Bumbleby

Bumbleby is the femslash ship between Yang Xiao Long and Blake Belladonna from the RWBY fandom.

Canon
Bumbleby is not a canon ship, although there are many moments that hint towards their relationship. All in all, there are actually too many bumbleby moments to actually list, but I will be listing some of the iconic/cute/secret moments. First, let's start from the beginning. In volume 1, chapter 6, the new group is seen going into the Emerald Forest to find a partner. Ozpin first said that your partner was going to be whoever you saw first, just to put it in context. You can see a black blue dashing across the screen, later revealed as Blake. It is almost as if Blake was stalking Yang before deciding to reveal herself when she is attacked by Grim. This means that Blake actually chose Yang to be her partner, instead of going somewhere else and finding another partner. Through volume 1, chapters 7-9, blake is seen smirking at Yang. Blake rarely smiles for the rest of the series, known for her cold and mysterious exterior. The biggest bumbleby chapter was season 2, chapter 6, where Blake is trying to investigate the white fang. The school dance was coming up and she rejects after Sun asks her if she would like to go with her. Her team is very worried for her and they think that she should just relax a bit and just attend the dance. Yang firmly says that she can get Blake to go to the dance with her and confronts her later. She tells Blake about her past and how she relates. Blake still retaliates but Yang get's annoyed because she wouldn't listen and had to be stubborn. She even gets so anagry that her eyes go red before hugging Blake. After she hugs Blake, her eyes immediately return back to her normal lilac eye colour. Before leaving her alone, Yang turns around. winks, and says "And if you feel like coming out tomorrow, I'll save you a dance." Blake ends up going with Sun, but her first dance was saved for Yang. They clearly enjoy their dance and Sun takes Yang's place. In volume 3, chapter 8. Yang is framed for attacking Mercury after the fight was over. Of course this was actually caused by Emerald's semblance. She tries to explain to her team that she didn't attack Mercury on purpose and Weiss and Ruby believe her. Blake tells her that she "wants to believe her". which implies that she doesn't actually believe her. Yang is so hurt by Blake's opinion that she starts outright crying. in volume 3, chapter 11, when the white fang (and others) are attacking Beacon, Yang chooses to go after Blake instead of her missing sister. Adam then tells Blake that he'll destroy everything that Blake loves, then Yang shows up. Adam then points to Yang and says, "Starting with her", which implies that Blake loves Yang. This is also confirmed when Blake is visually horrified at the idea of Yang getting "destroyed." He then stabs Blake and Yang get's really, really angry at Adam. She rushes recklessly at Adam to try and save Blake, and Adam ends up cutting off her arm. Even though Blake was severely injured, she still manages to save Yang and herself from Adam. In volume 3, chapter 12, in the aftermath of the battle, Blake and Yang lie on a rooftop collapsed. Blake then holds Yang's hand for an entire scene, apologizing and crying for Yang. In volume 3, chapter 12, Ruby confronts her sister when Yang is still in bed, seemingly sad and depressed. She snaps at her sister after talking about Blake running away, saying "I don't care." It's obvious that she didn't actually mean it, and she actually did care a whole lot about Blake running away. In volume 4, chapter 3, Blake stares at a couple with a longing look, most likely thinking of Yang. Throughout volume 5, Blake and Yang are separated until the last chapter of volume 5. In volume 5, chapter 8, Yang and Weiss have a talk about the fall of Beacon and everything that happened. Yang then gets emotional when talking about Blake, saying "What if I needed her here for me?", with tears. In volume 5, chapter 14, Blake is finally reunited with everyone else. When she enters the building where all her teammates are, all she says is "Yang.." Yang looks back at her with a shocked yet relieved look, then going after Raven.

Fanon
Rooster Teeth has always been open to LGBT relationships and characters, as some of the cast themselves are part of the LGBT community. As Arryn and Barbara both have talked about LGBT in interviews, they've explained that the characters weren't made to be girls. The characters personalities were made, then they decided the genders. Ilia has also been confirmed to be lesbian by Rooster Teeth so it's obvious that Rooster Teeth has no problem with a femslash ship in RWBY. The biggest contradictions to Bumbleby is blacksun, the ship between Blake Belladonna and Sun Wukong. The entire season 5 was mostly BlackSun, as sun followed Blake when she ran away. There are also many times that Bumbleby is teased in RWBY chibi. For an example, in season 1, episode 19, team RWBY is in a pillow fight. When Yang is facing off Blake in a pillow fight, Blake teleports and dodges all the pillows. In one of the positions she is teleporting in, she pats the bed then winks at Yang. Rooster Teeth loves teasing ships in RWBY chibi so this was nothing new. There are also secrets in the UK english captions that mentioned the ship. (Some of them have been removed.) Barbara and Arryn (Voice actors of Yang and Blake) have also said "as people who enjoy the show, not representatives of the show", ship Bumbleby. The RWBY cast have also mentioned bumbleby numerous amounts of times and have said that they ship the two. There were also 2 songs that were made for the pair, Bmblb and All That Matters.

Fandom
AO3

Bumbleby tag

Tumblr

Bumbleby tag

Trivia

 * The ship that Blake was on in early season 5 was named Pride
 * Yang holds a "Save The Bees" sign in RWBY chibi
 * Yang says "Bumblebee? More like-" in RWBY chibi
 * Barbara makes the Yang and Blake plush toys have "sexual actions"
 * Barbara and Arryn are both bisexual