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RWBY provides examples of the following tropes:

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    Tropes C 
  • Call-Back:
    • In the first Red Trailer, Ruby is first revealed when she leaps into the air, spinning her weapon into use, her face come into view while framed by the moon behind her. This sequence (against a moon or an artificial light that symbolises the moon) is repeated several times in the show every time a character is about to reveal themselves and/or their abilities for the first time. Yang does it when her introductory fight begins in the Yellow Trailer and Velvet does during Volume 3 when she finally reveals her weapon and Semblance.
    • Ruby hates the idea of being placed into Beacon two years early because she doesn't want to be regarded as "the bee's knees", she wants "normal knees". During the Grimm fight in Volume 1, Chapter 8, Ruby makes a breakthrough in her relationship with Weiss when Weiss saves her from the Deathstalker. Relieved that Weiss has offered an olive branch and is treating her like anyone else, Ruby sighs and whispers "normal knees".
    • During the Black Trailer, Blake and Adam rob a train that contains the Schnee family logo, which is first seen in the White Trailer and implies Blake is stealing from Weiss's family. At the end of Volume 1, Weiss and Blake's fight about the White Fang starts revealing personal secrets. Weiss refers to the effect on her home life that White Fang's personal war with her family has had, and references the robbery of a train full of Dust. The pressure of this fight brings to light Blake's status as a faunus who is on the run from the White Fang and ties the Black Trailer into the villains' actions during Volume 1, which sees them stealing and hoarding Dust for mysterious reasons.
    • During the Yellow Trailer, Yang visits a dance club because the man running it has a reputation for knowing things. She's searching for information on a mysterious woman, but Junior claims not to know anything. When Team RWBY decide to investigate Roman and the White Fang in Volume 2, Yang states she has contacts who might know something. She goes right back to that dance club to visit Junior. When she arrives, it's revealed that the club has taken precautions should she ever return... and, yet again, Junior doesn't seem to have any useful information to give her.
    • During the Volume 3, Chapter 7, the moves Amber pulls with her Maiden powers are designed to show us which of Cinder's past fighting moves are driven by the Maiden power she's stolen from Amber. Significantly, Cinder's ability to block Ruby's bullets in the pilot episode is a result of the Maiden power, as Amber blocks Emerald's shots the same way. Further more, Cinder's ability to create explosive fire circles underneath her opponents feet, first seen during the pilot episode against Glynda and Ruby, is something she also tries against Amber, revealing it's a native ability and not something given to her by the Maiden power.
    • Although Pyrrha and Jaune mean well and want to help each other, their inability to truly communicate their feelings properly to each other results in some significant moments that directly impact the way they behave during the next few episodes. In Volume 1, Pyrrha tries to help Jaune with his lack of combat training, but makes him feel so useless, be becomes entrapped by Cardin's bullying until he makes a decision to do the right thing, no matter what the personal consequences. In Volume 3, Pyrrha is struggling with the offer that Ozpin has presented her with, but when Jaune tries to offer her well-meaning advice, she falls apart and accidentally attacks him with her temporarily uncontrolled Semblance. Her abilities remain in limbo until she finally makes the decision to do the right thing, no matter what the personal consequences.
    • At the end of volume 3, Qrow asks Ruby if she remembers the first words Ozpin ever said to her, and reveals he knows what they were. He explains that Ozpin's reference to her silver eyes in the pilot episode is because of an ancient legend that silver-eyed people are destined to be great warriors who can kill Grimm - sometimes with just a glance. Ruby has a unique ability that she can barely comprehend that makes her extremely dangerous to the Grimm, an ability most people don't even know exists.
    • In Volume 1, Chapter 10, Weiss fights against a Boarbatusk in Port's class, which she kills. Later on, in Volume 4, Chapter 6, Weiss inadvertently summons the same Boarbatusk during the concert's after party.
  • The Cameo: As the show became more popular, several voice actors showed up as cameos.
    • Laura Bailey shows up in Volume 3 as Amber, the Fall Maiden, voicing her for a couple of lines.
    • Travis Willingham also shows up in Volume 3 voicing the Atlesian ship captain.
    • Nick Landis (Lanipator) and Scott Frerichs (KaiserNeko) of Team Four Star each voice a businessman in Volume 4.
  • Campfire Character Exploration:
    • In Volume 2, Weiss, Blake, and Yang discuss their reasons for becoming Huntresses over a camp fire, disturbed by the initial answers they had given when Oobleck interrogated them. They eventually conclude that the reality of being Huntresses isn't what they initially thought and their personal desires must come second to the important job of protecting the people.
    • In Volume 4, Qrow reveals the truth about the Huntsmen Academies and what Salem is searching for when he and Team RNJR are sat around a camp fire in the forest. He also reveals the truth about his Semblance, and why he didn't initially travel through Anima with them.
  • Cane Fu:
    • Roman's elegant fighting style relies heavily on his cane for melee strikes. The cane also doubles as a gun for firing at long range..
    • Ozpin holds his own against Cinder, who had just gained god-like powers, very efficiently with just his cane.
  • Cape Snag: Ruby gets pinned to the ground by her cape in Volume 1, Chapter 8. Only Weiss's intervention saves her life. Somehow averted every time Ruby spins her fully-extended scythe behind her back.
  • Carry a Big Stick:
    • Nora's weapon Magnhilde, in addition to being a grenade launcher that fires rounds with a pink heart on them, also has the ability to turn into a hammer that packs an explosive punch. Accordingly, she also uses it for the occasional Rocket Jump.
    • Elm uses another hammer called Timber which doubles as a grenade launcher. It doesn't do her much good against Blake and Yang, though.
  • Casanova Wannabe: Neptune, since he hits on anything with a skirt and has only been shown to be successful with Weiss (though the team SSSN fangirls seem to like him just as much as they like the other members of the team).
  • Cassandra Truth: In Volume 5, Raven repeatedly notes that Salem is an Invincible Villain and her mistrust of Ozpin appears to stem from this belief. The heroes blow Raven off because she's also untrustworthy, and is a Dirty Coward who runs away from her problems. It's only when Team RWBY consults the Relic of Knowledge in the next volume about what Ozpin is hiding that they discover Raven was right about Salem's invincibility: the gods cursed her with Complete Immortality and Ozpin doesn't know how to overcome that issue.
  • Cast Herd: The first three volumes are based in a school setting, resulting in 30+ named characters by the end of Volume 2, covering students, teachers, adult allies, and villains. The cast size increases in Volume 3 due to a global tournament between the all the world's academies. Students function in formal teams of four, each with its own team name and identity, allowing the cast size to be managed according to team focus. Volume 4 leaves the school setting, focussing primarily on the fates of the protagonist and deuteragonist team and the villains. This is the show's transition into an Ensemble Cast from Volume 5 onwards.
  • Casual Danger Dialogue: Sun tries flirting with Blake while they're fighting a giant serpent Grimm. Blake is not amused.
  • Casualty in the Ring: Occurs in Volume 3 in Penny and Pyrrha's fight, with Pyrrha accidentally dismembering and destroying Penny. The effect of the world seeing this gruesome display gives the Grimm enough fuel to attack Vale.
  • Catapult to Glory: The plan to defeat the Nevermore revolves around loading Ruby into an oversized slingshot (close enough to a ballista) made from Yang and Blake holding Gambol Shroud's ribbon and two pillars, and Weiss launching Ruby at the Nevermore's neck.
  • Cat Ninja: Blake Belladonna has a cat Animal Motif and is secretly a cat Faunus who fights much like a ninja, with a kusarigama-esque weapon, sneaky & fast movements and being able to create body doubles of herself.
  • Catching the Speedster:
    • During their bout in the Vytal Festival, Weiss uses her glyph Semblance to Speed Blitz Flynt with projectiles as she bounds around the Glyphs. Flynt counters by using his own Semblance to create copies of himself to fire his trumpet in between the Glyphs. Although she tries to speed her way through the wind tunnel, his Semblance is too powerful and she is blasted into the ground.
    • In the episode "Strings", Harriet uses her Super-Speed Semblance to land several hits on Penny, in an effort to bring her in. Calculating Harriet's trajectory, Penny lands a counterattack to knock her down.
  • The Cavalry:
    • At the end of Volume 2, an isolated Team RWBY are thoroughly outnumbered by Grimm, then they're joined by, in order: Team JNPR; the Atlesian military; Zwei; Team CFVY; Professor Port and Doctor Oobleck; and finally, a supremely pissed Glynda Goodwitch. Asskickery ensues. Cinder's group also helps stave off a few Grimm and (apparently) capture Torchwick.
    • At the conclusion of the battle at Haven Academy, the heroes are tied down fighting as the White Fang prepare to blow up Haven. Fortunately for the heroes, Blake shows up with an army and Mistral's police force and stops the White Fang for good.
  • Central Theme: The overarching theme of Volume 7 is explained in the finale "The Enemy of Trust", as one character reflects on the nature of fear. They examine how people feel when afraid, the choices that face them, the choices they actually make, and the type of person they're revealed to be when trapped by fear. Their point is that no-one truly knows who they are until they're in that moment — and everyone, at some point, will have that moment.
