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RWBY provides examples of the following tropes:

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    Tropes E 
  • Early-Bird Cameo:
    • The 2nd Anime Theme Song teases several new characters, including Velvet and Sun both being a part of full 4-Man Teams, along with whatever group Penny belongs to.
    • In Volume 5, the main hall of Haven Academy is shown to feature a large statue of a long-haired woman wearing golden chains. One volume later, said woman is introduced as Jinn, the embodiment of Haven's divine Relic.
  • Early-Installment Weirdness:
    • In the "Red" trailer, Ruby fights relatively realistic-looking werewolf monsters, rather than the more cartoon-ish and stylized Grimm creatures in the final show. They also lack the "masks" that all Grimm would have. Additionally, the trailer showcases more gore, with decapitations and limbs flying galore, instead of Grimm being Reduced to Dust when they die.
    • The first volume showed background extras as black silhouettes without distinct designs. This stopped in the second volume, but would referenced by RWBY Chibi on occasion just for laughs.
    • In the first few episodes characters say "Oh, my God". Only one religion has been shown in-series and it revolves around two brother gods. As a result, later episodes use "Gods" or "Brothers".
    • In the Beacon Academy Initiation, Ren battles with a King Taijitu, where he displays a few skills that he never uses again afterwards. For one, he uses a somewhat different fighting style compared to his standard Guns Akimbo, mixing it with more traditional martial arts techniques, particularly favoring palm strikes. In fact, he appears to be more skilled in hand-to-hand combat than he is at wielding weapons, seeing he is able to effortlessly dispatch the Grimm after his guns are knocked away, despite previously struggling against it. He also shows the ability to expand his aura outward in a manner similar to an AT Field, an incredibly useful ability that neither he nor anyone else ever uses beyond this fight.
    • At the end of the first volume, Emerald and Mercury have different character designs, with Emerald wearing green pants with white shorts and a copper-colored belt, and Mercury having violet eyes and hair with his collar zipped all the way up.
    • While dueling with Torchwick in Volume 2, Blake uses a purple power slash that enhances Gambol Shroud's striking power and range. Qrow does the same thing during his fight with Winter in Volume 3. However, such moves are never seen again, and fans aren't sure whether the moves were supposed to reflect Aura use, Dust use or were just a stylistic choice to symbolise the force of a Huntsman's swings.
    • Twice in Volume 2, Weiss uses a clock-shaped "Time Dilation" glyph which increases her speed exponentially, extremely similar to the Haste spell in Dead Fantasy, another show made by Monty Oum. The Time Dilation glyph never returns after Volume 2 despite its incredible power.
  • Eaten Alive:
    • Torchwick suffers this at the hands of a Griffon Grimm.
    • This is the Curious Cat's ultimate fate at the teeth of a pack of Jabberwalkers. Due to the unique abilities of Jabberwalkers, he also suffers Cessation of Existence when he would normally ascend.
  • Edible Bludgeon: Vol.2 Episode 1's Food Fight has Team RWBY and Team JNPR using breadsticks, leeks, turkeys, watermelons, soda cans, etc. against each other.
  • Eldritch Location: Volume 9 introduces the Ever After, a strange world that is accessed by falling through the Void Between the Worlds and which is dominanted by an enormous World Tree. It functions by different rules to Remnant, being a Patchwork Map of "acres" with bridge-linked self-contained environments. The Jungle Acre has golden skies and two suns, the King's Acre has green skies and one sun, and the Gardens Acre is perpetual darkness lit only by biolumiscent plants and fungi. The world is an Empathic Environment, whose weather responds to strong emotion and thunderstorms externalise the inner troubles of those caught in them. The Tree is the realm's only exit, but no-one can go it; it must instead come to them. Only self-acceptance and the need for renewal can get a person to the Tree, which can mean either succumbing to or overcoming trauma, depending on the situation.
  • The Elites Jump Ship: This is the catalyst for the climax of Volume 7. General Ironwood, overtaken by paranoia due to Cinder taunting him and the threat of Salem soon arriving at the Floating City of Atlas, decides to abandon the remaining endangered people of Mantle to raise Atlas up higher (out of Salem's range). He immediately proves willing to get rid of anyone who opposes this decision. As Team RWBY refuses to abandon Mantle, he orders the Ace-Ops to arrest them, puts out warrants for them and their friends, and tries to execute Oscar for trying to talk him down. Add on Cinder delaying Winter's task to become the Winter Maiden long enough for Penny Polendina to take the power instead, and Ironwood is left unable to complete his plans. As the new Maiden is more sympathetic to the protagonists and Mantle, she defects, leaving Ironwood without the means to raise Atlas. RWBY's resistance incapacitates four of his Ace-Ops, while the fifth and leader of their group ends up killed thanks to the conflict allowing Tyrian to escape. And with his forces exhausted from the evacuation that had been completed before it was abruptly stopped, Ironwood's army is crippled just as Salem arrives at Atlas' doorstep. Just as Salem wanted.
