History Fanfic / DescribingTheSeriesViaReferences

* WrongGenreSavvy: Mercury's WhatIsEvil talk with Emerald ''would'' hold a lot more weight if the conflict one of GreyAndGrayMorality, with him under the impression that this is the case. However, what he doesn't know is that Cinder's boss is ''Salem'', who's trying to cause TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt. Something like that would be considered evil ''regardless'' of terms like "Hero" or "Villain" and is something his canon self only goes along with because [[TheChainOfHarm it's the only thing he knows.]]

* AdaptationDeviation: Thanks to overhearing everything Team RWBY and Penny learned, Cinder opts to change her plan for the Vytal Festival. Instead of having Yang be the subject of the FrameUp, she has ''Velvet'' be the one to face Mercury and be framed for brutality. And while she ''wanted'' Penny to be the one killed in the final round still so as to make Atlas worse looking, she has to settle for using Sun, pairing him against Cardin, while instead making Atlas seem incompetent for losing it's tech to Roman and the White Fang. While she planned on having Sun be killed by Cardin, Emerald having a minor HeelRealization results in Sun only losing his tail, Cinder having to adjust her plan on the fly to focus more on the racial tension aspects rather than solely making Ozpin out to be training brutish killers.

* FromBadToWorse: {{Invoked|Trope}} by Cinder in regards to the Vytal Festival, thanks to overhearing what Team RWBY and Penny knew and deciding to embrace her role as the "Villain". Despite having a general idea of what would happen and managing to warn Pyrrha, Team RWBY and Pyrrha are ambushed by Neo before they can try and stop Cinder's attempt at causing chaos, being knocked unconscious with a toxic gas that will slowly kill them. Cinder then modifies her plan by having ''Velvet'' be the subject of the FrameUp from facing Mercury, and the final round before her broadcast being ''Sun'' vs. ''Cardin''. While Jaune and Penny manage to find the girls and save them thanks to Jaune unlocking his Semblance, and Emerald has earlier signs of her HeelRealization and spares Sun's life but still mutilating him by having him lose his tail, Cinder still manages to fan the flames of war and descend Beacon into chaos. It's made even worse not only by her preying on the racial tensions between Faunus and Humans by making it seem like a RaceWar is on the horizon, but making Haven Academy seem incompetent by suggest Sun got by on good looks alone, and that Beacon was training it's students to be brutes and butchers thanks to framing Velvet and Cardin, with Ozpin being framed as too incompetent to address his students actual issues while recklessly sending them into the world of Huntsmen.

* {{Troll}}: {{Discussed|Trope}} with the memes regarding Ozpin as this. Team RWBY don't consider him one, but do acknowledge that some of his actions can certainly give off the impression.

* FromBeyondTheFourthWall: The entire plot begins when a list of real world memes is thrust into Team RWBY's hands.

* InnocentlyInsensitive: When Team RWBY (plus Penny) go on break during an interlude, Taiyang jokes about Yang and Blake sleeping together; he backtracks and apologizes when he learns the latter just got out of a difficult relationship and isn’t eager to date again too soon.

* WrongGenreSavvy: Mercury's WhatIsEvil talk with Emerald ''would'' hold a lot more weight if the conflict one of GreyAndGrayMorality, with him under the impression that this is the case. However, what he doesn't know is that Cinder's boss is ''Salem'', someone trying to cause TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt, which would be considered evil ''regardless'' of terms like "Hero" or "Villain" and is something his canon self only goes along with because [[TheChainOfHarm it's the only thing he knows.]]

* TemptingFate: Weiss remarks early on that Team RWBY shouldn't waste too much time on the memes, and that "it’s not like anything serious has cropped up". The very next meme they get indirectly outs Blake as a Faunus.

* ForWantOfANail: By reading through their series' memes, Team RWBY learn a lot of things way ahead of when they initially did. Later on, [[spoiler:Cinder and her lackeys start eavesdropping on Team RWBY reading the memes]].
** Blake's Faunus heritage is outed earlier to the rest of the team but she and Weiss quickly resolve things smoothly, thus not leading to their argument and Blake not running away this time.
** Knowing about Penny dying in Volume Three before they even met her (and not knowing she’s the ArtificialHuman the memes alluded to), Ruby isn’t able to hide the truth from her; in turn, Penny opens up about her origins willingly and also becomes closer friends with the rest of Team RWBY as a result.
** Because Blake doesn't run off at the end of Volume 1, her initial meeting with Sun doesn't occur, Team RWBY instead getting a bad impression of him following his being a stowaway and [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking stealing Yang's bacon]]. So when Blake snaps at Sun after he asks her to the dance, he ends up asking if he's a bad person and starts his CharacterDevelopment much earlier, eventually becoming actual friends with Team RWBY, albeit with them considering him a himbo, and resolving to be an ''actual'' team leader for SSSN.
** Thanks to Weiss turning down Jaune and outright claiming that he is already dating Pyrrha, Jaune and Pyrrha open up to each other about their feelings during one of their rooftop practices, which leads to them hooking up earlier than in canon.
** Upon learning from the scroll that Team RWBY are the heroes of the show itself, which makes her group, the villains, Emerald begins questioning her group's motives earlier, unlike in the series where witnessing the [[spoiler:Fall of Beacon up close]] made her start doubting.
** As a result of both sides reading the memes, [[spoiler:Cinder leaks information about the White Fang's southeast operation to the news so that doubt in authority's ability to combat threats to the populace can be sown]].

