The last time I was here to talk about Rooster Teeth’s RWBY, I talked about why I think Ruby Rose is autistic. I also mentioned that there were several other characters in the show that I thought are neurodivergent, so this time, we’re going to be talking about one of my other favorite characters — Penny. As a warning, we will be getting into some spoilers for the show with this, so if you don’t want to be spoiled for the events of the currently released episodes through volume eight, I would turn away now.
We’ll get some establishing details out of the way immediately. Penny is a robot with a soul that was created to look as much like a human girl as possible. She’s also coded as being autistic.
Penny’s introduced around the end of the first volume of the series, and it’s pretty clear from her first introduction that she’s autistic. She’s perceived as being a bit weird by the other characters, coming off as awkward and a little bit stiff in her first interaction with them.
Despite the other characters seeming to be bewildered by her incredibly upbeat tone following getting knocked over, Penny remains cheerful, not picking up on their confusion with her. When Ruby refers to her as a friend as they leave, clearly not intending for that to be taken literally, Penny’s overjoyed because she takes that as a genuine offer to be her friend- with her having never made any friends before this.
Following this scene, a recurring point with Penny is that she doesn’t understand social cues or how people “should” act in different social situations, misinterpreting sarcasm or figurative points as being literal sometimes. She also doesn’t realize when she’s getting too close into other people’s personal space, not picking up when others are uncomfortable with how close she is. Though she wants to have friends, she has few of them, partially due to how protective her father and General Ironwood are, and partially because she appears to have trouble in social situations.
Penny also has a tendency to repeat different words or phrases. She’s repeatedly shown to introduce herself or otherwise use “salutations!” as a greeting, and her reference to herself as “combat ready” in her first appearances seems like it may be a phrase she picked up from others– maybe her father or General Ironwood.
Additionally, Penny’s someone that’s highly observant, at least for things that aren’t emotions. She’s instantly able to figure out that Blake is a Faunus– something that even the people who lived with her for months didn’t manage to figure out– and she similarly manages to figure out how Ruby’s Semblance works before she herself does.
So, we’ve established that Penny’s got a lot of traits that seem to indicate she’d be on the spectrum. But what does that mean when it’s put together with her being a robot?
Normally, the idea of a robot being autistic can have some bad implications. A lot of the time, this is a means of showing a character that’s autistic to be inhuman, being cold and heartless. It treats autistic people like they are alien and something completely different from anyone else around them, which can feel dehumanizing.
The key thing about Penny, though, is she is shown repeatedly to be one of the most human characters in the entire show, even if she is a robot. At no point are her autistic traits ones that make her less human than the rest of the cast. In fact, many of the traits that code her as autistic only serve to make her more human. Each of her little quirks, like her repetition of different phrases or her excitement at being called a friend by Ruby despite just meeting her, show that she’s more than just a machine– she’s a person like anyone else.
Even the magical powers of Remnant affirm her humanity, with her being gifted with the powers of the Winter Maiden in the volume seven finale, something that can only be given to a young woman. Penny has spent much of the show wondering if she’s a real girl, and here we see that she is regarded as one even on a metaphysical level.
Additionally, Penny goes against many of the stereotypes that people on the spectrum are callous or without feelings. While the show does explore the dynamic of someone logical paired with an emotionally oriented person with Penny, she’s the one that’s more emotional in her relationship with Winter.
While Winter keeps her emotions carefully controlled, refusing to acknowledge them as they could get in the way of her mission, Penny thinks that emotions should matter. She doesn’t always understand her own emotions, but she allows herself to be guided by them, with this being one of the main forces that drives her to protect others.
Penny is filled with joy and life, being honest with herself and others, as well as driven by a desire to do what’s right. Two of the most important people for her during the show’s arc in Atlas are Winter and Ironwood, and she essentially serves as their conscience, contrasting their unemotional and business oriented perspective to add a more human element to the key figures of the kingdom.
Another thing that makes this version of the autistic robot archetype better than others is that Penny’s shown to retain many of the traits that indicate she’s likely on the spectrum even when she gets a new, human body. She’s ecstatic to try all the new sensations that come with her new body, and while she greets Winter, rocking back and forth on her feet, she does so with the same familiar cry of “Salutations!”
This establishes something crucial– that the traits that imply Penny is autistic are not just because she’s a robot. Instead, they are a part of who she is, consistent regardless of what body she’s in.
All in all, Penny manages to take on a trope that’s often used as a means of dehumanizing autistic people and turn it into something more empowering. She may be different from her non-robot peers, but she’s still a real girl who’s capable of incredible things. Penny is uniquely herself– autistic, a robot, and a hero– and all of that comes together to make her absolutely sensational.