  • Embarrassing Pyjamas: Downplayed. On the first night at Beacon Academy, the day before initiation, all the students sleep in a common room. As Yang Xiao Long is admiring all of the shirtless boys getting ready to sleep, she suddenly notices Jaune Arc proudly strutting around in footed pajamas with a cereal mascot on them. Yang winces in embarrassment, but Jaune is left none the wiser.
  • Emergency Authority: During Volume 7, General James Ironwood has Mantle in an oppressive state due to transferring supplies meant to help the city to Amity Communications Tower which is kept a secret. Because of this, the people of Mantle start seeing him as a dictator keeping them oppressed which eventually lead to riots and Grimm attacks. After Penny Polendina is framed by Tyrian Callows for murdering Mantle civilians, Ironwood gets mad at the current situation as Winter Schnee states the option to declare martial law to get the job done is still possible. By the end of the Volume when Salem announces her arrival and Ironwood chooses to abandon him plan for Amity in favor of saving only Atlas and leaving Mantle to die, he declares martial law to prevent the rest of the Kingdom's council from interfering.
  • Empathy Doll Shot: As Ruby and Jaune walk through the ghost town of Kuroyuri, taking in the sight of devastation all around them, there's a close-up camera shot of an abandoned child's bicycle lying outside a partially crushed building. It's clear that this town was wiped out at a time when it was thriving with life and families.
  • Enemy Mine:
    • The White Fang is working with Torchwick, despite Blake (a former member) finding the concept of them willingly working with humans (especially that one) to be unthinkable. The feeling is mutual, since the aforementioned person has open disdain for Faunus and only works with them because they need the manpower. What they are hoping to accomplish is general anarchy in the city while Cinder hits the Beacon CCT building. It wasn't even their primary means of attack, either, just one branch of six.
    • Later when General James Ironwood turns against the heroes and orders his soldiers to arrest them, Qrow Branwen and Tyrian Callows are forced to fight together in order to defeat Clover Ebi when he turns against Qrow. It's Downplayed however since Qrow knows Tyrian isn't trustworthy and tries attacking him any chance he gets in the fight.
  • Enhanced Archaic Weapon: Almost every weapon in the series is some form of this (e.g. in the main cast Ruby, Blake, Yang, Pyrrha and Nora's weapons are all capable of using their firearm modes to increase the damage of their melee strikes in some waynote  and Weiss's can channel Dust). The only real exceptions in the main cast are Ren (who just uses machine pistols with blades) and Jaune's no-frills-attached sword (although his shield's at least collapsible).
  • Ensemble Cast: After Volume 4 transitions away from the Cast Herd set-up of the first three volumes, the show focusses on the main cast of heroes and villains, with secondary antagonists and allies appearing as the plot demands. The heroes consist of the protagonist Team RWBY, the deuteragonist Team JNPR, Qrow Branwen and Oscar Pine; the villains of Salem, her subordinates and Cinder's subordinates. Although Ruby Rose is technically the main character, all the heroes and villains get similar story time, and any allies that become part of story arcs are also given air time as if they're a main character.
  • Epic Rocking: Of the three released soundtracks, 28 out of 81 tracks are at least 5 minutes long, with the longest out of those 28 stretching to 10 minutes.
  • Epic Tracking Shot: Episode 2 of Volume 2 opens with a shot that goes from the skydocks at Beacon across the academy and up through the clouds to Ozpin's office at the top of the tallest tower.
  • Establishing Character Music: The trailers which introduced each member of Team RWBY made excellent use of music to help establish their characters.
    • Ruby's song "Red Like Roses" sounds like it's played by a mariachi band, portraying Ruby as a fun-loving character, but the triumphant orchestral music underneath demonstrates her heroic nature.
    • Weiss's song "Mirror, Mirror" is a haunting orchestral piece, accompanied by Weiss' singing. This shows her inner struggle, as she tries to figure out who she is meant to be in life.
    • Blake's song "From Shadows" alternates between a somber piano piece and heavy electronic music, showing her double nature and her melancholy outlook on life.
    • Yang's song "I Burn" starts as a dance remix of the other girls' songs, before transitioning to a pounding synth beat. This demonstrates her devotion to her teammates and her Blood Knight tendencies.
