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We wouldn't want you to be gobbled up by a Beowolf, now would we?

Beowolves are large, dark, werewolf-like Creatures of Grimm.

They are the first Grimm seen in the series, making their debut appearance in the "Red" Trailer, before returning in the episode "The First Step, Pt.2", during the show's main run. They are the most basic and abundant type of Grimm.

A larger, armored version, known as an Alpha Beowolf appears in "Battle of Beacon". This variant is much stronger and more durable than the standard Beowolves.

Mutant Beowolves are special Grimm larger, stronger and more durable than even Alphas, mutated by Doctor Merlot.

Appearance[]

Beowolves have gone through several redesigns over the course of the series, but all incarnations share certain common traits. Consistently, Beowolves stand on their hind legs, albeit with a slouch, and are extremely muscular.

In the "Red" Trailer, Beowolves appeared like pitch-black, featureless shadows in the shape of wolves, with red eyes and jaws.

The Volume 1 redesign of the creatures added the bone-like mask with red markings characteristic of most Grimm, as well as the bone-like spikes protruding from their arms, back, and knees. Their hands and feet are also tipped with long, sharp, white claws. They can vary greatly in size, with the average specimen being about the size of a human, but with larger Beowolves appearing that can be more than twice as large.

Older Beowolves are known as Alpha Beowolves, first appearing in "Battle of Beacon", are covered in more bone-like armor and spines than the typical specimen. It has a more angular skull, larger teeth and sharp triangular ears.

In the "Volume 4 Character Short", the Beowolves underwent another visual change, with a more angular head and more prominent ears, somewhat resembling the Alpha. Their glowing eyes also now leave a visible trail of red light as they move and are mostly yellow in color. Black smoke also seems to emanate from their bodies.

Merlot's Mutant Beowolves were similar to the Alpha, standing on their hind legs with massive green spikes on their back. They had white bone spots all over their body with a green tinge to them.

Most likely due to the fact that they inhabit the cold tundras of Solitas, the black skin of the northern variant of the Beowolf appears to be somewhat frozen and has white patches. Additionally, they have more spikes along their backs and arms. This variant is first seen in "Ace Operatives" and is referred to as an Ice Beowolf.

History[]

RWBY: Fairy Tales[]

In "The Hunter's Children", Beowolves were seen attacking a swamp village in the kingdom of Mistral and were fought off by a lone hunter. One day however, the Grimm managed to kill the hunter and force his children to take up his job.

Beowolves are shown attacking the village again and were fought off by the hunter's eldest daughter. Due to the increase in attacks however, the villagers start moving away. The elder brother attempted to find new settlements for people to love safely, but they were already destroyed by the Grimm by the time he reached them while fighting off Beowolves. The younger daughter studied the Grimm without ever directly fighting them and never learning how to properly fight them. The younger brother attempted to explore the wilderness alone, but almost ends up killed by Beowolves. However, the siblings begin to reunite and fight them off together.

RWBY: The Grimm Campaign[]

In "The Mission", Beowolves are amongst the Grimm invading Kuchinashi. One is fought by the protagonists.

RWBY[]

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A pack of Beowolves confronts Ruby

In the "Red" Trailer, many Beowolves confront Ruby as she is walking through the Cliffside Forest. They rush at Ruby, but she dodges them and draws her weapon, Crescent Rose, and begins to attack them.

After firing a few bullets, Ruby fully activates Crescent Rose so that she can use its scythe function to strike back at the Beowolves in a series of attacks. Eventually, one Beowolf puts Ruby on the defensive, but only temporarily, as she switches ammo and quickly goes back on the offensive, finishing off the remaining Beowolves.

Beowolves are among the species of Grimm that are shown as silhouettes in the opening narration of "Ruby Rose".

In "The Emerald Forest", Beowolves appear in the Emerald Forest as Ruby and Weiss Schnee walk through it. Weiss, separated from Ruby, prepares to attack the largest Beowolf of the pack. However, Ruby suddenly reappears and hits it with her scythe, though it manages to block her strike. This causes Weiss to misfire when she moves to stop herself from hitting Ruby, resulting in a small forest fire being started. This distracts Ruby long enough for the Beowolf she had initially attacked to knock her into Weiss. Ruby plans on continuing the fight with the Beowolves but is forced by Weiss to flee when the fire spreads.

Some Beowolf figurines are part of Remnant: The Game in "Welcome to Beacon". In "Burning the Candle", during Yang's flashback Qrow Branwen protected her and Ruby from three Beowolves.

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A Beowolf in Crescent Rose's sight

A Beowolf pack is encountered by Team RWBY and Bartholomew Oobleck during "Search and Destroy". They serve as fodder, as Team RWBY proceeds to slay them all, while talking to Oobleck about why they wanted to be Huntresses. In "Mountain Glenn" a lone Beowolf is seen briefly in the sight of Crescent Rose's scope. It scrounges around aimlessly; however, it is not hostile towards Ruby, despite staring right at her.

In "No Brakes", Beowolves are among the many Grimm infesting the underground tunnels in Mountain Glenn, and were thus free to enter Vale when the barriers were destroyed by the crashing train. The Beowolves that entered the city were dispatched by Teams RWBY, JNPR and CFVY, with help from the Atlesian Military, Zwei, Doctor Oobleck, Peter Port, Glynda Goodwitch, Mercury Black and Emerald Sustrai in "Breach".

