RWBY (TV Series)

Burning the Candle (2014)

Barbara Dunkelman: Yang Xiao Long

Photos 

Quotes 

• Weiss Schnee : [Team RWBY is readying the Main Hall for the dance. Ruby is sitting at a table, sulking. Weiss suddenly puts two cloth squares on the table in front of her]  I need you to pick a tablecloth.

  [Pushes the two squares forward, which appear to be exactly identical] 

  Ruby Rose : ...Aren't they both the same?

  Weiss Schnee : Ugh, I don't even know why I asked!

  [She leaves. Yang then comes in carrying a large speaker, which she places hard on the floor, causing everything around her, including Ruby and the table, to bounce] 

  Yang Xiao Long : So, have you picked out a dress, yet?

  Ruby Rose : What's the point? Who cares about the dance if Blake isn't going?

  Yang Xiao Long : Oh, don't worry. She's going.

  [Looks to the side] 

  Yang Xiao Long : Weiss! I thought we agreed: no doilies!

  Weiss Schnee : If I don't get doilies, you don't get fog machines!

  Neptune Vasilias : [Entering with Sun]  Your dance is going to have fog machines?

  Weiss Schnee : [Smiles sweetly to Neptune]  We were thinking about it.

  Neptune Vasilias : Hey, that's pretty cool.

  Sun Wukong : You ladies all ready for dress-up?

  Ruby Rose : Pfft, yeah, right.

  Yang Xiao Long : Laugh all you want, I'll be turning heads tomorrow night.

  Weiss Schnee : What are you two wearing?

  Sun Wukong : [Gesturing to his more wild, non-formal clothing]  Uh, this?

  Neptune Vasilias : Ignore him, for he knows not what he says.

  Sun Wukong : Hey, I may come from Mistral, but I grew up in Vacuo. It's not exactly a shirt-and-tie kind of place.

  Yang Xiao Long : Yeah, we've noticed.

  Sun Wukong : So, how does Blake feel about all this? Is she still being all, you know... Blake-y?

  Weiss Schnee : Obviously.

  Ruby Rose : I still can't think of a way to change her mind.

  Yang Xiao Long : Guys, trust me, I got this. Blake *will* be at the dance, tomorrow.

• [Yang is confronting Blake about her obsession over the White Fang driving her to exhaustion] 

  Blake : Yang, if you're going to tell me to stop, you may as well just save your breath.

  Yang : I don't want you to stop, I want you to slow down.

  Blake : We don't have the luxury to slow down.

  Yang : It's not a luxury; it's a necessity.

  Blake : The necessity is stopping Torchwick.

  Yang : And we're going to, but first you have to sit down and listen to what I have to say.

  Blake : [sits]  Fine.

  Yang : Ruby and I grew up in Patch, an island just off the coast of Vale. Out parents were Huntsmen. Out dad taught at Signal and our mom would take on missions around the kingdom. Her name was Summer Rose and she was like Super-Mom: bake of cookies and slayer of giant monsters. And then, one day she left for a mission and never came back. It was tough. Ruby was really torn up, but I think she was still too young to really get what was going on, you know? And my dad just kind of... shut down. It wasn't long before I learned why. Summer wasn't the first love he'd lost, she was his second. The first was my mom. He wouldn't tell me everything, but I learned that the two of them had been on a team together with Summer and Qrow and that she had left me with him just after I was born. No one had seen her since.

  Blake : Why did she leave you?

  Yang : That question... Why? I didn't know the answer, but I was determined to find out. It was all I thought about. I would ask anybody I could what they knew about her. Then, one day I found something. What I thought was a clue that could lead me to answers, or maybe even my mother. I waited for dad to leave the house, put Ruby in a wagon, and headed out. We must have walked for hours. I have cuts and bruises; I was totally exhausted, but I wasn't going to let anything stop me. When we finally got there, I could barely stand, but I didn't care... I had made it. And then I saw them. Those burning red eyes. There we were: a toddler asleep in the back of a wagon and a stupid girl too exhausted to even cry for help. We might as well have been served on a silver platter. But, as luck would have it, our uncle showed up just in time. My stubbornness should've gotten us killed that night.

  Blake : Yang, I'm sorry that happened to you and I understand what you're trying to tell me, but this is different. I'm not a child and this isn't just a search for answers! I can't just...

  Yang : I told you, I'm not telling you to stop. I haven't. To this day I still want to know what happened to my mother and why she left me, but I will never let that search control me. We're going to find the answers we're looking for, Blake, but if we destroy ourselves in the process what good are we?

  Blake : You don't understand, I'm the only one who can do this!

  Yang : No, you don't understand! If Roman Torchwick walked through that door, what would you do?

  Blake : I'd fight him!

  Yang : [shoves Blake]  You'd lose!

  Blake : [pushing back]  I'd stop him!

  Yang : [pushes Blake down]  You can't even stop me!

  [Yang embraces Blake] 

  Yang : I'm not asking you to stop. Just please, get some rest. Not just for you, but for the people you care about.

  [heads for the door] 

  Yang : And if you feel like coming out tomorrow, I'll save you a dance.