Here's where you can find the theories on RWBY. Make sure to put your theories in the folders they fit best.

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Et Cetera

Creatures of Grimm

We will eventually see humanoid Grimm

Designed to be smarter than normal Grimm, enhanced intelligence will lead to certain Grimm questioning their existence and purpose and change sides. Alternatively, they may choose to infiltrate human society.

Volume 3 finale quite possibly confirms this. Well, the humanoid Grimm thing, not them changing sides.
VERY MUCH CONFIRMED with the appearance of the Apathy, humanoid Grimm with a basis on zombies in Volume 6, Episode 6.
DOUBLY CONFIRMED with the Hound's introduction in Volume 8, episode 2. “*No.*”

Continuing on the above WMG, we will see a Grimm based on vampires

As the zombie-based Apathy Grimm confirmed, humanoid Grimm do indeed exist. It wouldn't be that much of a stretch to assume that a vampire-like Grimm could exist as well. They could look like humanoid bats and be weakened by sunlight in their normal state, but could assume a human form that's resistant to sunlight by drinking human or Faunus blood on a regular basis. Their main purpose would naturally be to infiltrate human society. However, as they learn to live among humans, some of them could come to sympathize with them and start hunting down other Grimm while struggling with their thirst for blood and destruction due to developping a human-like consciousness at the same time.

The next Grimm revealed will be a rhinoceros type

and it will team up with a Boarbatusk.

Jossed. Volume 4 has shown the newest Grimm. It's a gorilla.

The Nope Spider

is or will be a Grimm Creature.

The name and markings are already in place.

There will eventually be a Grimm based on a carnivorous plant.

So far, we’ve seen Grimm based on various animals and mythical creatures, but there’s yet to be any plant-based Grimm. There are plenty of ways to take a carnivorous plant and turn it into a menacing Grimm design.

The Cliffs were infested with Grimm because of the Deathstalker's and the Nevermore's presence; they were Sealed Evil in a Can.

Such strong Grimm still attracted lesser entities which is why Beacon uses it as a training stage. The Deathstalker was sealed in the cave (hence the paintings) and the Nevermore was sealed in the tree that Ruby cut down. Nobody expected anyone to awaken them (the cave was obvious, and it was a Million to One Chance that Ruby cut down that tree). Even less expected them to kill them.

In the card game that the gang was playing, the Nevermore enemy card kills armies.
- Technically, it kills air forces. Yang's trap card was activated when Ruby tried to attack Yang with her airships. Also, the card was Giant Nevermore. Most Nevermores are about the size of a normal raven - we see Blake shoot down a bunch of them in Mountain Glenn when she opens a door and they fly out.
  - Still possible, however, the presence of "sealed Attractor Grimm" has been confirmed with the Grimm Dragon.

The main enemies are a race of shadow monsters.

The first creatures seen are the shadow like wolves that attack Ruby. They are pretty much just fluid shadow with red on the inside of their mouths and eyes.
The second creature was the giant knight, which under the armor appeared to just be darkness. Perhaps the shadow just inhabited the armor. We also see Weiss only kill whatever is inside of the armor with her final blow, turning the darkness to light.
- The King Taijitu doesn't look to be composed of shadow... particularly the white one.
- The knight could be a Geist, a Grimm that possesses inanimate objects.

The Grimm are not The Heartless, but The Corruption.

Not only do the Grimm-variant Beowolves look significantly different from the Beowolves that Ruby fought in her trailer, but the "Birdy, NO!" bird highly resembles the large Grimm bird seen in the intro, including the hand-like talons on the upper wing. Ruby will address or at least mention this with someone, likely Weiss, after fighting off several Grimm creatures.

There are microscopic Grimms

We know that the Grimm have appeared in the form very similar to animals. Who's to say there aren't bacterial Grimm? This would also explain why Schnee Dust Company would invest in making toothpaste: Dust containing toothpaste is the only way to kill oral micro-Grimms!

This is the greatest thing that I have ever read and it should immediately become canon. It actually makes sense, especially in the case of harmful bacteria.
This is how Wild Animals become Grimm... yes... yes.

There will be a huge Beowolf and its name will be Sköll

There has been a HUGE Beowolf as of Breach, but it was not named.

The Grimm were once Humans

When Phyrra explained Aura to Jaune, she referred to them as the "Darkness" to the hunters' "Light". She then amended that everyone has both Light and Dark inside them. Perhaps the Grimm are just the result of letting your Darkness consume you?

So, the Grimm are basically Heartless?
I actually came to the WMG page to add essentially this exact same guess. It'd be a very interesting twist, if a bit of a game changer, but the question on my mind is, how would it work? My proposal:
- Semblance is something distinct from but linked to Aura, or Semblance could be another expression of Aura. Either way, there's some connection between the two. Aura is the "Light" in everyone, Semblance is the "Darkness".
- Whatever the connection between the two, Semblance consumes a little bit of Aura when it's engaged. Overusing your Semblance, however, by pushing yourself past your physical and spiritual limits can accelerate this consumption to dangerous levels. Left unchecked, this can deplete one's Aura entirely.
- Aura also exists as a sort of moral compass, or conscience. It's effectively what makes humans and faunus human, so to speak. So, extinguishing it by overclocking on Semblance would cause a complete breakdown of morality — nobody who crosses that delicate event horizon would be able to understand the basic concepts of right vs. wrong anymore, at least not in the same way those with intact Auras do, and transforming into a Creature of Grimm is just a side effect of this breakdown.
- Finally, why would they attack those who still have a comparatively intact Aura? Jealousy. They're angry at civilization for having something so fundamental that the Creatures of Grimm either lost or knowingly, voluntarily gave up. They don't take issue with launching attacks at the people they used to and could have been because all they care about is tearing civilization down.
Maybe a person would become a Grimm after death?
- All Jossed: Grimm were created before humanity by the God of Darkness with the inherent drive to kill and destroy.

The Grimm are a type of Unversed

They are the negative thoughts and emotions of humanity (and Faunus) made manifest as separate beings of pure Darkness via some form of dark magic. And unfortunately, this means that so long as dark thoughts and feelings exist in the hearts of man, the Grimm will never truly disappear.

Robots are weak against Grimm.

Because most of them don't have Aura; the Light that pushes back the Dark.

Penny is the first step to overcoming this weakness.

In the past, armies used Grimm as Biological Organic Weapons.

It ended...poorly. The Risk / Yu-gi-oh game that the gang was playing in Vol. 2 Ep 2 lets their armies use Grimm as weapons, but only if you roll a 7 or higher. 6 or lower and they'll destroy your own. Fifty Fifty is not good odds for a weapon.

They certainly seem to be bioweaponish in style...dont need to eat but hunt humans, feed of negative emotions, learn from their mistakes...
Seems as though the company from the game, Merlot Industries, are trying to make a stake in that regard.

The War was against the Grimm Masters, who hate life.

They waited on the Moon. Waited for when the countries were wrapped up in their own squabbles over land and race. Then they attacked. They hated people, hated individuality, hated art.

And in retaliation the humans sent a Dust-nuke and blew the moon to bits.
Not particularly likely, Dust loses its power when it leaves Remnant's atmosphere.
Jossed: The Great War was between Vale and Vacuo against Mistral and Mantle.

Human-form Grimm already exist, and are the oldest and most dangerous of all.

With the appearance of the Goliaths, massive creatures that have attained rudimentary, at least, intellect and sentience, there is no reason to think that this does not continue to escalate. After all, the kingdoms are tiny settlements in a huge world and the Goliaths live close to the cities. Deep in the wilds, Grimm have grown to the point that they have taken on the form of their intelligent enemies, and these beasts are the closest thing to leaders the monsters have. Their power will be nothing to sneeze at either, perhaps even a Aura-less version of Semblence.

I've had this exact same thought.

The Grimm are the Enemy Without.

Their substance is hate and fear. That's why there's no hope of exterminating them.

Fighting the Grimm only makes them stronger.

This is their greatest strength. we know for a fact as of season 2 that Grimm are drawn and to an extend feed of of negative human emotions. could be it that the organisation of the hunters, while certainly killing a lot of Grimm, are fueling the situation with the negative emotions inherent in combat and death? kill one, draw out more.

They say that victory is in a simple soul...

The Grimm are friendly to those who give up their self-identities.

Approaching things from the show's theme of individualism versus conformity and anonymity... The War in the backstory was an attempt to force people to test this theory on a massive scale after promising small-scale results.

We do not know if it worked at all, but this was the reasoning behind the suppression of culture.

Ruby's mom became a Grimm after succumbing to some kind of negative emotion.

And is now their leader, Big Grandma.

The 'final' Grimm and the series true Big Bad will be a Dragon Grimm

What other type of villain would you expect in a fairy tale setting?
- It's not the Big Bad, but they exist!

Grimm came from the moon

The moon is in pieces, we already know this. But how? Well here's the idea. The world of Remnant is very technologically advanced, it's not hard to believe that at one point people were capable of space travel. On the first manned mission to the moon, the astronauts had the grave misfortune of unearthing something primordial in the moon. It violently awoke, shattering the moon, killing the astronauts, and raining down onto the planet from orbit, where its fragments eventually became the endless hoards of Grimm.

The part about space travel is Jossed. According to World of Remnant: Cross Continental Transmit System, humans haven't yet been able to leave the atmosphere because any Dust they use for fuel runs out too early. It's still entirely possible that Grimm came from the moon, though.
- Jossed: Grimm were created on Remnant.

The Grimm were created by Humans to be Guardians

Grimm are attracted to negative emotions, as in they attack hot-spots of negative emotions. So what if the Grimm were some kind of police force which judged crime by intent. Unfortunately the people who created the Grimm forgot to put a 'Minimum Negativity Cap' and so the Grimm attack all negativity, regardless of intensity

Jossed: Grimm were created before humanity by the God of Darkness.

The Grimm were created by one or more of the Maidens.

In an example of Gone Horribly Right, one or more of the Four Maidens, frustrated by the recurring history of conflict between the people of Remnant, often over what could be considered absurdly pointless things, created the Grimm to act as a common enemy for everyone. They wanted to create a threat so overwhelming that people would see war as a pointless endeavor, when there's a much more serious enemy to fight.

Jossed: Grimm were created before humanity by the God of Darkness.

Salem is the last of the first Grimm.

Whatever created the Grimm, Salem was the among the first. As we've seen with the Grimm Dragon, some Grimm have the power to create others, so it's possible that the first Grimm were the progenitors of all of them. If she has lived for as long as she has been implied to, Salem would be extremely intelligent and patient, willing to wait absurd lengths of time for her plans to come to fruition.

Jossed: Episode 3 of volume 6 reveals that Salem was a human that jumped into the Grimm-spawning pool created by the God of Darkness in an attempt to get rid of her immortality because she figured that, since it was given by the God of Light's pool, the God of Darkness's pool would take it away. Obviously, this failed, and instead she was given Grimm-like properties.

The Grimm will have much more plot relevance eventually.

Whatever it is the Grimm are, they are unquestionably much more than just a faceless horde of disposable mooks. The very existence of larger Grimm (like the Goliaths or the Dragon Grimm) already hint that there is something greater behind the Grimm. Whether this be Salem, or someone else, they are are clearly set up to be developed further, a la the Zerg Swarm from Starcraft 2. They might have a hive mind controlling them. They might have another form of overall leader. Or maybe they actually can be divided themselves amongst themselves into their own factions, headed by various high-level Grimm. Drawing off the Zerg analogy mentioned previously, perhaps they could be divided into different 'broods' of Grimm, and they could very well have a situation like there was in Brood War with a single faction (possibly Salem, or maybe someone else) seeking to unite the entire Grimm race under a single 'brood'. Of course, this goes without saying that this is all just mere speculation on what could happen later on in canon RWBY.

The Grimm are extremely empathic.

They hate humanity because negative emotions are physically painful for them. The younger, mindless Grimm (such as Beowulfs) instinctually lash out by trying to stop the source of the negativity (explaining why they attack people), while the older, wiser Grimm (such as Goliaths) realise that killing one person will just bring more people, who will not only assault them with anger, but try to kill them. The oldest Grimm or whatever Salem is see humanity and the Faunus as the source of their pain, unintentionally causing it as a result of having personalities and individuality, and thus desire to either kill everyone, or turn them into emotionless husks.

Of course, some of the older Grimm are either spiteful, and thus attack even though it might cause them more pain, or strategic, and try to reduce humanity's numbers whenever it's safe to do so (especially when they know their only opponents are relatively untrained, and should theoretically be easy victims).

The Maidens are a form of Grimm

This one is based on the Silver-Eyed Warrior's power. Allegedly, the Silver-Eyed Warrior's gaze can destroy Grimm, but we also know that it's particularly effective against the Maidens. So there's probably a connection there.

Jossed: the Spring Maiden was unaffected by the silver eyes.

Every continent/regeion in Remnant has a "Dragon" level Grimm

The Dragon of Vale is among the most powerful of all Grimm, but it's not the only one. There is one of these ancient and powerful Grimm in every corner of the world. They're either active or dormant, but they're all waiting for the time to attack the largetst centers of human activity in the world. The Grimm that wiped out Oniyuri, if it's still alive, would have grown to this "Dragon" level in Anima.

Grimm aren't destroyed. They just reform.

As we saw in the opening of "The Next Step" endless streams of Beowolves emerge from pools of black tar. When Grimm's bodies breakdown after they "die" they reform in these pools. Hunters spend their lifetimes slaying Grimm but it does no good. They're just delaying the inevitable.

Someone other than the Dark God is controlling Grimm now

There are several plot-holes in Qrow's story about the two brothers and where Grimm come from. Mainly, if they were created to kill everything the Light God made, why is it explicitly stated that they now focus exclusively on humans and faunus, and why are they allowed to target humans at all when the Dark God helped make humans. Wouldn't he have, in a manner of speaking, "turned them off" or whatever he had to? So what if he isn't in command of them anymore? What if someone else was able to find out how to make Grimm and sic them on humans for some reason. Whether this person is Salem, or Salem was also made by them (see my theory directly below for more on that) is up in the air.

The reason Grimm look like Animalistic Abominations

According to Qrow, the Grimm were created by a God Of Destruction and Darkness. So, what if, being a God of Destruction, he suffered from Creative Sterility, and created the Grimm as warped versions of what his brother made. Then, when humans were created and started forming mythologies, whatever makes the Grimm now (since I'm not convinced the Dark God is still in control of them anymore) started copying those stories to make things like Griffons, The Grimm Dragon, and the Nuckelavee. It's even possible that that's what Salem is, a Grimm based on Humans to lead the other Grimm.

The Grimm were designed to stamp out any threat of human aggression, by any means necessary

Even with their status as the nebulous archnemesis monsters, they're simply too perfect in behavior. They don't communicate among themselves, never perform any form of infighting despite thousands of subspecies, and will generally leave the world alone as long as humans aren't around to angst and spread psychic vibes. For "the destroyers of the world", they tend to leave nature alone. The real issue is, while the humans in the setting believe they are good and the Grimm are pure evil, we know better. We know Humans Are the Real Monsters because it's In Our Nature To Destroy Ourselves. So while the Grimm have kept manifest destiny to a bare minimum, they've also ensured the four mega-cities are prosperous; constant threats of Grimm mean humanity would have to be really stupid to fight a world war and aggro the entire Grimm population (this has happened only once in four hundred years, which is good compared to OUR world), and with Grimm limiting immigration the humans can't exploit natural resources beyond their short boarders without getting pulverized. In short, thanks to the Grimm preventing war (mostly) and pollution (except in small quantities), mankind has a BETTER chance of survival on Remnant than it does on Earth.

Doesn't stop the Grimm from desiring the death of all angsting humans, but they do their job well. Of course, that means Grimm attacks in turn can fuel more negative emotions, leading to further aggression and war preparation. This is why the elephant Grimm choose to wait - they've learned that wounding humanity just drives them to grow hateful and powerful, but if they wait for an opportunity - like a civil war - they can stamp out the human menaces entirely, ending the cycle of hatred for that particular area. And until they destroy themselves, mankind will prosper thanks to the Grimm.

Except Grimm were created before humanity.

The Creatures of Grimm were created by Ozpin

Now, it's been said that the Grimm were created by the God of Darkness, but the one saying that is Qrow, who reportedly got his intel from Ozpin. Ozpin is an incredibly deceitful man, while with apparently benign intentions, has built an entire power base on half-truths and manipulations. Raven stated twice to Yang that you can't take Oz's words at face value. Ozpin's big excuse for keeping his secrets is that if it all came out it would incite the Grimm to attack. Pretty convenient, hmm?Furthermore, the Grimm have always shown that they attack sources of negativity. Not good, not bad, but negativity. Ozpin has repeatedly stated his belief that humans were inherently good. What if the Grimm were made to act as a stick to enforce this?Currently, the Grimm seem to be following Salem. The same Salem who is trying to turn humanity against Ozpin, and is also seeking to control another of Ozpin's creations, the Maidens. Has she turned Ozpin's work to her own ends before?

Jossed: Grimm were created before humanity by the God of Darkness.

The Grimm "Dragon" was actually a Bat-type Grimm

Hiding inside a dark place until something woke it up, having wings made from its forelimbs instead of sprouting from its back, and - most important of all, what drove me to make this WMG - it made high, unthreatening squeaky screeches like a giant bat instead of the deep, thunderous roars a dragon is supposed to make.

Grimm "corruptions" exist, and Salem is an example of one. Not only that but she's trying to create more.

Salem is colored like a Grimm, and she's shown to be able to control them. There's probably a special type of Grimm capable of corrupting a human into a human/Grimm hybrid, or some type of Grimm "commander" of sorts. She is possibly aiming to turn others into such "commanders", including Cinder (her arm is replaced with that of a Grimm's post-timeskip), and if the Volume 6 opening is hinting towards anything: Qrow could become one too.

Jossed. Salem is the way she is for being an immortal human who submerged herself in the God of Darkness' creation pool. That and the Volume 6 opening is probably more a reference to the Apathy Grimm.

