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| “ | ...NO... | „ |
| ~ The Hound to Lie Ren after the latter demands it to release Oscar. |
| “ | Take... the girl. | „ |
| ~ The Hound's repeated mantra while attempting to capture Penny. |
| “ | I know... you're here. | „ |
| ~ The Hound, hunting down Whitley Schnee. |
The Hound is a Creature of Grimm who serves Salem as her newest pet and a major antagonist in Volume 8 of the American animated web series RWBY.
It possesses intelligence far beyond a regular Grimm and is the first one known to be capable to speech. The Hound was tasked by Salem to bring Oscar to her so that he can tell her how to use the Relic of Knowledge.
It is voiced by Jason Liebrecht, who also provides the voice of Qrow Branwen in the same series from Volume 7 onwards, as well as the English voice of Zeke Yeager in Attack on Titan and Dabi in My Hero Academia.
Biography[]
Salem created the Hound as her newest "experiment", being a hybrid of various Grimm forms. The Hound was tasked with capturing Oscar Pine, the current vessel for Ozpin/Ozma, and bring him back to her so he could tell her how to use the Relic of Knowledge. The Hound enters Mantle, where Grimm run rampant everywhere, and stalks Oscar's group, currently consisting of himself, Jaune Arc, Yang Xiao Long, and Lie Ren. The Hound manages to abduct Oscar and summons fellow Grimm to stall his comrades. When Lie Ren demands the Hound give Oscar back, the Hound verbally responds with "No", shocking them as, until now, no Grimm had ever been capable of talking. They chase after the Hound to rescue Oscar, only for the Hound to summon even more Grimm and successfully get away.
The Hound holds up Oscar as Salem interrogates him. When he refuses to give Salem what she wants, she allows Hazel to take over interrogation, bringing the Hound out with her. Along their way, they pass by Cinder Fall and Neopolitan, the former asking about the Hound. Salem refers to it as her latest experiment, of which she is quite proud. When Cinder asks to go back out to retrieve the power of the Winter Maiden, Salem condescendingly talks down to her with the Hound. When Cinder tries to argue back, the Hound lunges at her, causing Cinder to recoil in fear. The Hound stands by as Salem orders Cinder to remain where she is until she is told to.
Salem then gave the Hound a new mission: retrieve the new Winter Maiden Penny Poladina, an android girl currently lying injured in the Schnee family mansion. At first it attacked Ruby and Blake as they were turning on the auxilary power generator after a wide-scale blackout, mistaking Ruby for his target and knocking her out. When Penny screams as she's trying to resist the orders hacked into her by Arthur Watts, the Hound turns his attention towards the mansion and dropping Ruby, realizing his mistake. While searching the mansion, the Hound is confronted by Weiss Schnee, but he ignores her after a brief struggle to resume his hunt. He tracks Penny's scent back to Weiss's brother Whitley, who got some of Penny's blood on him while helping to carry her. He barely escapes the Hound and this time outright ignores Weiss, as he finally found Penny back in the lobby. He knocks her out and is just about to abduct her when Ruby arrives and uses her silver eyes to blast him through a window, dropping Penny.
However, unlike other Grimm the Hound wasn't destroyed by Ruby's eyes. Instead, his oily skin and mask peeled away to reveal a heavily scarred Silver-Eyed Warrior underneath. Barely conscious, he slowly advanced towards the group while repeating Salem's orders over and over again. He was finally put out of his misery when Whitley and his mother knocked a large statue on top of him just as he was about to attack.
Appearance[]
The Hound was a large Grimm who had a short, wide snout with its teeth overlapping over its jaw. The Grimm lacked eyes, but had canine ears and quill-like spines on its back, one of the former notably having been seemingly sliced off. It had a tar-like body, often dripping Grimm Liquid from its primary mouth and body.
The Hound had two mouths in its body, the primary jaws and a second pair of jaws located on the back of its neck.
It appeared in the background of various shots in the episode "Refuge", where its physical form resembled that of a large canine, stalking its prey before making an approach. Upon attack, the Grimm transformed into a humanoid form, resembling a werewolf. Its legs were rearranged to allow the Hound to be bipedal.
Finally, the Grimm further transformed by using its host's vocal cords and sprouting red, bat-like wings in its back, the creature taking on the appearance resembling a gargoyle. It was also able to extend its limbs and even grow and additional arm.
When Ruby Rose used her Silver Eyes and exposed the core, The Hound was revealed to have once been a pale Silver-Eyed Faunus with canine ears as his trait. He was horribly scarred, his face warped and contorted, resembling a severe burn. His right eye was covered by a vein-like mass of white flesh, which faded and extended beyond his eye. White boils bubbled in patches of his skin, and he appeared to have been rotting, as pieces of torn skin exposed his muscle. Black liquids leaked from his remaining eye and ears. Beneath the Grimm mass, it appears the man's flesh had since withered away as his arm had been reduced to its skeleton and blackened.
Personality[]
Like all Grimm, The Hound was loyal to Salem and followed her commands without question. However unlike a majority of Grimm, The Hound was the first one to show genuine Human-like intelligence and cunning. This was seen where it was smart enough to use Oscar Pine as a shield when combating Yang, Jaune, and Ren to prevent them from attacking it or using their firearms against it. Also, prior to its confrontation with them, it showed enough cunning, patience and stealth to first observe the group before attacking in order to find any weaknesses it can exploit. It was through this that it had gained the needed information to use so it could kidnap Oscar. During the attack, The Hound showed enough self-control to break Oscar's Aura without seriously injuring him.
