunting her power and superiority over those she feels are inferior or weak, she desires to be feared and hates being made to feel helpless. After being permanently maimed by Ruby, she develops an obsessive hatred for her. When fighting Jaune, she toys with him until he almost succeeds in injuring her, whereupon she flies into a rage and fatally injures Weiss in a replay of Pyrrha's death just to spite him. MadeASlave as a child by a cruel hotelier and her daughters, she is abused and tortured until she snaps, killing them all. She has since followed in her abusive stepmother's footsteps, treating others as she was once treated.

* TheBully: A smug, sadistic bully who enjoys flaunting her power and superiority over those she feels are inferior or weak, she desires to be feared and hates being made to feel helpless. After being permanently maimed by Ruby, she develops an obsessive hatred for her. When fighting Jaune, she toys with him until he almost succeeds in injuring her, whereupon she flies into a rage and fatally injures Weiss in a replay of Pyrrha's death just to spite him. MadeASlave as a child by a cruel hotelier and her daughters, she was abused and tortured until she snapped, killing them all. Now she's following in her abusive stepmother's footsteps, treating others as she was once treated.

!!All {{spoiler}}s for Volumes 1-7 are unmarked. Administrivia/YouHaveBeenWarned.

'''First Members see episodes 1 week before public release. As a courtesy, please do not trope them for 1 week until they have been released to the general public. Please only trope the episodes that have been released to the general public. For more information, please visit the RWBY Forum thread.'''

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* BreathWeapon: A part of Cinder's Maiden powers allows her to breathe fire. At the end of Volume 7, Cinder is so outraged by her failure to obtain the Winter Maiden's powers that she screams while breathing fire. [[spoiler:At the conclusion of her duel with Weiss in Volume 8, she tries killing Weiss with a stream of fire only for Penny to thwart her.]]

* TheBully: A smug, sadistic bully who enjoys flaunting her power and superiority over those she feels are inferior or weak, she desires to be feared and hates being made to feel helpless. After being permanently maimed by Ruby, she develops an obsessive hatred for her. When fighting Jaune, she toys with him until he almost succeeds in injuring her, whereupon she flies into a rage and fatally injures Weiss in a replay of Pyrrha's death just to spite him. [[spoiler:MadeASlave as a child by a cruel hotelier and her daughters, she was abused and tortured until she snapped, killing them all. Now she's following in her abusive stepmother's footsteps, treating others as she was once treated.]]

* ChronicBackstabbingDisorder: Cinder is only willing to work with someone for as long as they benefit her. She's even willing to sabotage Salem's plans in pursuit of power, which leads to her being ostracised after the villains failure at Haven is caused by her desire to get Ruby killed and obtain the Spring Maiden's power. [[spoiler:In Volume 8, she traps Watts in a burning Central Command, drops Neo to her death in Ambrosius' Central Location, and lies to Salem about Ruby's apparent death, using the Lamp's last question and that her use of the Staff was about killing Watts.]]
* ClothingConcealedInjury: After Cinder is maimed by Ruby, she uses clothing and bandages to hide the fact her left arm is now Grimm, something hinted at by the terrible scarring on the left side of her face that her eye patch only partially covers. The one time a person spotted the Grimm arm, they collapsed in horror. Originally, Cinder favoured wearing an asymmetrical dress with a sleeve so long it hid even her hand. During the Atlas Arc, she draped a cape over the left side of her body to disguise the arm. [[spoiler:Volume 8 reveals that her preference for wearing chokers and high collars hides torture scarring on her neck.]]

* CorruptedCharacterCopy: She's based on ''Literature/{{Cinderella}}'', but abuse turned her villainous, and her "fairy godmother" (Salem) empowers that evil. [[spoiler:Cinder shares Cinderella's background of abusive slavery within a wicked step-family, and a "Prince Charming" who tries to rescue her. The caveat is that her "Prince Charming's" intervention requires her to endure years of abuse while he trains her to obtain a legal escape only when she's old enough. She eventually snaps, murdering her family and then her "Prince Charming" for trying to arrest her.]]