    Professor Ozpin: The single quality that is common across every living creature on this planet is fear. It's funny then, that as common as fear is, we so easily underestimate its power. Fear of growing close to someone. A subsequent fear of loss. Fear of failure. And, as more people depend on you, those fears can take on greater power. But, the fear itself isn't worthy of concern; it is who we become while in its clutches. Will you be proud of that person? Will you forgive them? Will you understand why they felt the need to do the things they did? Will you even recognize them? Or will the person staring back at you be the very thing you should have feared from the start? I suppose we all find out... sooner or later.
  • Cessation of Existence: The Jabberwalker inflicts this on those it eats. While normally Afterans would ascend after death, the Jabberwalker kills them permanently. Neo copies this ability after killing and assimilating the Jabberwalker.
  • Chainsaw Good: The Chainsword used by the White Fang Lieutenant, complete with Sword Drag in its introduction.
  • The Chains of Commanding: In a Volume 1 episode called "The Badge and the Burden", Ozpin warns Ruby that the position of team leader is both a badge of honor and a terrible burden. He and Oscar later discuss the terrible strain she must be under from being a source of inspiration and hope to others. As the series goes on, Ruby is forced to make increasingly difficult decisions, such as making the same decisions as Ozpin after her team had turned him for keeping secrets or using the Relic of Creation to save Penny and evacuate thousands while dooming the Kingdom of Atlas to destruction. During Volume 9, it becomes clear how bad this toll has taken on her and how she is starting to lose her way and her hope because of it. This finally reaches its breaking point and she snaps at her friends in Chapter 7, especially seeing as they seem to focus more on themselves and not the fact that she's in a very bad place at that point and Jaune blaming her for getting them in the situation they were in and causes her to leave her friends and eventual Suicide-by-Ascension. It takes her "Ascending" and understanding what's caused her to crumble to get back on her feet and restore her hope.
  • Changed My Mind, Kid: An abbreviated version in Episode 5; Weiss turns away and walks off upon finding out that Ruby is her partner, sees that the alternative is Jaune, walks back and drags Ruby off, all within the space of 25 seconds.
    Weiss: By no means does this make us friends. [drags Ruby by her hood]
    Ruby: You came back!
  • Character Blog: Weiss, Yang and Ruby have Twitter accounts.
  • Charles Atlas Superpower: Aura is possessed by all living things, except monsters because they have no souls.
  • Chekhov's Gag:
    • In Volume 3, Episode 3, Mercury mentions that Qrow smells like "my dad after a long day". Come Episode 7 and we find out Mercury killed his father, who is strongly implied to have been an abusive drunk.
    • In Volume 5, "Rest and Resolutions", Yang ends an arm-wrestling match with Nora by detaching her prosthetic arm. Later, in "Downfall", she uses this same trick to escape Mercury's grasp when he tries to stop her from entering the Spring Vault.
  • Chekhov's Gun:
    • In flashbacks, a young Ren has been given money by his mother to buy something for his father's return. He asks a weapons merchant what he can afford, and the vendor holds up a small wooden sword and hammer, which Ren rejects and moves on from. When the town is later attacked, Ren and Nora hide together under a house until it's over. Ren notices the same small hammer lying on the ground nearby and gives it to her, telling her they need to protect each other from now on thus revealing the origin story behind Nora's warhammer.
    • During Volume 9, Alyx's dagger comes up alot throughout the volume. Alyx had it stolen from her by the Jinxy peddler and had to barter with him to get it back by giving up her happiest and saddest memories. Later, Ruby finds Alyx's dagger in the possession of the Blacksmith and sees Alyx in the reflection. At the very end of the volume, the Blacksmith hands the dagger to Jaune, and it causes him to return to the age he was when he first entered the Ever After - while retaining the grey streaks in his hair - and allows Alyx to fulfill her promise to help fix the problems she caused Jaune.
  • Chekhov's Skill:
    • In Volume 1, during Oobleck's class, it's established that most faunus are able to see in the dark. It's handy when Blake and Sun infiltrate a White Fang recruitment meeting in Volume 2 and are spotted by Roman.
      Sun: He sees us...
      Blake: [spots fusebox above her head] He can't see in the dark. [shoots fusebox]
    • Cinder is shown sewing clothing in one scene. Later on, Ironwood and Glynda discuss Cinder's catsuit lighting up when she fought Ruby and her dress lighting up when she fought Glynda in the pilot episode. Glynda uses the two examples to link the two women as the same person they're looking for, but Ironwood dismisses the connection between weaving Dust into clothing is an ancient, common, and well-known technique, making the similarity useless for investigative purposes.
  • Chess Motifs: Both Ozpin and Salem use chess motifs to allude to their long-running Secret War.
    • Ozpin's academy initiation involves students travelling through a dangerous forest to locate 'relics' in the form of chess pieces; when Qrow cryptically texts 'Queen has pawns' to Ozpin, he's referring to Cinder's forces in Vale, who are carrying out Salem's plan against Beacon. Ozpin's relic hunt foreshadows the later reveal that the four Huntsmen Academies protect four ancient, divine Relics from Salem. Salem's Volume 3 reveal also makes it clear that she treats Ozpin as the White King: she believes that defeating him wins her the game, a belief explored in Volume 6 through Jinn's vision, where Oz is revealed to be all that stands between Salem and the destruction of the world.
    • Salem uses the Black Queen as her Calling Card. When Cinder infects Beacon's computer network with Watts' virus, the hack leaves behind the image of a black queen chess piece. The way this image is used to symbolise Salem's reach during the Battle of Beacon and her ability to destroy even the air superiority of Atlas's military due to the hacked network, haunts Ironwood. Cinder exploits this in Volume 7 by leaving a glass black queen on Ironwood's office desk, triggering his PTSD and sending him into a spiral of doubt and fear that leads to him taking such draconian action to prepare his kingdom for the arrival of Salem's forces that he and the heroes end up turning on each other.
    • The volume 8 intro shows the battle between Salem's forces and Atlas' army playing out on a chess board. Salem and Ironwood are the only two characters on the board, with Salem standing next to the Black Queen (her symbol) on the Black King's square and Ironwood standing next to the White King on the White Queen's square; the pieces and chessboard are destroyed, leaving Ironwood all alone. Salem is normally the Black Queen but gets put into check by Oscar as if she's the Black King, while Ironwood behaves like the White King because he squanders the power of the White Queen, causing all of his allies to abandon him.
  • Chew-Out Fake-Out: In Vol.2 Episode 9, after finding out Ruby brought Zwei with her on their mission, it seems as though Dr. Oobleck is about to read her the riot act... only for him to praise her as a genius, pointing out that they can use the dog's heightened canine senses to assist them in their tracking efforts.
  • Chiaroscuro: Used in "Family" during Qrow's meeting with Raven in the tavern. When the former stand at the top of the stairs, he's shown in warm yellow light, while the latter, at the far end of the balcony, is deeper in shadows, indicating which one is the lighter and darker of the pair. When the two actually sit down to talk, Qrow is on the side where the table lamp is shining, while Raven still remains in the gloomier shadows opposite him.
  • Child Soldiers:
    • Huntsmen don't begin their serious training until 17 and don't get licenses until their early 20s. Ruby is the exception. Ozpin specially allows her to enroll at Beacon Academy at age 15, and by age 16 she's already on the road due to Beacon falling. Also, enrollment at the Huntsman Academies is voluntary. Still, people like Hazel accuse Ozpin of using children as expendable weapons being sent to fight a Hopeless War against an Invincible Villain, which is Hazel's motivation for working for Salem who is said Invincible Villain after his sister Gretchen died on a mission.
    • Farmboy Oscar is forced to get involved with the fight against Salem and the Grimm at age 14 due to ending up as Ozpin's next host after he bites it from Beacon falling.
    • The students at Atlas Academy are known to usually be pressured to join the Kingdom's military once they graduate with most of them joining the Special Operatives Unit. During volume 8 when Salem breaches the defenses of Atlas and summons an army of Grimm to attack the capital city, the military is deployed to stop them with Atlas Academy students like Team FNKI being drafted into the military as reinforcements. Marrow Amin is disturbed that General James Ironwood would willingly draft children like them into the fight and becomes one of the reasons why he eventually turns against him.
  • Cinderella Plot: The Volume 8 episode "Midnight" is a Cinderella-based plot that explores Cinder's origins and Start of Darkness. Bought from an orphanage by a wealthy Atlesian hotelier called Madame, Cinder is raised as her step-daughter alongside two biological daughters. The family treats her as a slave, controlling her via a Shock Collar and starving her in the process. A Huntsman who frequents the hotel offers to train her as a Huntress, hoping the Huntsman Academy will give her a legal escape route from the abuse; the training montages occur in three stages akin to Cinderella's three balls. After Cinder's stepfamily discovers this, Cinder snaps and kills them; she later kills her mentor when he tries arresting her. This backstory is why she wants to be strong, feared and powerful; her image of that concept is Madame, which has led to her current lifestyle of serving the abusive Salem while in turn abusing her own subordinates.