The Grimm are jealous of humans.

The reason why the Grimm attack humans on sight is because they resent them for taking their place as the God of Darkness’s favorite creation.

There is a truly ancient Grimm beneath the waves.

Pyrrha mentions three fairy tales: the two brothers, the shallow sea, and the girl in the tower. As of The Lost Fable, the shallow sea is the only story not told and linked to the Ozpin/Salem struggle. Perhaps an old Grimm, older than even Salem, is slumbering in a cthulhuesque manner, its very presence disrupting the sea levels around it, spawn slithering onto land in formless masses to watch the eternal battle and report back to the dreams of their master. Those eyes and tentacles in the V6 intro did seem rather shoggoth-like...also team RWBY will have to talk with it, because of course they will.

And its reveal will lead to the first uncensored F-Bomb in the series.

The Nuckelavee was once human.

The Nuckelavee seems more intelligent/dangerous than an average Grimm, with the ability to actually strategize and even attempt speech (the screech is apparently its attempt to say 'die'). What if it's not a 'normal' Grimm at all? Maybe it's what happens when the dead bodies of a human and horse (or living one's that don't have Salem's immortality) get submerged in the Grimm pools?

The Grimm are finite in number.

In the events of "The Lost Fable," Salem threw herself into the Grimm Pool in an attempt to end her immortality. At the time, the pool was massive and deep. Fast forward to the end of "Our Way," where Salem conjures a Beringel out of a veritable puddle at what appears to be the bottom of the former lake...in other words, she has almost used up the entirety of the Grimm Pools, and will soon no longer be able to make any more Grimm.

Amber's condition in Volume 3 was never seen before, which is why Ozpin's faction tried to convince Pyrrha to take her remaining power. In Volume 4, Hazel mentioned a prior encounter with Silver Eyed Warriors before. Perhaps Summer died releasing her powers to neutralize the Grimm Pools, ultimately draining them enough that Salem was forced to change her tactics.

The Whale Grimm will impact Penny most.

Following the fairytale and Disney influence on said fairytale, the Whale Grimm is a stand-in for Monstro. How it will affect Penny is to be determined. Certainly, devastation to Atlas is likely, but they could go so far as to make Professor Polendina one of its victims.

The Grimm are a type of Symbiote.

They were an assemblage of failed experiments created by Knull (the God of Darkness of legend) in a similar vein to the Exolon, with the living abyss forming their bodies being a more unstable variant that, while able to retain its shape more or less indefinitely, proved to be less resilient and harder to control.

On that note, it would make the legend of the two gods partially false. Knull and the God of Light (also known as Captain Universe) are feuding with each other, but not because of a brotherly quarrel. Rather, Remnant has been one of their battlegrounds in their ancient war and they have been mistaken for brothers due to their similar power levels. This would also make the Silver-Eyed Warriors' magical abilities a result of tapping into the Enigma Force.

Organizations

Faunus are hybrids of animals and humans because of a genetic experiment

Because it's the only explanation that does not make me think of the possibility involving ancient bestiality.

Explains the lack of belly buttons.
- Apparently, Blake has a belly button.
  - Maybe Adam gave her that.
Given that it's been confirmed that humans and faunus can interbreed, it's far more likely that they're humans (or at least hominids) which happen to have animal traits.

The White Fang is working with the Schnee Dust Company.

Which just happens to run almost completely contrary to the theories that Blake and Adam are with the White Fang. Consider that the Schnee Dust Company is known for controversial labor forces, and that the Faunus mentioned in the first episode were protesting for their rights. This could imply that the Faunus were enslaved by them, so the company thought it'd be a good idea to form ally with an organization for Faunus control. To further add to this (though it works better if the White Fang were formed by the company) the color scheme of their logo is white and red, just like Weiss, and their name happens to have the word 'White' in it, also associated with Weiss, and subsequently, the Schnee Dust Company.

Perhaps some of White Fang's members were convinced/bribed to betray their cause and feed information to the Company?
- The theory is that the White Fang is working directly with the company (whether the public knows or not), so giving them information wouldn't be betraying their cause.
Furthering the theory was that Roman mentioned the prices of Dust were through the roof, fear running high, and police being on every corner as part of his accomplishments. Their activities will only ensure to make the Schnee Dust Company richer as they drive down supply artificially and drive up demand. An informed speculator could make a mint off of rising prices. Further more even the assassinations and attacks could be serving their purpose for political reasons, for one they could make any "inconvenient" board members or family friends disappear.

The academies are apolitical and will train anyone old enough.

Given the increasing hints that Blake is or used to be a part of White Fang, and committed crimes for them, this will have to be the case for them to train her. And the second part just seems sensible, given how few Hunters there are. They'd need anyone who can fight in humankind's war against the demons.

It seems more to me that getting into Beacon is like being accepted into a private college or trade school, since Ruby mentioned she'd apply to Beacon later and received an early admission for her extracurricular performance. I felt there was an implied possibility (however unlikely) of rejection in the scene between Ruby and Ozpin, not to mention Glynda explicitly referring to the arriving students as the "privileged few". "Anyone old enough" sounds less picky than what was implied.
- Okay, jossed. Still wondering about the apolitical thing though.
  - Given that the coming war involves other humans, the purpose of the academies is clearly not simply to battle "demons". I think the apolitical thing is jossed.
  - ...Or not. The latest World of Remnant episode, Huntsman reveals that huntsmen and huntresses, after graduation are to serve whoever they feel they need to, without needing to hold any particular loyalty to their home kingdom or their alma mater unless they choose to...with Atlas being a noticeable exception.

The Schnee Corporation enslaves Faunus as miners, and White Fang opposes this.

Self-explanatory. It would make for interesting conflict between Blake and Weiss.

Confirmed. Blake calls Weiss out when she brags about being the heiress, saying that they have very controversial work environments.
- That is not the strongest confirmation, however. Circumstantial evidence at best. So probably true but not necessarily so.

The Schnee Corporation has unwittingly helped create the Grimm.

It definitely has a reputation of corruption. Perhaps the anger directed at it contributed to the outpouring of Grimm? There was a statue of the snake Ren fought back in the first volume in their foyer, after all.

The academies politically support the Schnee Corporation, at least in name.

It's the only way for them to secure a reliable supply of Dust, which they need for weapons and magic training. Unless they train miners as well as Hunters. Besides, any schools that large would need to have sponsors, and since there's no unified government on any of the continents...

The La Résistance is targeting the Schnee family

Adam and Blake infiltrated a cargo train that carried snowflakes, the symbol belonging to (presumably) the Schnee family. Weiss joined the Extranormal Institute because she felt that her family was too ruthless.

Schnee Dust crates are marked with a snowflake as well, as is the back of Weiss's dress. Seems plausible.
- Confirmed. In episode 15, Weiss reveals how the White Fang have been attacking her family since she was a child.

Pumpkin Pete's Marshmallow Flakes comes from a subsidy of the Schnee Dust Company.

Given how little we know about either company at this point, and how prolific SDC seems to be overall, who knows? Maybe they have smaller businesses in addition to their Dust mines, either by their own creation or through buy-outs of other profitable companies.

Pumpkin Pete/the company's owners will be an antagonistic force.

Why not? The cereal isn't very good for you, after all. Also, the "pumpkin" aspect could justify a Headless Horseman motif...

More likely Peter Pumpkin Eater.
Roman Torchwick's symbol (from the episode 8 credits) is a pumpkin face, for some reason. Maybe Torchwick is Pumpkin Pete!
- It's a jack o'lantern, also known as will o'wisp or will o'the torch..
Pumpkin Pete is secretly a Dust thief! I like it.

Sanctum's teachings place higher emphasis on duty than the other academies' do.

It would explain Pyrrha's Humble Hero tendencies. (Not that they need any explanation, but you know what I mean.) It would also make sense if the academies' philosophies were adapted to fit different locations or teachers.

So, if this were to translate into the Mass Effect universe, if Dust is Eezo, then Sanctum is Palaven (the turian homeworld)! Interesting. Oh, and Faunus are geth, just for the hell of it.

White Fang used to be split in peaceful and military wings.

Weiss said that her family had been at war with the White Fang for "as long as she can remember", but Blake said that it was 5 years ago that White Fang became militant with a new leader. Granted, being at war since one was 12 years old might seem "as long as you can remember" to a 17-year old, but that still seems like there is a discrepancy. Blake was not part of the militant wing when she was young; and wasn't aware of them. Said militant wing became dominant 5 years ago. Weiss did not hear about the peaceful wing; she only heard about the ones who killed the Schnee board members, family, and friends; and made her family-life "difficult."

Another possibility is that they protested peacefully prior to the change in leadership, but harassed the Schnee family. It wouldn't be much of a stretch to assume Weiss only remembers being constantly bothered by them (even peaceful protests and organisations have the odd asshat who goes too far, or the odd loony who acts in their name) and was too young to notice there was a point where they became outright violent.
It could also have been a different organization or just lone attackers/small groups, but Weiss' father didn't know or care that they weren't the White Fang themselves - they were Faunus, so as far as he was concerned they were part of the most visible group, different tactics or not, and Weiss didn't realize he was mistaken about them being White Fang.

The Schnee Corporation also specializes in automatons.

As in, the security forces in the Black trailer, as well as the Knight in the White trailer, were both made by the same company. The robots on the train were to protect the Dust shipment, while the Knight was a training dummy for Weiss.

Volume 2 seems to show that the automatons are manufactured in Mantle (if not Atlas) and new models are presented by James Ironwood to the citizens of Vale during the Vytal Festival (if the trailer is anything to go by). Ironwood may or may not be responsible for their manufacture. It's also body the Giant Armored Knight is an automaton as it features popularly in the boardgame Remnant: The Game.

The determining factor of what body parts a Faunus gets is what the most prominent or useful feature of their animal is

Velvet and Blake have the ears because rabbits and cats have sensitive hearing, and Sun Wukong gets a monkey's prehensile tail. Judging by this, Adam could've been wearing that visor because he was an iguana faunus. Possibly an iguanus?

He has the horns of a bull.
- Also, his surname is Taurus... so... he probably wears the visor because his eyes really are drawn to the color red.
  - However, bulls are not drawn to the color red. Like dogs, bulls are color-blind. It's possible the visor allows him to see the world in color. Or maybe he's just plain blind.
Jossed. Neon Katt is a cat faunus with a tail.

The company Penny is from is also the manufacturers of the AK-130s in the Black Trailer

Well, they both are robots, so ...

Possibly the "White" Knight as well.

Team RWBY publically beating Roman's Paladin mech has seriously upped the militarized Aura timetable.

The Paladin mech was Atlas's cutting edge achievement, and 4 first year Huntresses smashed it. This will make the Penny project more important, and militaries will start scouting Huntsmen and Huntresses.
- This is the real reason Ironwood has detained Ruby.
  - Almost.....he's definitely chomping at the bit, but he's deferring to Ozpin in terms of strategy, for now.

Something is making various characters immortal or unaging.

Ozpin has already been mentioned, but there is also Cinder "Looks like a student" Fall. And if Raven Branwen is Yang's mother, her too.

There shall be a group of people, a sort of cult if you will, who oppose what the Kingdoms are doing to the Grimm.

And they shall be used to show the audience that Rooster Teeth has heard what we say about the Grimm's 'attacks.' Bonus points if they have picket signs that can work as weapons and this conversation takes place.

Ruby: You people are defending the monsters that destroy everything Human and Faunus!

Protester: WELL HOW MANY TIMES HAVE YOU SEEN THEM DO ANYTHING BUT GROWL AT PEOPLE WHEN THEY'RE IN HUMAN CIVILIZATIONS?!

Ruby: ... Ummmmmmmm.

I'm not sure if this stance is supposed to be ironic or not. The Grimm are the entire reason that Mountain Glenn doesn't exist anymore, WOR tells us that anyone who isn't in a kingdom that's bristling with weapons is fighting for their lives, and in the aftermath of Breach it is stated that a lot of people "got hurt" (which is the PG version of saying that there are dead bodies in the streets) with the added caveat that Breach's shriveled budget and obvious constraints to avoid upsetting the ratings board had neutered it's ability to also convey any sense of believable danger.

Atlas, the Schnee Dust Company and Ironwood's Faction are meant to represent the military industrial complex

This ties into the WMG listed above that the White Fang are actually working the Schnee dust company. Atlas overall appears to be a militaristic place. This world’s armed drones comes from there, they have a huge army, their academy is run by a man carrying a military rank, and even the uniforms of their academy students resemble military attire, and Atlas is said to be the foremost military power on Remnant. Overall, they seem to be a very militaristic nation, not unlike Sparta in a sense. Then, we have the Schnee Dust Company. Not only are the Schnee an implied mega corp possibly, that outright monopolizes all dust production, and are infamous for their use of slave labor, but they were directly involved in helping Ironwood, and Atlas develop those huge war mechs that we see the main characters fight, and the company itself is headquartered in Atlas.

Atlas could be seen as a simple proud warrior race or Sparta analogue, but there could be a more sinister explanation. Atlas, along with the Schnee and Ironwood represent the military-industrial complex. The government of Atlas, the military, Atlas’s academy, and the Schnee Dust Company are all working together to increase tensions and rebellion across Remnant, in order to profit from it through weapon and dust sales. The Schnee are heavily intertwined with Atlas government and military and are interlocked in a “you scratch my back, I will scratch yours” kind of way. Atlas’s academy is a way for them to constantly turn out soldiers, spies and willing stooges. They are purposefully feeding weapons and info to the White Fang, via proxies like Cinder Fall and Roman Torchwick, are possibly in bed with their leadership, but don’t control the organization directly (they need to maintain plausible deniability after all). However, they let them pull a few terrorist attacks to keep drawing Faunus to their cause, which causes the other nations to tighten their control of the Faunus thus causing more to join the White Fang, and allows Atlas to sell the other countries weapons that they will need to “contain” the new threat. Then rinse and repeat. In exchange, the White Fang attack a few “peaceful” rallies, under the pretext that those involved are “betraying their race” by seeking to work with humanity, thus, keeping the peaceful groups weak and the White Fang strong.

These dust robberies are the latest setup for a new grand scheme. Said scheme starts by driving up the price of Dust, both making the Schnee dust company rich and making the other nations even more reliant on them, and then by encouraging the other countries to overspend on expensive Atlas military tech. And then…they move on to next phase of this plan, whatever it is. However, this is all some elaborate gambit, though to what end is currently uncertain. However, the whole purpose is to increase military spending and make everyone involved rich and powerful, while also ensuring that all of the conspirators will have the most political power (shown when Atlas’s military takes over control of security of the Vytal Festival; that could be a possible endgame: to make all the other nations cede more and more duties to Atlas until Atlas is literally running the show). Here’s the thing: Ironwood himself is not part of the conspiracy. He really does want to protect the people. But he is a military man who only sees what’s obviously right in front him, thus doesn’t realize the corruption.

This WMG just got a nice kick in the pants that may have strengthened it, but will necessitate some changes to it. Turns out Atlas is the name of the Academy, not the Kingdom. Atlas used to be the Academy for the Kingdom of Mantle, which is stated to be "defunct" for an unknown reason. This puts an even bigger spin on Atlas's role on the series. Atlas can now be said to be similar to Prussia (A military that just so happens to have a country), or more accurately, it now "a military without a country". Even more hints have been dropped in the third season. It has been revealed that Atlas's academy is controlled by the "government" in episode 3 of season 3, though we now know that Atlas isn't part of a kingdom. Even more to the point, Weiss specifically points out that the school of Beacon and its Kingdom's government are "completely separate," which is apparently the opposite of Atlas. Then, also in the World of RWBY "Huntsman" episode, it is brought up that Atlas has stoked controversy for pressuring it students to enroll in a Special Operations Force and training them under a military lifestyle. Taking all of these things together, this WMG should be expanded. Atlas isn't just a metaphor for the military-industrial complex, but the Military-industrial complex taken to its furthest logical conclusion. It has evolved into an all out stratocracy, which, to use Wikipedia for a definition, is " a form of military government in which the state and the military are traditionally or constitutionally the same entity, and government positions are always occupied by commissioned officers and military leaders. Citizens with mandatory and/or voluntary military service, or who have been honorably discharged, have the right to elect and/or govern. The military's political power is supported by law, the constitution, and the society. A stratocracy therefore is more often a meritocracy and does not have to be autocratic by nature in order to preserve its right to rule." The government, the Academy, and the military of Atlas aren't just in cahoots with one another, they are literally the same entity. Thus Atlas as a force are secretly working with the White Fang and possibly Cinder as well.

The Schnee Dust Company is going under.

Maybe their Dust mines have been exhausted or maybe White Fang terrorism has taken its toll, but either way, the company going bust could be an explanation on why Weiss suddenly would lose her spending privileges - her family literally cannot afford "frivolous" spending anymore.

Raven is The Man Behind the Man

Raven Branwen is manipulating Cinder Fall. Cinder mentioned, "She said you were arrogant," to Ozpin, hinting that she's either getting orders or at least information from someone else. That someone else is possibly Raven, who, for one reason or another, became disillusioned with the kingdoms' leaders, has become intent on disrupting the leadership of the kingdoms, and possibly to acquire the full power of the maidens for herself. Her daughter, Yang, knew that Raven was connected to a mysterious shack in the middle of the woods - perhaps this shack was the one the wizard lived in, the one who gave the four maidens their powers. Raven went there to investigate and possibly gain the powers right then and there. Realizing that she could not do so on her own, she manipulated Cinder, who in turn manipulated both Adam and Torchwick. If Raven either gains all the Maiden's powers, or commands the one who has access to them all, she can usurp the leadership of all the kingdoms and unify them all under her. While she does many bad things, she may see herself as a Knight Templar - she wants to save the world, and she's even willing to set her own plans back if it means helping her family - Neo wasn't just terrified of Raven because she's so powerful, she's terrified because Raven is her boss' boss' boss, and head of the entire organization, and she was angry at Neo for harming her own daughter. For that matter, she could have known Yang was in trouble because she was keeping a close watch on her investments - hidden cameras in the trains, which she was watching. She would have seen her daughter in danger, and so she saved her. Note how Raven saved Yang, but did not step in to stop the Grimm attack shortly after - the attack was part of her plan. Furthermore, Summer's death could have been from Raven - perhaps she became a threat to Raven in some form or another, or perhaps she had one of the Maiden's powers, and needed to be killed for it. Cinder may be the queen, but Raven is the king - the one who commands her pieces.