  • Everyone Is a Super: At the end of Volume 2 most of the evidence seems to point towards the fact that everyone has Aura and can have it unlocked by an active Aura user and most do so. Remnant is a Death World after all. But like in the real world, not everyone trains themselves to the bone to become a killing machine that would make most, but not all, Slayers go green with envy and, most importantly, the majority of people on Remnant are neither adrenaline junkies nor just plain nuts, which is an actual requirement to become a Huntsman trainee. The Beacon Academy Initiation is proof of that.
  • Everything Is an iPod in the Future: Scrolls are sleep collapsible devices that functions as a phone, messenger (email, text and video), camera, portable computer, video game controller and holographic projector. They can connect to any wi-fi or IT device simply by touching it, such as interfacing with the surface of an academy headmaster's desk, slotting into terminal ports, or sharing ID by holding the device up to a scanner. No matter what technological task is required, a scroll is almost always up to the task of doing it. They can even monitor Aura levels for Huntsmen, both individuals and entire teams. Everyone from children to adults uses scrolls, making them extremely accessible and ubiquitous.
  • Evil Versus Oblivion: In Volume 8, Salem isn't just pitted against the heroes, but against other villains who are trying to stop her from destroying the world. After being kidnapped by Salem, Oscar convinces Ozpin to help him try and turn Salem's subordinates against her. Together, they tell Hazel that Salem's true endgame isn't a new world order, but planetary destruction, not knowing Emerald's eavesdropping. Once Hazel and Emerald have both been convinced it's true, Hazel decides to get both Emerald and Oscar as far away from Salem as he can. This requires him fighting Salem to the death to buy time for the others to escape, but it also buys Oscar enough time to set off a Fantastic Nuke that leaves Salem indisposed just long enough for the heroes to evacuate the kingdom's people before she returns.
  • Evolving Credits:
    • The endings show silhouettes of various characters each episode, usually whoever was most prominent that episode, or sometimes whoever was seen last before the credits roll.
    • Volume 2's feature fan art of the characters.
    • Each episode of Volumes 3 onwards features concept art for who/whatever was introduced in that episode.
    • After the Rusted Knight reveals that he is actually Jaune at the end of "The Parfait Predicament", the opening for the next episode replaces the Knight having his helmet on with Jaune's current look instead.
  • Expository Hairstyle Change: Season 3 flashbacks show us that Emerald didn't originally have her current bob, while Cinder's was shorter compared to her current style.
  • Expository Theme Tune: Original composer Jeff Williams had access to the scripts and some of the future plans for characters and plot. Thus, he had full creative freedom to express the storyline and characters in his songs as he saw fit. This includes foreshadowing future events, but also includes his own personal interpretation and things he felt the desire to explore. As a result, while the songs do include titbits and foreshadowing about the show, he has warned they cannot be taken literally or as confirmation of how things in the show will develop. When he retired from being the composer, his daughter Casey took over his role as the series composer instead.
    • "This Will Be the Day" acts as a Call to Adventure and Dare to Be Badass, exploring the idea of children who have been trained to fight finding the best of themselves when things are at their worst.
    • "Time to Say Goodbye" is a song about heroes realising they have reached a point of no return and that the stakes have become increasingly higher. The song is used as the opening theme when the show starts confirming that the plotline is getting darker and kicking in to high gear.
    • "When It Falls" signaled that not only were things getting grimmer, but there would be a scenario that will inevitably be reached where everything falls apart in the end. This sets the stage for the fall of Beacon Academy at the end of Volume 3 and Team RWBY being scattered to the four winds by circumstances beyond their control.
    • "Let's Just Live" takes a more hopeful note, with the show's characters recovering from and accepting the traumas of the previous volumes, resolving to continue pursuing their goals despite their losses, even if they can only do so by living one day at a time.
    • "The Triumph" takes the previous song's theme further, stating that even though things seem hopeless, and even though they've lost so much, the heroes must pull themselves together and start fighting back.
  • Exposed to the Elements: In the first few volumes all the uncovered skin in Team RWBY's costumes doesn't seem too troublesome due to mild climates; once the characters travel to northern Anima, where it's extremely cold, most of their outfits do not appear well-suited to the conditions. Although they cover up more once they reach the ice continent of Solitas, they're still more exposed than background characters. In the Atlas Arc, it's revealed that projecting Aura does protect from the cold to a certain degree, but if they have no heating or shelter, even well-trained Auras will deplete eventually.
  • Exotic Weapon Supremacy: Most characters of note use some form of multi-purpose Swiss-Army Weapon, and wildly improbable ones at that. The fight sequences are practically over-the-top exotic improbable weapon porn. Which is not to say that they don't look pretty damn awesome.