  • The City Narrows: The initial appearance of Mistral is of a beautiful city that uses every inch of picturesque mountain slopes to create an apparently happy, tranquil place with spectacular views. However, Qrow warns the teenage heroes to stay away from the city's lower levels and mentions that anything can be bought there for a price. When he goes looking for Huntsmen to join them on their quest, Ozpin asks him to choose those who can be trusted; Qrow cynically responds that they can be trusted to put up a good fight and heads into the seedy lower levels to find them. Here, strangers are met with suspicion, Faunus discrimination is openly displayed at the entrances to businesses, and both businesses and homes are run-down and shabby.
  • Cluster F-Bomb: The rap section of "I Burn" is hip-hop at its hip-hoppiest. (For comparison, the rest of the song uses a single "ass," and the show itself mostly uses very mild curses or cuts them short.)
  • Collapsible Helmet: Atlesian Knights are humanoid robots. However, when they enter combat mode, a helmet plate appears over their faces.
  • Colony Drop: The shattered Moon of Remnant is the result of this happening in ancient times. After wiping out Humanity as punishment for Salem's rebellion, The Brothers abandoned the world of Remnant. While the God of Light simply teleported away, the God of Darkness smashed through the Moon as he departed, hurling chunks of it down onto the planet. Salem's curse of Complete Immortality meant she survived the destruction, but was left alone in a ruined world for untold eons.
  • Color-Coded Characters: Eighty years before the story begins, a global war ends which was fought over, among other things, the right to artistic self-expression. In memory of this, people ever since have named themselves and their children after colors, a core concept of art. As a result, every character is associated with a color that is built into their name either directly, or by association. The exceptions are Ozpin and Salem; while the pair have associated themselves with certain colours (green for Ozpin and black for Salem), their names are not based on, or associated in-universe with, any known colour for plot-significant reasons. Ozpin's successor, Oscar Pine, is also associated with green; his name follows the colour-association and can be contracted to Oz Pin(e).
    • Team RWBY is associated with red, white, black and yellow. Ruby Rose is red-themed, having dark, red-tinted hair, wearing red and black clothes with a bright red hooded cape, and wielding a red-and-black sniper-scythe. She scatters red rose petals whenever her speed Semblance kicks in. Weiss Schnee is associated with white; she wears mostly blue-tinted white, has white hair, and favors Ice Dust in battle. Blake Belladonna is black-themed, with black hair, wearing black and white clothing and fights in a ninja-style with black weapons. Yang is yellow-themed, with golden hair, clothing in shades of yellow and browns and whose gun-gauntlets are bright yellow; she will also appear to be on fire when she gets angry and her Semblance kicks in.
    • Team JNPR is associated with yellow, pink, red and green. Jaune Arc is yellow-themed, standing out for having vivid (but natural) yellow hair; his armour and weapons are tinted a yellowish-brown. Nora Valkyrie is pink themed, with pale red hair, wearing pink skirt and firing rounds of ammo that have pink hearts on them. Pyrrha Nikos is red themed, with long red hair, a flowing red sash around her waist and with a red and yellow weapon. Her appearance is offset with yellow, such as her tiara and armor. Lie Ren is green-themed, wearing a vivid green jacket and wielding green knife-guns, but he has pink eyes and a pink streak of hair. Nora's primary colour is the same shade of pink as Ren's eyes.
  • Colourful Theme Naming: Volume 2's Field Trip reveals that 80 years before the series begins, there was a great war where even artistic self-expression was at stake. In memory and defiance of this, people have ever since named their children after colors, a core concept of art. Nearly all characters in the show are colour-themed, as are their team names. Examples include Ruby being red-themed, Weiss, whose name comes from a German word for 'white', being white-themed, Blake being black-themed (although she is the black-themed character, her name comes from two Old English sources, mean either dark or pale; her clothing colors are black and white), and Yang being named after a Chinese word for light and the sun. Ozpin and Salem are an exception to the rule for plot-significant reasons. The creators published online the rules they follow for the colour-theme naming.
  • Combat Stilettos: The student uniforms very often come with practical loafer-style shoes. However, many of the female characters will change into heels as part of their combat uniform. Certain characters are almost always seen in heels, whether in combat or not, such as Glynda, Winter, Neo, Melanie and Militia, but some make a conscious decision to change into heels for battle.
    • Cinder Fall wears very high heels when in her signature red costume, even when engaging in acrobatic close-combat fights. Due to her Cinderella motif, her shoes often get a lot of close-up camera shots, often with a sound effect that sounds like glass clinking. When she changes into a catsuit for an infiltration, she wears a different set of high-heeled thigh-high boots. It doesn't impede her ability to run across rooftops ninja-style.
    • Weiss wears wedge-heeled boots as part of her combat uniform. Her fighting style includes dance-like movements found in ice-skating, including twirling, leaping, and sliding across the ground. Ruby once complains that she can't understand how Weiss can fight in them.
    • When Blake wears her combat uniform, she wears ankle-boots with underslung heels. She is designed for agile, fast-moving combat, using high speed, leaps and dodging. Her heels don't slow her down at all. In Volume 4, she undergoes a wardrobe change and she now wears thigh-high boots with block heels.
    • Pyrrha's combat uniform is a Greek-inspired ensemble that includes armored high-heeled knee-high boots. She is capable of mid-air backflips without ever requiring a push-off point or touching the ground.
    • Coco is a fashionista whose combat uniform is designed to evoke the latest fashions. She wears high-heeled boots as part of the look, but her main fighting style is to stand and fire a huge minigun. When she is forced to move, she is as agile as any other fighter despite the heels.
    • Neo's knee-high boots and ankle-boots sport high heels, but she an athletic, acrobatic fighter who spins, cartwheels and somersaults around her opponents as if she's wearing flat, practical shoes.
    • Both of the Malachite twins wear thigh-high boots with very high stiletto heels, but Melanie is a literal example due to her heels actually being bladed to enhance her kick-boxing style of combat.
  • Combination Attack: In episode 8, how Team RWBY and (to a lesser extent) Team JNPR each take out their respective Grimm. By season 2, Team RWBY specializes in combination attacks, and can do them on Ruby's command.
  • The Comedy Drop: While fighting a Sea Feilong in Volume 4, Sun's fall from a great height is broken by Blake catching him in a bridal carry. He cheerfully tells her "My hero!", but she's angry at the discovery he's been following her Vale. When he blithely declares that she needs all the help she can get, Blake rolls her eyes and drops him to the ground, instructing him to shut up and fight. It sets up their dynamic for Volumes 4 and 5, where he's the goofy, cheerful sidekick who helps her overcome her toxic fear of her Psycho Ex-Boyfriend in order to stand up to him and his Fantastic Terrorists.
  • Comically Missing the Point:
    • Oobleck, being himself, gets in on this too.
      Oobleck: Aaaand now they've seen us.
      Weiss: What?!
      Oobleck: [leans in right next to her ear]' AND NOW THEY'VE SEEN US!
    • Jaune, who stops in the middle of a tournament fight to discuss team attack names and sees nothing wrong with this. His opponents aren't amused.
      Jaune: We are trying to have a team meeting here, thank you very little.
      Brawnz: ...We're in the middle of a fight!!
      Jaune: And we're in the middle of a conversation, WHAT DON'T YOU GET ABOUT THAT?!
  • Compilation Movie: The Japanese broadcast of the first 3 volumes, titled RWBY 1-3: The Beginning, was condensed into a 13-episode series. The condensed version completely cut out a few episodes such as the "Jaundice" mini-arc from Volume 1.
  • Conservation of Ninjutsu:
    • In the Yellow Trailer, Yang effortlessly dispatches a dozen or so mooks without being touched, has to work for it when fighting the Malachite sisters, and then receives her only serious blows when she faces off with the boss, Junior. This sets up the main show, where there is a vast different in power level between ordinary human fighters and people who have been given Huntsman-level combat training.
    • During the Volume 2 episode "Painting the Town", Team RWBY struggle to take down a single Paladin that is piloted by Roman. However, when facing a small army of mook-piloted Paladins on the roof of a moving train in the volume's penultimate episode "No Brakes", they and Dr. Oobleck easily mow through them by knocking them off-balance enough to simply fall off the train and crash to the ground. The next volume reveals they're just flawed prototypes; just two real Paladins give a small army of the heroes hell until they're eventually defeated. The even larger Paladin that promptly shows up is only stopped by the destruction of the flagship controlling it.
  • Consistent Clothing Style: The characters have certain styles that help inform their personalities, and which fit their personal colour themes. Every time a new story arc changes, the major characters receive new outfits, but always based on recognisable elements that fit their characterisation. Examples include: Ruby always wears a red hooded cape that is supported by a red and black ensemble consisting of bodice, skirt, tights and combat boots elements; Weiss always wears expensive dresses, boleros and heels that incorporate white, grey and blue colours with red accents, and which are classy, high-quality and feminine; Blake never wears dresses and leans towards skintight fashion in black and white colours accented with purple; Yang also never wears dresses and leans towards tomboy-esque fashion in browns accented with yellow, orange and purple.
  • Conspicuous Gloves:
    • Because any change to a character's clothing requires the creation of a whole new CGI model, characters who wear gloves are often seen wearing those gloves in situations where they don't really make sense (for example, Jaune wearing his combat gloves while eating dinner with chopsticks during season 5). It would have been too much trouble (especially for a show with such a tight budget) to create a whole new model simply for the sake of having them remove the gloves.