Alternatively, Raven is one of the other three Maidens. While Raven herself has been working with Cinder, she and the other Maidens have decided to take over the world because those in control don't want to change the current status quo, which they see as self-destructive. Assuming Qrow wasn't just blowing smoke, Summer would be one of the remaining two Maidens since Team STRQ was the best team Ozpin had access to at the time. A chance meeting led the two to realize how messed up the world was, and they started making their plan. Amber, who was too young and idealistic to go along with this, was targeted to move her power to someone else, in this case Cinder.
- Jossed. Volume 5 Chapter 8 is the first time Raven has met Cinder, although Raven has definitely heard of her before.

Vernal followed one of Emerald's illusions

Since Salem likely knows about the Twin's bird transformation, given to them by Ozpin, and could well know of Ravens portal semblance through intelligence gathering, she likely knows Raven could warn Qrow, hence had someone shadow her after the meeting, just in case.

Human advocates of Faunus equality exist

Similar to white members of the BlackLivesMatter movement. Unfortunately, they are not seen favourably. Not just as "race traitors" by bigoted humans, but by Faunus who think the people are acting on the White Man's Burden instead of actually seeing them as equals.

Elm and Vine are married

The fable the two are based on is widely accepted as an allegory for marriage, and they are clear parallels to Nora and Ren, whose feelings for each other have been obvious since Volume One. Why were there no overt signs of their relationship yet? We've only seen them while on duty, where they would be expected to behave professionally.

Confirmed Theories

Team RWBY

The RWBY Pins.

Eight different logos apart from the 'RWBY' one. The top three are Ruby, Weiss, and Blake, but that leaves the other five; Adam's doesn't seem to be among them.
The wave pattern is likely Yellow's, then there's a pink lightning hammer, a dark red arrow or spear, a pink flower, and a yellow burning heart/flower.
- Yellow flame is Yang's. The rest could be team JNPR's.
  - The pink lotus is Ren's, the moon is Jaune's, the spear is Pyrrha's, and the hammer is Nora's.

Yellow's Fairy Tale motif

Monty stated that, while not creating characters intended to retell fairytales, it is intended their designs be inspired by fairytale characters. Ruby was revealed as a Little Red Fighting Hood & "Red Like Roses" gave away Weiss' "Snow White" and Blake's "Beauty and the Beast" correlations, it's a bit unclear to whom yellow refers: "Yellow beauty burns gold." However, it's hinted that her symbol is a pair of crescent moons (or a burning heart), and from Monty's notes

, her weapon may be called "Moonslice", creating a possible lunar or nocturnal theme

◊ as well. What are our fairy tale candidates?

Sleeping Beauty: Yellow's only line emphasizes "Beauty", but also burning, a la the mass-burning of spinning wheels. While one would think a character based on this fairy tale would spend half the story asleep, if the hints of a nocturnal theme hold true, then the "Sleeping" part of the fairy tale may also be relevant.
Rumpelstiltskin: Or at least, the Miller's Daughter. The "Gold" correlation is a bit too much to ignore.
Rapunzel: Her hair seems to be sufficiently longer than that of everyone else. Plus, she's blonde. That's not much to go on, but it's still a possibility.
- https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=448797675203780&set=pb.356761211074094.-2207520000.1367043815.&type=3&theater Announcement image of her trailer. It might just be me, but her hair looks decidedly fire-like, and the GIGANTIC moon background leaves little to the imagination.
  - Well, there IS a highly messed-up version of Sleeping Beauty, called "Sun Moon Talia".
  - There's a reasonable chance her name is Yang, the Chinese word referring to Light and the Sun, so it might actually be the sun in the picture.
  - As chance would have it, there's apparently two celestial constructs on planet RWBY. Yang's trailer reveals both the broken moon, and the intact sun/moon at the very end.
Cinderella: The clue here being the "cinder" part of her name correlating to the song's talk of burning. Yellow's moon motifs could connect to the Fairy Godmother's warnings to return before the stroke of midnight.
- Possibly also confirmed: Yang rides an orange motorcycle (invoking a pumpkin carriage), fights a pair of sisters (invoking the wicked step-sisters), meets with a "prince" (of the criminal underworld), and breaks a lot of glass in the nightclub.
- Jossed by Word of God.
  - Also Yellow's symbol is not a moon but a flame heart.
Goldilocks: The story is in a similar vein to Little Red Riding Hood which spawned Ruby's design (a little girl entering a cottage and encountering dangerous anthropomorphic animals), but also because Yellow's only line emphasizes "Gold", and all we know about the character thus far is that she's blonde.
- Granting that the only way to be certain she's based off Goldilocks alone would be if she's fighting anthropomorphic bears. Or uses chairs as a weapon.
- She fights a DJ wearing a bear-head in the trailer, making Goldilocks likely confirmed.
- Word of God confirms that it is indeed Goldilocks.
- Only the above part would clue that the theory's confirmed, so it is emboldened.

Yellow is named Yang.

Monty released a screen

◊ of him working on the models, and a file named 'Yang' is visible next to Adam.

Yang also refers to light and the sun, lending credit to the sun relation up above.
Confirmed.
It’s worth noting that Jaune ended up being an actual character, but a male on another team

Weiss and Blake will initially not like each other.

Weiss will distrust Blake because Blake is a thief and attacked what was presumably her train, as the boxes had snowflakes on them. Blake won't like Weiss because Weiss is apparently very wealthy and may even be famous. And if the lyrics of From Shadows are anything to go by, then the wealthy and power haven't exactly been kind to Blake.

Confirmed. They have disagreements over the ethical nature of Weiss's family holdings. Also, neither seem to care either way about poor Ruby.

Weiss and Ruby will end up partners.

Weiss and Ruby seem to regularly pair up in promotional material even though Ruby is closer to the other two friend-wise. This becomes an obvious avenue for Weiss to logically become part of Team RWBY and provides the most opportunities for jokes later on. This would likely also mean that Yang and Blake would pair up who have far less animosity but their own friction. And then pair two sets of partners together for the 4-man team that Pyrrha was mentioning and boom, you have Team RWBY.

Anticipate Big "NO!" from Weiss as she realises the eye contact!
Also expect, once Weiss has gone through major thawing, to see an ironic echo of Weiss's "smartest girl in glass combined with the strongest girl in class."
Confirmed. No Big "NO!", though.

Black's name will be Belle

While the name Belle doesn't directly resonate with the color black it does reference to something that does, the Beast (and Monty said that the names would either directly represent or remind you of it). It also references a fairy tale and fits with Black's part in Red like Roses: Black the beast descends from shadows.

Half-true. She's actually Blake Belladonna, which is as close to Belle as she'll get.

Ruby will prove a significant asset to Weiss during the trials.

Whether through spectacular (if unwilling/unwitting) teamwork or by Ruby (or Yang or Blake) saving Weiss from a potential failure of the trials, this will motivate her to start getting along with her new teammates and break out of her thus-far bitchy mindset.

Confirmed. It was Ruby's plan that helped her team defeat that bird-grim and pass the Initiation.

Ruby's relative is the one lying in the grave

The poem referenced has an excerpt that reads as follows:

"'Tis the last rose of summer,
Left blooming alone;
All her lovely companions
Are faded and gone;" (credit to Thomas Moore)

Ruby's relative, alone after some event killed her clan/family, or time whittled away at their numbers until she was the only one left.—Going by episode one, the grave could belong to Ruby's uncle Qrow.

Not likely; they speak of him in present tense; the man is still alive.
- Jossed-Qrow emails Ozpin in the last episode so he's either a computer-using ghost or he's alive.
- There is the possibility the trailers are "future glimpses"; Ruby suffered a serious skill downgrade (at least speed) between "Red" and "Ruby Rose". Qrow could very well be dead by the time the show catches up with the trailers and be a Motivating Moment.
  - Weiss' trailer, at least, clearly takes place before the series, as she has the scar over her left eye that she gets in the trailer in the show.
  - Yang's trailer could arguably take place before or after the team initiations, so it's possible Ruby's could as well. I kind of doubt they'll work Ruby's weapon resume into the series though.
  - Apparently the name on the gravestone is "Summer Rose"...
  - Unlike the mention of Shane+Katie in Black Trailer, I don't think there's particular relevance to the name Summer Rose outside of the series. So it's very likely a relative of Ruby's, maybe her mother.
The lyrics to "Red Like Roses, part II" imply that a caretaker of hers died in battle prior to the series, which may fill in the blanks about the tombstone she visited.
- Sandy Lee Casey confirmed that Ruby's mother is the second female vocal in the song. Not an outright confirmation as of yet but the evidence indicates its extremely likely that Ruby's mother is in fact the one in the grave.
- It makes a lot of sense for Summer Rose to be Ruby's dead mother, even before taking into account the lyrics of Red Like Roses Pt II. Obviously Ruby and Summer share a last name, but Summer is also a pretty good name for the mother of someone who is basically the embodiment of the sun, Yang. Then when you take the lyrics into account, in the third verse's argument, "Summer" mentions that Ruby wasn't the only one who

needed her, again referencing Yang and possibly their father (who I'd bet has a surname of Xiao Long).

Monty has confirmed that "Summer Rose" is the name of Ruby's mother.

Ruby and Yang's relationshipï¿½

Is an adoptive sister bond. Ruby's parents were killed some years ago, likely when Ruby was much younger, possibly when she was a child, likely due to the war, a protest turned sour, or something else entirely. Yang's family took her in, raising her as one of their own. Ruby and Yang are unaware of Ruby's true parentage, and this is why they call each other 'sis' andsay 'our parents-' meaning Yang's, supposedly.

Unlikely that they don't know of her true parentage. Barring the fact that they use separate last names, and the age difference means Yang would likely be old enough to remember that Ruby isn't her biological sister, Ruby visits a grave in the Red trailer dedicated to a member of the Rose family. The lyrics to "Red Like Roses, part II" imply that this relative (likely a parent) died in battle, and Ruby was not only told directly of their death, but was old enough to be consciously saddened and scarred by it.
Ruby and Yang are step sisters. A long shot but this could also tie into the theory that Cinder is related to Yang; which would allow her to also play the role wicked step mother to one of the girls.
- Monty has said they're not blood-related sisters, but they are sisters and blood-related. One was a cousin that got adopted, perhaps?
  - When did he say they're not blood related?
  - The only thing Monty said is that neither Ruby nor Yang are adopted. He has also said that they are not stepsisters, and they are not cousins.
  - When you look at it, Monty didn't mention half-siblings. They could only have one parent in common which would at least make some sense. Suppose Ruby and Yang's mother was promiscuous and cheated on her husband (ending up with either Ruby or Yang, your choice) and Ruby and Yang ended up with different fathers (thusly having them take on different (last) names.)
  - Monty has confirmed that Ruby and Yang are half-sisters. They share a common father but have different mothers.

Team RWBY will not form by choice.

It seems that Beacon divides students into 4 person teams, judging by RWBY and JNPR. Being that Blake and Weiss are clashing, neither care for Ruby, and Yang wants to hang with her own friends, they will not join willingly. So they are put together by teachers, perhaps because they are outsiders. Ruby is the youngest student and knows no one, Weiss seems quite elitist so wouldn't have friends anyway, Blake has done some dubious antics, assuming her trailer takes place before the series, and is thus a rebel. Yang might be a fiery spirit, might be put in to balance the extreme emotions and monitor her young sister, or just needs to fill up numbers.

Confirmed, sort of. Their teams are decided by the teachers after they have presented the relics they obtained from the Initiation. The relics are the deciding factor of who is on what team.

Blake & Adam are Fauna of the White Fang

From Shadows talks of being 'a lesser being crushed by cruel ruthless human rule' who will 'take back what (was) stole.' Blake and Adam belong to a non-human (possibly animalistic) race whose lands were conquered by humans. Treated as monsters (beasts?) by humans, and given no rights. The White Fang began as an attempt at freedom from human subjugation and reclamation of their homeland, but went out of control, taking everything in the name of vengeance. Given that and the actions in the Black Trailer, it seems Blake used to be part of White Fang before abandoning them for their extreme methods.

After abandoning Adam, Blake went rogue.
Maybe Blake was the badass who wanted to kill the crew and left the White Fang because they were pussies. If Weiss is putting on an act, maybe she is also.
- Given Blake's seeming temperament in the character and the show so far, she doesn't seem the type to go out of her way to kill the crew.
Confirmed halfway, Blake is a faunus who left the White Fang after their methods became to extreme.

Blake is a Cat Faunus who uses that headband to hide her ears

She keeps her ears secret because she's either been a victim of some of the worst Fantastic Racism against Faunus and now suffers from Internalized Categorism and honestly believes she's partially a monster (thus, the Beast becoming a prince(ss)-she learns that she was never a monster-though I bet she keeps the headband because having four ears uncovered gets loud) or because of discriminatory practices that would expel her from Beacon.

And the lyrics of her song, "From Shadows" mentions born with no life....into subjugation, treated like a worthless animal, stripped of all rights, just a lesser being and crushed by cruel ruthless human rule.
And if you look closely in Episode 8, you can see Blake's ribbon twitch during certain scenes.
Another thing, why didn't Blake remove her ribbon before she went to sleep? Normal girls would remove any hair accessory before going to bed. Blake's taking extra care to hide her ears!
Given the bullying seen in episode 11, Blake might be a bad moment away from going full-on berserk. One push from Team CRDL, and someone gets a beat-down.
- Absolutely correct, the headband is a ribbon wound around her cat ears.

Blake is a former member of White Fang

Her trailer depicts her deciding to cut and run before she gets into some serious trouble.

Confirmed, but not out of fear but because she thought they were getting too close to terrorists.

Ruby's mother died while she was young, and Uncle Qrow was her surrogate father

Possibly an actual uncle or a close friend of her mother, maybe a step dad, or possibly he's Yang's biological father and the two have different dads, so Ruby refers to him as 'Uncle' mostly because he's not really a step-dad.

Monty has confirmed that they are blood-related and not cousins.
- Confirmed! Burning the Candle and Summer Rose's grave confirm it almost perfectly, although Ruby and Yang are half-sisters and have different mothers.
- Yang's description of their common father shutting down could also support this theory, as Qrow could have stepped in to help the family or take custody of the two girls either by their father's request or Qrow felt it was right.

Ruby was adopted into Yang's family as a heavily traumatized little girl; Yang became an Invincible Big Sister to build Ruby up.

Ruby's family; likely mother; was killed by Grim. Around age ten, or so, she was a dark sullen girl who was convinced EVERYONE would die on her. Yang dedicated her life to proving this false. She would be everything. Carrot and the Stick; Sink or Swim Mentor; and a lot of hugs. She also swore to Ruby that "not a hair" on Yang's head would ever not come back to Ruby; the focus on this wording being the cause of her rages.

Alternatively, since it's been confirmed they are biological sisters, it was after their mother died. Yang put on a brave face to make her little sister feel safe.
Burning The Candle has Yang confirm alternative this as the backstory. After Yang's mother disappeared and Ruby's mother died she had to be strong for her sister growing up who, because she was young, couldn't understand everything that happened yet.

Yang is looking for her mother.

Its known that Ruby and Yang share a father, whether by blood or adoption is unknown. Fan Consensus is that Ruby's mother has died. However, what if Yang is looking for her blood mother?

Moreover, while it may be referenced on occasion, she'll never actually find her and the series will conclude as if it was an irrelevant side note.
spoiler: Confirmed as of Volume 2, Chapter 6. Yang is indeed looking for her own mother who left around the time Ruby's mother died.

Team JNPR

JNPR will be Gender Flip versions of folk heroes of differing nationality.

Jaune Arc is blatantly a flip of Jeanne d'Arc (Joan of Arc). Pyrrha may be Cú Chulainn given her spear, pseudo-Celtic battle garb, and Irish palette (red hair, green eyes). Nora maybe Thor, due to her sigil of a hammer overlaid with a lightning bolt. Lie Ren is a tough one, but given his decidedly Asian appearance and flower sigil, he may relate to a typically feminine figure of Oriental myth.

Possibly the Daoist deity Nezha? Typically protrayed as a boy, but gender tropes have been played with him enough that it could fit.
- Hua Mulan
Cu Chulainn is Jossed. Pyrrha's Greek, not Celtic.
If Nora is Thor then Pyrrha is Ares.
I'm going to go with Pyrrha as Achilles. All the characters are famous for cross-dressing: Hua Mulan (the flower is possibly a magnolia not a lotus as Mulan is Chinese for Magnolia) and Joan of Arc as men so that they could go to war, Thor dressed as a bride after losing Mjölnir in order to gain access to Jötunheimr and get it back. Achilles cross-dressed as a woman in order to avoid having to fight in the Trojan War (Ulysses managed to oust him though), and given the name Pyrrha meaning red-haired girl.
Actually, in Greek mythology Pyrrhus (masculine of Pyrrha) was the name given to Achilles's son Neoptolemus, for his red hair.
- Monty has confirmed that all members of JNPR are based on characters who dressed in drag at one point in their story, hence Joan of Arc and Hua Mulan. So Achilles and Thor mentioned above work.
It seems to have been confirmed that JNPR are based on Joan of Arc, Thor, Achilles, and Mulan.

Jaune will prove to be a Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass.

Or by some Let's Get Dangerous!, will make our jaws drop to the floor.