* DrunkOnTheDarkSide: Cinder's desires to become strong, feared and powerful and she works for Salem because it gives her the opportunity to steal Maiden powers. She executes Salem's plan for the destruction of Beacon Academy with great cunning, patience and adaptability, and obtains the Fall Maiden's full power. While recovering from injuries inflicted by Ruby, she becomes increasingly intolerant of Salem's measured approach to pursuing her goals and is warned by Salem to wait for further power. Once unleashed to lead the infiltration of Haven Academy, Cinder's leadership becomes increasingly unstable. She watches the Spring Maiden's demonstration of power with an expression of undisguised lust; when Raven concludes that Cinder is egomaniacal, Watts agrees. Cinder sacrifices caution for the chance to confront Ruby and attempts to steal the Spring Maiden's power for herself, revealing that she's replaced her left arm with a Grimm arm that allows her to steal Maiden powers. As a result of her growing lust for power, she ruins Salem's plan; Haven Academy is rescued, the villains are forced to flee, and Cinder is cast into a pit by the Spring Maiden. Later in Atlas, Cinder shows some of the cunning that enabled her to become the next Fall Maiden but continues to fail at crucial moments; [[spoiler:both times she tries to claim the Winter Maiden's power, she's beaten back, but she refuses to understand her mistakes. Watts eventually berates Cinder for thinking that she can claim whatever she wants because she has raw power and a tragic past.]]

* EntitledBitch: Everything Cinder does is built on entitlement; she pursues the powers of the Maidens relentlessly, and openly states that she's the only one worthy of them. [[spoiler:Volume 8 reveals this is a product of a [[DarkAndTroubledPast horrifically abusive childhood]], and she feels she's entitled to power and justified in taking whatever she wants because of her past suffering. Dr. Watts angrily tells Cinder the world doesn't owe her a thing and if she wants power, she needs to actually ''earn'' it.]]
* EvilCannotComprehendGood: Cinder claims to Penny that she serves no one, and that Penny would be much the same if she wasn't a programmed robot. This disregards the fact that Penny consciously chose to side with Ruby and her allies against Atlas. [[spoiler:With Cinder having been there because she defied Salem's orders to stay on their ship, the scene makes it seem as though she can't comprehend ''not'' using the Maidens' power to do whatever you want, and [[PsychologicalProjection projects this belief]] onto Penny.]]

* EvilGloating: Whenever Cinder feels she's in control of a situation, she enjoys gloating at her targets. She takes her time when killing Pyrrha, gloating that she'll use the Fall Maiden powers in ways Pyrrha could never imagine; this gives Ruby enough time to arrive just in time to see what happens, triggering the awakening of a power Cinder is extremely vulnerable to. When Raven is upset that her bandits let Cinder's group into the camp, Cinder gloats that it's because they know better than attack a Maiden. When she attacked Vernal, she begins by smugly tearing down Raven's reputation for cunning and intelligence. When she confronts the Winter Maiden in Volume 7, she arrogantly declares that Fria has had her time in the sun and, when Fria tries to remember who she was waiting for, Cinder smugly says 'me'. This gives Fria enough time to register the Grimm arm reaching for her and retaliate, buying herself just enough time for help to arrive so that she can pass on the power to someone else. [[spoiler:During her battle with Team RWBY in Volume 8, she begins to gloat about how she was able to distrupt their plans using the Lamp of Knowledge, however this serves as a distraction to allow Neo a chance to kill Ruby. The attempt is thwarted, however, by Yang pushing Ruby out of the way, resulting in Yang falling into the abyss.]]