  • Extranormal Institute: Beacon Academy is the most prestigious school for training future Huntsmen, people trained in Aura and advanced weapons skills to protect humanity from the Creatures of Grim. Beacon is next to a monster-filled forest which the Headmaster uses to break in the new students on only their first day in school. If they survive that, they then have to survive Professor Port's class. If his boring speeches don't kill, his habit of releasing caged monsters in the classroom to fight unwary students just might. And that's only Day Two. The headmaster had announced it was going to be an interesting year. He wasn't joking. The kids don't just have fairytale monsters and crazy teachers to worry about; the human villains want to attack the school, too.
  • Extraordinary World, Ordinary Problems: In a world where everyone has special powers, hybrid weapons are commonplace, and giant monsters roam the wilderness, they still must deal with typical burglaries, credit cards being declined, and the stress of high school.
  • Extremely Short Timespan: Time passage is kept deliberately vague, but certain volumes happen over a very short time span, such as most of Volume 3 happening over a shorter timespan than the several months of Volumes 1 and 2 or Volume 5's main storyline occurring over a single month (the secondary storyline occurs over two months). Volume 6 is heavily implied to cover only a few days while the second half of Volume 7 occurs in a single night, creating consequences that are explored over the next two days in Volume 8. For the entirety of Volume 9, Team RWBY and Neopolitan had spent about two days in the Ever After while Jaune had spent a significantly much longer time due to unforseen circumstances.
  • The Extremist Was Right: According to Blake, the White Fang's change from peaceful protest to terrorism actually worked to get Faunus to be treated as equals... but out of fear, not respect. But on the other side we have Weiss, who not only turns out to be right in accusing the White Fang of the recent Dust thefts, but her condemnation of them as evil turns out to be entirely accurate.
  • Eye Cam:
    • Episode 4 starts with Ren waking up in this perspective, greeted by Nora.
    • In "No Brakes", after being knocked unconscious, Yang comes to as the camera switches to first-person, where we see Yang blinking and disoriented as she watches Raven exit via portal.
  • Eyedscreen: Almost constantly during the initial Grimm encounter in Vol.2 Episode 9.
  • Eye Motifs: Eyes are an extremely important symbol in the story and always refer to something important, especially the secret history of Remnant and the truth about a character's real personality and abilities.
    • The activation of Semblances, a character's personal superpower, can cause the eyes of some characters to change colour when activated, such as Yang's purple eyes turning red.
    • Faunus traits can also cause eye colors to change. Tyrian's golden eyes turn purple when he uses his scorpion venom, and Ilia’s eyes change along with her skin and hair due to her being a chameleon Faunus.
    • Power with special origins manifest through the eyes: Maidens wield true magic, the activation of which involves an aura of magical fire surrounding the eyes that’s the same colour as the Maiden's aura, while Silver-Eyed Warriors can be identified by their extremely rare silver irises, and have the ability to produce an overwhelming light from their eyes that can destroy the Creatures of Grimm. Oscar's eyes glow gold whenever he taps into his unique ability. This represents a divine origin. Magic was originally a gift from the God of Darkness, although Maidens are actually wielding a fraction of Ozma's magical power. Silver-Eyed Warriors wield the God of Light's ability to destroy the Creatures of Grimm and their origin is subtly implied to be connected to Ozma. Ozma himself was turned into a reincarnating immortal by the God of Light, where the immortal shares the body of a like-minded human to carry out a divine mission; Oscar replaces Ozpin as Ozma's host after the Battle of Beacon and his eyes glow with a golden light every time he and Ozma switch control of his body.
    • Stylized eye motifs are usually linked to either the Big Bad or the Big Good: Salem uses a stylized depiction of an eye as her motif and when Cinder attacks Amber, she is wearing a glove with Salem's symbol; Qrow and Raven were the personal emissaries of Professor Ozpin, and their symbol consisted of Ozpin's personal cog motif surrounded by a flared bird's wing to create the shape of an eye. In both cases, anything carrying these eye motifs is associated with magic: Cinder's use of the glove involved a strange ability to use a special Grimm to steal Amber's Maiden power; Ozpin used some of Ozma's remaining magic to give Qrow and Raven the ability to shapeshift into ravens, allowing them search the world for information on Salem and keep track of the Maidens.
    • Scarring of the eye has symbolised abusive histories, such as Weiss having a scar over her left eye due to a life-threatening ordeal her father put her through to try and stop her escaping his control by going to Beacon Academy; this also reflects her driving ambitious to restore the Schnee family name to honour by undoing her father's corrupt and abhorrent business practices. Adam has an SDC brand burned across his eyes, reflecting the abusive labour practices Weiss's father also puts his Faunus workforce through; it turned him into a hateful terrorist determined to bring down humanity and enslave them to the Faunus race.