    • During Volumes 2-3, General Ironwood is never seen out of uniform. The white glove on his right hand would probably look the part if it wasn't for the fact that he wears no glove on his left hand. The glove on his right hand is never removed, not even when he's drinking coffee during indoor meetings with colleagues. The glove hides the fact that his hand is cybernetic. The right side of his body has been replaced with cybernetics but it's usually only his hand that would be visible if not for the gloves. From Volume 4, his uniform changes and he wears gloves on both hands.
  • Contrived Coincidence:
    • In "The Shining Beacon, Part 2", after Ruby leaves Jaune to go to Yang, Jaune complains about how he'll never find another nice and quirky girl to talk to. As he leaves, Pyrrha is visible behind him, the only background character that isn't a silhouette.
    • In episode 8, Ruby and Jaune bump into each other — in mid-air, and from vastly different trajectories.
  • Cool Airship: Winter Schnee arrives at Beacon in an airship with four wings and ribbons trailing behind it.
  • Cool Train: The train that Blake and Adam board in the Black trailer is so wide that it runs on two parallel sets of tracks.
  • Cool Uncle: Qrow was the team mate of Ruby and Yang's father, and also of the two women who became their mothers, so both girls call him "uncle". In the pilot, Ruby indicates he shaped her from nothing into a brilliant fighter who's above her academic age in ability. In Volume 3, he's willing to spend time playing video games with his nieces and giving them worldly advice, despite the very serious humanity-threatening danger he's involved in trying to stop. As the brother of Yang's mother, he's not Ruby's uncle by blood.
    Ruby: UNCLE QROW!!! (Jumps and latches onto his arm) Hi! Aahh! It's so good to see you! Did ya miss me? Did ya miss me?!
    Qrow: (smirks) Nope!
  • Corrective Lecture: When Weiss goes to Professor Port to air out her grievances about Ruby being picked as leader of Team RWBY instead of her, he immediately dismisses such comments. Instead, he sternly lectures her on her behavior and that because she came from a rich family and got everything she wanted, she's throwing a tantrum over something she wanted but was given to someone else. In the end, Port advises Weiss to not fret over what she doesn't have, but to savor what she does, by being the best person she can be. This lecture would change Weiss for the better for the rest of the series
  • Costume Evolution: The main heroes and villains tend to change costumes at significant points in the story while retaining core symbols or personality elements like colours. Volume 4 triggers the first major costume changes to reflect dramatically changed circumstances for the heroes and Cinder, as well as to incorporate trauma symbolism. Environmental conditions trigger the next change in Volume 7 as characters adapt to the icy, polar extremes of Solitas.
  • Counting Bullets: In the Watts vs. Ironwood fight in volume 7, Watts counts each bullet he fires out loud. When the two come face to face and Watts has his gun to Ironwood's head, Ironwood points out that Watts isn't the only one who can count, revealing that he knows the gun to his head is a bluff: Watts is out of bullets. Unfortunately for Ironwood, Watts was hoping Ironwood would do exactly that. Watts being out of bullets causes him to lower his guard, allowing Watts to gain the upper hand.
  • Cranial Eruption: In "It's Brawl in the Family", Weiss suffers this after a Bitch Slap from Winter. Ruby is kind enough to push the bump back in.
  • Creation Myth: When Qrow is telling Team RNJR stories around the campfire, he tells them of a creation myth about two brothers, the God of Darkness and the God of Light. The God of Light creates life while the God of Darkness creates destruction. In the myth, they don't get on very well and keep trying to one-up each other. In the end, they decide to create a single thing that they can both be proud of, something with the power to both create and destroy: humanity. Qrow tells Team RNJR that, while humans have come up with dozens of gods throughout Remnant's history, Ozpin once told him that the Gods of Light and Darkness are actually real: the God of Light created plants and animals while the God of Darkness created the Creatures of Grimm. They left behind four extremely powerful artifacts in the form of relics: the powers of Knowledge, Creation, Destruction and Choice, which are protected by the four Huntsmen Academies and which Salem is trying to find.
  • Crippling Overspecialization: Jaune observes that the Colossus is most likely designed to fight the larger Grimm that live in deeper water. He concludes that it will therefore be unable to deal with multiple human-sized opponents attacking from different directions. The gang therefore use their numbers, manoeuvrability, and small size to overcome defences that would be much tougher for an enormous Grimm to deal with.
  • Cross-Referenced Titles: The seventh episode of Volume 3 is called "Beginning of the End". The twelfth and final episode of the volume is called "End of the Beginning".
  • Cruel and Unusual Death: Cinder doesn't just like to kill her victims, she likes to do it ways that enforce her superiority, resulting in sadistic murders. In the Volume 3 finale, she kills Pyrrha by shooting an arrow through her heart. However, the arrow is incendiary, and slowly burns Pyrrha to death from the inside out while she gasps for breath. Once dead, Cinder then burns her body to ash. The graphic nature of Pyrrha's death is a Traumatic Superpower Awakening for Ruby's innate abilities.
  • Curb-Stomp Battle:
    • Ruby delivers one in the first episode against Roman's thugs until Cinder shows up.
    • The students generally deliver these during their expedition into the woods. Although the Death Stalker and Nevermore had the initial advantage, those two are eventually on the receiving end as well.
    • Jaune suffers from one in episode 11 from Cardin. He later delivers one to an Ursa in the finale of Season 2, slaughtering it in 5 seconds without taking a single hit, albeit looking a little bit clumsy while doing it.
    • Penny delivers one to Roman Torchwick and the White Fang minions in episode 16 after Torchwick hits Ruby. She more or less single-handedly ends the fight and forces Torchwick and the White Fang to flee.
    • Pyrrha in Vol.2 Episode 5 against the entirety of team CRDL. Her opponents barely manage to touch her and Cardin actually damages his own teammate more than he does Pyrrha.
    • In Vol.2 Episode 11, Neo wipes the floor with Yang who can't even get a hit in.
    • Blake delivers one to Torchwick, and the only reason she didn't kill him was to help Weiss, who had been defeated by a White Fang Mook Lieutenant.
    • Coco blasts through a Death Stalker and three Nevermore — both of which took Teams JNPR and RWBY respectively an arduous battle to defeat — all by herself.
    • In Volume 3 Chapter 4, Mercury and Emerald brutally crush Yatsuhashi and Coco in the two-on-two matches of the tournament. In fact, their character song "I'm the One" (which plays during said battle) is dedicated to this.
      [Full Version, with both characters]: It might be hard to hear me say,/"Kicking your ass is child's play."/I hope you're not crushed by this ridicule.
    • In the above episode, Qrow demolishes both Ruby and Yang in a fighting game, to the extent that the game calls it "total annihilation".
    • "Never Miss a Beat" begins with Penny single-handedly defeating Russel and Sky of Team CRDL by implanting her swords into the rocks the two are hiding behind, lifting the rocks up as they hang on for dear life, and slamming them down.
    • In the above episode, there's a case of initial playing-straight and then subversion (if not playing-straight for the other side). Weiss and Yang's fight with Neon and Flynt starts with them getting their butts handed to them, but after Weiss' Heroic Sacrifice, things turn around; Yang is able to defeat a weakened Flynt and also takes out Neon after she trips and falls onto a geyser.
    • "Beginning of the End" showcases a flashback where Amber, midway through her surprise fight against Cinder, Emerald and Mercury, is forced to activate her Fall Maiden powers, violently trashing her opponents with magic until she's finally shot in the back by Cinder's arrow.
    • Ruby is on the receiving end of one when she goes up against Neo and Roman by herself. Despite getting Neo swept off the airship, a Badass Boast AND a Theme Music Power-Up, Roman continues to handily curb-stomp her alone.
    • Adam against Blake and Yang, if that can even be called a battle. He effortlessly beats and disarms Blake and when yang shows up, he baits her to attack before disarming her. The fight ends with Blake distracting Adam with one of her clones and dragging unconscious Yang away from the battlefield.
    • Ruby delivers one to Cardin in the second chapter of the manga after she's suddenly put in a mock match against him by Goodwitch.
    • "Tipping Point" ends with Team RNJR fighting Tyrian. Although he proves to be a challenging opponent, RNJR seemingly defeats him at one point...until it's revealed that he's a faunus, at which point the tables turn drastically and he wipes them all out effortlessly.
    • During the Battle of Haven, Weiss is pitted against Vernal. The fight consists largely of Weiss jumping around and trying to use her summons without much success and ends with Vernal winning decisively.
    • In his dedicated character short, Adam delivers one of these to a group of human supremacists who attacked the White Fang convoy. He swiftly beats them all without taking a single hit and seems to be enjoying himself until he is forced to use lethal force on one of the attackers.
  • Curse Cut Short:
    • Roman after Blake sneaks up behind him.
      Roman: Oh, for f—
    • Goodwitch arguing with Ironwood.
      Goodwitch: Why must Your Answer to Everything involve a triumphant display of military bravado!? You treat every situation like it's a contest of measuring di
      Ozpin: Glynda!