Or be The Strategist: excellent strategic creativity when focused. His "basic" style allows him to survive while he directs his teammates.
Or Weak, but Skilled: no flashy weapon, but ridiculously skilled and very creative sword/shield combo. His breakout moment, in Initiation, will help him gain confidence and lead his team.
Or the girls can't use their weapons, whatever; Jaune holds off attacking enemies while they flee. Bonus points if he actually manages to kick butt and not just act as a distraction.
Or not...
- Guess who was right about him being a strategist?
  - Not so strategic in his one-ons against Cardin or that Ursa.

Nora wields a hammer.

See the pins WMG above. It would make for fitting comedy value, and suit her unsubtle, over-the-top personality. The colours match as well.

Confirmed. Hammer : grenade launcher. Grenades with little hearts on them.

Pyrrha will become Jaune's partner by saving him from crashing.

Pyrrha was only a few catapults away from Jaune. After landing, she turns around to notice Jaune flailing about and helps him land reasonably safely. When he goes to thank her, they make eye contact and become partners.

Partially confirmed. She saves Jaune, but via a spear throw at long distance, the two making eye contact a short while later.

Jaune is just too incompetent to qualify for Beacon

.Crazy, huh? But let's look at the evidence. Jaune is no pushover, but compared to his fellow students he is pretty clearly the least capable in combat. This presumably contrasts with his ancestors, who were mighty warriors. Thus, in order to fulfill his "destiny," he felt he needed to cheat his way into Beacon. That's it.As to why he got let in, either he's good at forging documents, or it's part of whatever mysterious plan Ozpin has.

Teams

Teams will be based around what "relic" they took.

The chess motif "relics" will play some role in designating which partner pairs will be combined into the full team, either by playing some kind of game with said piece or each one being matched with another for a predetermined set, like "gold knight + black rook" (or whatever piece she and Weiss pick).

Confirmed. CRDL took black bishops. JNPR took gold rooks. RWBY took gold knights.

The Second Team

There's a leaked photo of a group of four other bizarrely colored characters

◊. This is most likely the "second Alpha team" that Monty mentioned in an interview.

Confirmed.

The team pairings will meet up / be formed via airborne Crash-Into Hello.

Episode 7 ended with Ruby falling from the sky, seemingly towards Blake and Yang. Similarly, Jaune was flung by the Grim scorpion to an unknown location... towards Lie Ren and Nora?

Confirmed in the "meet up" sense. Both Ruby and Jaune ended up crashing into each other near Blake and Yang. Ren and Nora ended up there on their own.

Antagonists

The two silhouettes behind the Wicked Witch in the intro are...

Other members of a Big Bad Ensemble.
Fellow members of a Big Bad Triumvirate.
Her superiors.
Her Co-Dragons.
The new antagonists following Cinder's defeat.
- They're obviously male and female figures: when revealed their names will be Hansel and Gretel.
  - Hans and Greta and they'll be her servants.
  - As of Episode 16, the guy has purple hair and a grey and purple shirt and the girl has green hair and red eyes and wears a green and white outfit.
There names are Mercury Black and Emerald, a Tae Kwon Do fighter and a thief. Episode 1 of Volume 2 confirms them as Cinder's minions.

The terrible trio shown at the end of episode 16 will follow a Warrior/Thief/Mage motif.

Blue haired guy will be the warrior based on process of elimination, green-haired girl will be the thief based on her midriff baring outfit, and Cinder is obviously the mage with her fire spells.

Since when is that a motif?
- Since always? Fighter, Mage, Thief
  - Well, Mercury is definitely a fighter and Emerald wields twin blades.
In the first episode of Volume 2, Mercury refers to Emerald as a thief. I think this is enough to confirm this.
As of V 2 C 7, this is partially averted. Cinder's fire mage dress is just one of many personas she takes on, and she has demonstrated hand-to-hand, stealth, traditional melee, physical ranged (with the bow), and even elements of magic knight and arguably full contact-magic. She's a Renaissance woman when it comes to fighting. Mercury and Emerald remain to be completely confirmed, and perhaps they too have hidden depths. The trope still exists in the promotional art and traditional lineup at the end of Volume 1, so a shred of confirmation still exists, but this might be closer to jossed now.

There will be a Big Bad Ensemble.

Given the rather diverse amount of enemies in the trailers, I think each of the four girls will have their own antagonists to sort out. Something set the Knight loose on Weiss, and someone must've created those robots on the train, but I doubt they're the same person, and I doubt the culprits are working together.

Well, so far, Roman Torchwick and Cinder seem to be working together; the ending of the pilot shows what seems to be three primary groups of enemies: The Grimm Creatures, Torchwood and his thugs, and Crimson with her shadow people.
- Looks like Torchwick is working with the White Fang AND Cinder...
  - Cinder is higher-up than Roman.
Volume 2 Opening shows Cinder marching with Roman, Mercury, Emerald, Junior, and the Malachites. Also, I think a turn is coming... the Beacon teaching staff may not be so nice... and Penny's associates may be a mercenary outfit.
- Going off the sudden shift in lyrics the second Penny's group is shown wherein they mention "our enemies are gathering", I can't help believing this.

Junior is based on Little Bear from the Three Bears

He's called Junior because he's the son of an Unholy Matrimony pair of crime bosses/supervillains. As befitting the original story, Mama Bear's character and Papa Bear's character will be Red Oni, Blue Oni: Papa Bear will be Hot-Blooded and physical, while Mama Bear will be The Stoic and mystical. Bonus points for Papa Bear being an Old Master.

His last name Xiong means "bear", so I think this is pretty well confirmed.

The White Fang are...

...a bunch of half human half animals. Their symbol is a wolf head, one of their protest signs says "*Cut off* NOT ANIMALS" and the protesters have animal characteristics. Visible are a boy with bunny ears, a girl with bear ears, a goat/ram horned man, and a purple haired boy with small horns. There is a faunus rabbit girl in episode 11 being bullied in the Beacon cafeteria; and she has both rabbit and human ears.

Those were the Faunus protestors whose ceremony the White Fang disrupted. It's still perfectly possible that the White Fang are, for some reason, composed of Faunus.
- It's confirmed that the White Fang are Faunus, who presumably consider the peaceful protestors Category Traitors.

The White Fang are a violent Fauna rights group.

They dislike the idea of their fellow Faunus asking for equality and thus consider them Category Traitors, so they attack both their human oppressors and the peaceful Fauna protesters. Adam is likely a White Fang member, while Blake sides with the nonviolent faction.

More or less confirmed.

Other

Ozpin knew that Blake was a Faunus

No real evidence but IF he does know Jaune's secret, who is to say he doesn't know about Blake's?
- Confirmed in Volume 2.

Other than the first episode, the entire series will be comprised of two-part episodes.

Self-explanatory.

Middle episode and finale are confirmed to be longer.
Episode 15 too.

Kairi's fighting style will appear in a future battle

Specifically Namine's, because it's too awesome to lose.

Confirmed, Namine's fighting style has been utilized by Penny in episode 16.

The man Junior was talking to will be important.

Has red hair, a sword in a sheath and wears a hat with a feather. He definitely has a unique design; though we don't see his face clearly. Likely this is an Early-Bird Cameo.

Confirmed. That is Roman Torchwick, a character that is introduced in the pilot episode.

Barbara, Kara, Arryn and Lindsey will be the voices of the girls.

Or at least have some part in it. Evidence is in the last few seconds of the "Red" Trailer; when it shows the credits (Right after the shells hit the ground and she is framed in black), it shows the names of the people who worked on it and what they have done. Monty and Shane are next to animation, character design by Monty and Eileen, etc. But above them are the four listed above - with no indication as to what the role is.

Confirmed.

The voices for the girls

Lindsay will play Ruby, Kara will play Weiss, Arryn will play Blake and Barbara will play Yellow.

Confirmed.

The voice acting.

As the series goes on, the acting and the voices themselves will improve as a whole. It takes time for everything, and the experience will benefit the actors in the long run.

Confirmed.
- Is this really a theory? Actors get better with practice. This is just common sense.

The first test will end in Episode 8.

Episode 6 is 7 minutes long, meaning that Episode 7 will be 4. 4 minutes is not nearly enough time to conclude the test. Plus, they already stated the middle episode and finale will be the same length as the first episode, so this will be a proper place to finish the test and move into the second half of the story.
- Confirmed.

Episode 8's plot will be a multi-boss battle between the raven and the scorpion

Meaning the focus of the episode will split between Ruby, Weiss, Blake and Yang fighting the giant raven, and Pyrrha, Jaune, Ren and Nora fighting the scorpion.
- Confirmed!

The train belonged to Weiss

The crates within the train have snowflake insignias, after all.

Or, rather, the Schnee family.
- Confirmed as of episode fifteen.

Lyrical Analysis: Yang is a badass Determinator.

"Sending out your army but you still cant win/Listen up silly boy cuz i'm gonna tell you why"
"Can't hold me now/You got nothing that can stop me"
"Swing all you want/Like a fever i will take you down"

She's basically saying "Come at me. Nothing you throw at me is going to stop me from causing you pain. Ever."

Wait... is this confirmed?

Penny is a battle robot.

She just doesn't act like she's really human.

She's possibly Pinocchio. Which given we have a villain named Torchwick, well...
- Does the name Penny refer to anything in Pinocchio? She also doesn't appear to have a long nose of something like that... Other than that, I agree. Her movement does seem robotic.
  - The link is that Penny sounds similar to Pinocchio.
  - Well, if she starts ranting about wanting to be real, therein would lie the connection.
- The robot part is confirmed with some hint of being based on Pinocchio.
  - The reverse-marionette strings seem pretty unambiguous.
  - Granted, Penny could also be a Cyborg rather than a full robot.
- Worth noting that during her initial meeting with Team RWBY she does not wear a backpack, yet during the fight at the shipping port, she does wear one. This may explain where the swords came from, possibly disproving the theory that she is a robot. However, this still doesn't explain her odd behaviour.
Her apearance in the Volume 2 Opening has her standing in a high-tech white Corridor with a bunch of advanced armored troops, James Ironwood, Headmaster of Atlas, and a pair of what appear to be Aides to the to James mentioned. Given how everyone else is in a "Team" with the rest of the people in their picture there, it implies she's either the daughter of the James, or a battle robot made by Atlas, or simply a student of Atlas. Note that James Ironwood is of the opinion that simply training hunters isn't "enough" and has an "Army".
Confirmed (more-or-less) as of Season 2 Episode 3; Penny outright states to Ruby that she isn't a real girl.

Semblances are hereditary

It seems unlikely that Weiss would be the first person to have a dust-based semblance when she's the heiress to a massive dust producing company. More likely is that her semblance has been in her family for generations and the Schnee Dust Company was created to provide it's owner with a steady supply of dust for their semblance. It could also explain why Ruby and Yang have different last names. In the world of RWBY you take the last name of the parent you got your semblance from.
- Monty Confirmed on the RWBY livestream that semblances are hereditary. However Ruby and Yang are half-sisters explaining the name.

The Knight from the White Trailer will be Weiss' first successful Summon

In Volume 3 Episode 4, we learn that among the Shnee's magic talent is being able to summon versions of defeated enemies to fight alongside you. Winter demonstrates this by summoning a Beowulf. Weiss tries and fails to summon in the episode, but when she leaves we see the camera pan down to what she managed to summon, a tiny sword reminiscent of the Knight's weapon.

By making it to the Singles Round, Weiss will get her act together and successfully perform a summon, creating the Knight or a lesser version of it to fight at her side.

Jossed somewhat. While the Knight might still be her first summon, the Coming Soon showed that Yang will be fighting for team RWBY in the singles round against Mercury.
- With Yang disqualified, they might turn to Weiss to replace her, as she did win, and they need someone to fill that now empty slot that Mercury cannot fill due to being seen as injured.
- Yang's actions got RWBY disqualified from the tournament entirely. That still doesn't mean Weiss won't summon the Knight to help in battle.
Confirmed in a way by Episode 11. Weiss was able to summon the Knight's right arm and sword to defeat a Paladin.
Completely confirmed in Volume 4, Chapter 9.

Jossed theories

Team RWBY

RWBY are the Four Temperament Ensemble

Mirror, Mirror paints lonely Weiss as a pretty ideal Phlegmatic with something to prove, separated from others by her class. Water Element, Cold & Wet
From Shadows makes Blake sound angry at humanity and more Melancholic than the others, being something of an outcast. Earth Element, Cold & Dry
Yang is Choleric, being a big sister to Ruby and exploitative of her sex appeal, while always being the dominant personality in conversation. Fire Element, Hot & Dry
Ruby is Sanguine, having a more child-like demeanor and innocence and not registering concepts such as the possibility of dying on the job. Air Element, Hot & Wet...
- Jossed; after a comprehensive discussion on Is This An Example? thread and the RWBY forum thread, it's been widely agreed that the trope is not in effect for any team in the show.

Cinder Fall is Ruby's mother

In Red like Roses: Part II, the second vocalist (for the caretaker apparently killed) is the first's mother. Her trailer has her standing at a grave with the name 'Summer Rose', but the song implies that her mother was lost on a mission or expedition; thus, it's more likely the marker is a cenotaph, and her mother's body never found. Cinder Fall is initially mysterious, but her color of motif seems to be red as well (and cinders are red, making this fit). Thus: Summer Rose went out to do... something, and never came back. The situation led her to be presumed dead, but in fact she survived, and some circumstance led her to go incognito as Cinder Fall. What's she after? Why is she working with Roman? Who knows?

Did she stumble upon some magic that kept her young? Cinder Fall is not old enough to be Ruby's mother especially given she's young enough to be believed as a combat school student.
- Jossed. Monty himself confirmed Cinder is not Ruby's mother.

Blake and Adam are trying to find a cure for Adam.

Adam's mask is what is keeping him in a human form.

Probably something more like losing his mind and becoming more murderous.
Adam's mask is more likely just a higher ranked or personalized version of those worn by White Fang.
In "Painting the Town...", Blake confirms that these masks are just symbolic of humanity's choice to view the Faunus as monsters.

Blake has seen some things.

When Jaune and Pyrrha get attacked by the scorpion, the scream causes her to look up in the sky, almost scared, as if she's remembering something horrible.

Maybe she was traumatized by men with really feminine screams?
- It's speculated they are actually reacting to screams from Ruby and Weiss (as in explaining why Ruby suddenly falls out of the sky). Maybe Blake recognizes Weiss's voice... or Ruby's.
While Blake has no doubt seen "things", as of Episode 8, Blake was clearly reacting to Ruby falling from the sky.

Yang's hair is the actual protagonist of the series, and will become it's own character at some point.

...we had three hair-related WMGs in a row. Clearly, Yang's hair is important to the series.

Or maybe people want to know why Yang gets mad when her hair gets cut. That doesn't suggest it's important to the series.
- Unlike Blake's bow which originally was thought to possess some Expressive Accessory characteristic, Yang's hair has had no independent expression.

Yellow will be named Yolo.

'Cause why the hell not.

Perhaps because no one will ever take her seriously if that were the case? More appropriate names would be Gold (is more than likely to be based on Goldilocks, or alternatively Rapunzel), Topaz (yellow gemstone), Aurum (scientific name for gold), Jaune (French for yellow) and so on. Or to keep up with the name theme, something with Y (that is not Yolo or anything similar).
- Jossed, it's Yang.
- Though it’s worth note that Jaune was the name of another major character.

Weiss is an Emotionless Girl, and the black undershirt she wears is symbolic of that.

As theorized here

, "Black represents death. White is dead where her heart and lungs should be. All the organs that make her live are covered by this black shirt. However, because she is wearing white over it, we only see a glimpse of the death that is underneath. She is dead inside."

Jossed; we've seen her personality now, and it is unexpectedly bitchy, but definitely not emotionless.
- Might just be a sociopath who is trying to manipulate people, and doesn't mind coming off poorly, because no one ever suspects the bitch is a cover for an empty soul.
  - She just wears black underneath her clothes, people.

The Bitch Face in this

picture is because of a training exercise.

You know how Weiss was wearing an angry face in it while walking up behind an anxious Ruby? That's actually a teaser for episode 3. I predict that it'll happen in the middle of a fight between the two, one where Weiss will gain the upper hand on account of being a more refined fighter.

Jossed. Weiss was sneaking up on Ruby pre-opening-ceremonies to yell at her again (and give her a Dust pamphlet).

Yang always keeps mirrored sunglasses on hand to hide her eyes.

Her Red Eyes, Take Warning, that is. She may just use it to hide her Super Mode in case she ever wanted to surprise someone, but it's also possible her Super Mode is something more taboo; if she were ever in a situation where she was very angry but had to restrain herself, she would have to hide it. (She was able to switch off easily in her trailer because she was "spent" beating the crap out of Junior.)

Jossed. In episode 8, she blatantly goes red-eyed in front of everybody in a moment of frustration. If it was meant to be a secret of some kind, then she either wouldn't have revealed it so flagrantly or at least would have made some Oh, Crap! indicator afterwards. Also, nobody seemed to react to it in any fashion, so it doesn't seem to be taboo in any respect.
- The glasses were most likely a gag, but if they HAVE to have a purpose... first person they make eye contact with is their permanent partner. So she makes it impossible to have eye contact with her until she chooses to partner you.
  - Considering that they appear to be aviator sunglasses, they were probably just used to keep the wind out of her eyes as she accelerated.

Blake's "Ribbon Twitch" in Episode 8 is simply a case of Expressive Accessory

Just as the title says. Barring some very clever construction, her headband bow doesn't look the way organic ears would.

We have seen one Faunus now in the series proper, episode 11. She has both rabbit ears and human ears.
- Jossed, Blake's headband is actually a ribbon wound around her cat ears.

Blake-as-a-Faunus is a Red Herring

With the headband, and her shady past, and her song lyrics "Born with no life- into subjugation. Treated like a worthless animal! Stripped of all rights, just a lesser being- crushed by cruel, ruthless human rule!", it's overwhelmingly obvious that she's secretly a Faunus. So obvious, it would probably be kind of disappointing if it turned out to be true. It would probably be more interesting if she were actually human.