* FatalFlaw: Her egomania, with a side order of sadism, an insatiable hunger for power, and a severe case of pettiness, have all led to her losing badly several times. Cinder's driven to uplift herself while bringing everyone else down, even if she has to pause to waste time gloating instead of completing the plan without incident. If someone she perceives as beneath her gets the better of her, she ''will'' pay them back in the worst way possible, even if doing so is either pointless or detrimental to the long-term plan. If she thinks there's a way to fulfill Salem's mission and get what she wants she'll go for it, no matter how risky it is. Her cruel, arrogant lust for power gets the better of her when it costs her both the Spring and Winter Maiden powers at the end of the fifth and seventh volumes, respectively. [[spoiler:Watts calls her out on this as a part of the reason she's failed so miserably in her plans and how it's only made her a hindrance to their faction, which leads her to wise up and (temporarily) put aside her ego to retrieve the Relics Salem needs over taking the Maiden powers from Winter in the Volume 8 finale.]]

* FreudianExcuseIsNoExcuse: Volume 8 reveals that Cinder was shaped into the person she is by a horrific DarkAndTroubledPast. [[spoiler:As a child, she was frequently abused by the other children as well as her WickedStepmother to the point where she eventually murdered her and her stepsisters; as a result, Cinder has become a cruel sociopath who arrogantly believes she's entitled to power and justified in taking whatever she wants. Watts eventually tells Cinder just because she's suffered in the past doesn't mean the world owes her anything, and if she wants to obtain the power she seeks, she needs to actually ''earn'' it.]]
* TheFriendNobodyLikes: Cinder isn't exactly popular among Salem's forces. Tyrian and Watts both enjoy mocking her failure at Beacon, Hazel treats her with indifference, Neo can barely stand Cinder and is reduced to rolling her eyes behind Cinder's back, while Mercury openly hates her and thinks she's "a pain." Emerald is the only person who likes her, and it's pointed out that Emerald is a victim of abuse and gaslighting at Cinder's hands to make her feel this way. Even Salem finds it hard to tolerate Cinder at times, admitting that while she knows Cinder survived the Battle of Haven, she won't let Cinder rejoin their ranks unless she can prove herself. When Cinder rejoins her ranks and offers to go after Penny for the Winter Maiden powers, Salem declines her offer, reminding Cinder that, while she's more valuable than a pawn, she's still not a player. [[spoiler:When Cinder defies Salem's orders to go after Penny again, failing once more. Upon her return, Mercury reveals that he has been promoted to join Salem's inner circle and tells Cinder that he no longer works for her.]]
* FromNobodyToNightmare: Flashbacks reveal that Cinder, the current Fall Maiden and one of Salem's most dangerous agents, did not come from very prominent beginnings. [[spoiler:She was originally just an abused orphan turned slave who got Huntsman training from a kind stranger, then was pushed too far and killed her stepfamily before going on the run.]]

* GoodScarsEvilScars: During the battle of Haven, her mask is shattered, revealing the extent of the damage Ruby did to her at the end of the Battle of Beacon. From the right side of her nose across to her left ear, her face is a scarred ruin, her left eye sealed shut as a result of the extent of the damage. [[spoiler:In Volume 8, it's revealed that she has a scar on her neck from wearing a ShockCollar as a child. It's a neat thin line that is easily hidden by high collars and chokers, reflecting that she was an innocent torture-victim when she received it.]]

* HerOwnWorstEnemy: While very powerful and dangerous, Cinder has a ''very'' severe self-destructive streak and is repeatedly defeated by her own selfishness and entitled attitude. [[spoiler:When pushed to his RageBreakingPoint, Watts throws her litany of failures into her face, summing up all of her character flaws as the reason why she has utterly failed to achieve any of her goals.]]
* HeroKiller: Whenever Cinder fights at her best, good people end up dead. She carries out Salem's plan to destroy Beacon and relishes in all of the casualties that result; on a more personal level, Cinder shoots Amber dead to steal the powers of the Fall Maiden for herself right before successfully killing Pyrrha Nikos after a fierce duel. [[spoiler:Right before Atlas falls, Cinder inflicts a mortal wound on Winter Maiden Penny Polendina, forcing the robot-turned-real-girl to ask Jaune for a mercy kill to make sure Cinder doesn't steal her powers as well.]]

