Taiyang Xiao-Long

The reason why Tai doesn't go with Summer to Vacuo is because he's a part of the woodsman industry and there aren't enough trees in Vacuo to have the industry there. summer didn't know that she was pregnant with ruby when she left so Tai wasn't there when ruby was born. Those in the woodsman industry need to at least have the credentials of a Hunter due to how dangerous going into the woods would be.
All the times that Tai was mentioned in the first two Volumes: V1C3- Yang: “It’s like a big slumber party!” Ruby: “I don’t think Dad would approve of all the boys though.” Yang: “I know I do! (purrs)” V1C4- Yang: “Well, remember Ruby, you’re not the only one going through Initiation. If you want to grow up, you’re going to have to meet new people and learn to work together.” Ruby: “Ugh, you sound like Dad!” V2C3- Penny: “My father asked me not to venture out too far, but, oh you have to understand, my father loves me very much. He just worries a lot.” Ruby: “Believe me, I know the feeling.”

Physical Description

Specialized Equipment

Fire-Dust Shot Gauntlet (FDSG).

Mental characteristics

Education

The downside between the parallels between Marcus Black calling Mercury’s semblance a crutch and Taiyang calling Yang’s semblance a crutch is that it’s a no-win situation.
Deliberate or not, they literally just made Tai’s comments towards Yang’s semblance the exact same as the abusive dad’s. Like… Yeah, context is important, but Tai shut down on his kids, and forced Yang to take up the role of a mother at a young age. He also called her PTSD “moping” and said, and I quote “When you’re ready to stop moping, I’ll be there for you.” Which is extremely easy to interpret as his support being conditional on Yang not being a ‘downer’ anymore… Admittedly, this is more on the writers for reading the cliff notes of the cliff notes on PTSD, but still… It’s not a good image.
Now Taiyang stans who defended Tai’s words towards Yang now have to deal with the fact that they are justifying an abusive dad’s words……… Actually, a couple of stans having to deal with that might be a good thing. We need more fans and less stans.
We need Taiyang fans who are willing to admit that what he said and did was fucked up, but can acknowledge that he’s not an evil person, and at the very least… Meant well. It’s not Tai’s fault that his words parallel that of an abusive father’s. That’s on the writers. What we don’t need is a bunch of Tai stans trying to scream that there are no parallels whatsoever, and that “Tai is best dad forever.”

Social

Family Ties

Tai didn’t want Ruby or Yang to be Huntresses, a job that has cost Tai two wives and made a strained relationship with his brother-in-law. Ruby and Yang were relentless in becoming Huntresses, so he had them under house arrest. Ruby and Yang use their semblances/weapons etc, to break out. Now, instead of the current situation where Tai let two girls go out with the promise of familial return, you instead have two girls go out with resentment and the promise of not returning for quite a while, essentially a worse situation. Now that they are Huntresses-in-training, they are legally adults so Tai can’t force them back home and this creates an uneasy relationship between the girls and their father, where Tai wants his girls to be safe but is angry at them for not listening to them. This also creates a dramatic question for the audience, “how will Tai and the girls react to each other when they finally meet again?”. It also creates intrigue for the audience wanting to see Tai.
Tai finally finds Ruby and Yang and is furious with them for leaving. The conclusion of Tai vs Yang and Ruby is him deciding to re-sign to the Beacon Guild to make sure his kids are safe. The girls ask what about the house with Tai responding that Zwei can look after it before they all mentally image their house being burned down with Zwei playfully chasing his own tail outside. Tai deadpanned states that he’ll get a neighbor to look after it.

Character Prototype

Allusions- Bruce Lee, Jet Black, Van Hohenheim.