| “ | I'm combat ready! | „ |
| ~ Penny, on fighting in the Vytal Festival. |
| “ | I'm... not a real girl... | „ |
| ~ Penny to Ruby Rose. |
| “ | I’m as good as new! Better, even! And now I’m the official protector of the city! | „ |
| ~ Penny to Ruby and co. about her new job in Mantle. |
| “ | I was the protector of Mantle. But now, I am much more than that, and I wish I was not. | „ |
| ~ Penny. |
| Penny Polendina | |
|---|---|
| Series | RWBY |
| Age | Unknown |
| Birthday | Unknown |
| Sex | Female |
| Species | Unknown |
| Height | 5'5 |
| Weight | Unknown |
| Alignment | Neutral Good |
Penny Polendina is a character from the Rooster Teeth web series, RWBY. She is a robotic girl with the soul and Aura of a human. She is one of Team RWBY's allies and the protector of Atlas. At the end of Volume 7, she became the Winter Maiden.
Background[]
Penny is an android created by her father, Pietro Polendina, with the aid of the Atlesian Military and General Ironwood. Designed to be the first synthetic person capable of generating an Aura. Her abilities were to be presented on an international stage at the 40th Vytal Festival in Vale.
She was found lying on the ground after Weiss Schnee crashed into her, whilst chasing after Sun Wukong. Upon confiding in Ruby that she was a synthetic being, Penny was worried about how she would take the news. However, after seeing how Ruby took it rather well, she was glad that Ruby didn't care if she was a machine, for what mattered was her heart and soul.
In "PvP", Penny is destroyed by her own weapons during her fight with Pyrrha Nikos.
She returns in "The Greatest Kingdom" with a new look made by her father, Pietro Polendina, who rebuilt her after the Fall of Beacon. Penny became the official protector of Mantle and eliminates Grimm that invade the city. As of "The Enemy of Trust", she is the current Winter Maiden. Penny joined Ruby's group in launching Amity, but was conflicted about going against Ironwood and her role as the new Winter Maiden. While in Amity, Penny defeated Cinder and went against her father's command to push Amity high enough to broadcast Ruby's message to Remnant, but was later hacked by Watts through her sword stolen by the Ace-Ops. After crashing in front of the Schnee manor, Penny started to succumb to Watt's hacking but was knocked out by the Hound. As she reawakened, Penny began to fly to the vault due to the virus but was stopped by Ruby's group and Emerald. She was then able to hold off the virus thanks to Jaune giving his Aura, but only temporarily.
Arriving at the vault, Penny opened it for Team RWBY and succumbed to the virus. But her soul is separated from her robot body by Ambrosius, and she was given a human body as her old one was terminated. In the passageways to Vacuo, Penny was mortally wounded by Cinder. She let Jaune kill her so that she could pass the Maiden's power to Winter Schnee.
Powers and Abilities[]
- Mobility: She can allow Floating Array to pull her around or anchor herself and use them to pull large objects, including an airship in flight despite the mass and thrust power of the vehicle. She can also use her weapons as thrusters, allowing her to move extremely quickly through the air. Penny is able to jump great distances, with the force of her jump being enough to break the ground. She can also use her wires to catapult herself. She also seems to have a high amount of speed or stealthiness, as seen when she appears in one spot before quickly showing up in another. In Chapter 14 of the Manga, Penny is shown to have a type of jetpack that goes by the simple name of Flight Unit. As of "The Greatest Kingdom", Penny, in her new body, appears to have flight capabilities without Floating Array due to rocket thrusters implemented in her boots. Upon Penny being transformed into a biological human and losing her android body, Penny no longer had access to the same flight and mobility abilities offered to her by her android body.
- Strength: Penny possessed immense physical strength, made evident when she manages to bring an incoming From Dust Till Dawn truck in "A Minor Hiccup" to a complete stop with her bare hands, even causing the ground beneath her feet to buckle and crack. Her strength was attributed to her being a robot, which she admited to in the same episode.
- Aura: In the episode "Painting the Town..." Penny reveals she is the first synthetic entity to be capable of generating an Aura. According to other references to Aura, this could also imply that Penny truly has a soul and that she can also wield a Semblance. In "Worst Case Scenario", Pietro revealed that he used a part of his own aura to create Penny's. The exact mechanism of how he did it was not revealed. However, Pietro notes that it takes a little more of his aura each time he rebuilds Penny.
- Mechanical Physiology (formerly): Due to Penny's nature as an android, she was significantly more resistant to fatal injuries. According to her father, Pietro, she could survive injuries and damage as severe as dismemberment and even decapitation, so long as her core remains intact. This is evident as her core survived her previous form's destruction and gruesome injuries unintentionally inflicted by Pyrrha in "PvP", an incident which led many to believe Penny was dead. As of "Creation", Penny was no longer an android and instead a human, meaning she could no longer be hacked, but also that she no longer had access to her robotic enhancements.
- Winter Maiden Powers: As the Winter Maiden, Penny possessed the ability to manipulate the elements.