* IJustWantToBeSpecial: Cinder says in "Beginning of the End" that she wants to be strong, feared, and powerful. Though she is subordinate to Salem, her own goal is acquiring more power for herself. [[spoiler:Cinder knew little else besides abuse in her childhood, only finding escape through a sympathetic Huntsman that taught her how to fight in the hopes she could one day enroll at an academy. Instead, Cinder used her training to kill her stepmother, stepsisters and the Huntsman. Years later, she's become the Fall Maiden, but the prospect of more power entices her to attack Spring and Winter as well. This obsession is deconstructed as her repeated failures to do so also disrupt Salem's plans, costing her Salem's faith and leaving her with few resources. Cinder is furious with Watts for designing his virus to make Penny destroy herself after opening the Atlas Vault (because Cinder can't steal the Winter Maiden's powers then), but Watts shoots back that he doesn't work for Cinder or cares about what she wants. He also points out that even if Cinder ''wants'' to be special, she still has to ''earn'' it.]]
* IJustWantToBeYou: Cinder models her mannerisms, strategies, and clothing to some extent on Salem, and a lot of her early lines are later revealed to be quotes directly from her. As shown by her flashback episode, she's been doing this for a long time, [[spoiler:as she modeled her hair and weapons after Rhodes, the Huntsman who trained her, and gained her glass motif from the hotel she was abused in and her distinctive high heels from the woman who bought her]]. It's kept ambiguous how conscious Cinder is of this, but it's clear that she patterns herself on the powerful people in her life.
* InferioritySuperiorityComplex: Cinder is introduced as calm, confident, and mysterious villainess who successfully orchestrates the Fall of Beacon and becomes the Fall Maiden. However, as the series progresses, Cinder suffers a series of setbacks that slowly erode her mask of confidence, revealing that her arrogant persona is a façade that hides an insecure girl with a crippling inferiority complex. [[spoiler:As a child, Cinder was adopted and MadeASlave by a wealthy Atlesian elite, who would force her to work, routinely tortured her with a shock collar, and barely fed her, eventually leading her to snap and murder her; the experience twisted Cinder into a cruel sociopath who believes she's entitled to whatever she wants. Watts eventually deconstructs her motivations, stating that for all her power and arrogance, she has completely failed to achieve any of her goals, and reduces her to tears.]]

* JerkWithAHeartOfJerk: Whenever Cinder does something decent, it's all for her own selfish purposes. She recruited Emerald on the promise of never going hungry again solely to use her [[MasterOfIllusion Semblance]] to carry out Salem's mission; despite Emerald's loyalty, Cinder treats her abusively, including hitting her if she's disobedient. [[spoiler:At the end of Volume 8, Cinder apologizes to Neo for denying her a chance to gain revenge on Ruby and compliments Watts' hacking skills. This is a ruse to gain their cooperation; as soon as she's achieved her objectives and [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness no longer needs them]], Cinder personally throws Neo into the VoidBetweenTheWorlds and traps Watts in Atlas' Command Center to burn to death.]]

* MadeASlave: Cinder desires power above all else, and hates being reminded that she serves Salem since she knows what it's like to be someone else's slave. [[spoiler:As a child, she was "adopted" and forced to work in an upscale Atlesian hotel by its wealthy owner. Cinder was not only forced to do most of the physical labor, but also deprived of food, teased and tormented by her "step-sisters", and her legal guardian controlled her with a ShockCollar. Five years later, Cinder eventually killed her "family" and fled.]]

