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I must object. They should not fight each other. We're teammates, and we have to learn together. This just undermines the goal.
—Arslan, to Xanthe Rumpole on her teaching method

Arslan Altan[2] is the leader of Team ABRN. Arslan and her team were first revealed at the RTX 2015 RWBY Panel on August 7th, 2015. Arslan is seen fighting Yang Xiao Long during the Vytal Festival Tournament.

Appearance

Arslan has a dark complexion, platinum blonde hair and olive green eyes. She wears a yellow robe with only one wide, loose-fitting sleeve over a black tube top. She also has black pants and shoes and a red sash embroidered with a white "endless knot" on it.

She has bandages on both her legs and arms as well as a red necklace and what appears to be two matching red sticks on the back left side of her head.

In her concept art, she wore both sleeves, which hung loosely at her side, exposing her shoulders. Her tank top also had straps. She wore boots instead of shoes and lacked the pins in her hair and necklace. In their place, she had red bands in her hair.

Personality

Arslan is a no-nonsense and serious girl who is motivated to prove herself as a leader and a capable Huntress. She is highly protective of her teammates, showing a deeply caring nature towards them, as shown when she defends Velvet Scarlatina from Xanthe Rumpole. Arslan is described as an amazing natural leader by Scarlet David, who deserves better.

Arslan is also highly courageous, as shown by being amongst the first to step to defend Shade Academy, and is more patient than her teammates in ABRN.

Powers and Abilities

Arslan is shown to be skilled at hand-to-hand combat, being evenly-matched against Yang in both speed and physical strength, despite the fact Arslan fights barehanded. Her strength is later demonstrated once more when she swings down a Nevermore and lifted the taller and bulkier Yatsuhashi Daichi with a single arm before throwing him into the air with ease.

According to RWBY: Amity Arena, Arslan is extremely proficient in the use of her Aura. Among her Aura techniques, Arslan can focus it all into a single large hit, which she can use to shatter objects such as large, rolling balls of ice. She is also listed as having extremely high physical capabilities.

She appears to be one of the stronger, if not the strongest member of her team, and she saves her teammates Bolin Hori and Nadir Shiko from being knocked out of the ring. Ultimately, however, Arslan and her team are outclassed by Team RWBY.

Through an unknown method, Arslan is capable of shooting fireballs from her hand as seen in "Heroes and Monsters".

Weapon

Main article: Arslan's Weapon

Arslan's weapon of choice is her Dagger, which she attaches to her bandages to transform it into a rope dart. She is proficient with it, being able to trip up her opponents and catch them off-guard with it and even using it while she is simultaneously avoiding her opponent's attacks, jumping and flipping over the thread before launching it towards them to catch them when they least expect it.

She can also use her rope dart to swing around objects and even using it to swing herself in an arc down a Nevermore before bringing herself back into the air with it.

Trivia

Allusion

  • Arslan alludes to Aslan the Lion from C.S. Lewis' The Chronicles of Narnia series.[3]

Color Naming Rule

  • Arslan is Turkish and Mongolian for "Lion". Altan means "red dawn" in many Turkic languages and "golden" in Mongolian.
  • Altan (Telgey) is a Mongolian earth goddess.

Character&Design

  • When asked what color Arslan's eyes were, her character designer, Erin Winn responded that she calls them olive green.[4]
  • The fighting styles of Team ABRN (particularly Arslan) were stated on the DVD commentaries to be intended to have an Eastern martial arts influence to reflect the fact that they come from Haven.[5]
  • Arslan's emblem is an endless knot, a symbol with strong religious significance that is primarily tied to Tibetan Buddhism. The endless knot symbolizes the infinite love and interdependence of all things.

References

Characters
BRIR
RWBY/Justice League
Super Heroes and Huntsmen
Other
Minor Characters
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