  • Eye-Dentity Giveaway:
    • One of Neopolitan's giveaways (besides her muteness) is that her eyes will sometimes change to pink, brown, or cream shades when she blinks. However, this appears to be deliberate as she shows no difficulty in disguising her eye color and may be doing it to taunt her opponents.
    • Done to Neo by the Curious Cat in Volume 9, who pulls a Grand Theft Me on Neo and her eyes change to have bright blue sclera and white catlike pupils. Once the gang is able to yank the cat out of her, her eyes return to normal.
  • Eye Scream:
    • The King Taijitu that attacks Ren gets one of its own fangs shoved through the eye of its unmasked head.
    • Maria is an elderly blind woman who once had surgery to give her artificial eyesight using Atlesian technology. She lost her eyesight in battle against an assassin who was hired to kill her because she possessed silver eyes. The assassin sliced Maria's eyes with a sword, but died before doing any more damage.
    • This is strongly implied with Adam, who spends most of his time hiding his eyes behind a mask. He was branded across the face by the SDC, the scarred outcome being similar to the branding of cattle. The brand covers his left eye, which is permanently partially shut. The eye has a red sclera and a strange grey iris. Adam has hated humanity, and particularly the SDC, ever since.

    Tropes F 
  • Faceless Masses: In Volume 1, characters in the background simply appear as black silhouettes. Averted in future volumes, however.
  • Face-Revealing Turn: Used in the ending of the Volume 3 finale as a shot of Salem, who has previously appeared as the show's narrator, starts with her back to the camera, only for her to turn and reveal deep red and purple veins on her otherwise deathly pale face, as well as her eyes having black sclerae and red pupils, which glow brightly after her speech concludes.
  • Fairytale Motifs: Many characters have design elements based on fairy tales, although their journeys through the show are not intended to retell the fairy-tales they're inspired by. The Creatures of Grimm are named after The Brothers Grimm, and the four main characters are based on fairy tales. For other examples, see the dedicated page.
    • Ruby is Little Red Riding Hood and her introductory trailer consists of her fighting a forest full of Beowulves.
    • Weiss is Snow White, and her introductory trailer consists of her engaging in an ice-duel with a royal knight.
    • In Blake's introductory trailer, her relationship with Adam mirrors Beauty and the Beast.
    • Yang's trailer references a couple of fairy tales; she is Goldilocks, with the bar owner and DJ respectively being named after a bear and wearing a bear mask; there are also twin girls in the club, one dressed in red and the other in white, who are based on Snow-White and Rose-Red.
  • False Utopia: A discussed example. Atlas is nicknamed "the City of Dreams". Maria reveals it was originally floated to give people hope of a better tomorrow. Ironwood also mentions that Ozma floated it, but not as high as initially planned for unknown reasons; when advising Ironwood, Oscar mentions that a floating city is held to a higher standard because of its purpose to inspire hope. However, Nora points out, when observing Mantle's poverty, that Atlas may inspire hope of a better future "unless you're the one having to look up at it". Ozma's dream of a city that inspires people to become the best versions of themselves never worked, instead producing a city of selfish, wealth-obsessed elitists who look down on the rest of the world. The tension this generates between Atlas and Mantle plays into Salem's hands during the Atlas Arc.
  • Family Portrait of Characterization:
    • A portrait in the Schnee family's mansion from several years prior shows Jacques Schnee's wife and daughters looking sad/unhappy (in the present day, his wife Willow is an alcoholic because of him, and his daughters Winter and Weiss have both made efforts to escape his emotionally abusive hold over them). Whitley (his son, whom he favors), on the other hand, is smiling.
    • When introduced to one of Jaune's sisters, Saphron, a sibling portrait in her home shows all the sisters happily smiling or posing for the photo, with Jaune (sitting in the center and his hair in ponytails) looking resigned and holding a sign that says "HELP." Some of the poses and antics the Arc sisters display gives the viewers an impression of their possible personalities — one has big round glasses and is standing straight and proper, another is posing like a sailor in a lookout position, and twins making funny faces (one stretching her mouth open and making fish eyes and the other doing an akanbe).
  • Famous Ancestor: Jaune Arc comes from a famous, heroic lineage, and his great-great-grandfather was a war hero. Ironically, while he may have great leadership potential and tactical instincts, his actual combat skills or Huntsman knowledge were so lacking that he had to run away from home and forge his transcripts to get into Beacon Academy and gain a chance to live up to his family legacy. His Famed In-Story teammate Pyrrha ends up secretly training him to help him catch-up to his classmates.