      Goodwitch: Well, he does.
  • Creature-Hunter Organization: The students of Signal and Beacon (and others) use Mix And Match Weapons to fight The Grimm. The Grimm are a bunch of monstrous big black animals with something resembling a White Mask of Doom. They lack Aura and are more vulnerable to the weapons (which is good since they're Always Chaotic Evil and these weapons are in the good guys hands). The weapons used are amalgamations of a Melee weapon and a firearmException  the only things these weapons have in common are that they are powered by Dust. In addition to this, they and every other living being (except for Grimm) have an aura which is used (either consciously or subconsciously) to augment their offensive and defensive capabilities.
  • Crush Blush:
    • In vol. 3 ep. 2, Blake blushes shyly in response to Sun smiling at her from the arena stage.
    • In vol. 5 ep. 2, Ilia's chameleon pattern looks like she's blushing when she tells Blake about her unrequited love for her.
    • In "Ace Operatives, Yang compliments Blake's hair, causing Blake to blush... and then Yang blushes because she made Blake blush.
    • This returns in "Confessions Within Cumulonimbus Clouds, when they both blush after admitting their feelings for each other, shortly before their Big Damn Kiss.
  • Cuteness Proximity: Ruby and Yang's father sends them a tiny corgi dog in the mail. While Blake is understandably a little hesitant to welcome it, Weiss is afflicted by this trope when the dog looks at her. Her initial reluctance gradually changes into one of Squee as the doggy looks at her.

    Tropes D 
  • Darker and Edgier: The show begins with a light-hearted, comic air as the teenagers bed into their new school and begin learning how to be the next generation of heroes. However, Volume 2 kicks off with an assassination and mid-way through Volume 3, the creators published a warning to guardians of young viewers, advising them to double-check episodes before permitting youngsters watch them. From that time on, students have been framed for heinous violent acts and the villain takes her plans public, beginning with a bloody, violent invasion of Vale by both the White Fang and the Grimm.
  • Darkest Hour:
    • Volume 3's climax brings together strands of plot that have existed ever since the pilot episode to reveal just how dangerous the Creatures of Grimm can be, how precarious Vale's situation now is, and just how evil humans and Faunus are capable of being to each other. Cinder obtains the Fall Maiden's full powers, and kills both Amber and Pyrrha. Roman dies, Neo and Ozpin are MIA, Adam stabs Blake and severs Yang's arm. Beacon and the CCT are in ruins, a Grimm Wyvern is frozen on the Tower but still attracting Grimm, and Team RWBY is forced to split and go their separate ways; Blake is on the run, Weiss is dragged home by her overbearing father and Yang is bedridden with depression. The Female Narrator is revealed to be the Big Bad; even as Ruby and Team JNR begin their journey to Haven to learn more about the villains, the Big Bad announces her intention to destroy all hope, that it's the beginning of the end and Ruby is the key to her victory, and that she cannot wait to see Ozpin burn.
    • Volume 8 is a spiral into horror for everyone in the Kingdom of Atlas. With Salem's Grimm army assaulting both cities in a war of attrition, some of the heroes struggle to cope with the magnitude of what's facing them. Oscar uses a one-shot ability that Ozpin had been preparing for millennia to buy the kingdom just a few hours grace from Salem's threat, only for the heroes to discover the hard way that the remaining villains have stepped into the temporary void she leaves behind. With Ironwood threatening to bomb Mantle if the Winter Maiden doesn't surrender to him and Cinder successfully eavesdropping on the heroes' plan to save the kingdom's inhabitants, the result of the emergency evacuation results in the entire kingdom being destroyed, Team RWBY and Jaune being lost to The Void Between The Worlds, Penny dying, the refugees being stranded in the middle of the harsh Vacuan desert instead of the outskirts of the City of Vacuo, and Salem ending up with two Relics. Although the ending is not entirely without hope, all the heroes are experiencing their darkest moments since the end of Volume 3.
  • Dark Is Evil: The Monsters of Grimm are the reason humanity is confined to four easily-protected kingdoms instead of being able to build cities across Remnant. They are a constant threat to humanity's continued existence, requiring humans and faunus to develop the skills, tactics and technology required just to defend the communities they've managed to set up. The Grimm are predominantly black creatures, with some white armouring and red eyes and mask markings. The major villain, Salem, looks like a humanoid Grimm, having ghost white skin, but red eyes, reddish-black Tainted Veins and dressing in black with red accents. She lives among the Grimm, controls them, and is determined to destroy humanity just to get revenge against her arch-nemesis, Ozpin, who has a great deal of faith and hope in humanity.
  • Dark Is Not Evil:
    • Subverted trope that is only in play during the Red Trailer. In the first three volumes, Ruby favours a gothic black appearance, with black tights, combat boots and corseted skirt. The black is accented with red and she wears a red cape pinned with crosses. Her weapon is a giant scythe that doubles as a rifle, which is also red and black in colour scheme. However, she has a bubbly, optimistic personality, always tries to see the best in people and is determined to become a Huntress because she wants to help make people's lives better. Her introduction in the Red Trailer, has her play a silent role as she walks through a forest with her face hooded and hidden before mowing down monsters in an extremely violent way. Until the main show revealed her true personality, the fandom thought she was a stoic, solitary Anti-Hero. Her later outfits sacrifice some of the black to introduce white or pale grey blouses (from Volume 4) and red skirts and modesty shorts from Volume 7 further toning down the connection with this trope.
    • Qrow's colour scheme is dark greys and reds. He wields a Sinister Scythe, is heavily associated with death motifs, a Functional Alcoholic and is a Jerk with a Heart of Gold. He's very affectionate to his nieces, Ruby and Yang, plays the role of a Cool Uncle, trained Ruby and acts with Undying Loyalty to Ozpin. From Volume 7, his outfit becomes darker, introducing burgundy and browns, but he also gives up alcohol and starts trying — with limited success — to improve his outlook on life.
    • The God of Darkness is a being of destruction, not evil, who creates destructive forces, such as fire, famine or the Creatures of Grimm. However, he helped the God of Light to create humanity and it upsets him that his terrible reputation means humans don't ever seek him out for help or blessings. He gifted humanity with the ability to use magic, a powerful tool in their fight against the Grimm. When Salem asks him to resurrect Ozma, he instantly grants her request because he's happy to be able to create for once. When humanity uses his gift of magic to attack the gods, he destroys them, abandoning the rebel leader on an empty world as punishment. The God of Light supports his act, and goes one step further when he gives humanity a single chance to be redeemed: if humanity fails, he won't just destroy them, he'll destroy the entire planet.
  • The Darkness Gazes Back: Implemented in Yang's personal flashback monologue to Blake in "Burning the Candle", where her younger self takes young Ruby and travels to a remote hut in the woods. When the viewers look into the hut, the red and glaring eyes of Grimm start appearing...
  • Dark Reprise:
    • The tune is the same, but the second verse lyrics of the Opening's "This Will Be The Day" are considerably darker.
    • As are the lyrics for Red Like Roses Part II.
      "It's your blood that's red like roses."
    • A Played for Laughs version, in Vol.2 Episode 1 Nora gives an Evil Laugh before singing "I'm queen of the castle" again, but filtered to sound more sinister, if it wasn't Nora singing it.
    • "Fall" ends with Yang being arrested as a sad piano version of "I Burn" plays.
    • "Battle of Beacon" begins with scenery of the city of Vale being destroyed by a Grimm attack as a glum, somber string/piano reprise of "When It Falls" plays.
    • In the same episode, an Ominous Pipe Organ rendition of "From Shadows" plays as Blake discovers Adam.
  • Dark Secret:
    • Jaune got into Beacon with forged transcripts. He can't actually fight and has no idea what Aura is until Pyrrha teaches him.
    • Blake is a Faunus and was part of the terrorist group known as the White Fang.
    • Professor Ozpin, Ruby's uncle Qrow Branwen and the other headmasters of the Huntsmen Academies are part of a secret brotherhood that are tasked with guarding both the four maidens and the Relics that they can access from a dark cabal led by Ozpin's archnemesis Salem who is the current master of the Grimm.
    • Ozpin is only one of many reincarnations of the ancient hero Ozma with Oscar Pine being his latest life and both he and Salem used to be lovers in the ancient past before a falling out led to them becoming enemies.
    • After learning about their past, the heroes learn that Salem herself can't even be killed due to her immortality and that despite being the leader of the group fighting against her, Ozpin revealed that he doesn't even have a plan to deal with her.
    • Salem's latest Grimm, The Hound, has the ability to speak due to having a Silver-eyed Faunus as it's core.
  • Death by Irony:
    • Believing his sister's death was unnecessary, Hazel spends years pursuing a vendetta against Ozpin, convinced Oz gets people pointlessly killed in his Forever War against an Invincible Villain. In the end, he dies in the very manner he once objected to. Once he discovers Salem's true end-game, he sacrifices his life to save the lives of Ozpin and his allies. When Salem asks him if he's given up avenging his sister, he tells her that he's doing exactly what she would have done.
    • Ironwood spends the entirety of Volume 8 sacrificing everyone and everything around him in the name of protecting Atlas from Salem. He dies getting crushed under the city as it falls out of the sky as a result of his own actions, while Salem barely spares a glance at him.