In lunch scene episode, though getting upset, her reaction to Cardin bullying Velvet isn't as big as if she were a Faunus. The lyrics might refer to her treatment from associating with them (maybe Adam is a Faunus and Blake had been good friends with him but because she associated with him, she was treated just like one).
- Jossed by The Un-Twist, probably for the better. Having no Faunus as a main character just to have a Red Herring would be even more disappointing.

Blake was a Faunus.

Her ears and any other physical features were surgically removed. She wears the bow as a sort of faux-prosthetic.

Jossed.

Blake is not a Faunus, but was enslaved/abused alongside them.

The lines "Born with no life/Into subjugation/Treated like a worthless animal" are sung by a male voice, then it goes back to Blake for "Stripped of all rights/Just a lesser being". Blake's parent(s) might have been involved with actively oppressing Fauna, and when they had an unwanted child, they treated her like one of them. She identifies more strongly with Fauna than humans because of her experiences growing up, hence the Expressive Accessory.

Jossed.

Weiss' actions and words will drive Blake into a Face–Heel Turn.

When Weiss, Ruby, and Yang find Blake again, Weiss will go on another anti-Faunus tirade that will finally push Blake over the edge, and when either the White Fang or Torchwick finds her next, she'll decide that if the others will never accept her, she might as well live up to their expectations. However, she'll spell this out in an emotional Motive Rant, causing Weiss to have a huge My God, What Have I Done? moment and spend the next season trying to make amends, try to "save" Blake and convince her to come back to the good guys, and maybe confront her family/company on the cycle of hatred they're helping to perpetuate.

Jossed

Weiss is an albino

It explains her white hair. The show seems to be a case of Like Reality, Unless Noted (meaning no Animesque hair)- and Ruby and Ren's hair colors are pretty obviously dyed.

Jossed. We've got Oobleck, Emerald, and that guy with the turquoise-colored hair on Sun's team.

Weiss and Ruby will be related.

Snow-white and Rose-red

While their relationship isn't mentioned, Yang and Ruby are sisters (though given Word of God, they probably aren't blood-relatives).
- Weiss and Ruby were likely originally supposed to be sisters based on the fact that Miltia/Melanie are the original designs for the characters. However, the Malachite sisters could yet bear some relation to them that ties them all together.
- Jossed. Ruby and Yang are half-sisters but no relation to Weiss

Team JNPR

Jaune's weapon is Excalibur, or at least based on it.

Although it has not been established what his sword can do, one of Excalibur's properties is that its sheath is able to protect its wielder from harm to a certain degree. The sheath of Jaune's sword doubles as his shield, which would fit this description. Plus, he states that it was passed down through his family, meaning someone in his family may have retrieved it from the enchanted lake it was thrown into at some point. Learning to wield it properly will signify Jaune taking a level in badass.

It would be interesting if the sword would portend that Jon of Arc and King Arthur had a common ancestry.
- Which means either Mordred slept around, or he wasn't Arthur's only illegitimate child.
  - And just for good measure, Jaune will end up being a descendant of Nero too.◊
Jaune also has a lot of Aura. You know, the thing that turns great blows into minor cuts?
- When facing down Cardin, he starts glowing, gets punched, and Cardin looks like he nearly broke his hand while Jaune gets dropped.
Jossed. It's Corcea Mors, a weapon wielded by Julius Caesar. The British prince Nennius acquired it when Caesar embedded it in his shield. It slew anyone struck by it. Hence "Yellow Death".

Jaune's first major awesome act will involve him tanking an obscene amount of attacks.

Given his motion sickness, the chance that he's going to be flying all over the place is slim to none. It with either have everyone looking on in awe, or no one sees it.

Jaune is the ancestor to Grif. Grif has proven himself to be a Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass time and time again and in a show that knee-deep in badassery, Jaune will have his moment to shine.
Jossed. Jaune's first epic moment was leading his team in defeating a Death Stalker.
Or otherwised jossed by Jaune's first notable victory practically solo over a massive Ursa.

Other Teams

Team CRDL will be the victims to show just how powerful White Fang/Roman's gang is

They'll be picked out as the weakling, and one of said organisations will show up, and, after toying with them a bit, will force-feed them curb and steal their uniforms and weapons to blend in. Bonus points if it turns out they kicked their asses because they selected for "people others will be relieved to learn are missing."

Cinder, Mercury, and Emerald have already infiltrated Beacon as a team "from Haven." But there uniforms are match their proposed origin rather than being Beacon uniforms like Team CRDL's.

Velvet used to be in a different team before CFVY

Every character has a part of their name that relates to a colour somehow. Velvet, however, has the reference in both her first and last names - the Velvet part refers to her current colour, brown, but on her previous team she used the other colour present: Scarlatina (scarlet). It's possible that her first team was notoriously faunophobic, and she requested to be transferred into a more accepting team.

They have fought many battles together.

Antagonists

Torchwick and Cinder are members of White Fang

What if Torchwick and Cinder are really just trying to take revenge on people who discriminate against faunus? What if Cinder or Torchwick are actually faunus themselves? Perhaps their big plan is to conduct some sort of attack against prejudice people. I know this is crazy, but I'm really just throwing things left and right at the moment.

Given that Torchwick refers to his White Fang mooks as "animals" right to their faces, and scolds one unsure what to do with a rope that "it's not a leash", it seems pretty obvious that he isn't a big fan of Faunus. And the stinger of Episode 8 heavily hints that the target of the grand plan Torchwick is working on is Beacon.
The stinger of Episode 16 seems to imply Cinder, and by extension Roman, are simply using the White Fang.
- Volume 2 Episode 1 seems to support this.
Volume 2 Episode 4 clearly shows that Torchwick is not a "member" of the White Fang but is working with them against a "common enemy."

The Wicked Witch connections

Cinder is the woman Yang was looking for in the Yellow trailer. Also, she will have some kind of connection to Beacon Academy. The moment Roman realised there was a Huntress on the scene, Cinder took over, indicating she's had Huntress training, too. The best place for that is Beacon. This might also explain the narration at the beginning of Episode 1: the voice overs were Cinder and Ozpin. They're connected via Beacon Academy's teaching staff and Cinder's negative outlook has driven her to Roman's side because she's become a Well-Intentioned Extremist or undercover in Roman's organisation as a mole. Somehow, Yang's mission, Beacon Academy, Ozpin, Roman's goals are all connected and the key is Cinder.

Cinder is not the Wicked Witch. Cinder is Cinderella. Mercury is the messenger god... and Emerald is the "diamond in the rough".

Cinder is related to one of the girls

Ruby's silver eyes could possibly be a tie-in to Cinder and her gold eyes. Also, they both wear red and have dark hair.
Weiss's fairytale motif is Snow White whose own wicked stepmother was a practitioner of magic. Depictions of the stepmother usually featured her having dark hair and light skin as seems to be the case with Cinder.
She and Blake both have piercing golden eyes. This may be supported by the fact that in certain older fairy tales and classic literature, the cruelty and plight of certain antagonists was often attributed to having their child taken away or something of the like. There was also Blake's remark regarding her membership of the White Fang: "You could almost say I was born into it."
- Jossed by Monty's twitter.
Yang's name is Chinese, while Cinder has an outfit and tattoos of vaguely Eastern origin. Yang and the Witch both employ a number of fire-based abilities, which appear to be at least partially natural in origin for Yang herself. Yang is in Junior's bar searching for a black-haired girl... possibly an older sister, or her mother.
- A lot of fan speculation has cued on Cinder being Blake's mother, but after Episode 16's stinger it would seem most likely she's related (likely mother) to Yang. Eyes glow, fire powers, and dark hair like the woman in the picture that Yang was looking for.
- As far as Cinder being Ruby + Yang's mother, it's been officially Jossed: Monty's twitter

Torchwick answers to or is otherwise related to a villain based off the Coachman.

Keeps with the Pinocchio motif thus far established with the character.

Seems well Jossed by now. Cinder scares the shit out of him. And he likes her. Talk about conflict.

Cinder is a double agent

Cinder is a mole in Roman's organization. This is why Glynda was at hand, for she had been forewarned about the robbery and was standing by in case Roman or his goons got out of hand. Then Ruby became the spanner in the works, and Glynda had to rescue her from Roman's attack. Out comes Cinder, and they fight an impressive looking, but ultimately just for show duel before Roman makes his escape. This is also why Glynda is so annoyed with Ruby afterwards, for she effectively blew a planned out stakeout.

Jossed, as it's now been made clear that it's Cinder who's in charge of the operation.

Roman and Cinder are both figureheads for a villainous Dust company, alongside two yet-to-be-revealed 'Wicked Witches', and a Bigger Bad who won't be revealed until much later.

In the intro, when Cinder is revealed during the credits reel of the pilot, she's flanked by two figures framed in shadow. It wouldn't be crazy to think that these mysterious people will be important later.

While some have said Cinder wears glass slippers and is therefore Cinderella, I suggest they could be ruby or silver. She could then likely be Dorothy and those two mysterious figures could be the Eastwitch and the Westwitch.
- And I was wrong, it's not Dorothy. Cinder is Cinderella and two other figures appeared in Episode 16.

Roman and Cinder are treating each other as Unwitting Pawns.

We don't know what their goals are yet, but let's assume Roman is an underworld boss looking to improve his own lot and Cinder is ultimately on the side of the Grim. Roman is willing to work with Cinder and the Grim forces as long as it suits him, and Cinder is working with humanity until the Grim consider the underworld a liability. They'd inevitably decide it's over at the same time and turn it into an Evil vs. Evil Enemy Civil War.

Seemingly jossed on Roman's part. He's so far the only pawn in this game.

the Witch is Pyrrha.

I'm aware one's eyes are green and the other's are gold. However their silhouettes and eye shapes look similar, don't you think? (And we've seen with Yang that power usage can change a person's eye colour.)

So, a teenager is skilled enough in magic to duel one of Beacon's teachers (Note that Beacon is an elite academy, they'd probably have hired the strongest sorcerers/warriors available to teach there.) and is also adept in three different weapon types, as Pyrrha's ease with her Swiss-Army Weapon indicates?...I'm sorry, I'm just not seeing it.
- Also, on the ship when she has the stick, you can clearly see her neck, chin, and hair. Her hair is black.
Jossed... her name is Cinder.

Cinder will be the Final Boss for season 1

She's the last of the season 1 antagonists shown in the opening theme, so I suspect she'll be, if not the Arc Villain, then the final antagonist fought for the first season.

Jossed... Roman is the season 1 villain. Cinder is introduced as the first volume comes to a close.

The first Narrator is Cinder, the evil witch.

Her outlook on humanity being doomed to darkness is her motivation for joining The Dark Side.At the beginning of episode one, Ozpin seems to be responding directly to the narrator - perhaps she was a Huntress that parted bitter ways with Beacon. That plus the fact that they managed to get JEN FREAKING TAYLOR to voice her, and I don't think this is gonna be a bit character.

Jossed. Cinder is voiced by Jessica Nigri.

The newscaster and the Wicked Witch are the same woman.

Who only has the yellow eyes when she's using her powers. It would seem odd to have the "background characters" as silhouettes but the newslady fully animated if she was only supposed to be a newslady and nothing more - and she doesn't appears in the opening/credits either. Hmm...

"Fully animated" is a very generous assessment. The only part of the news anchor that moves is her lips. What's more, she's also a 2D image in a 3D-rendered world. Having eyes that are only yellow when she uses her powers doesn't indicate it's the news anchor, and doesn't rule out any female character who doesn't already have yellow eyes. She couldn't very well be a silhouette because you can't cast shadows on a hologram, and having the face of a news anchor obscured would counter the point of having a news anchor to begin with. There's no reason for her to be featured in the credit sequence because she's a minor character whose only role is to build the world. It would fly from so far left field if she has any effect on events beyond describing them in a news cast for the characters and audience, much less stand as a major opposing force.
Jossed... Crimson is Cinder(ella)

Wicked Witch is...

I've decided that Crimson must be Maleficent. Why? Fire-based magic, dragon-wing tattoo...

Jossed... she's Cinderella.
- Could be a fusion. Blake is Beauty and Beast; Penny is Puppet and Puppeteer...

Miltia and Melanie are students at Beacon.

It will either be revealed that:

They have gone to the school longer than the main cast, applying the skills they learn during class to their job as Junior's bodyguards ORï¿½
They have been sent to infiltrate the school by Junior so they can find Yang and pay her back for what she did to all of them.
- Or being sent to the school is part of their punishment/rehabilitation.
The twins will be on Velvet Scarlatina's team and are just as prejudiced as Team CRDL.
- Jossed. Velvet's team does not include them.

Cinder Fall was part of a 4-person team with seasons as their themes.

Summer Rose was a member. It's possible Winter and Spring are Cinder's companions.

That's Jossed. They are Mercury Black and Emerald Sustrai and Monty has confirmed they have two other team mates and they are not actually part of Cinder's "team". They just work for her.
- Only the second part is Jossed the theory that she was in a team with Summer Rose nor that they were based on four seasons isn't.
Now that we've been made aware of Winter Schnee, this theory gains more weight.
Jossed since 2-6; Summer Rose was on a team with her eventual husband, his first wife, and Qrow.
3-3 mentions "Autumn's condition." There's an Autumn out there that may or may not be related to Cinder Fall.

Neo is Mute

Just putting it out there. It's generally accepted by Fanon and she hasn't talked yet...

Jossed. She's confirmed to have a voice actress in the third volume.
- Unjossed? She never spoke in the third volume.

Other characters

Yang's father's name

Yang Ju-Long

Taiyang Xiao Long
- Meaning "supreme sun little dragon"?
  - Taiyang is likely named for Taeyang (SOL) from the K-pop band Big Bang. All of Sun's team are inspired by this band.
Taiyang is confirmed. THREEFOLD. montyoum appeared here at tropes and left the above comment (Taiyang Xiao Long) which was more or less ignored for months as people refused to believe it was really him. Then Monty tweeted a pic that contained Taiyang Xiao Long as a file name for a character. Then Volume 2 Episode 8 Field Trip featured a letter to the girls from their father "Taiyang".
With Taiyang confirmed as Yang and Ruby's father, the name Ju-Long is JOSSED.

The Mohawk guy and the Redheaded guy visible at the start of the test will be voiced by Gavin and Michael.

It's been said that Gavin will voice an important character, and maybe combined with the WMG about Mohawk guy forming an antagonistic team then this could become an interesting development.

Their names are Russel and Cardin
Jossed. They're voiced by Adam Ellis and Shane Newville.

Professor Port will refer to his captured Grim as Edgar at one point.

Because "No, you don't understand, Edgar is the one in the cage!" would be absolutely priceless.

Jossed as of the Badge and the Burden, Pt. 2

Yellow mohawk guy will be the leader of a third team.

One that will be antagonistic to the heroes, out of focus, or both.

Jossed. His name is Russel and his team's leader is Carden.

One of the students will be killed in the Emerald Forest.

Their partner will be both reassigned and, if not the one responsible for said death, traumatized.

The two new, as-yet-unnamed Mohawk and Redheaded guys.
- I call them Moss and Nickel.
Jossed. They are part of Team CRDL.

Adam is the one in the grave

Ruby looks over a someones' grave at the beginning of her trailer. I'm guessing that was Adam.

More likely White Cloak seen in the Episode opener.
- It's clear at this point Ruby's mother, Summer Rose, is the one in the grave.

CFVY

Velvet's team...

ï¿½will be based on fairy tales of toys coming to life, since Velvet herself is based on The Velveteen Rabbit.

Paddington Bear is an option. I suggest his name be Payton Bar... others: Winifred Garland Poe... Sue Perdita... and Old Bear.
Maybe the The Nutcracker. Perhaps Raggedy Anne/Andy too.
Of course, we already have Penny who is very likely based on Pinocchio.
Seeing as its a toy-themed team, add in The Steadfast Tin Soldier. We can also expand toys into tales/stories about man-made humanoid objects such as the Golem or the ballet Coppélia.
- Okay, so Pinocchio-like "toys" seem to be the focus of Penny's "associates".
It's looking less and less likely that her team is based on things coming to life. The idea of toys being involved as the theme is entirely jossed.

Other stuff

Monty will abandon his righteous desire to avoid fan-service "by never using panty shots."

Jossed as specifically applied to Monty (RIP), otherwise still up in the air.

Sensing a theme here...

The other girls' weapons, and possibly other characters in general, will continue the close range weapons with gun properties added on. I can see Black's speculated whip being fired like a Hookshot from The Legend of Zelda, but you have me at Yellow.

I predict Yellow will be a Pyromancer.
- Looking at Yellows picture seems to indicate her wielding pistols.
  - Maybe she'll have a Bow/Nunchaku hybrid.
  - She does appear to be a pyromancer in some form of another, although she uses Shotgun Gauntlets.
  - Jossed: They're Shotgun Gauntlets.
Blake's weapon is a three-for-one deal, a cross between a short sword, a pistol and a whip.
- The best description I've seen for Blake's weapon would be a "Meteor Gunblade", neatly encapsulating the entirety of the weapon's uses, if putting a lot of the focus on its use as a "chain weapon".
The overall assumption that all characters will use gun-ish weapons is jossed simply via Jaune's presence. His weapon has no such gun functionality.
- Jaune's a bad example, as his weapon is pointed out to be different from the norm.
  - What about Cardin's mace?
Volume 2 seems to confirm that the Malachite twins are part of the show. Neither of them have gun functionality to their weapons.

That they are all ambidextrous will bring the four girls together.

Consider this - Black dual wields, Ruby and Weiss both use their weapons with whatever hand they feel like and Yellow hasn't been released to contradict this. Being able to use both hands is extremely rare and even more so to have been taught to combatants. So it is probably a sign of some common factor, and that the four will presumably meet and team up will likely arise from this same factor. Ergo, magic ambidexterity. Boom.