* ManipulativeBitch: Owing to the faction she comes from, Cinder's talents extend beyond overwhelming power and into indirect control over other people via a silver tongue. She recruited all of her subordinates through different methods ranging from promising a place to belong (Emerald and Mercury) to straight-up threats (Torchwick and Adam). Cinder uses her oratory skills to kickstart the Grimm invasion of Vale by waiting until the right moment to broadcast a speech to the people calculated to shatter their trust in the authorities that protect them. Upon mastering the full power of the Fall Maiden, Cinder abandons this skill in favor of brute force to her own detriment, [[spoiler: which Watts calls her out on in Atlas. She picks it up again, convincing Neo and Watts that she's working for their benefit as much as hers, before throwing them under the bus to return to Salem's side with two Relics in tow]].

* {{Narcissist}}: Cinder admits that she wants to be "strong, feared, and powerful", implying a need for recognition by others. During her fight with Pyrrha, she attempts to de-legitimise Pyrrha's eligibility to receive the power to bolster her sense of superiority. When Ruby permanently injures her at the end of Volume 3, Cinder begins developing a vengeful obsession with her. While still recovering from her injuries, she is disgruntled and frustrated with having to suffer disrespect and insults from the rest of Salem's subordinates. When she first meets Raven, the latter concludes that Cinder has a "slight case of egomania" to have a name that is suspiciously fitting for a Fall Maiden. When she fights Jaune, she only stops toying with him when he manages to strike her mask, almost injuring her; she instantly flies into a rage, ranting about the audacity of someone as weak as him daring to think he could beat her. When she confronts the Spring Maiden at the Relic of Knowledge's vault, she outright claims that the only person worthy of possessing such power is herself. [[spoiler:Her past shows why she desires power. She was abused and desperately wants to be strong to [[NeverBeHurtAgain rise above her past]] and the world that hurt her. Not only does she want power, she wants to flaunt it to show that she's the one on top.]]

* NeckLift: Even as a seventeen year old girl, Cinder was strong enough to lift an adult off the ground by their neck. [[spoiler:After murdering her step sisters, Cinder held Madame by her neck despite Madame frantically using the shock collar against her. After saying her goodbye, Cinder squeezed down on her abuser's neck, killing her.]]

** Cinder usually engages in battles with a smug, condescending attitude, often toying with her enemies. At the conclusion of her battle with Winter and Penny in "The Enemy of Trust", however, Cinder's smug attitude is instead replaced with a burning hatred towards the elite Atlesians and she pursues Fria's power as desperately as if she were physically starving for it. And as the fight progresses and it becomes less likely that she will claim the Winter Maiden's power, her anger and desperation grows. By the end of the episode, Cinder is reduced to screaming in impotent rage over her failure. [[spoiler:Volume 8 reveals that this stems from her traumatic childhood where she was adopted and made into a slave by a wealthy Atlesian elite, who would force her to work and routinely tortured her with a shock collar.]]

* PreMortemOneLiner: One of Cinder's first murders in her youth was very personal, and she shared parting words before the killing blow. [[spoiler:While holding Madame in a NeckLift, she reminded her of the phrase she was always forced to recite, "Without you, I am nothing." And then thanked Madame by saying, "But because of you, I am everything!" before finally killing her.]]

* {{Sadist}}: Cinder takes pleasure in the pain of others; describing the Grimm slaughtering Vale citizens as "wonderful", she drawing out the pain of Amber's last conscious moments with needless theatrics that gave Amber the chance to see what was going to happen to her while stealing half of her Maiden powers. When she kills Pyrrha, she shoots her through the heart with an arrow that burns Pyrrha from the inside out -- while Pyrrha is still alive. After Ruby disfigures her, her sadism becomes more pronounced as shown by burning illusions of a begging Ruby created by Emerald, and taunting Jaune over his failure to save Pyrrha and when he damages her mask, she impales Weiss with a flaming spear just to spite him. [[spoiler:When her past abuse at the hands of the family that adopted her is revealed in Volume 8, many of the sadistic behaviours the step-mother and step-sisters displayed against Cinder are extremely similar to Cinder's own sadistic behaviour; the step-mother would torture Cinder with a ShockCollar just for pleasure and to reinforce how powerless Cinder was in a manner similar to how Cinder torments Jaune at Haven.]]