  • Fantastic Firearms: Dust is the most important source of energy on Remnant, having made its way into every aspect of technology. Modern weapons rely heavily on Dust both for their design and their ammunition. As a result, most of the weapons that a firearms function will be using Dust propellent and ammunition that ranges from basic Dust-bullets that just riddle targets full of holes to ammunition that produces the full elemental effect of the Dust type its using, such as blasts of fire or wind, gravity bursts, freezing ice, solid rocks, bolts of electricity, smoke screens, and so on.
  • Fantastic Ghetto: According to Professor Oobleck's lecture, Faunus used to be confined to the city of Menagerie (which is on its own fish-shaped continent). Their aversion to the idea triggered the Faunus War.
  • Fantastic Racism:
    • Little Bit Beastly characters, referred to as "Faunus" have Civil Rights protests with signs saying that they are not animals. Also, in the past there was a civil war known as the 'Faunus Uprising', and they used to be concentrated to the island of Menagerie. In response to the continued oppression, some Faunus are part of a terrorist-style group called the White Fang whose members seem really eager to wipe out humans/end human rule.
      • Shown in Episode 11 when Team CRDL bully Velvet (a rabbit faunus) in the cafeteria. Yang comments that it must be hard being a Faunus, as nobody defends her. In fact, Team CRDL as a whole seems to be made of Fantastic Racists. Russel calls Velvet a "freak" for her ears, and Cardin says that the reason they had victories in their war was due to animals being easier to train than humans, despite the fact that Velvet is right there in the class. Blake and Pyrrha call him out for this one. Blake herself is a cat Faunus.
      • Episode 15: Weiss considers the Faunus of the White Fang to be nothing more than terrorists, with a history of violence and war between them and her family's business to back it up. While she never goes so far as to call all Faunus bad, she admits to not trusting them.
      • Ilia's backstory highlights the casual discrimination some of the faunus face: like Blake, she hid her faunus nature (that of a chameleon whose skin changes color in response to strong emotions) in order to blend in with humans and have a chance at a better life, only to lose it all when an accident in the nearby mines, resulting in the deaths of many faunus laborers, caused her skin to change color due to grief. The same humans she thought of as friends turned on her in horror.
    • Salem, who employs both humans and Faunus as her minions, has a very different brand of racism. As a member of the original, magically-empowered iteration of humanity alongside Ozma, Salem regards the mortal inhabitants of contemporary Remnant as lesser beings because they lack her species' magic. Volume 6 reveals that Salem persuaded Ozma to help her "guide" the second human race in the Brother Gods' absence, and when she learned she and Ozma could breed more magic-empowered humans like the original humanity, she decided to wipe the second humanity out and replace them.
    • A couple of the Afterans indigenous to the Ever After in Volume 9 have a dim opinion of the humans of Remnant, due to the havoc and misery that occurred during Alyx's trek through the Ever After years prior. The Red Prince despises humans with a passion and is murderously enraged when he learns that Team RWBY are such. The Curious Cat bitterly says that all humans are confused, weak and broken creatures who ruin everything they touch, and the Cat get a kick out of making Jaune and Ruby suffer.
  • Fantasy Counterpart Culture:
    • Mistral, the eastern continent, is known for houses with sloping rooftops, kitsune masks, Ninjas, poor resources and a maritime tradition. It also unfortunately has a major underground criminal element. In other words, it's Japan mixed with 19th Century Singapore.
    • Menagerie, the southern-most continent where the Faunus live, is clearly based off Australia. The founders were forced to settle there, most of the continent is sparsely-populated desert with lush areas around the coasts, and the wildlife is noted to be even more dangerous than the rest of Remnant.
    • Atlas is based on the United States, according to the creators. It is a kingdom defined by its technological innovations and the size of its military, with significant issues concerning racial and economic equality.
  • Fantasy World Map: The map of Remnant was one of the first things revealed pre-release, and it doesn't take too long for it to show up in the series itself. Supposedly, it started out as a stain on a napkin, and Monty thought it made for a decent map.
  • Fashionable Asymmetry: Most characters go for this look. Yang's outfit sports mismatched socks and a Showgirl Skirt, Weiss' ponytail is offset to her right side, and Blake's left arm is sleeveless with a ribbon wrapped around it. Justified as Remnant's society places a greater emphasis on individualism and freedom of expression.
  • Fastball Special:
    • In Episode 8, Pyrrha flings Nora into the air with her shield. The push upward is assisted by Nora's rocket hammer, and so is her descent towards the stinger embedded on the Death Stalker's head.