In "Lessons Learned", Winter Schnee summons a Beowolf as a demonstration of the summoning ability of the Schnee Semblance. The Beowolf summon is friendly to Winter and has a white and blue appearance rather than the standard black and red.

In "Fall", Beowolves, Goliaths and Creeps sense negative emotions and turn their attention towards Vale. They walk through Mountain Glenn and closer to the city's border. In "PvP", they begin to attack the city. Some Atlas Soldiers attempt to fend them off, but are overwhelmed.

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The Alpha Beowolf duels with Ironwood

In "Battle of Beacon", the stronger, armored variant, the Alpha Beowolf, makes an appearance for the first time at Amity Colosseum during the Grimm invasion of Vale. After easily destroying a pair of Atlesian Knight-200 androids, it attacks James Ironwood, who manages to kill it after a brief fight with a shot through the skull from Due Process.

Another Alpha later appears at Beacon Academy, leaping from a crashing Bullhead. After it begins attacking escaping students, Blake goes to hunt it down.

In the "Volume 4 Character Short", Beowolves are seen attacking a village in Sanus, alongside Nevermores and a Beringel. When Ruby enters to defend the village, some lunge at her while another throws rocks and rubble from above the roof of a building before being slain.

In "Family", a Beowolf is shown stalking Team RNJR from afar before being dispatched by Qrow.

In "Ace Operatives", an Ice Beowolf is shown being shot down by Atlas Soldiers as Clover Ebi briefs Ruby, Jaune, and Qrow on their mission to the Schnee Dust Company Mine #2.

Beowolves are among the Grimm that attack Mantle during the Battle of Mantle and are easily disposed of by Ruby and Harriet Bree.

During "Midnight", statues of Beowolves were seen in the Glass Unicorn restaurant during Cinder Fall's past and later were used by Salem to attack Atlas during the Battle of Atlas.

RWBY: Grimm Eclipse[]

In Grimm Eclipse, Beowolves are among the many Grimm enemies encountered by Team RWBY in the Emerald Forest and Mountain Glenn. Team RWBY also encounters mysterious mutant Beowolves in Forever Fall forest, at a Grimm holding facility. These Beowolves were even larger than the Alphas, glowed with a green color and were capable of firing a line of spikes that fire up through the ground as a medium-ranged attack.

Manga[]

In the first chapter of the manga, a group of Beowolves fights Ruby in a flashback to the fight from the "Red" Trailer. A flashback to the time when Qrow saved Yang and Ruby from a pack of Beowolves also appears in the second chapter.

Powers and Abilities[]

They are first shown in the "Red" Trailer as Ruby's opponents. They attack like a regular wolf would, with clawing and lunges, and no special skills or abilities demonstrated as of yet.

Their behavior varies depending on age. Younger Beowolves do not act like normal wolves, lacking any sense of self-preservation. They relentlessly attack no matter how injured they are or how many of their pack members are slain. Older Beowolves gain a sense of self-preservation like normal wolves and eventually become more intelligent than them, observing their allies, retreating when needed and developing strategies for future encounters against Huntsmen and other threats.

They are extremely agile, as seen when they stalked Ruby through the Cliffside Forest, as well as in their subsequent fight with her.

Alpha Beowolves are a much more dangerous, armored version of the Beowolf. Alphas are easily capable of destroying a pair of Atlesian Knight-200 androids, literally ripping them apart. Unlike the standard Beowolves which are easily dispatched in droves by trainee Huntsmen and Huntresses, this one was able to put up an intense, albeit brief, fight against Ironwood.

Trivia[]

  • The name Beowolf originates from the Anglo-Saxon epic poem Beowulf, which is about a great hero who slays many monsters.
  • According to Miles Luna, Rooster Teeth is "very proud" of the name "Beowolf".
  • The name "Beowolf" is inaccurate. The name Beowulf is Old English for "bee-wolf" or "bee-hunter" meaning "one who acts as a wolf toward bees" and it is a kenning for "bear" The etymology of "Beowulf" is not beo + wulf;' rather, the etymology is beow + ulf and as such replacing "Wulf" with "Wolf" for a wolf monster is grammatically incorrect.
  • According to Monty Oum, Ruby fighting wolves (in the "Red" Trailer) was intentional as he wanted people to see the obvious reference to Little Red Riding Hood.
  • In the "Red" Trailer, the Beowolves appeared as black wolf shadows because Monty was working on the trailer by himself. Patrick Rodriguez, one of the concept artists and character designers for the series, later redesigned the Beowolves, creating the look that would appear in the series proper. The Beowolf design was later revised again by the concept artist Erin Winn for Volume 4.
  • During RTX 2014, Monty stated that the Beowolf was considered the "Slime" of the Grimm, referring to the Dragon Quest franchise's weakest enemy type. This could mean they are the lowest tier of the Grimm species.
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Beowolf figures in Ruby's room

  • In the December 2014 Sponsors-only Pre-Alpha demo of the video game Grimm Eclipse, a white Beowolf appeared once the normal Beowolves were defeated. It acted as a boss, presenting superior strength and intelligence compared to the "normal" Beowolves, blocking and dodging attacks. As a placeholder enemy, the white Beowolf does not appear in the final build of the game.
    • White Beowolves were later introduced as Summons from Winter Schnee
  • Beowolf pieces are included in Remnant: The Game and Ruby has Beowolf figures displayed on her bedroom shelves in Patch.


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