* ShesBack: After successfully destroying Beacon and obtaining the Fall Maiden's power, being maimed by Ruby's silver eyes leaves Cinder fixated on killing Ruby and obtaining more power. She repeatedly ruins her own goals and Salem's plans through increasingly desperate attempts to fulfill her obsession. After Watts deconstructs her behaviour in Volume 8, she rethinks her approach and returns to the tactics that succeeded in Vale. [[spoiler:She obtains two Relics for Salem, indirectly kills Watts, gets Penny killed and is responsible for the loss of Team RWBY, Jaune and Neo to the Void. While she failed to obtain the Winter Maiden's powers, her victory eclipses even Beacon's success.]]

* TheSociopath: Cinder is remorseless in pursuit of her goals, murdering without hesitation, massacring a city with sadistic pleasure and smiling when ordering Mercury to record it. When diplomacy fails, she slaughters Faunus to obtain Adam's cooperation by force. She desires power, strength and to be feared by all, believing the best way to show her superiority is by dominating and hurting others; this includes seeking revenge against Ruby for maiming her and trying to kill Weiss just to spite Jaune for almost injuring her in battle. She has no compassion or emotional attachment for others, something Mercury has tried to warn the emotionally-invested Emerald about. [[spoiler:Due to her abuse at the hands of the Madame and her daughters, as well as Rhodes doing what she saw as betrayal, she adopted the mindset that the only way to succeed is to only look out for yourself and treat people like objects for your benefit]].

* TeamKiller: At the end of Volume 8, Cinder creates a plan to obtain her goals and kill a few supposed allies while she's at it. [[spoiler:When Neo is left hanging from a pathway in the Void, Cinder steals the Relic of Knowledge from her belt and knocks her into the depths of the Void; while this also [[HeroKiller takes out Ruby]], who was dangling from Neo, the volume's stinger implies the fall isn't as lethal as Cinder thinks. She later uses the Relic of Creation to add more fire to the already burning Atlas; the scene cut to a trapped Watts implies that she used the Relic to try and kill him, too.]]

** With Watts. While they both work for Salem, it's painfully obvious that the two cannot stand each other as Watts goes out of his way to antagonize Cinder every chance he gets. Cinder, for her part, is implied to give back as much as she gets. This is confirmed later on when negotiating with Raven Branwen for her cooperation with the retrieval of the Relic of Knowledge; Watts tries to negotiate peacefully, but Cinder uses not-so-subtle threats when Raven snarks back at them. When Raven proposes a counteroffer (she helps them get the Relic in exchange for the death of her brother, Qrow, in addition to them leaving her and her tribe to live in peace), Watts immediately points out the illogicality of it, but Cinder is too enticed by the possibility of getting revenge on Ruby for the loss of her eye. When Watts catches onto this, he roughly grabs Cinder by the wrist and tells her that he won't take the blame if the heist fails because of her single-mindedness; Cinder merely burns his hand with her Maiden powers, and tells him go back to Salem and "tinker with his machines", effectively shunting him out of the operation. [[spoiler:She finally gets her revenge on Watts by using the Relic of Creation to add more flames while he’s in the Command Center and leaving him to die when Altas falls.]]

* TroubledAbuser: Having been a victim of abuse herself, Cinder's tutelage of her subordinate Emerald is also abusive as her role-models for leadership and power are rooted in people abusing both power and the people who work for them. A lot of Cinder's mannerisms and instructions to Emerald mimic the mannerisms and instructions Salem inflicts upon her, such as telling Emerald to obey instead of think, something Salem also tells her. [[spoiler:Her abusive adoptive mother is another one of her inspirations, as revealed in her backstory. Her mother used to shock her with a collar and tell her to "remember her place", while in the present, Cinder says the same to Emerald after hitting her.]]