    • Which is followed by Team RWBY taking it even further, using Blake's Gambol Shroud and Weiss's Gravity Manipulation as a slingshot to launch Ruby at the Giant Nevermore.
    • In Vol. 2 Episode 11, Oobleck uses his thermos/flamethrower/bludgeon hybrid to launch Zwei and destroy a White Fang mech.
    • In Vol. 3 Episode 1, Blake uses her Gambol Shroud as a grappling hook to launch Yang at Team ABRN when they're not on guard.
    • In Vol. 3 Episode 5, Flynt Coal uses his trumpet's sonic blast to propel Neon on her rollerblades.
    • In the Volume 4 trailer, the Beringel throws Beowolves at Ruby.
  • The Fellowship Has Ended: Ruby and Yang's family belonged to Beacon Academy's former star students, Team STRQ, who permanently fell apart due to personal flaws and hidden agendas. Yang's mother Raven abandoned her shortly after birth and Ruby's mother Summer disappeared during a mission. They were raised by their father Taiyang and uncle Qrow. Qrow keeps a battered old team photo that is stained with glass rings and tear drops. Raven wasn't the family type and Summer's last mission was a secret only Raven knows the truth about. Team STRQ used to help Professor Ozpin fight the Big Bad, but that ended once Raven abandoned the fight upon learning Ozpin's secret: that Salem is an Invincible Villain.
  • Feminist Fantasy: RWBY is an action-oriented series focused on an Extranormal Institute where students train to become Huntsmen or Huntresses. The cast are all loosely based on various Fairy tales, with Little Red Riding Hood starring as scythe-wielding Ruby, Snow White as Lady of War Weiss, Goldilocks as Cute Bruiser Yang, and Beauty as Cat Ninja Blake. The cast primarily consists of women, all capable warriors in their own right and respected as equals by their male peers. It also features references to warrior women from mythology, in the forms of Pyrrha Nikos (Amazons) and Nora Valkyrie. According to the creators, they intentionally avoided panty shots even when the heroines are jumping and flipping around in short skirts. Adding to that is the fact that only women can become one of the four Maidens and wield exceptional, magical power.
  • Final Exchange: In the final episode of Volume 3, after Cinder disables Pyrrha, they have their final exchange before Cinder executes Pyrrha:
    Pyrrha: Do you believe in destiny?
    Cinder: (frowns, narrowing her eyes) Yes.
  • Fire-Forged Friends:
    • The titular team of the series formed in spite of their own disagreements or distrust of each other. Weiss viewed Ruby as an idiot, Ruby viewed Weiss as a stuck up jerk, Blake was standoffish and Yang was trying to force her sister Ruby to make new friends. Fighting a giant flying monster helped to bring them together a lot, though not completely.
    • Ozpin, the principal of Beacon, may be invoking this trope, actually. As the test they were in was meant to form teams, throwing them into a place filled with fearsome beasts that would require teamwork to take down is an efficient way.
    • Defied by the Ace Ops, an elite team of Atlesian Huntsmen. While they work like a well-oiled machine in combat, and don't seem to dislike each other, they believe friendship has nothing to do with Huntsmen work, and view Team RWBY and their allies as naive rookies for believing otherwise. This ends up being a problem for them after they turn against Team RWBY since despite their greater experience, they end up arguing about how to handle the situation with each other while Team RWBY's greater trust and friendship in each other allows them to defeat the Ace-Ops. Following the death of their leader Clover Ebi, they are still shown arguing with each other until the climax of Volume 8 when Ironwood planned to bomb Mantle. After Harriet tried to go through with it, the other Ace-Ops try to stop her when it becomes unnecessary and call her their friend, stopping her from going through with it. Before he sacrifices himself, Vine even calls the Ace-Ops his friends.
  • Fictional Currency: The world of Remnant has lien (Ⱡ) as the primary form of currency which according to Miles Luna is approximately equal to Japanese Yen. While coins of lien exist ("cents" mentioned by Roman and actually seen in RWBY Chibi), lien is most commonly seen mass-produced as plastic cards of various colors with a magnetic strip like a prepaid credit card since it is more resilient than paper money and less expensive than coins for Huntsman to carry.
  • Fictional Holiday: The Vytal Festival is an annual celebration of the end of the Great War, making an era of peace and unity for the four kingdoms that has lasted for eighty years. It also hosts the Vytal Festival Tournament, a friendly competition between the four Huntsmen Academies.