- Weather Manipulation: She prefers using wind, seen where she created a large gale of wind to blow away the Ace-Ops with enough power to fling them out of their feet. Penny has also showcased the ability to create storm clouds around her that generate green lightning. Finally, she is able to cause the storm cloud to produce hail, through not particularly powerful, as it only bounced off Marrow Amin.
- Ice Manipulation: Penny can generate blasts of ice to freeze and create giant chunks of ice, as well as create weapons of ice shaped like the swords of her Floating Array.
- Lightning Manipulation: She is also capable of siphoning the lightning generated from her storm clouds and focusing them to further empower her beam blasts.
- Fire Manipulation: When holding Amity Colosseum to ensure it does not drift down, Penny generates blasts of blue fire to increase her strength.
- Weapon Creation: As a human, Penny used Maiden Magic to create swords to fight in the same style as her metal ones.
- Flight: As a human, Penny could produce green flames under her feet to fly similar to Cinder Fall.
Equipment[]
- Fighting Array: An array of weapons that Penny wields that consist of a gun-blade-looking weapon that can split itself into numerous thin, floating blades that are apparently controlled by wire cables and are stored in a small backpack. The blades can be deployed as a single blade from the back, and can further separate. Penny is shown to be able to manipulate the blades through thin, string-like cables attached to the blades. Penny can also relocate rapidly using these cables, by embedding the blade(s) into an immovable object and then reeling the connecting cables in to pull herself towards them. The cables are also shown to be extremely strong, as seen when Penny embeds the blades into a Bullhead's body and pulls the craft down. The blades can be brought together to form a circular ring that is spun to fire a powerful green laser that is capable of splitting into many smaller beams. This attack is powerful enough to slice through metal with ease, and are seen to take down two attacking aircraft by cutting them apart. The blades can also form several smaller rings that can also shoot several smaller laser beams. Penny can also use these smaller ring configurations as thrusters to maneuver herself around the battlefield. She can also make all of them mini-rifles and shoot individual beams. After becoming a human, her backpack seemingly dissolved alongside her old robot body. To compensate, Penny used Maiden Magic to create swords to fight in the same style as her metal ones.
Feats[]
Strength[]
- Traded blows with Pyrrha Nikos.
- Penny pulled back a large airship carrying a large shipping container of Dust
- Was able to cut two Bullhead aircrafts apart with her laser.
- Can trade blows with Cinder Fall.
- Stopped a speeding truck with her bare hands without flinching, causing her feet to dig into the road.
- Velvet's copies of her swords could slice through an Atlesian Paladin's legs.
- Swords and strings are strong enough to lift boulders and pierce deeply into them.
- Lifted the Amity Comunications Tower.
- Briefly grappled with the Hound while hacked.
Speed[]
- Penny blocked rapid gunfire from airships
- Kept up with Pyrrha.
- Can keep up with Cinder.
Durability[]
- Stopped a large speeding truck with her bare hands, although her hands were slightly damaged afterwards.
- Fought Pyrrha Nikos.
- Fought Cinder.
- Survived crash landing from extremely high in the atmosphere.
Skill[]
- Was a finalist in the Vytal Tournament and capable of matching Pyrrha Nikos in combat.
- Defeated a large group of White Fang thugs by herself.
- Became the official protector of Mantle and eliminates Grimm that invade the city.
- Helped Team RWBY, JNPR, Qrow Branwen and Oscar Pine fight off a pack of Sabyr Grimm, leading to the heartwarming reunion between her and Ruby.
- Fought Cinder Fall with the aid of Winter Schnee, but didn't defeat her.
- Became the Winter Maiden.
- Penny created a small storm and another one later
- Fought the Ace-Ops to a standstill.
- One-shot Neopolitan.
- In the rematch, she fought and defeated Cinder, even when was helped by Emerald.
- Managed to temporarily hold off Watts' virus thanks to Jaune amplifying her Aura.
- Fought Cinder once more in the Evacuation Central Location.
- Transferred her Maiden powers to Winter Schnee in her final moments.
Weaknesses[]
- Because she is metal, she is weak to magnetism.
- However, after becoming a human, this was no longer a problem.
- Often rather airheaded and naïve.
- Hiccups when she's lying.
- Runs on battery power (RWBY Chibi).
- Inexperienced with her new Maiden powers.
- Could be hacked.
- However, after becoming a human, this was no longer a problem.
- As a human, was much more vulnerable to mortal injuries and ultimately killed.
Fun Facts[]
- Penny alludes to Pinocchio.
- Penny's fighting style resembles that of Naminé as she is depicted in Dead Fantasy, an online series also created by Monty Oum.
- Going along with her robotic theme, her swords have the international standby/power symbol on each of them.
- The destroyed character model of Penny from "PvP" and "Battle of Beacon" was actually built by her voice actress, Taylor McNee, who is also a 3D artist on the show.
- Penny's model number is revealed in "Never Miss a Beat" to be M374, which is possibly a reference to the M374 Hephaestus Combat Suit worn by the Meta in Red vs. Blue.
- A new model of Penny based off of a scene from the Shirow Miwa manga was set to be included in RWBY: Amity Arena, but Rooster Teeth denied use of it owing to Penny's return in Volume 7.