* UsedToBeASweetKid: Cinder was not always the cruel and power-hungry maniac that she's become. [[spoiler:As a child, she was bullied by the other orphans and then cruelly abused by her adoptive "family". Meeting Rhodes gave her hope for the future, and she tried to hold on until she was old enough to apply to the Huntsmen Academy. She lasted about five years, before being pushed to breaking point by her family and then by Rhodes for trying to arrest her for murdering her family. That ended her chance for becoming a Huntress and started her down the road of becoming a villainess.]]

* ManipulativeBitch: She is an immensely skilled manipulator. As seen in the first three volumes, such as blackmailing Adam Taurus into joining forces with her and has successfully manipulated the people in the Vytal Festival that the Headmasters of the Huntsman Academies are the people to blame and peace is fragile. [[spoiler: In Volume 8, she manipulated Watts and Neo to help them stop the heroes, only to later betray them in the last episode of the Volume, with Cinder kicking Neo to the into Void, and using the Staff of Creation to trap Watts in the Altas Command Center to die]].

* SanityHasAdvantages: For the first three volumes, Cinder is a calm and calculative manipulator who easily initiates Salem's plan to steal the Fall Maiden's power and destroy Beacon Academy; she also smoothly adapts, displaying smug pleasure instead of agitation or panic whenever unexpected situations occur. This all changes when she's maimed by Ruby's Silver Eyes. Beginning with Volume 4, Cinder is determined to get back at Ruby and her more negative traits -- such as her anger, narcissism, and lust for power -- become more pronounced. This causes her to adapt plans for personal gain at the cost of the plan's success. Her arrogance is partially what leads to the loss of the Relic of Knowledge. She seems to learn her lesson in Volume 6 during her exile from Salem's faction, regaining more of her strategist mindset when teaming up with Neo. She prioritizes what Salem wants and makes herself known in Volume 7 by triggering Ironwood's TraumaButton with a black queen chess piece, making him send Winter to get the Winter Maiden's power. However, her sadism and narcissism get the better of her when she decides to stop and gloat, giving Fria time to regain her senses and activate her powers.

* TheAce: Cinder is one of the greatest fighters in the series. She has killed Ozpin and Pyrrha, overpowered both Penny and Winter at once, fought Raven (a more experienced Maiden and considered an equal fighter to Qrow) to a near draw, [[spoiler: and together with Neo defeated Team RWBY, Jaune, and Penny. What makes all this even more impressive is that Cinder never attended any of the Four Huntsmen Academies but was home schooled by Rhodes in his free time.]]

* TheAce: Cinder is one of the greatest fighters in the series. She has killed Ozpin and Pyrrha, overpowered both Penny and Winter at once, fought Raven (a more experiences Maiden and considered an equal fighter to Qrow) to a near draw, [[spoiler: and together with Neo defeated Team RWBY, Jaune, and Penny. What makes all this even more impressive is that Cinder never attended any of the Four Huntsmen Academies but was home schooled by Rhodes in his free time.]]

** With Watts. While they both work for Salem, it's painfully obvious that the two cannot stand each other as Watts goes out of his way to antagonize Cinder every chance he gets. Cinder, for her part, is implied to give back as much as she gets. This is confirmed later on when negotiating with Raven Branwen for her cooperation with the retrieval of the Relic of Knowledge; Watts tries to negotiate peacefully, but Cinder uses not-so-subtle threats when Raven snarks back at them. When Raven proposes a counteroffer (she helps them get the Relic in exchange for the death of her brother, Qrow, in addition to them leaving her and her tribe to live in peace), Watts immediately points out the illogicality of it, but Cinder is too enticed by the possibility of getting revenge on Ruby for the loss of her eye. When Watts catches onto this, he roughly grabs Cinder by the wrist and tells her that he won't take the blame if the heist fails because of her single-mindedness; Cinder merely burns his hand with her Maiden powers, and tells him go back to Salem and "tinker with his machines", effectively shunting him out of the operation. [[spoiler:She finally gets her revenge on Watts by using the Relic of Creation to add more flames while he’s in the control room and leaving him to die when Altas falls.]]