Ignoring the fact that Adam also appears to be ambidextrous- wielding a sword in one hand and a shotgun in the other- a degree of it is a feature of all characters in Monty's work.
Yellow has been revealed to use her fists, an ambidextrous weapon. One other character wields dual pistols and the last two whose weapons have also been featured seem to carry a shield in their off hand.
Jossed. The teams were not formed by choice.

The thing at the end of episode 9 will not be what we're expecting.

Maybe a trained Grimm?

Considering that everyone predicted this to be a wild Boarbatusk, this one is jossed as of Episode 10.

The launchers were designed to launch people so that they would land somewhere near each other in pairs.

As a result, the most likely people they would pair with would be the ones that were picked out, as shown in the Fridge Logic section, they balance each other out but half of them would rather be with someone else. Thus they pick a "random" method and give them the illusion of having a "choice" in order for them not to protest it.

Kind of difficult to rig it this way as each person uses their own strategy for landing. Both Weiss and Yang have demonstrated that they were more than capable of remaining airborne if they wished. A better faux-randomizer would be to have them use slides to specific locations or something like that. Something where the character's choice seemed random but in the end it didn't matter because the headmaster or whoever was manipulating the outcome from behind the scenes. The only way the Launchers can have this affect is if the forest itself is rig so that no matter where a character landed they would appear nearby a character the headmaster wished them to partnered with. But that just seems silly.
Jossed. In episode 7, Ozpin and Glinda talk about the teams formed. Glinda's apprehension about Lie working with Nora indicates that they didn't plan any specific layout.

A complicated guess about the setting's mythology.

There were four gods "of the sun, the twin moons, and the earth" respectively. They created these planets, and possibly the first seeds of life.

At some point- I'm not sure how, though the Grim might have played a part- the earth god and one of the moon gods were attacked, and severely injured if not outright killed. This damaged their respective creations; the attacked moon/god shattered, fraying away over time. The earth god fell to the land it had created, its corpse falling into the ocean and creating a new continent. Its bones were lodged deep within this dragon's corpse/continent; these bones were filled with mystical power- magic beyond any humanity possessed. Eventually, humanity moved to this continent (or was born there, your pick) and colonized it.

Humans dug up these bones, and called them Dust. They learned that by combining Dust with weaponry, the weapons that emerged were stronger, their nature intertwined with the earth's elements.

The soul of the god was also shattered, but did not move as far. It fled into the minds and souls of those people inhabiting the continent, and gave them +5 to weaponry and smithing-related skills...well, no, not really, but it did something like that. So empowered, these people were able to defend against Grim as they never had before, birth of civilization as we know it, blah blah, Academies, blah, teenagers being awesome.

Meanwhile, the sun dragon was observing this, and decided to empower its own people to protect itself against whatever attacked the other gods (It chose mundane humans on a different continent to ensure that their power relied on the sun dragon and so they would never betray it). The sun's people were given inborn fire powers. The two different races met up, established more civilization, were able to marginalize the Grim's presence on two continents, and several centuries/decades later, we have Yang, adopted (possibly) into an earth-dwelling family, and Ruby, who is awesome enough to make an insanely complex gun-scythe while still young, and probably has some innate relation to the wood element.

I don't know what the intact moon god was/is doing. Maybe it made the Faunus Faunus to begin with, and is their Neglectful Precursor, given the Fantastic Racism.

Jossed as of the sixth episode; it is Aura that empowers weapons, Dust usage is simply a function they have.
Also somewhat jossed on the mythology side too. Volume 4, Chapter 8 revealed the religion of two brothers, which Ozpin claimed to have actually happened.

Shane and Katie

In the cargo train, a heart is engraved on a compartment and "Shane + Katie" is written inside. Shane and Katie, I'm guessing, are two of Weiss' friends, and she was sending something to them via the train.

Could just as easily be Ruby's friends. Or just two random schmoes.
Wrong. "Shane + Katie" refers to Shane Newville, co-animator of RWBY and his wife Katie. It's an easter egg.

Some of the voices will change.

Not the actors, mind you. More like certain voice pitches will change, like Adam sounding less gruff or Ruby sounding less childish over time.

Confirmed for Ruby.
- No, not really. In Yellow, she was using her high pitched, excited voice. That remains the same in the series, and Yellow's VA was recorded after episode 1.

Episode 8 will kick off the season's "third arc"

The first and second having been Arrival at Beacon and the Initiation.

Jossed. It's the mid-season episode. The "third arc" will have to wait til Episode 9.

The word 'bitch' is a racial slur on Vytal.

Because of the Faunus.

Jossed. The show doesn't use curse words.
Still unconfirmed at this point, but the show has introduced at least mild profanity.

"Summer Rose" is Yang's real name.

"Summer" certainly fits her sun theme, and her death could simply be symbolic (taking on a new name for whatever reason). If you interpret Red Like Roses Part II as being an argument between Ruby and whoever white cloak is, it could be more literal than it seems; an actual argument caused by Anger Born of Worry after Yang was seriously injured, rather than an abstract How Dare You Die on Me!.

Possibly Jossed, as Sandra Casey, the second singer in Red Like Roses Part II, has confirmed that she was singing as Ruby's dead mother. However, Summer is a pretty good name for someone who named their kid after the sun.
Summer Rose is Ruby's mother

Penny is a flesh and blood hominid - she's just weird.

More specifically, her strange mannerisms and way of talking could come from being raised in a lab (rather than being built or grown in one). More specifically, her behaviour matches someone with a high rating on the F-scale

(low social intelligence, quick to solve problems with violence when someone seems to be at fault^note, binary thinking, etc.), which tends to be a trait seen in people with strict or regimented upbringings.

Penny confirmed in Volume 2 Episode 3 that she is "not a real girl." So, either she's "a man..?" (quoting Penny from Black and White), or she's a robot. Also, her hands were made of metal.

"Rose" is Ruby's middle name, not her actual surname.

...and people call her "Ruby Rose" because it sounds better (with her full name being "Ruby Rose Xiao Long" or "Ruby Rose Long", depending on if "Xiao Long" is Yang's surname or middle name and surname). This would explain her and Yang's different surnames.

If only for aesthetic reasons, this troper hopes this isn't canon. Not even the other way around ("Rose" being Yang's real last name).
- It's not. They're half-sisters thus their surnames.
  - Nope. Rose is Ruby's surname just like her mother's.

Ruby and Blake.

It's possible that Beauty is fighting to heal the dying Beast, and has been tasked with acquiring the Crescent Rose to do so (roses were prominent in the original tale). Also, the Beowolves may be the spawn of the Beast's curse, and Ruby is seeking to kill the Beast to destroy the Beowolves for good (which Beauty won't allow). Basically, it's a case of Grey-and-Gray Morality.

Except that R and B are part of team RWBY (Ruby, Weiss, Blake, and Yang) and are therefore allies. Although internal strife is still possible.
It seems that Adam was just a ranking member of White Fang and Blake's partnership with him had nothing to do with any condition.
Jossed.

Ruby is connected to Adam

Part of a nation/clan or something, seeing as Monty probably meant they're not related-by-blood.

Doubtful. Adam seems to be a ranking member of White Fang and a Faunus. What would Ruby have in common with him?
- Both share a rose motif, although according to Monty, the difference between them is "scatter and wilt".
Jossed.

Red will lose her voice.

It was really annoying in the Yellow trailer. So she will become a true Montezon and speak only with her actions, primarily violence.

Her voice was changed for the actual show.
- However, Michael was quick to point out that the yellow trailer was recorded AFTER episode one, and that it was the delivery, not the voice, that made it sound different.
JOSSED.

Ruby passed a Secret Test of Character in the first episode.

A la Captain America, Ozpin describes being a Huntress as slaying monsters with an impassive look on his face, but when Ruby talks about her motivations she states that she wants to help people.

Jossed.

Ruby has Asperger's Syndrome

Think about it, she seems to have quite a few traits associated with Asperger's/HFA; ranging from subtle thingsï¿½poor time management if episode 9 is any indicator, an aversion to direct eye contact, particularly in confrontations, resistance to interacting with people outside of established friends and family, ie Yangï¿½and unsubtleï¿½Literal-Minded tendencies leading to difficulty recognizing sarcasm and social cues, and, from what we can tell so far, a somewhat unusual obsession with weaponry.

From a technical standpoint, Ruby seems to fulfill the DSM-IV criteria for an Asperger's diagnosis, though given that there hasn't been significant focus on her early childhood so far and it's unlikely we'll get much information about what she was like as toddler or even a young child, there's no way to tell whether or not she fulfills the criteria that requiredocumentation of said periods of life.

This troper shakes his head.
This troper is a dead ringer for Ruby's personality in real life (engineer, obsessed with weapons old and new, talks too fast and loud and far too often but has trouble making friends, especially when established friends and family are around, feels very uncomfortable with eye contact, and pretty literal most of the time, especially when hyped up) and I definitely don't have Asperger's or any other Autistic Spectrum disorder. So no.
This troper is all of the above, and is autistic. It's an entirely possible theory, and it would be fantastic if it was true - fictional autistics are hard to find.
Moreover, this has been Jossed. TWOFOLD. First montyoum himself appeared here at tropes and flatly denied this. But people didn't believe it was him. However, in a live interview, he, again, denied that Ruby has Asperger's. Jossed. Jossed. Jossed.

Blake's childhood was preparing her for joining White Fang

This Troper is basing off of tactics actually used by terrorist groups, gangs and other such groups that utilize violence as part of their modus operandi. Blake, as a young child, was sent off to combat school to be trained in physical combat with the intention of being used as a higher ranked White Fang operative. During this time she likely had less contact with the White Fang and was able to associate with people who weren't Faunas or White Fang Members. Due to this prolonged exposure to other people Blake developed the morality that would not allow her to go through with Adam's plans during the Train Job. She used her credentials gained from whatever school she attended in order to get into Beacon.

Jossed. In episode 1 and 16 it is shown that White Fang only recently turned to terrorism and, again in episode 16 it indicates that Blake was raised by her parents and went to protests not combat school.
- Blake tells Ozpin in Volume 2 that she was raised "outside the kingdom" and that "if you couldn't fight, you couldn't survive."

Weiss won't believe Blake's comments about her family in Episode 2.

Spoilers from RTX state that Blake mentions that the Schnee family has questionable business partners and controversial labor practices. Being of that family, I predict Weiss will either express doubt or ignore her.

Confirmed! Weiss ignores Blake's comments and walks away pretty quickly after she says them. I foresee a Break the Haughty moment on the horizon.
- Not confirmed at all. It could easily be seen as she already knows, is merely acting haughtily in a failed attempt to impress and find friends, and too disgusted by her own family and feeling awkward to continue.
Jossed.

Somebody will mispronounce Weiss' name as "Scheisse"

And the person that does that, either on purpose or by accident, will have slammed Weiss' biggest irritation, and that person, be they Big Bad, Jerkass, or Innocently Insensitive, will be subject to the worst No-Holds-Barred Beatdown Curb-Stomp Battle she will ever perform. Bonus points if this results in Weiss launching a Foreign-Language Tirade of her own.

Good idea, but Germany doesn't exist in this setting, as per Word of God.
- True, but that doesn't mean there's not a Fantasy Counterpart Culture that uses Gratuitous German (which, given the fantasy setting, is more likely than not).
  - Foreign languages in general don't really seem to exist thus far.
  - Not that it stopped Jaune from saying "Gesundheit"...
- So far, Professor Port mispronounced Weiss's last name, saying Shu-NEE, rather than SCH-nee.
Jossed.

Weiss is unable to use her Aura.

The reason why being related to her eye scar, that is why it has not been healed. It is also why she's the only one seen being hit in her trailer. Unless using Dust means you have to be able to use your aura we have not seen her use it.

Jossed. Aura takes on a specific power depending on the individual. Weiss's power is Instant Runes.
- Not quite jossed. Her semblance is Instant Runes, and we don't know the relationship between "semblance" and "aura" yet.
- Note that Pyrrha's Semblance and Aura are different colors.
  - The most important thing to consider is that the show has not denied a link between "semblance" and "aura". Until they do, Aura and Dust are the only superpowers to be mentioned in the show and both are catchall phrases: Aura describing spiritual energy and Dust describing a manufactured form of magic. Semblance describes how Aura manifests in each individual. Just like Chakra and Kekkei Genkais in Naruto. It's that simple.
Pyrrha has stated that with further training in Jaune's Aura, they'll soon discover his Semblance. If Aura training leads to uncovering semblance, it's logical to assume that one cannot know one's semblance without being able to use their Aura. This is totally jossed.

Blake forged her documents to get into Beacon, just like Jaune did.

After all, she's been in the White Fang for pretty much her whole life, and she might not have ever gone to a combat school. Therefore, after leaving them and deciding to become a Huntress, she forged documents and enrolled, and unlike Jaune, she actually had the combat skill to back it up.

Given that she herself claims to be "a criminal hiding in plain sight", this just might be plausible.
All it took for Ruby to skip two years worth of training (and certificates) was beating up four mooks and saying she really wanted to be a Huntress. It's quite likely that Ozpin and/or Beacon has the final choice on who to let in regardless of formal qualifications. If that's the case it's questionable whether Blake would need fake documents to get in if she could actually fight (even if she does need them, she could still have been awarded a legitimate honorary qualification of some sort).
In Volume 2, Ozpin says that Blake passed the rigorous exams "with flying colors" despite that she didn't attend any combat schools. She replied that she had been raised outside the kingdoms and therefore had to fight to survive. It seems this is how she learned what she needed to know to pass the exams.
This WMG is Jossed.

Yang has Psychic Powers

Because she's a Golden Sun. It wouldn't be the first reference Monty's made in a roundabout fashion.

Na-Jossed.

Yang is special

All of the other trailers have only the colors red, white, and black. I don't see why Monty would exclude 1/4 of his palette if he didn't have some foreshadowy reason for it.

Almost every character, important or otherwise, and even the backgrounds for the trailers were exclusively black, red and white. Yang is one of the only people/locations with yellow in her color scheme. It has lightened up with the reveal of the newer characters, but it was still jarring beforehand.
- So then because the color yellow did not play a prominent role in the first three trailers, that affects her importance..? Just to remind you, Weiss used two attacks in the White trailer that were yellow and in or out of the Black trailer, Blake's eyes are yellow. There's also a shot of the moon in the Red trailer where the rim of the moon is outlined in yellow.
In "Painting the Town..." Ruby states that what makes Yang special is her ability to transmute energy from damage she's taken. This is her Semblance.
- Which means this WMG is Jossed... since every Huntsman has a Semblance.

The woman Yang was looking for was her real sister.

http://browse.deviantart.com/art/Transient-Princess-136525544

It looks like the image, at any rate.

Monty has confirmed that the Transient Princess was based on a picture of Rinoa.
Yang is trying to recruit her into Beacon, and this mystery girl will be a fairly prominent character.
The image that you see Yang with shows what was supposed to be a black-haired woman. So she's looking for 'Yin' who represents the moon.
- It's subtle, but the sun/moon symbolism is between herself and Ruby at the end of the Yellow trailer.
Yang and Ruby are real sisters.
Or, as stated below, she's looking for Cinder. I mean, Cinder has black hair, the woman in the picture has black hair. Just makes sense, I guess.
- Except that the trailer was confirmed to have happened before the series proper and Yang doesn't know who Cinder is yet.
Jossed: she's looking for her mother, not the killer.

Yang sets herself on fire not with her Aura but actual chemical fire

Looking at her in the fight in Painting the Town... her eyes turn red and her hair gets lighter but she does not have a fiery appearance like in previous fights. It makes sense when we learn her semblance is Feed It with Fire. The comment in Extracurricular about Pyrrha hiding her semblance and gaining an advantage from doing so, not even Weiss or Blake new what her actual semblance was before this point meaning she kept it a secrete from them even after finding out Blake was a faunus. Also attacking or being attacked by someone who is on fire must be pretty damn intimidating.

Jossed.

Yang's mother is Cinder.

Cinder and Yang's mom both have long black hair, Cinder and Yang both have fire-based powers, Yang's mom was once on a team with Summer Rose, we suspect that Cinder Fall was also once on a team with Summer Rose, and Yang's mom's disappearance is too suspicious to not be a plot point of Luke, I Am Your Father magnitude.

Cinder is at Beacon, can pass as a studen and has met Ruby, who has undoubtably seen Yang's picture. Make of that what you will.
- Cinder could just be a Master of Disguise, or maybe she seriously changed her look after going missing and turning evil. That still brings up the whole Absurdly Youthful Mother part, but then again, she moisturizes.
- I'm leaning towards Cinder being significantly Older Than She Looks, just based on her behaviour and how powerful she's been played up to be. She might be using some sort of glamour to appear younger than she is, or she might be some sort of unaging creature, in accordance with the "Cinder is neither human nor faunus" WMG below. Either way, though, if Ruby knows that Yang is looking for someone old enough to be her mother, why would she think someone who's passing as a student would be it?
  - On that note, it is mentioned that Dust can be infused into a person in episode 4.5. The effects aren't explained, but Cinder does show some very peculiar abilities, such as summoning or creating weapons from thin air in episode six of volume two. This could be a sign that she is infused with Dust, which could also explain how she has retained her youth. Perhaps there's some sort of immortality Dust out there. This would also explain why Cinder has a different power set to Yang, since we are seeing her rely only on her supposed Dust abilities: not the gradual power from damage ability that Yang possesses.
- Listening to "Red Like Roses Part 2" (which is as applicable to Yang as much as Ruby) you could take the song as being Cinder warning Yang away from the Huntress life style.
Also, this would technically make Cinder Ruby's Wicked Stepmother.
J-O-S-S-E-D!

Cinder was the woman Yang was looking for in Yellow

Even if Yellow was non-canon, Cinder is the only other sensible option for it.