  • Death World: Outside of four heavily protected Kingdoms and a number of smaller locations blessed with strong natural barriers, Remnant is a world where Humans and Faunus struggles to survive against the dominance of the Creatures of Grimm. As monstrous beings that are attracted to negative emotion, Grimm appear to be consumed by the need to destroy people and their creations. Trained by elite Academies, only Huntsmen possess the combat skills, enhanced Aura and trained Semblances to fight back, so it's their job to protect humanity and Faunus from the Grimm. If people can't defend themselves, they hire those that can, and all transport — from ocean ships to airships — are armed with guns. Even those who survive the Grimm will have bandits to contend with, whose raids inevitably create heightened spikes of negativty that attract even more Grimm.
  • Death from Above: Torchwick gets abruptly killed by a massive Griffon Grimm swoops down and eats him mid-Motive Rant.
  • Deconstructed Character Archetype:
    • Ruby Rose deconstructs The Paragon. Ozpin warns Oscar in Volume 5 that possessing an unquantifiable spark to inspire others even in the darkest times is a terrible burden to carry. In the Atlas Arc, her idealistic resolve increasingly struggles with the reality of their fight: she collapses in tears when Salem uses her Missing Mom to counter her belief they can stop her. She's also briefly shattered by the reason Salem wants Silver-Eyed Warriors captured alive. After learning in Volume 9 that her enormous effort to save someone's life has failed, she becomes increasingly withdrawn and despairing. When her past self throws her original determination to be the hero everyone relies on back in her face, it's clear she's put everyone else first for so long that she has no idea how to help herself; as the burden increasingly destroys her from within, she becomes increasingly unable to help others the way she originally wanted to.
    • Jaune Arc deconstructs the Loser Archetype: Butt-Monkey. Introduced as the travel sick boy who can't remember where his locker is, he embarrasses himself trying to woo Weiss, has to be rescued during Initiation because he doesn't know what he's doing, and it's all played for comedy until Cardin's bullying reveals the Awful Truth. Jaune loathes the "loveable idiot" label, wants to live up to his famous ancestors as a protector of the people, but even his own parents didn't believe in him. His journey shows how being "comic relief" can shatter confidence, hopes and dreams. Once he starts accepting help from others, he turns his life around because he's determined to better himself no matter what.
    • Professor Ozpin deconstructs the mysterious, secretive Cool Teacher (a Mentor Archetype). His enigmatic decisions cause repercussions for everyone, including himself. Allowing Team RWBY to investigate the villains endangers the entire city, stripping him of Vytal Festival security and putting his job on the line. Allies and Kingdoms are ill-prepared for Salem's machinations because they don't know the Awful Truth, but abandon the fight whenever they do. When the heroes turn on him, the confrontation shatters him, leaving them to deal alone with Atlas' precarious situation, giving Salem the upper hand in Volume 7. In Volume 8, he and the heroes reconcile, each having learned lessons from the other.
    • Qrow Branwen deconstructs the Rebellious Spirit archetype; he puts up a front of being a cool, lone badass, who defies rules and social norms, but the truth is that he does not actually want to be alone and having it enforced on him has ruined his mental and emotional health. He brags a lot about his skills but in private he's full of self-loathing and struggles to believe that he's worth anything, is very dependent on Ozpin because Ozpin made him feel wanted, and his drinking becomes less of a running joke and more a sign of severe addiction. He starts trying to pulling himself back together in Volume 7, after becoming The Load in Volume 6... beginning with quitting alcohol.
  • Deconstructed Trope:
    • Hot-Blooded is deconstructed by Yang in Volumes 3-4. Her Semblance makes her stronger the more kinetic energy she takes from damage, often leaving her Burning with Anger. She's an expert in brawls and come-from-behind victories, but her predictable, anger-fuelled style makes her easy to frame in Volume 3, as well as easy for Adam to maim when she charges him in an attempt to save Blake. While recovering in Volume 4, her father directly addresses this to teach her to fight smarter and only use her Semblance as a last resort. Volume 6 then revisits the fight with Adam to show she's learned her lesson.
    • Necessarily Evil is deconstructed by Ironwood in Volume 7. He declares his willingness to sacrifice his reputation and humanity for the greater good by forcing others to sacrifice for his cause. Characters constantly question the morality of his choices and his own actions create consequences that later bite him in the ass. His lack of concern over his image and the negativity his actions generate serve only to assist Salem's plans and increasingly alienate him from the heroes. He appoints himself the judge of what counts as the "greater good", he neglects Mantle's security and makes it increasingly vulnerable to attack by viewing it as less important than Atlas. Oscar lampshades the deconstruction by pointing out that being willing to sacrifice all of Remnant just so "a few can live" is making him just as dangerous a threat as Salem.
    • No OSHA Compliance is deconstructed by Ironwood in Volumes 7-8: The heroes quickly discover that Mantle's defences are sub-par and unable to stop the Grimm from entering the city to attack. There is a hole in the wall that cannot be repaired because General Ironwood is redirecting the construction materials to a secret military project hidden in the tundra. Ironwood has massively upgraded all of Atlas' security, but neglected any of Mantle's. The villains are able to exploit the security deficiencies in an effort to try and turn the two cities against each other. Mantle's deficiencies include the security systems, which were designed by Watts and have been so neglected by Atlas that he can easily hack it as it's still using his original code. The Big Bad's plan was counting on Ironwood making the same mistake all Atlesians make — neglecting Mantle's infrastructure and software even when he's paranoid — for it to work, and it does. Characters point out the flaws in neglecting Mantle's infrastructure with increasing urgency until it finally leaves Ironwood abandoned by his allies and at the mercy of his enemies.
  • Debate and Switch: In early seasons the White Fang is shown to have some genuine points and serious reasons for the violence they commit, which is at least ultimately in the defense of the Faunus and which is often a response to comparable violence from slavers exploiting them, leading to important moral questions about the use of violence in the pursuit of justice. Then, right as they become important to the plot, Adam takes over the organization in a violent coup, sides with Salem, and Blake (just in case any viewers weren't getting it) specifically states in as many words that he never cared about the Faunus at all, only about having a chance to commit violence and make the world suffer for what he's personally suffered in the past.
  • Debut Queue: The first half of Volume 1 introduces the various characters in the show and gives them all a small introduction to their characterization, such as Blake with her love of books.
  • Deceased Fall-Guy Gambit: At the end of Volume 8, Cinder comes up with a plan that includes forcing certain dead characters to take the blame for actions she's responsible for. To obtain the two Relics and the Winter Maiden's power, Cinder uses the Relic of Knowledge to find out exactly what the heroes are planning. This allows her to obtain both Relics and take out both Neo and Ruby, although she fails to obtain the Winter Maiden's power. She delivers the two Relics to Salem, claiming that Neo killed Ruby, whom Salem wanted alive, and that Team RWBY used the Relic of Knowledge's final question. While Salem accepts Cinder's claim, it's heavily implied that Cinder is wrong to assume Ruby and Neo are dead. It's also left ambiguous as to whether Salem believes the lie or simply feels that obtaining the two Relics has earned Cinder a pass.
  • Defeat Means Friendship: In "Never Miss A Beat", Team FNKI spend most of their fight antagonizing Weiss and Yang, with Flynt in particular harbouring a dislike of Weiss as her company put his father out of business. After the pair are knocked out, Neon instantly changes her tune and excitedly suggests that they should hang out sometime, while Flynt finds new-found respect for Weiss after her attempted Taking You with Me Heroic Sacrifice.
  • Deflector Shields: The Colossus is capable of generating shields made from Hard Light Dust to protect itself from attacks. It does not stop people from interacting with the machine, however. While it can stop long-range attacks, it cannot stop people from landing on it.
  • Deliberate Injury Gambit: "Fall" ends with Mercury launching a flying kick at Yang after she's already won, causing her to bring down her gauntlet on and shoot his kneecap. However, the cameras showed nothing about a flying kick and only showed Yang shooting Mercury unprovoked as if to rub salt in his wounds. It turns out that Mercury attacking her was an illusion brought onto her by Emerald's Semblance, and Mercury was going along with it because his legs are robotic prosthetics that could get fixed easily.
  • Depleted Phlebotinum Shells: Firearms use Dust instead of gunpowder. It's also implied the bullets themselves, at least the awesome ones that Huntsmen use, are Dust-enhanced too.
  • Description Cut:
    • "We can do this. We've never backed down before and we're not going to start now. Besides, it won't only be us out there. We'll be fighting alongside a genuine Huntsman!" (Cut to team RWBY's Mass "Oh, Crap!" when they realize said huntsman is Doctor Oobleck).
    • "I suggest we find our Guardian." (Cut to Pyrrha).
  • Despair Event Horizon: Volume 9 deals with Ruby's poor coping mechanisms with the failures brought about by past volumes while traveling through the Ever After. Things reach their nadir when Team RWBY find Jaune and his sorrow at losing a group of creatures he tried to protect, leading to Ruby snapping at them for ignoring her pain and focusing on everyone else. When Jaune snaps at Ruby, she tearfully runs off and into the unwitting arms of Neo, who physically and mentally drives Ruby over the horizon and leading her to drink a special tea seeped with the leaves of the Tree to "ascend". In turn, when Ruby is gone, Neo crosses it as she ultimately realized that she had no other purpose beyond "kill Ruby". This allows the Curious Cat to possess Neo after revealing that he had manipulated Ruby into crossing this.