* ShesGotLegs: Cinder is introduced with her face hidden and the camera focussing mostly on her long, bare legs as well as her glass shoes. In her duelling with Glynda, Cinder's legs are the most prominent part of her body, which hints that her character inspiration is ''Literature/{{Cinderella}}''. Throughout the second and third volumes, as well as the seventh and eighth volumes, her short dresses and catsuits ensure prominent focus on her legs whenever she is fighting, including camera shots [[BetweenMyLegs through her legs]] towards her opponents, such as during her fight with Amber.

* BeautyisNeverTarnished: A Subversion on multiple levels. Firstly that she gets a severe scar despite being an attractive female character. Second, she and everyone around her are more concerned that she lost than with any cosmetic marks it left behind. And finally, she's a good example of how the outmoded the idea of scars detracting from beauty is.

* NiceShoes: In episode one her shoes make a distinct clinking sound when she walks revealing them to be made of glass.

* PsychopathicWomanchild: Cinder can be [[TheChessmaster scheming]], [[FauxAffablyEvil charismatic]] and cunning. However, she feels so entitled to take power from others that if she fails or doesn't get her way, she descends into sadistic, bullying tantrums much like a spoiled, haughty teenager. As she becomes more arrogant and less pragmatic, her flaws cost her victories and ruin Salem's plans. Even after seeing that, she's still throwing tantrums and refusing to learn from her mistakes. In Volume 8, Watts angrily dissects her flaws and failures, reducing her to tears.

* DarkAndTroubledPast: Cinder's past is revealed in Volume 8, helping to clarify why she is the person she's become. [[spoiler:As a young orphan, the other children frequently picked on her until she was adopted by a cruel hotelier who forced her to perform all the chores for no reward and minimal food. Her step-sisters would regularly degrade and mock her for their own pleasure, and her step-mother used a ShockCollar to control her. Rhodes secretly trained her out of sympathy, which improved her situation slightly. Unfortunately, when her step-sisters found her sword, Cinder killed her adoptive family and her mentor when he tried arresting her for it.]]

* CorruptedCharacterCopy: She's based on Literature/{{Cinderella}}, but with the twist that her abuse turned her into a villain, leading her to a "fairy godmother" (Salem) who empowers that evil. [[spoiler:Cinder shares Cinderella's background of abusive slavery in a wicked step-family, and a "Prince Charming" who tries to rescue her. The caveat is that her "Prince Charming" doesn't immediately save her, instead expecting her to endure years of abuse while he trains her to obtain a legal escape only when she's old enough. She eventually snaps, murdering her abusive family and then her "Prince Charming" for trying to arrest her.]]

* CorruptedCharacterCopy: Cinder is a version of ''Literature/{{Cinderella}}'' who is corrupted by her abuse and finds her "Fairy Godmother" only through villainy, an abusive AncientEvil who indulges Cinder's sadism while enabling her quest for power. [[spoiler:Adopted into legal slavery by a sadistic wealthy Atlesian hotelier with two cruel daughters, her "Prince Charming" secretly trains her while expecting her survive seven years of torment before taking the Huntsman Academy entrance exam. Unable to endure, Cinder first kills her family and then her "Prince Charming" for trying to arrest her, putting her on the road to eventually meeting [[BigBad Salem]].]]

* CorruptedCharacterCopy: She's based on Literature/{{Cinderella}}, but with the twist that the "fairy godmother" (Salem) who empowers her is evil. [[spoiler: Cinder's backstory checks the same notes as her literary counterpart, with the caveat that she snapped and murdered her own abusive stepfamily.]]

* CorruptedCharacterCopy: She's based on Literature/{{Cinderella}}, but with the twist that she reached her breaking point and snapped under [[spoiler:the WickedStepmother and stepsisters' abuse]] before meeting her fairy godmother. There's also the additional twist that her fairy godmother (Salem) is evil.