If Yellow was non-canon then this assumption is pointless.
- A live-cast declared the trailers are canon and would become relevant in a later season.
  - Volume 2 has Weiss mention Yang's exploits from the Yellow trailer. Volume 1 had already had Weiss hint about the Black trailer when she mentioned a train of stolen Dust.
Considering the events of "Burning the Candle", it's probable that Yang was looking for her mother in the club...could it be...?
This theory is a bit wild, but: Cinder may have started out good, and then went missing. During that time, something happened to her, perhaps torture, or maybe not. She finally got back to Ruby and Yang's father, who by that time was with Summer Rose. She felt like he'd just replaced her, like she was expendable, and she did not take it well.
Yang was looking for her mother. Monty has stated that Cinder is "no one's mother". So until we meet a character named "Noone..."
- Though this quote in and of itself doesn't totally remove the possibility of parentage. Cinder may simply be an alias of Yang's mother, hence "Cinder is no one's mother" being true. Another interpretation would be that Cinder simply doesn't acknowledge she has a child. A third possibility is that Monty is lying.
  - All three interpretations are not real counterarguments, just hacky ways to try and dodge WOG. This WMG is Jossed.

Jaune's sword and sheath has some sort of gun functionality.

Something like a muzzle-loaded rifle or somesuch.

Probably, it will rely more on his immense store of Aura.
- Muzzle-loaded... maybe similarly to the Wilt and Blush, Jaune's sheath being loaded with perhaps Dust allows him to have a flash-draw.
Maybe it's a railgun! The blade splits down the center and he powers it with Aura to fire projectiles.
Maybe the hilt has something similar in functionality to the revolver mechanism on Weiss's rapier (but more primitive). If mankind in the setting's been using dust from the start, it would make sense that pre-firearm weapons would use it (given it hasn't been stated how the rapier works, maybe just having a space to store dust it's all a weapon needs and the user can will it to blast stuff).
Jossed. Also, Jaune's weapon is not the only one to not have a gun-function. There are Melanie's claws, Miltia's heels, Cardin's mace, and recently, Yatsuhashi's sword and Fox's wrist-blades.

Another style of Velvet's team...

As mentioned earlier in the theories above, Velvet's team will be Faunus based on stories about toys but the theme of Velvet's team would have to do more the fabric/material like Velvet. Specifically:

one member with a name (or similar meaning) to Corduroy, based on the book of the same title. He/she will be a bear fanus.
This seems jossed as the team now consists of characters who seem to be named for food: Hot "Coco", Fox, Velvet, and Yatsuhashi. Yatsuhashi at the very least is definitely not based on a fabric/material.
Actually, it's more likely that their team is based on Media: Velvet (books), Yatsuhashi (music), Coco (fashion - Coco Chanel), Fox (television - William Fox)

Team CRDL is a Paper Tiger

They talk a good fight and look impressive, but so far we haven't actually SEEN them doing anything impressive fight wise. Sure, Cardin beat Jaune, but that's because Jaune has no training in combat and he attacked Cardin head on despite Glinda saying he should have been more defensive. When put head to head with a single, albeit rather big, Ursa, most of Team CRDL runs while the Ursa wipes the floor with Cardin. The more you think about it, CRDL only ever picked on Jaune, who has no fighting skills, and Velvet, who seems like a major Shrinking Violet. None of them have gone after anyone in Team RWBY, and even when Cardin did plan revenge on Pyrrah he used Jaune as a proxy to do the dirty work for him. Overall they seem to rely more on intimidation and fear rather than skill. It makes sense in a way, bullies intentionally go after people they know can't fight back in order to create some semblance of control.

more or less Jossed now. Yes, Pyrra beat them all on her own, but they actually committed themselves pretty well. She's just that good.

Team leaders were picked at random

This is done to prevent people from bribing, arguing, threatening or using any other sort of tactics to become leaders of their team. Leaders were those who during the emerald forest initiation picked the second of each artifact pair.

Jaune was the second person to pick up the gold rook and Ruby was the second to pick up the gold Knight.
- I doubt it. During the major battles in Episode 8, Ruby and Jaune were both the ones who took on the leadership role without even thinking about it, Jaune pointing out the stinger to Pyrrha and telling Nora to hammer it in and Ruby coming up with the plan to slingshot herself at the Nevermore. I think the leaders are decided based on who displays leadership skill. It would make more sense. After all, Weiss and Ruby are both unconvinced about Ruby being leader, but Port and Ozpin both shut them down. Also, Ozpin doesn't really seem like the bribable type, and I'd bet he's a dangerous enough fighter to not be bothered by attempted threats.
  - Not really leadership per se, just showing that they are willing to dictate to others.
  - Ozpin himself may not be easily bribed or threatened but what about his predecessors and successors?
jossed.

Torchwick is impersonating Ozpin

It would make Ozpin's speech in the second episode make much more sense. It was shoddy, repetitive and unenthusiastic. Ozpin is a caffeine addict. They bear physical similarities, and light hair is easy to dye and glasses hide different eye colours.

Jossed. Torchwick has never gone to school.

James is Penny's creator aka Geppetto.

It's in his name: Geppetto was an ingenious woodcarver. James is the same, but the "wood" he uses is iron.

Jossed, but her father/creator does work with Ironwood.

The bird that Ruby wiped out before landing in the forest (Birdy, no!) was one of the Nevermore's chicks

And that's why the Nevermore seemed to target Ruby and those near her.

No. Just no.
Grimm don't reproduce. Jossed.
- Where was that stated? If they can't reproduce, don't you think they would be extincted after a thousand or so years?
Not completely Jossed. I don't believe they have ever stated Grimm can't reproduce, also they have said that the younger a Grimm is the easier it is to kill, when Oobleck and Ruby saw the giant mammoth like Grimm (can't remember the name). This could mean that the bird was a very young Nevermore and was just easily killed.

The Grimm are not evil, or soulless.

The spend most of their times in forests, and when we do see a Grimm in action, it's in their territory. They say history is written by the winners, so is it that hard to believe the human race would twist the tale in their favor?

Jossed by World of Remnant 3.

The Atlas Academy is called Bastion.

It would fit with the general theme of location names, and work with Atlas' general military disposition.

Jossed by the World of Remnant on Huntsmen. Turns out Atlas is the name of the academy. It used to be the academy of a kingdom called Mantle, but that kingdom is stated to be defunct.

Cinder's already rigged Amber's life support chamber.

She's already gotten into Ironwood's scroll, discovered Penny's secret, and hacked his robots. It wouldn't be a surprise if she's already found Amber, Ironwood would have to be monitoring Amber's vitals for security reasons, and has the chamber set to self-destruct once the aura transfer process starts to blast Amber, her successor, and anyone operating the chamber.

Jossed, she still interrupted the transfer, but she did it in a more... manual fashion.

Qrow is Ruby's biological father

At the end of Vol 3, Qrow sends Ruby's father out of the room in order to discuss her legacy. Kind of a weird thing to do, considering that as far as canon is concerned this far, they are only tangentially related (Ruby calls him uncle, but he is actually the brother of Ruby's "father's" previous wife, so there is zero blood relation between them). Also, on a similar note, Ruby might have been born out of wedlock, as while Raven disappeared, it was never stated she was dead, (in fact now we know she is alive) so unless Taiyang declared her dead and married Summer one or two years after she disappeared, there is probably some kind of complicated cover-up going on in that family.
If this is true, then Ruby and Yang are not biologically related. If the theories about Yang being the LGBT are true and this is also true...
Well actually they'd still be related, just cousins instead of half-sisters. Another possibility for Taiyang's exclusion at the time could be that he's not part of Ozpin's inner circle and they were discussing confidential information.
- He is at least privy to some of the information. Remember, he knew about the Silver Eyed Warriors as he told Ruby she did a "number on it" before hastily telling her it doesn't matter. He's likely more worried about protecting his daughter than the "bigger picture" which Qrow is concerned about and it pisses Tai off.
  - Monty specifically said that Ruby and Yang were half-sisters and now Miles and Kerry have officially jossed this.

Adam Has Silver Eyes

Nobody else has posted this one yet so i just wanted to get it out there in case it winds up being true.We haven't seen his eyes, which i know is flimsy, but there's also the rose motif. I know Monty confirmed that Adam and Ruby aren't related but it doesn't mean they aren't connected story wise. There's a theory goin' round that Raven has a connection to Adam, maybe even trained him; maybe this is why: he has the same power as her best friend and team mate.

I second this theory. So far, the only main character likely to have seen Adam without his mask on is Blake - who perhaps deliberately is the only main hero who, as of the end of Volume 5, knows nothing about silver eyes and their significance. It certainly would throw an interesting wrench into Salem's plans if one of her recruits turns out to be one of the very few people capable of stopping her.
- Jossed. Adam does not have silver eyes and his eyes revealed to be sky blue.

Grand Unified Guesses

Tying into the theory of humanoid Grimm existing, Slenderman is one.

To emphasize the "Grimm" part of "humanoid Grimm", let's look at what Slenderman and Creatures of Grimm have in common...

Color scheme: Grimm Creatures are mostly black with some white and a little bit of red. Slenderman's black suit and black Combat Tentacles account for the majority of his color, his skin is white, and his tie has been varyingly depicted as black or red.
- Mimicking the White Mask of Doom aesthetic - Slenderman with his blank face and the Grimm creatures with their skull-like markings.
Reaction to negative emotions: Grimm Creatures are explicitly stated to be drawn towards negative emotions. Slenderman's typical hunting pattern involves way more stalking and chasing than is strictly necessary for capture, which implies that he's deliberately provoking fear for as long as he can get away with doing so.

To emphasize the "humanoid" part of "humanoid Grimm," most RWBY characters tend to have their own personal symbol - for example Lie Ren has a lily, Nora has a heart... Slenderman has a circle with an X through it.

Furthermore, Slenderman is capable of having kids with Salem.

The most powerful kids will inherit both parents' mental prowess^note and Determinator tendencies, Salem's ability to speak, Slenderman's Combat Tentacles, and Slenderman's Brown Note, Offscreen Teleportation and Walking Techbane powers. The less powerful kids will be missing one or more of the items on the list. Body build and facial features (or lack thereof) would be a wild card.

This is, of course, assuming that Salem is (also) a humanoid Grimm and that Grimm reproduce in that manner.

(quotemining) Emerald: Spare us the thought of you procreating.

^note

Taiyang is NOT the Cowardly Lion.

While many believe Taiyang is the Cowardly Lion to Ozpin's team of Wizard of Oz allegories, I believe he isn't, and this is my reasoning.

Ozpin: Wizard of Oz.
Glynda Goodwitch: Glinda, The Good Witch.
James Ironwood: The Tin Man.
Qrow: The Scarecrow.

Their names are allegories to what they allude to. Yes, even Ironwood, as the original name for the Tin Man was The Tin Woodman. His name still matches. Taiyang Xiao Long translates to Supreme Sun Dragon, nothing to do with the Cowardly Lion. There is also no indication given that Taiyang has any part in Ozpin's team, to the point where he was kicked out of the room by Qrow when Qrow wished to discuss the battle with Ruby. So I believe that we will instead eventually see the actual Lion within the show.

Confirmed! The cowardly lion is Leo Lionheart the head of Haven Academy, and an informant for Salem

Qrow is Ruby's biological father

At the end of Vol 3, Qrow sends Ruby's father out of the room in order to discuss her legacy. Kind of a weird thing to do, considering that as far as canon is concerned this far, they are only tangentially related (Ruby calls him uncle, but he is actually the brother of Ruby's "father's" previous wife, so there is zero blood relation between them). Also, on a similar note, Ruby might have been born out of wedlock, as while Raven disappeared, it was never stated she was dead, (in fact now we know she is alive) so unless Taiyang declared her dead and married Summer one or two years after she disappeared, there is probably some kind of complicated cover-up going on in that family.
If this is true, then Ruby and Yang are not biologically related. If the theories about Yang being the LGBT are true and this is also true...
Well actually they'd still be related, just cousins instead of half-sisters. Another possibility for Taiyang's exclusion at the time could be that he's not part of Ozpin's inner circle and they were discussing confidential information.
- He is at least privy to some of the information. Remember, he knew about the Silver Eyed Warriors as he told Ruby she did a "number on it" before hastily telling her it doesn't matter. He's likely more worried about protecting his daughter than the "bigger picture" which Qrow is concerned about and it pisses Tai off.
It's been confirmed by Monty that they are in fact half-sisters, and Miles and Kerry have debunked the theory as well.

Yang is a Saiyan's descendant.

Her eyes turn red when she transforms to Super Saiyan because they're already naturally blue.

Battle aura? Fire, check.
Immense Strength? Check. (Less visible in an academy of asskicking, but still.)
Super Mode? Red eyes, check.
Energy manifestation at upper-scale power levels? Flaming hair.
Going by her hair, she's normally stuck in a state that's equivalent in appearance to Super Saiyan 3, but doesn't count as an actual Super Saiyan form (thus allowing her to turn Super Saiyan on top of that). Whatever is responsible for this normally limits her strength to keep her from crushing everything she touches.
Meta but from her lyrics in Burn "I'm Super Saiyan now"
Her Semblance! Yang gets stronger every time she takes heavy damage, like when she tanks a punch from an Atlesian Paladin controlled by Roman, stands up mere seconds later and returns the favor. One of the Saiyan race's most popular traits is that their power level increases every time they almost die.

RWBY are all changelings of some stripe, and their world is unmasqued.

Ruby has the Flowering kith, hence the roses theme; Weiss is either a Snowskin or a Moonborn; Blake is a Darkling of some kind; and Yang is either a Fireheart or a Bright One. (Or- if you want to tie them really closely to their fairytale origins- Weiss is a Fairest, and the other three are Beasts.) Evidently, the Grim demons are lackeys of the True Fae, created by them and sent to attack changelings in the mortal world. The Academies are freeholds by another name, devoted to training changelings in battle, and RWBY belong to various Courts. Yang's sworn to Summer (using the Contracts of Eternal Summer in combat, of course), Weiss's sworn to Winter ("Everyone is entitled to their own sorrow, for the heart has no metrics or form of measure. And all of it...irreplaceable."), Ruby's sworn to Spring, what with her optimistic personality and flower power, and Blake belongs to Autumn, just to round the circle out.

The world is an Exalted Shard.

And the girls are Exalts, to wit:

Ruby is a Terrestrial Wood Aspect (with a rose petal anima and a kickin' daiklave);
Weiss is a Sidereal (explaining her ability to cast runes on thin air);
Blake is a Lunar (with a beastly mien) or an Abyssal (dark past, seeking redemption);
Yang is a Solar Dawn Caste (with a fire anima and shellcaster gauntlets) - because there's no way she could be anything else.
The "B-team" led by Jaune that we see in the credits are either Terrestrials or God-Bloods.
- Interesting, but most Sidereals fit their caste's colour coding very clearly, and the colour white has no caste. One could argue Weiss is a Chosen of Serenity (the whole 'shades of blue' thing in her hair and eyes), or that the Schnee family is always associated with white, and so it's part of a resplendent destiny she took up as their heir?
- Also, the Crescent Rose is made at least partly of red jade- a material that, when attuned to, does not strain or fatigue the user, explaining Ruby's Small Girl, Big Gun tendencies...oh my God, it all makes sense now!
  - And as of Episode 6, we have Aura explained, which is basically Essence with a different name. Jaune is not an Exalt of any kind, but Pyrrha performs a ritual to enlighten his Aura/Essence, and Ren is pretty clearly a Wood Aspect or Getimian Exalt. Pyrrha herself is either a Solar or Fire Aspect.
  - As of the first midseason finale, we can add Penny the Alchemical and Cinder the Fire Aspect (or Infernal maybe).
  - And Sun, clearly a Chosen of Luna. In fact, you could say that all Faunus are Beastmen, which would make FAR too much sense...
  - Also, Torchwick is clearly a Fiend Caste Infernal Exalted. If he'd had a mustache, when he had that Evil Laugh in the midseason finale, he would have been twirling it. This is Pleasing To The Ebon Dragon. ^noteDiscussion continued here.
As it turns out, there's a fan work called Miracles Of Ancient Wonder that has team RWBY as Exalts. In that fic, Ruby's a Sidereal (and Chosen of Battles), while Yang's a homebrew caste of Infernal. And though it hasn't been definitively nailed down, the betting money's going on Blake being a Day-caste Abyssal and Weiss being either a Zenith-caste or Eclipse-caste Solar.

The setting is an Alternate Universe to the Fable series.

The divergence is that Hal

, an Alternate Universe version of Master Chief, got sent back in time even further than the Old Kingdom to be a compatriot of William Black.

With Hal's help, William Black did not rely on the Sword of Aeons to defeat the Court of Darkness and their forces (the Grim); and instead gathered a band of Huntsmen and Huntresses to drive them back into the Void. Master Chief convinced William Black not to consolidate his power of Will into The Spire but instead spread the magic into the Land itself; to become Dust; so that people other than William Black's bloodline could stand up against the Grim with a mixture of Strength, Skill, and Will (Aura). Dust became a fusion of Magic and Magitek due to Master Chief's experience "flavoring" the magic.
- Without the Spire's Reality Warping effect (and World Sundering), land-masses and country names became completely different; although some heroic mantles remain the same. However, there was still a shattering; but the effect was mostly transferred to the moon.
  - And now you know why Master Chief isn't in Red vs. Blue!
For some reason, this series reminded me more of The Path.

The entire show is the dying dream of a Red vs. Blue character.

Specifically, Agent Maine. With the White Fang representing the Insurrectionists and the big guy with the mask being the one who shot him in the throat. Cinder and Ozpin represent Sigma and the Director, respectively. Blake is CT, and even has similar powers. Pyrrha is his idealized version of Carolina and Jaune is some kind of mish mash between Wash and York.

So Ruby and Yang are Simmons and Grif?

RWBY is simply the fantasy version of Red vs. Blue.

Think about it. Beacon equals Blood Gulch, the main teams equal the BGC and Project Freelancer, the main bad guys are the AI and the over the top weapons are the version of Freelancer tech. And the reason Nora and Caboose are so weird is that they're the same mind sharing two bodies and universes.