  • Despair Gambit: Salem's Image Song and her Volume 3 finale speech discuss her plan to destroy humanity by turning them against each other and sinking them into despair. She is determined to ruin Ozpin, stating that her only route to success requires first destroying Ozpin's faith in humanity, which can't be shattered until she has destroyed the hope and optimism his "simple soul" represents; this is implied to be the resolutely optimistic Ruby. They were both made immortal by the gods, she as a punishment for turning humanity against them and he for a mission to redeem humanity. Salem thinks she can end her curse by destroying the planet, which requires Ozpin to give up the fight. Ozpin has been so beaten down by the fear that his task is impossible while Salem lives that he's closer to the Despair Event Horizon than anyone realises. Meanwhile, Ruby herself is implied to be hiding despair of her own, hinting that Salem might be closer to success than she knows.
  • Detonation Moon: The Remnant night sky has a damaged-looking moon. Humanity turned against the gods when Salem manipulated them into doing so. In response, the Gods destroyed humanity and left Remnant; the God of Destruction lectured Salem about disrespecting the power of her creators, then departed by smashing through the moon.
  • Deuteragonist: Team JNPR consists of Jaune, Pyrrha, Nora and Ren. Although the main characters are Team RWBY, Team JNPR was billed from the beginning as the second team, and Team RWBY's closest friends and allies. Ruby joins with Team JNPR in Volume 4 to investigate Haven after the events of Volume 3 and she becomes the de facto leader of both teams when they work together to oppose Salem. After Cinder kills Pyrrha and Team RWBY is left scattered in Volume 3, Ruby, Jaune, Ren and Nora form the temporary team RNJR (Ranger) until Team RWBY reforms at the end of Volume 5. After Oscar Pine joins the group in Volume 5, Team JNR seem to unofficially adopt him from Volume 7 onwards;however, he is never treated as Pyrrha's replacement.
  • Developing Doomed Characters:
    • Done with Pyrrha Nikos. She became one of the most popular characters in the show due to a combination of badass, Nice Girl (along with Dogged Nice Girl) and the Ship Tease she had with teammate Jaune Arc. She was killed off at the end of volume three, after which it was revealed she had been scripted to die from the very beginning.
    • Also done with General James Ironwood. He was a Four-Star Badass who commanded the entire Atlesian Military and suffered from PTSD following the Battle of Beacon which eventually led him to do a Face–Heel Turn against the heroes and eventually ended up Dying Alone on the city of Atlas after driving away his closest allies at the end of Volume 8. Following the release of the Volume, Miles Luna confirmed on a Cameo video that Ironwood was always planned to be a good person that eventually crumbled from the stress of the situation and became a villain which would end up leading to his death.
  • The Dictatorship: Jacques and Ironwood spend Volume 4 clashing over Ironwood's authority. When Ironwood speaks of council authority, Jacques observes that what the general really means is his authority; Ironwood confirms his de facto control by warning Jacques that means staying on his good side. In Volume 7, Pietro confirms to the heroes that Ironwood is sliding into paranoia and the Council is too scared to oppose him. He is also exploiting a loophole by declaring anything he doesn't want voted on as classified by the military. When the Big Bad threatens Atlas at the end of Volume 7, he declares martial law and cements the dictatorship in the Volume 8 premier by shooting dead an objecting councillor.
  • Didn't Think This Through:
    • The reason why Team RNJR spends Volume 4 walking from Vale to Haven Academy is because Ruby naïvely thinks the journey will only take a couple of weeks. This is a journey that takes them across the sea and requires them to walk across a continent. With her companions realising this, Ruby says she has no idea how big Remnant really is, since she's lived her life within a very small geographic area.
    • At the end of Volume 5, Yang points out to Raven her plan to protect the Branwen tribe from Salem puts them in even more danger, and convinces her to abandon it. Raven thinks stealing the Relic of Knowledge will convince Salem to leave the Branwen tribe alone, which is in danger because Salem thinks she's hiding the Spring Maiden. However, since Salem only needs the Maidens to obtain the Relics, she will be even more motivated to hunt down Raven's tribe if it's hiding both. Thus, Raven abandons the Relic to Yang.
    • In Volume 7, Jacques participates in the council elections, but he doesn't spot the key flaw in his plan until Ironwood points it out to him. He negotiates a deal with Watts to give up his account log-in details in exchange for rigging the election to win. However, Jacques's council meeting to discredit Ironwood backfires when he's outed; Ironwood observes that it didn't occur to him that a councilman's upgraded network permissions gives Watts full access to Atlas' security systems, allowing the shutdown of Mantle's heating grid; by the time the truth is uncovered, they're locked out of the system and unable to stop Watts.
  • Diegetic Soundtrack Usage: In the very first episode, Ruby is introduced listening to "This Will Be The Day", Volume 1's Theme Song.
  • Disc-One Final Boss:
    • Torchwick is set up as the main antagonist to the heroines in a relatively localised crime conspiracy plot, but he dies unceremoniously at the end of Volume 3 when a Grimm eats him mid-speech. From there, Salem is revealed and the stakes of the story rise to have consequences for the whole world.
    • In Volume 9, despite how Neopolitan is never defeated in combat and actually caused Ruby to ascend after driving her to despair in "Tea Amidst Terrible Trouble", she immediately realized that it isn't what she wanted as she learned that Vengeance Feels Empty, leaving her an Empty Shell in the process. The Curious Cat, revealed to have been Evil All Along and wanted to possess Ruby after driving her to despair before she ascended to escape to Remnant, uses Neo's state to his advantage and pulls a Grand Theft Me on her instead, leading to the Curious Cat becoming the main villain of Volume 9.
  • Disproportionate Retribution:
    • How does Cardin want to get back at Pyrrha for snarking at him an episode earlier? By letting loose a bunch of "nasty" rapier wasps to attack her.
    • Maria testifies that Cordovin once caught her snacking on some smuggled cashews on an Atlas transport flight years ago. The result: Cordovin placed her on an intensive screening list for the rest of her life.
    • The Atlesian military has a standard response for dealing with rogue airships in their airspace. Cordovin, however, isn't a fan of using the standard response when it's her authority that's being defied. When Cordovin realises the heroes have stolen one of her facility's airships, she interprets it as defying her authority as an Atlesian commander. When Maria, with whom she's had a long feud, deliberately taunts her from the cockpit of the stolen airship, Cordovin throws the full might of the military base at them. Instead of scrambling fighter pilots to intercept the airship, she uses a giant mecha to attack it.
  • Die or Fly:
    • Early in Volume 3, Weiss struggled to activate and develop her hereditary summoning semblance. But when she angrily rushes in to protect Velvet from the Paladin, she spectacularly - if unintentionally - pulls it off.
    • Jaune triggers his semblance for the first time when it's the only thing that can save Weiss's life.
  • Distant Reaction Shot: In "The Next Step", when Ruby fires a shot at the Geist after it leaves the body it inhabited, the camera follows the bullet, and right before it hits the Geist there's a cut to birds flying away from trees.
  • Divide and Conquer: Salem has the goal of destroying humanity from the shadows. One of her best tools for this goal is to divide mankind with doubt and anger until they turn on each other. Her Villain Song is even titled "Divide". It's also a vital component of her ultimate plan to summon the gods back to Remnant and put Humanity on Trial. If humanity is found in harmony, their magic will be restored, but if they are found divided, the gods will wipe them from the face of the planet. Salem has ensured that as long as she lives, humanity will never be in harmony, and her Complete Immortality has made that goal hopeless.
  • Divided We Fall:
    • The Big Bad's end-goal involves her sending followers into the different kingdoms to divide them against each other; she is fully aware that if the kingdoms ever unite, they will be a threat to her ability to achieve her goal. The Big Good is attempting to unite the world both to stop the Big Bad and for other secret reasons. Humanity offended the gods in the distant past after following Salem in rebellion against them and Ozpin has been tasked by the God of Light with guiding humanity to unity and redemption; if the gods return to find humanity still divided, they will destroy the planet. Salem wants humanity to fail and be destroyed while Ozpin wants humanity to succeed and survive.
    • The heroes struggle with this dilemma throughout Volumes 7-8; Atlas and Mantle have good people who are pitted against each other because of conflicting goals. The heroes manage to bring both Ironwood's group and Robyn's group together against Salem, frustrating Tyrian, who had been working with Watts to divide them for Salem. Cinder pressing Ironwood's Trauma Button shatters the alliance, uniting Robyn and the heroes against Ironwood; the villains obtain the Relic of Knowledge, Clover is murdered, and the heroes are either arrested or fugitives. In Volume 8, the heroes split their forces, and their most immediate threat becomes Ironwood's determination to obtain the Winter Maiden at any cost; although the kingdom is evacuated, the villains obtain both Relics, the Winter Maiden is sacrificed and Team RWBY and Jaune fall into the Void Between the Worlds. It takes all of Volume 9 for the heroes to recover.