* ParentalSexualitySquick: This shows up several times, usually about but by no means limited to memes about Taiyang Xiao Long.

* WrongGenreSavvy: Mercury's WhatIsEvil talk with Emerald ''would'' hold a lot more weight if the conflict one of GreyAndGrayMorality, with him under the impression that this is the case. However, what he hasn't learned yet is that Cinder's boss is ''Salem'', someone trying to cause TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt, which would be considered evil ''regardless'' of terms like "Hero" or "Villain" and is something his canon self only goes along with because [[TheChainOfHarm it's the only thing he knows.]]

* CerebusSyndrome: While still comedic, the story notably becomes more serious as [[ForWantOfANail the events of canon begin to alter]]. Once Cinder learns of the memes, she starts trying to use them to her advantage as much as the heroes do.

* WrongGenreSavvy: Mercury's WhatIsEvil talk with Emerald ''would'' hold a lot more weight if the conflict one of GreyAndGrayMorality, with him under the impression that it is. However, what he hasn't learned yet is that Cinder's boss is ''Salem'', someone trying to cause TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt, which would be considered evil ''regardless'' of terms like "Hero" or "Villain" and is something his canon self only goes along with because [[TheChainOfHarm it's the only thing he knows.]]

* WhatIsEvil: When Emerald begins having doubts about things since, if Team RWBY are the heroes of their show in another dimension, it would make Cinder's group the ''villains'', Mercury ultimately responds with a {{play|ingWithATrope}}ed with form of this. He says the only reason they are the "Villains" is because they oppose Team RWBY, the "Heroes", and that "stories" need to divide people into terms like that so they can be interesting. That if the show followed Team SSSN, then Blake would just be the "mean girl" for putting down Sun. That if it followed Team ABRN, none of them would even be relevant to ABRN's story. But that ultimately, they're ''[[ThisIsReality not a story]]'', they're just people on opposing sides, and what Emerald ''should'' be asking is if this is the side she wants to be on.

* WrongGenreSavvy: Mercury's WhatIsEvil talk with Emerald ''would'' hold a lot more weight were the conflict one of GreyAndGrayMorality, with him under the impression that it is. However, what he hasn't learned yet is that Cinder's boss is ''Salem'', someone trying to cause TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt, which would be considered evil ''regardless'' of terms like "Hero" or "Villain" and is something his canon self only goes along with because [[TheChainOfHarm it's the only thing he knows.]]

* CerebusSyndrome: While still comedic, the story notably becomes more serious as it continues and starts [[ForWantOfANail altering the events of canon]]. Once Cinder learns of the memes, she starts trying to use them to her advantage as much as the heroes do.

* ForWantOfANail: By reading through the memes of their series, Team RWBY learn a lot of things way ahead of when they initially did. Later on, [[spoiler:Cinder and her lackeys start eavesdropping on Team RWBY reading the memes]].

* WrongGenreSavvy: Mercury's WhatIsEvil talk with Emerald ''would'' hold a lot more weight were the conflict one of GreyAndGrayMorality. However, what he hasn't learned yet is that Cinder's boss is ''Salem'', someone trying to cause TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt, which would be considered evil ''regardless'' of terms like "Hero" or "Villain" and is something his canon self only goes along with because [[TheChainOfHarm it's the only thing he knows.]]

* BlatantLies: When she cuts in to dance, Penny apologizes to Cinder for stepping on her foot. Her hiccup after the fact makes it clear that it was 100% ''intentional''.

* BlatantLies: When she cuts in to dance, Penny apologizes to Cinder for stepping on her foot. Her hiccup after the fact makes it clear that it was 100% intentional.

* CerebusSyndrome: While still comedic, the story notably becomes more serious as it continues and starts altering the events of canon. Once Cinder learns of the memes, she starts trying to use them to her advantage as much as the heroes do.

* TemptingFate: Weiss remarks early on that Team RWBY shouldn't waste too much time on the memes, and that "it’s not like anything serious has cropped up". The very next meme they get [[spoiler:indirectly outs Blake as a Faunus]].