Remnant is a world that takes place in the same universe as Neon Genesis Evangelion, and Remnant has suffered Third Impact with a Black Moon and a White Moon

Aura is described as being similar to an AT Field: it originates from the soul, can be used to accelerate the process of cellular division, is used to provide superpowers to it's users, and when Ren used it against a King Taijitu, it manifested as actual hexagons. It's not inconceivable to deduce that Remnant underwent it's own version of Third Impact and human's and angels became one and the same, or at least something occurred to grant Humans and Faunus an AT field.
The moon is even shattered: obviously the end result of the Black Moon hitting it.

Beacon was founded in the distant future, after Artemis and Apollo Academies merged into a single institution.

The ever increasing population of crytids and monsters, in general, would almost necessitate it, for the sake of efficiency in training new huntsmen and huntresses to combat them. Beacon was either the result of that merger, or was an offshoot from it.

The curriculum is pretty much the same: students train to hunt monsters by studying them in class and regularly have combat exams to hone their abilities, before testing themselves in the field. While the advanvces in Remnant's technology have certainly helped , their semblances aren't much different than the Artemis students esper and magic capabilities.

And since alternate dimensions exist in Magick Chicks, it's possible that some of the alumni from Artemis and Apollo took up residence on Remnant and eventually founded Beacon.

RWBY will take the opposite Genre shift that Red vs. Blue did.

RWBY and Red vs. Blue are opposites in every way.

Red vs. Blue began with incompetent characters that amounted to great things against powerful foes with sinister plans. RWBY began with somewhat competent characters that go up against somewhat but mildly less sinister foes.
Red vs. Blue stars original characters with their own 'skill' set and depth. RWBY stars characters based upon cliques.
Red vs. Blue started out using the Halo engine to tell comedy, but slowly developed it's own stories. RWBY is a completely original setting that does nothing original.
Red vs. Blue villains are menacing. RWBY villains are mediocre at best.

Eventually, RWBY will turn from the action series it is now to a comedy based series, less interested in telling stories and more interested in making people laugh, where RVB started out as comedy but began telling it's own stories.

Season 3 says otherwise...
Can we just go ahead and call this Jossed? From the start, Monty had a specific vision for RWBY's story. There's pretty much zero chance that Rooster Teeth would just ditch that story and make it a simple comedy. They've taken it upon themselves to uphold his legacy and make sure his work on RWBY ultimately amounts to something.
Ultimately, it's both Jossed and Confirmed in a sense. The main series hasn't gotten lighter at all, and RWBY Chibi was created for younger viewers in mind for more comedic, lighter entertainment.

Zwei is a member of O.W.C.A.

Seems legit.

Would explain how Obleck was able to fire him like a screaming flaming dog missile in S2 Ep 11

Bumblebee is that Bumblebee

He was sent to Remnant because of the potential of a Decepticon invasion. After realizing that Decepticons wouldn't be much of a threat, he decided to live out the rest of his life as Yang's bike.

Monty will make the following shout outs.

Yang will perform a Hyakuretsu-Ken at some point.
Ruby will use an attack aesthetically similar to a Witch Hunter.
Yang will shout "I am a golden goddess!"
- Jossed. The shout-outs may still happen, but it won't be Monty's doing.

Yang has seen Hajime no Ippo

Look at her finishing attacks on Junior from her trailer, and on Mercury in their fight during the tournament. The rhythm of her punches is very reminiscent of the Dempsey Roll.

Jaune is a Knight of Hope.

This is based on the fact that he's most likely some sort of Knight due to his various themes, but mostly because the Title and Aspect combination seems to translate to [One who Guards/Hides] [Falsehood/Conviction/Potential]. Knights' character arcs involve them hiding their feelings, Hope players' arcs involve potential. Alternately, he's some sort of Page.

Also, Ruby has the Blood aspect [Friendship/Connection/Tradition], but that should be obvious.

No, because what Homestuck titles mean is just guesswork as it is.

RWBY shares a universe with Bloodborne

Both series are centered around Hunters with ridiculous but effective weapons who fight against dark horrors that threaten humanity. RWBY might take place far into the future of Bloodborne...or less optimistically, the past.

Clearly the Hunter picked up Gehrman's scythe and is the ancestor of Ruby and Qrow

The true villains of the show are AU versions of The Patriots

This comes from the fact that Grimm so far haven't caused that much damage, as well as the opposition towards militarizing the Hunters, though that may change. The Patriots, trying to prevent humans from destroying themselves, created the Grimm as a large enough threat that everyone had to band together and stop their squabbles to survive, uniting the world as one, like The Boss wanted. The Hunters were deliberately engineered to ensure an endless struggle against the Grimm, so everyone will stay united. The distaste towards Atlas combining Hunters and the military into one is the key to this. By making the Hunters very individualistic, they make them unable to be truly organised for an extended period of time, preventing them from making a coordinated effort towards the Grimm, potentially rendering them a non-issue. Most people seem convinced that combining Hunters and the military is a bad thing, so the system is self-reinforcing. Cinder was trying to break everyone free of The Patriots's control all this time, banking on the fact that the Grimm were only meant as a threat,and would never cause that much damage.

Yang and her mother are descendants of the Mibu Clan.

Both she and Raven clearly exhibit the Crimson Eyes, which appear during heightened emotional states. Yang's eyes changing color are actually a feature separate from her semblance, but something that appears under most of the same conditions. That's why the two are always linked together.

The world of Remnant is the same continuity as Numenera.

The moon looks similar, and the whole of Earth in Numenera seems to be an experiment. Remnant is another experiment, with the nanotech not suffusing the whole of the planet, but concentrated in key spots.

Adam has silver eyes.

We can't see his face, and so far, all the silver-eyed people have been associated with roses. Maybe it's part of the legend, and not just a surname for Ruby and her mother.

The King Of Vale Was Either The First Huntsman Or An Earlier Host For The Wizard

Okay, I know this might be alittle too early and I'm sorry if Ive got this in the wrong category, but after watching the World Of Remanat: Great War video, I've been thinking it over and have come up with these points.

When I say the King Of Vale could be the First Huntsman, I mean he was THE first person who managed to use Aura and Semblance. I would say he could have just been one of the first Aura users, but Qrow stated himself that the King was the one who spread this knowledge.
- Another possible clue would be his supposed might during the Vacuo battle. I agree that the historians may be right. It could have been the weather conditions, it could have been lack of experience in desert terrain, but think about it. The king was described as being so humble that he was willing to turn down rulership over the other three kingdoms. Why would he let people write him as some legendary warrior king who decimated more soldiers than all of his men combined. And why would he decide to establish the academies and teach them combat if he didn't have anything new to teach them. He must have done something during the battle that stood out, something that none of the soldiers ever saw before, some sort of skill/power that none of them had yet or did the most damage. I believe that this trump card was the power of Aura and Semblance. I'm not saying that it had to be an OP one like Pyrra's, but since the ability was apparently unknown during that time period, and there was no indication that it was known, it probably would have impressed onlookers enough to earn a whole lot of admiration.
For the Wizard Host Theory, I just see one too many similarities. The King had a green motif, like OZPIN. The King was seen holding a scepter, while OZPIN liked to hold a cane. The King established all the academies that Ozpin JUST HAPPENS to oversee personally.
- And let's go back to the Cinder vs Ozpin fight. , Ozpin was able to use some sort of time or energy control ability to increase his speed. If the King used this ability in a battle, then it would certainly be strong enough to take down BOATLOADS of soldiers and impress his men simultaneously, especially since none of them wold have seen it before. Please take caution because we don't know everything about the Wizard Power or it's transfer algorithm. They haven't told what abilities it gives, whether they change up with the host or what the Relic could do, so this part may be shaky.
- Well, Qrow said in "A Much Needed Talk" that "Ozpin's predecessor" founded the academies and placed the relics there, while in "The Great War" he says that the King established all the academies and placed his trusted men as the headmasters. It may seem like inconsistency until we learn in the V4 finale that Qrow is aware of Ozpin's reincarnation ability and may have deliberately used the word "predecessor" in that very sense. Now we may assume that the King, knowing from his own experience that after his body's death he will be soul-fused to some young man (who happened to be Ozpin), placed his right-hand man as the first Headmaster of Beacon and gave him instructions (like the ones Ozpin probably gave Qrow) to expect and assist that young man.

Oscar's Character Arc through the next volumes will be a Classic Hero's Journey

So far what he has done fits the journey to a T.

Supernatural Circumstance: Communicating with Ozpin.
The Hometown: Oscar's farm, where he lives a quiet and peaceful life, but seems to yearn for more.
The Call to Adventure: Even with a Refusal of the Call, to which he eventually resigned.
Crossing The Threshold: He eventually leaves the farm, following Ozpin's instructions and taking a train to Haven.

The Branwen family line is cursed in some form as well.

So far, it seems that all Branwen-line Semblences have massive downsides to them. Qrow causes bad luck around him. Yang has to take a lot of damage to get the most mileage out of hers. and Raven's requires making some form of bond to even be able to be used. Compare these to other Semblences, and you notice that these sort of heavy counterbalances just aren't as much in effect as they are for the Branwens. When you consider that they are a tribal, nomadic bandit group as well, yet powerful enough to cause Neo to quake....there's gotta be something that prevents them from settling down and establishing their own place.

Raven Branwen will realize the error of her ways and become a better person.

Summer Rose's Semblance...

...was good luck, to counter-balance Qrow's. How else would Team STRQ be so professional if one of their members had the passive ability to make things worse for everyone?

The God of Light and the God of Darkness are actually the Doctor and the Master, respectively.

Consider the notion that Ozma and Salem initially managed to get the people who lived on Remnant to worship them as deities, through performing feats of great power, perceived by those people to be miraculous acts. In a similar vein to Ozma and Salem, perhaps the Doctor (under the guise of the God of Light) and the Master (under the guise of the God of Darkness) managed to use similar acts to get the humans on Remnant to view them as deities. In this case, the two Time Lords did not actually create humanity, but guided their development closely from the beginning. However, the legend of the two gods, through the passage of time, was eventually embellished to say that they did create humans. The Master, did, however, create the Grimm, perhaps in collaboration with the Rani, as a way to assert control and dominance over humanity. The two Time Lords also used their abilities to bestow humans with powers, which said humans came to see as "magic".

As the God of Light called the planet of Remnant an "experiment", it is possible that the whole thing was indeed an experiment by the Doctor and the Master, who stationed themselves on primordial Remnant. The experiment could have been a bet between the two Time Lords to evaluate who could better influence a planet like Remnant and guide its humans towards either light or darkness. The Doctor and the Master would have used their superior Time Lord technology (or Block Transfer Computation and/or the Skasis Paradigm) to perform extraordinary feats, the likes of which the humans who lived there had never seen before, thus furthering the illusion of them being gods in the eyes of the populace. To further their imagery as deities, the two Time Lords may also have used perception filters or holograms to make themselves appear to Remnant's populace as glowing humanoid figures with horns that could transform into dragons.

Where it pertains to the flashbacks in The Lost Fable, the Doctor first came into contact with Salem after Ozma's death from illness, when she begged him to resurrect Ozma. While he sympathized with her, the Doctor understood that to resurrect a person whose life had already run its natural cause was a perversion of the natural order and thus refused to do so. When Salem persisted, he simply left in his TARDIS. This prompted Salem to turn to the Master, who was flattered by the sight of the woman grovelling before him, and ascended to her request, retrieving Ozma's mind from the Matrix supercomputer. While monitoring the Matrix in his TARDIS, the Doctor noticed that Ozma's mind had been extracted and concluded that the Master was responsible, going to his realm to confront him.

The two Time Lords would initially argue over the parameters of their "experiment", until the Doctor divulged that Salem played both of them against each other in her attempt to revive Ozma. This infuriated the Master, as while he reveled in being worshiped like a god, he utterly despised the notion of being manipulated by a being he considered inferior to himself. Deciding to teach Salem a lesson, the Doctor ensnared her in his TARDIS and dropped her into his lake, which was secretly a portal into the Time Vortex. This imbued Salem with the powers of the vortex, and pumped her full with an excess of life, giving her immortality in the vein of Jack Harkness. The Doctor would claim that this made Salem immortal, though he himself was unsure of how long she would actually live.

Salem would eventually amass an army with the intent of overthrowing and killing the two Time Lords, and marched into the Doctor's domain. Realizing that the Doctor was under attack, the Master would come to his aid in his TARDIS, using its dimensional shields to harmlessly deflect any magical attacks hurled at him. Furious at this gross misuse of his gift in his eyes, the Master detonated a Gallifreyan superweapon in the form of a DNA bomb that purged Salem's army from existence.

Though the Master would claim that Salam was the last remaining human, he was speaking in both a literal and metaphorical sense, as his bomb spliced animal DNA into humans out of the weapon's direct blast radius, mutating them into the Faunus. The Master did this under the belief that if humans wanted to embrace animal instincts and degenerate into animals, he will grant them the faces of beasts as punishment. Thus, Salem was the only pure human left on Remnant. While horrified and disgusted at the Master's actions, the Doctor was forced to conceal his feelings, not wanting to lose face in front of Salem, and quickly left the scene in his TARDIS. Deciding to taunt Salem one last time, the Master also then left, crashing his TARDIS through the moon in a show of force and shattering half of it.

While the Doctor was heartbroken over the failure of the "experiment", he decided that there was still good to be done on Remnant and knew that pure humans would eventually evolve and return to this world once again. To that end, the Doctor entered the Matrix to converse with Ozma's mind, and tasked him with the role of guiding and protecting the new human race. The Doctor would bequeath the relics to Ozma and resurrect him on Remnant. However, the Doctor also realized that the task he was giving Ozma would likely take several lifetimes to accomplished, if it could be done at all. Not to mention the threat that Salem still posed to the world. Due to this realization, the Doctor knew that he had to bequeath Ozma one final gift.

As the Doctor was also the infinitely regenerating being known as the Timeless Child, he would take advantage of his unique power, by splicing some of his own genes into Ozma, in the same way Tecteun spliced the Doctor's genes into the Shabogans to create the Time Lords. This act by the Doctor gave Ozma the ability to regenerate infinitely, just like the Doctor himself was capable of doing.

The Doctor framed his task to Ozma as putting Humanity on Trial, though left it ambiguous as to whether he actually intends to destroy Remnant if he deemed mankind irredeemable. It is possible that it was simply a threat to increase the gravitas of the test in Ozma's eyes. Knowing that he himself needed his companions to keep his own darker impulses in check, the Doctor arranged for Ozma to never be alone, whatever form his incarnations took. The Doctor sent Ozma back to Remnant and then took to the stars in his TARDIS, determined to pursue the Master and make him pay for massacring the people of Remnant.

Remnant is a world in The Cosmere.

The Brothers are Yolenese Dragons who took the Shards of Creation and Destruction (Which are distinct from Cultivation or Endowment and Ruin, respectively). So that even if the Brothers took most of their Investiture with them, we still have Aura, Dust, Semblances, and especially the Creatures of Grimm themselves:
- Aura and Semblances are of Creation, being generated by life themselves, and used primarily to protect oneself and/or others.
- Dust is of both, being (seemingly) inorganic in composition, but sensitive to Aura, electricity, and explosive force, and (depending on its exact composition) usable for creative, protective, or destructive purposes.
- The Grimm are of Destruction, being Cognitive Shadows created for the purpose of consuming organic life, taking forms that suggest a twisted parody of the concept of organic life. The Grimm also bear some similarities to Re-Shephir's Midnight Essence on Roshar.
The Void Between Worlds is the Cognitive Realm
- When the casts falls off the walkways at the end of Volume Eight, they end up on First of the Dawn, Whimsy's Shardworld, or else the Spiritual Realm.
The Four Relics may be the Four Dawnshards. Each carries a specific command, one of which, Choice, is similar to the Aimia Dawnshard of Change.

Oh, and while normally, certain planetary conditions along with the Intent of the Shard itself dictate the local rules of magic, there are still examples of Shardholders dictating elements of the magic rules themselves. (Tanavast setting up himself as the final arbiter of a Surgebinder's progression along his path of enlightenment, Sazed editing the tables of Allomancy and Feruchemy post-Catecindure, The Holder of Endowment being the one to decide who is to be Returned.)

When Ozma was reincarnated with the Relics, it brought a sufficient amount of Investiture back to Remnant to generate a new Perpendicularity. (That seems to be the explanation for Threnody, Sel, and First of the Dawn.) As a result, the world began to see tourists from Silverlight and various other Shardworlds. Ozma's latent Investiture could also be which allows his Cognitive Shadow to repeatedly manifest in the Physical Realm, much like how the Heralds are anchored with Investiture to reincarnate on Braize.

It's entirely possible that Rayse murdered the Brothers sometime after the Elder Brother reincarnated Ozma...

Alternatively, the Brothers were Laras and Ati, who left Remnant to try again with Scadrial. Salem's behavior permanently strained their relationship, leading to that planet and its human society to become even more dysfunctional. When Ozpin or Salem bring the Relics together, Sazed will appear, very confused at what's going on...
Either way, Hoid is either The Shopkeeper (it explains why he can wear so many occupational hats, and how delicious his noodles are), the Faunus Blacksmith, or possibly both.

The Remnant and the world in Ni No Kuni II Revenant Kingdom are one and the same.

With Remnant being later in the timeline. Guess is based on striking resemblance of Gods and Light/Dark Higgledies. Maybe Higgledies are their escaped essence?
- Or they used the same animation/texture engine, if you don't like the joke.

Shade will fall because of incompetence.

Let's see Beacon had fallen because of Ozpin (Wizzard of Oz)kept secrets only for it to backfire spectaculrly. Heaven had fallen because Lionheart (Cowardly Lion) was coward who sold out his own people. And in the last season we witnessed fall of Atlas because Ironwood (Tin Woodsman) lost his heart. So my guess would be that Shade's headmaster will bring down his own school because of Suicidal Overconfidence or some idiotic moment aka. Scarecrow lacking brain.
Atlas hasn't fully fallen yet and Qrow is the Scarecrow.

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Et Cetera

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Team RWBY

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