"They are the darkness, and we are the light."
- Pyrrha to Jaune, speaking about the creatures of the Grim.
Pyrrha Nikos is a student at Beacon Academy and a member of Team JNPR. Her weapon of choice is a red-and-gold spear-like weapon that turns into a rifle and a shield which resembles one an Amazon would use.
Appearance
Pyrrha wears her red hair in a waist length high ponytail and has vivid green eyes. She also wears light green eyeshadow around the far, upper-corners of her eyes. She is also tall and quite muscular among the girls. Her top consists of two layers. The top layer is a light brown strapless top split into two vertically with some gold patterns.
This may be a piece of leather or metal armor as it appears to be quite stiff, maintaining its shape without support, and seems to have some kind of riveting or small round embroidery on the sides, possibly simply heavy stitching.
The bottom layer is a low gold v-neck. She wears a red pencil skirt that ends mid-thigh and brown cut-off sleeves on both arms. She wears a red ankle length drapery that appears to be wrapped around her skirt.
There is a small circular golden plate by her right hip opposite a pouch with both connected to a belt. She wears a golden circlet headpiece that can be seen above her ear and under her bangs. A pair of small, green, teardrop-shaped emeralds hang from her circlet on thin chains. She also sports a large golden necklace and golden bracelet on top of the sleeve on her left arm. Pyrrha is shown as continuing to wear her headpiece when dressed in her school uniform.
Unlike most other characters, Pyrrha wears armor. She has elaborate golden cusses that start below mid-thigh and continue down into her boots. She also dons a golden arm guard on top of the sleeve on her left arm, which appears to connect with and disconnect from her shield easily. Her boots are brown, matching her skirt and sleeves, that are mid-calf high and have gold trim.
Personality
Pyrrha appears to be a very professionally capable, friendly, and relaxed person, possibly even insouciant (cheerfully nonchalant). She does not seem to have any particular attachment to anyone seen in RWBY so far, although in The First Step she does seem to be acquainted with Weiss Schnee.
It also appears that she is attracted to Jaune Arc, going so far as to save his life, and go out of her way to team up with him during initiation. Despite her physical prowess and high grades, she also has a tendency to act before she thinks. When Jaune was annoying Weiss and she asked Pyrrha to help deal with him, she threw her weapon at him and pinned him to a support column by his hoodie, though apologizing afterwards as she did not mean to hurt him.
She also seems to be both a quick thinker and a helpful person. This is indicated by her fast response to help Jaune from otherwise plummeting to his death during the initiation, even though it meant disarming herself. However, that particular action could be because of her possible romantic interest in him.
Pyrrha is also a level headed thinker in battle. Despite Pyrrha's impressive range of combat abilities, she also knows her own limitations and can think clearly when faced with a dangerous or stronger opponent. When faced with the Death Stalker, she decided to retreat into the open instead of facing it in combat in confined quarters.
Pyrrha is also much against bullying. When Cardin Winchester was bullying Jaune (and later Velvet Scarlatina) she stated she couldn't stand people like him calling their acts atrocious.
Abilities & Powers
Pyrrha's Sword/Rifle/Spear is called Miló, which means speak. And her shield is called Akoúo which means listen.
Pyrrha is able to aim with extreme precision when throwing the javelin form of Miló, as she is seen to hit Jaune's hood over a long distance as he was falling, using only her thumb as an iron sight. She also appears to be physically strong, easily able to crash through grown tree trunks with the help of her shield.
Pyrrha also has a few notable abilities outside combat. Weiss noted that she graduated at the top of her class at Sanctum, and holds the record for the most consecutive Mistral Regional Tournament victories.
Shown in episode 6, Pyrrha demonstrates the ability to unlock another person's Aura. She did this for Jaune, whose Aura had been unknown to him. She was visibly tired after unlocking it, possibly due to the sheer amount that she commented Jaune had or the nature of the ability itself.
Trivia
- 'Pyrrha' is derived from the Greek adjective purrhos (πυρρός), which means 'flame colored'. 'Nikos' (Νίκος), meaning 'victor of the people', is derived from the Greek Nike, who is the Goddess of Victory.
- Her first and last name together could be taken to refer to a Pyrrhic victory, meaning a tactical victory that comes at such extreme cost it is often seen as a strategic defeat.
- Her name also comes from Greek mythology.
- She has appeared on the front of the box for a cereal called "Pumpkin Pete's Marshmallow Flakes."
- Although she tells Jaune and Weiss that it was "pretty cool," she laments that the cereal is unhealthy.
- It is stated by Weiss that she graduated at the top of her class in Sanctum and has won a record number of regional tournaments.
- Pyrrha is apparently the first character confirmed not to be from the Vale region/city. Weiss states that she won the Mistral regional tournament four years in succession.
- She is somewhat similar to Agent Carolina from Red vs. Blue, who is also voiced by Jen Brown. Both have red pony-tailed hair and green eyes, and are the best at what they do. In Players and Pieces, Pyrrha lands in a stance very similar to one Agent Carolina landed in.