Yang makes up the Y in RWBY. She's a firey, hot-tempered fighter who will protect her friends and family to the bitter end.
Yang is a mostly physical combatant, focusing a lot on her fists. It seems Yang learned a lot from their father, Taiyang, whereas Ruby's combat prowess was taught by their uncle, Qrow. She has tried to teach Ruby some hand-to-hand combat, since Ruby relies a lot on Crescent Rose.
Yang and Ruby were born on the small island of Patch. They were raised by their parents, Taiyang Xiao Long and Summer Rose. Yang and Ruby are only half-related, though. They share a father, but Yang's birth mother is actually Qrow's twin sister, Raven Branwen. Raven abandoned Tai and Yang to lead the Branwen bandit tribe that she and her brother were born into. Yang searched relentlessly for her mother, wanting answers for why she was abandoned. Still, she never left Ruby behind, often taking her toddler sister with her on her search. Yang is a protective older sister and will always stick by Ruby, even if they have disagreements over things.
Yang's weapon is a pair of dual range shot gauntlets named Ember Celica. Their resting state look like a pair of bracelets, but they can be activated to cover her forearms. The guns hold a cylinder of 12 shells, giving the guns 24 shots in total. Yang uses the force of the shots to make her punches hit hard. She also uses them for mobility, blasting around her to propel her body in the target direction. She can use this to move around her foes with ease. At the end of V3, Yang's right arm was severed by Adam Taurus after she depleted her aura to activate her semblance. She received a prosthetic from Atlas as a gift, which incorporated a shotgun. She used it much like her previous gauntlet. In V7, her arm and weapons were upgraded to give her the ability to plant explosives with her punches.
Yang's semblance is called 'Burn'. She can absorb the kinetic energy of her foes attacks and redirect it to make herself stronger. This seems to take a lot out of her, though, as her aura tends to break right after she uses it. When she activates her semblance, her eyes go from purple to red, and her hair glows like fire. Her anger tends to make her impulsively activate it but after the fall of Beacon, she's gotten better about controlling it.
It's honestly impossible to not feel safe with Yang. She's such a strong and protective figure, and I really admire that. She tends to use humor in order to cope with things (something she probably picked up from Tai and Qrow) which is something I very much relate to.
My favorite thing about Yang is her fierce loyalty to her friends and family. She will always protect them, no matter what. She's also the best big sister, and it's so cute seeing how proud she is of Ruby. I loved that Yang stood up to her mother and defended Ruby. While her anger was building during the first confrontation, the second Raven mentioned something about her sister, Yang went off. Her love for Ruby was something Raven couldn't understand or even comprehend, as Raven had already decided her twin brother was dead to her. Those episodes of Yang standing up to her mother after years of searching for her are some of my favorites.
ALSO!!! I just found out recently that the main RWBY characters have confirmed birthdays after years of Ruby being the only one, and YANG SHARES A BIRTHDAY WITH ME!!! Of course she'd be a leo /j (idc much about astrology it's just funny)