Later during its transportation of Oscar back to Monstra, The Hound showcased enough analytical ability to know it had no time to waste fighting off its pursuers, instead calling for reinforcements to slow them down.
Because The Hound had a Faunus at its core, it showed the capacity to talk and answer when spoken to. When Ren demanded it return Oscar, it uttered the word "No", showing that it understood Human language.
The Hound was shown to display personality traits equivalent of a loyal pet. It followed Salem around, enjoyed being petted by her and would react to her emotions, seen when it snarled and jumped to threaten Cinder when her attempts to force the issue regarding the Winter Maiden was beginning to irritate Salem.
At the Schnee Manor, while hunting for Penny Polendina, The Hound displayed an instance of sadism, letting Whitley Schnee know it knew he was there in the room for no other reason than to terrify him. When The Hound was struck by Ruby's Silver Eyes, exposing the Faunus inside, the man expressed a tortured and single-minded fury in his goal, continuously repeating "take the girl", referring to Penny. He displayed no other cognitive thought or indication, as the Grimm flesh swallowed him back up.
Powers and Abilities[]
The Hound is shown to be above the average Grimm. It is capable of shifting forms, from its regular hound form to a more humanoid form, as well as grow wings from its back. The Hound is also able to summon other Grimm through a powerful roar, and appears quite proficient at doing so. The Hound is also the first known Grimm to be capable of human speech, clearly telling Ren "NO" when he demands he release Oscar.
The Hound also appears to have an ominous presence surrounding it, being greatly feared by both other Grimm and, of all people, Cinder Fall herself (whether this involves a past trauma of hers or purely the Hound's aura remains unclear).
Due to its lack of eyes, The Hound was blind and was forced to rely on its hearing and sense of smell.
In the past, the monster's host was once a Silver-Eyed Warrior, though it's unknown if he was aware of his abilities or was able to use them at all after being experimented on by Salem.
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- It is the first Grimm not voiced solely by William Orendorff, who provides vocals for all other Grimm, as well as Hazel Rainart.
- Neither Kerry Shawcross nor Kiersi Burkhart can remember which one of them wrote the introductory scene for The Hound, so Kerry decided to give the credit to Kiersi.
- The Hound's sound design was done by Chris Kokkinos.
- In the Volume 8 Opening, Salem is shown with The Hound's wings.
- The Hound's design is inspired by several types of canines, namely Great Danes and greyhounds.
- The Saybr's running away after spotting The Hound was inspired by a scene in "Halo: Combat Evolved" where the Covenant are shown running away from something for the first time, which left a lasting impression on Miles Luna.
- During the Volume 8 Directors Commentary, Miles Luna and Kerry Shawcross praised the shot of The Hound attacking Oscar for its brutality. Paula Decanini credits senior animator Megan Pellino for the shot.
- Miles Luna praised the articulation on The Hound's neck spines and describes the way it moved up the balcony of Schnee Manor as "Xenomorph action".
- In "Refuge", the Hound can be seen in the background throughout the episode stalking Oscar three times before it attacks.
- The writers were surprised by how quickly people found where The Hound was and described it as a "Horrifying Where's Waldo Game".
- The Hound was the first canonical Grimm in the series to display the ability to speak.
- Prior to The Hound's debut, three other Grimm capable of Human speech appeared in the non-canonical comedy spinoff RWBY Chibi. They were Floyd the Geist and the twin Beowolves Mike and Marty respectively.
- In The Hound's case, this was because it has a Silver-Eyed Faunus as its core.
- In "Fault", it was stated by Salem that The Hound was an experiment, indicating that it might be a prototype.
- To someone who is familiar with how Grimm are supposed to behave, seeing one like The Hound slowly stalk a corridor and go in circles instead of "being 100% aggro all the time" is deeply unsettling.
- The Hound's more intelligent behavior and the fact that it didn't prioritize violence all the time are meant to be hints that it wasn't just a Grimm
- This is shown specifically in "Refuge", when it stalked Yang's Group until the opportune moment and when it used Oscar as a shield against them. Jaune even mentions the "Grimm aren't that smart".
- The person in The Hound was the first Silver-Eyed Faunus to appear in the series.
- The Hound is the only Grimm in the series that left behind a corpse after it was killed.
- The creation of The Hound might have been inspired by the deleted concept of Grimm Liquid being sold on the black market and being capable of "Grimmifying" any animals it touched while turning them into a hybrid.
- The Hound may allude to the Big Bad Wolf from the fairy tale of "Little Red Riding Hood", which is also the fairy tale that Ruby alludes to:
- The Hound has canine and lycanthropic forms, similar to a wolf.
- It was sent to hunt Penny, much like how the Wolf hunted Little Red Riding Hood.
- Ironically, when hunting for Penny at the Schnee Manor, it nearly took Ruby, who alludes to Little Red Riding Hood.
- The Hound had a person inside, which could refer to how the Wolf ate Little Red Riding Hood's grandmother.
- The Hound could also allude to the black dog from British folklore.
- The Hound is a black canine.
- In some cases, the black dog is said to shapeshift. The Hound had the ability to change its shape and extend wings and extra limbs from its body.
- In one folktale of the black dog, it is referred as the Church Grim.
- The Faunus in The Hound is likely a fox or dog Faunus, which alludes to the 1967 story: The Fox and the Hound by Daniel P. Mannix. It shares this allusion with Fox Alistair and his uncle, Copper.
- When the Hound's Silver-Eyed Faunus core was revealed in "Dark", it is revealed that Silver Eyes are not limited to only humans, but to Faunus as well.
- It is unknown if there are any other Silver-Eyed Warriors who are also Faunuses.