  • Divine Punishment:
    • The heroes in learn Volume 5 that a man who was trying to stop an Ancient Evil was punished for his failure to constantly reincarnate until he finally succeeds. Ozpin initially tells Team RNJR that this is why he is Sharing a Body with Oscar, who will become the next Oz in the fight against Salem. However, Volume 6 reveals that humanity was punished when Salem turned them against the gods and the God of Light reincarnated Oz to give humanity a single chance at redemption. Should he fail to unite humanity in peace, the planet itself will be destroyed.
    • In Volume 6, the heroes learn that Remnant has a secret history. Humanity is now a fraction of its former glory because it turned against the gods, who withdrew their blessing from the race and will not restore them to their full ability until they have redeemed themselves. Salem was Barred from the Afterlife by the gods when she tried to trick them into resurrecting her dead lover; ordered to learn the value of life and death, she instead turned humanity against the gods, resulting in the God of Darkness wiping them out. Although humanity returned in a lesser form, it was without the blessing of the gods. The God of Light reincarnated Salem's dead lover, Oz, to guide humanity to redemption and the restoration of their full potential. This has left the two former lovers pitted against each other in a Forever War for the fate of humanity. Both of them regard their immortality as a curse.
  • Doomed Hometown: It is common on Remnant for Creatures of Grimm to destroy towns and villages that exist outside the protective confines of the Kingdoms. Huntsmen exist to protect the people from the Grimm, but they can't match the sheer amount of Grimm that exist. Lie Ren and Nora Valkyrie want to become Huntsmen, having survived an attack on Ren's home village Kuroyuri during their childhood. By Volume 4, they eventually defeat the Grimm that caused Kuroyuri's destruction. Later, in the Atlas Arc, their childhood experiences drive their behaviour towards the threat the Big Bad Salem poses to Atlas; they take different paths to each other, triggering imposter syndrome in Ren and an identity crisis for Nora.
  • Dope Slap:
    • Weiss has been slapped by family members. Winter gives her disciplinary smacks across the head. The first time she does it, Weiss gets a Cranial Eruption that Ruby pushes back in with a giggle. Her father, Jacques, hits her when she disobeys him one too many times.
    • Blake slaps Sun around the head after the fight with the Sea Feilong. Although she's upset with his goofy behaviour and the fact he followed her when she wanted to be alone, the slap is played for laughs.
  • Doppelgänger Attack: Sun is capable of creating yellow clones of himself that explode on impact.
  • Doppelgänger Spin: Blake's Semblance lets her create clones of herself that disappear when hit. It seems that she can only create one at a time, however.
  • Dramatic Irony:
    • Weiss repeatedly rejects Jaune's clumsy advances, dismissing him as just another boy who only cares about her inheritance. However, Jaune confides secretly to his team-mates all the positive qualities, such as her intelligence and singing voice, that make her the most incredible girl he's ever met; he doesn't understand why she doesn't think he's being sincere. Pyrrha tells him that he needs to state his feelings honestly instead of engaging in melodramatic gimmicks, such as serenading her with a guitar. At the same time, he doesn't know how Pyrrha feels about him because she's repressing it; he incorrectly thinks her celebrity and talent will have men queuing up to date her; after hearing her advice to Jaune about Weiss, Nora tells Pyrrha to practice what she preaches.
    • Throughout Volume 5, the protagonists in Haven view Leo as their most reliable ally, despite the fact he's dragging his feet over providing Huntsmen to go after the Spring Maiden. Although the viewers have been told why, the heroes don't find out until it's too late. At the end of the previous volume, it turns out Leo is the "informant" who's helping Salem against Ozpin, with Volume 5's "Dread in the Air" confirming he's The Mole due to cowardice. The teenage heroes never suspect Leo until it's too late; while Ozpin and Qrow have suspicions about Leo because he's not following Ozpin's contingency orders, they never share the full extent of their suspicions with the kids. Thus, the heroes walk into an ambush the viewers know has been set up and which even Ozpin and Qrow aren't fully prepared for.
    • In the Atlas Arc, both Blake and Yang's affection for each other and Ruby's deteriorating mental health are teased to the audience; at the same time, characters increasingly notice Blake and Yang's behaviour while becoming increasingly divorced from Ruby's. The characters therefore act as an Audience Surrogate for Blake and Yang while knowing less than the audience about Ruby. The audience is left unsurprised by both Blake and Yang's Big Damn Kiss and Ruby's mental breakdown in Volume 9, but the characters lampshade how long they've waited for Bumblebee and how caught off-guard they are by the scale of Ruby's mental health crisis. This is an Enforced example because the writers confirmed using the characters as an Audience Surrogate for the long awaited Blake/Yang romance while deliberately distracting them from being allowed to investigate Ruby too closely; the audience being far more aware of Ruby's state of mind than her companions contributes to Ruby's breakdown.
  • Dramatic Red Samurai Background: Adam Taurus' Semblance, Moonslice, allows him to absorb kinetic energy into his sword, which he then unleashes in a single attack. Usually, this causes the background to turn red with him as a black silhouette (save for his hair and the markings on his mask which glow a brighter red).
  • Dramatic Shattering: In Volume 6, Salem learns that her Arch-Enemy has returned to help the heroes working against her. After spending two volumes as the picture of tranquil menace, her response to the news is a scream of rage and frustration that telekinetically shatters every single window in the room. Her subordinates have to leave swiftly as the glass cracks to avoid being shredded to death in the explosion.
  • Dramatic Spotlight:
    • Team RWBY appears under spotlight in the third opening; they all look depressed except for Ruby. This foreshadows the end of the volume, where three of them have every reason to be depressed and Ruby is the sole one moving forward.
    • Played for Laughs in the Volume 3 episode "Lessons Learned"; Qrow's flashback shows him sinking to his knees underneath a dramatic spotlight as he declares he was defeated... by the sight of the innkeeper's short skirt. Ruby is amused, Yang less so.
    • When Ironwood makes his announcement to the Kingdom of Atlas in Volume 8, he is a shining white figure underneath a spotlight as he speaks. He is announcing his intention to bomb Mantle unless the heroes agree to his terms, and the spotlight emphasises his evil resolve.
    • Ruby is highlighted by a spotlight as she walks through the Ever After in the Volume 9 episode "Tea Amidst Terrible Trouble". Having abandoned all her friends, the spotlight emphasises the isolation and depression that Ruby now feels.
  • Dramatic Wind: Played with a lot, but used especially for Ruby and her red cloak, even when she's indoors.
  • Driven to Suicide:
    • Salem was made immortal as a punishment for attempting to overthrow the gods. She tried stabbing herself with a sword but couldn't kill herself.
    • Throughout the series, the heroes constantly go through trauma and loss. While many of them eventually overcome their trauma and become better people as a result, one of them can't properly cope and eventually resorts to a form of suicide as a result. Throughout Volume 9, protagonist Ruby Rose struggles to cope with the results of her actions across the series and the deaths that happened throughout. When she is trapped in the Ever After, the stress of it all eventually causes her to lash out at her friends and abandon them. When Neopolitan attempts to get her to drink the tea made from a leaf from the Great Tree in the Ever After in order to "ascend", she uses copies of people from her life that had died in order to break her both mentally and physically. What finally causes her to drink it and "ascend" however is witnessing Neo smashing her heel on Little just as her friends arrived to watch her drink it.
  • Dropped a Bridge on Him: Torchwick was eaten by a Griffon mid-rant.
  • Drop Pod: Beacon's weapons lockers can be programmed to fly to a set of coordinates, so they can bring weapons to their owners out in the field. They can also cause damage to enemies if they're made to land on top of them.
  • Dub-Induced Plotline Change: The Japanese dub removes the Volume 1 episodes dealing with Jaune's bullying arc. This removes some plot and Semblance foundation, such as Jaune's character development, Semblance foreshadowing, and discussions about other Semblances. Thus, the fifth volume's explanation of Semblance acts as a recap in the original, but the first time it's clarified in the dub.
  • Dub Name Change: In the Japanese dub, "Hunter" is used for the gender-neutral form of "Huntsman".
  • Dull Surprise: From Vol.2 Episode 3:
    Penny: I'm not... a real girl.
    Ruby: [Beat] Oh.
  • Dying Moment of Awesome: At the end of Volume 3, Cinder duels with someone who gets to showcase exactly how powerful they are before they die. Pyrrha always uses her Semblance in subtle ways; against Cinder, she goes all-out for the first and last time. She is a match for Cinder's fighting abilities, throwing the enormous gears of Ozpin's ruined Clock Tower office at Cinder, landing solid hits, and even pinning Cinder by the throat. Despite possessing the Fall Maiden's magic, she can only defeat Pyrrha after Pyrrha's Aura runs out — a limitation Semblances suffer but magic does not. It's strongly implied that, without the magic, Pyrrha would have won. She was a Child Prodigy, after all.
  • Dysfunction Junction: In Volume 2, we learn that the entirety of Team RWBY has some burden to bear. Ruby and Yang both have missing mothers, Weiss feels she has to redeem her family's name and Blake has to atone for her time in the White Fang.

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