  • Field Promotion: While they originally went to Beacon Academy to become Huntsmen and Huntresses and get their licenses, the fall of Beacon caused the school to close with Team RWBY and the remaining members of Team JNPR traveling the world to find the people responsible while most students transferred to other academies like Shade. By the time they reach Atlas, General James Ironwood states that the dangers they've faced during the Battle of Beacon, in the wilds of Anima, and against the forces of Salem, means they're not functioning at the level of students, they're functioning as Huntsmen. Thus, he promotes them to fully licenced Huntsmen on the basis of their field experience even though they haven't completed their schooling.
  • Flash Step:
    • Blake seems to use this as part of her fighting style. Watch her fight against Roman Torchwick in Vol.1 Episode 16; the "shadow" she leaves behind suggests this trope.
    • A slight variation of this happens in Vol.2 Episode 8. After Ruby tells Professor Ozpin, Glynda, and General Ironwood about details she saw in the previous episode while fighting an intruder, the Professor tells her to be discreet about explaining the situation. After returning to her room, Weiss, Yang, and Blake are standing on the far side of the room, and all three nearly instantaneously pop up in front of her with a whoosh sound to ask her what happened.
    • Dr. Oobleck performs these constantly in his first appearance due to his overcaffeination.
    • Ruby's Semblance is essentially this, and also achieves it with her weapon's recoil.
  • Flawed Prototype: The Paladins used by the White Fang in Volume 2 were actually stolen prototypes, according to Winter, who warns Weiss that the real models would have been much harder for Team RWBY to deal with. True to form, in Volume 3, a trio of up-to-date Paladin models are able to take on the combined force of Teams CFVY, SSSN, ABRN, FNKI, and part of JNPR. It isn't until Velvet and Weiss use their Semblances in ways that have not previously been seen that the three Paladins are defeated.
  • Flight:
    • True flight among humans is usually a sign of magic; any character that possesses true magic has been shown at some stage being able to fly, often with elemental side-effects, such as a burst of fire or wind; some characters can even fly by shapeshifting into winged creatures. The Maidens can all fly, although they use different elements based on the type of person they are. Cinder uses bursts of fire while Amber rose into the air like she was riding wind. Salem and Ozma can fly because humanity was once capable of wielding magic until the gods took their blessings away, leaving the Big Bad and Big Good as the only people who could use magic. Although Ozma gave away most of his magic to create the Four Maidens, it's hinted during his fight with Cinder that Ozpin was still capable of flight. He also gave some of his magic to Qrow and Raven, allowing them to shapeshift into their namesake birds.
    • Semblances can give individuals access to a form of flight in different ways, depending on the ability. Examples include: Weiss and Winter summoning avatars of winged Grimm who forced them to grow as a person in order to kill them to transport them through the air; Scarlet's ability to glide through the air; Ruby and Harriet's abilities to move so fast that their momentum can carry them through the air, Ruby can even mimic flying because her Semblance can negate mass.
    • Faunus traits can give Faunus the ability to fly or glide, depending on the trait. For example, a Bat Faunus with bat wings has the power of flight.
    • Technology can also allow someone to fly, such as Penny being able to activate rocket boosters from her feet during the tournament, which took Pyrrha by surprise. In Volume 7, her upgraded body allows her to fully fly, and her legs have been modified accordingly to make it happen.
  • Floating Continent:
    • The sky castle variant known as the Amity Colosseum serves as the arena for the tournament during the Vytal Festival. It was designed to be able to travel to each kingdom in turn so that it can represent the best of a humanity that stands globally united. After the Fall of Beacon, General James Ironwood converted it into Amity Communications Tower to restart global communications again and inform the world about Salem. Before he can finish however, he learns Salem is on her way to the Kingdom and abandons the plan in order to just save Atlas. Because of this, Ruby Rose decides to finish the original plan instead.
    • Lake Matsu on the continent of Anima has quite a few naturally-occurring floating islands over the lake, thanks to the Gravity Dust that grows on them. Unfortunately, they also harbour deadly Creatures of Grimm and the gravity dust can cause dangerous turbulence for airships.
    • The city of Atlas is floating above the continent of Solitas, and right above the city of Mantle. Officially, it's held in the air by means of Gravity Dust. It's actually floating in the air due to the power of the Relic of Creation, but that's not public knowledge. Near the climax of Volume 8, Team RWBY use the Staff to save Penny and the citizens of the Kingdom, causing Atlas to begin falling towards the ground and crashing on top of Mantle in the final episode.
  • Floral Theme Naming: Team RWBY's weapons have names shared in common with types of flowers: roses for Ruby's Crescent Rose; myrtle and aster for Weiss's Myrtenaster; golden gambol (a type of orchid) for Blake's Gambol Shroud; and celica (a type of amaryllis) for Yang's Ember Celica.
  • Flynning: In Vol.2 Episode 5, Pyrrha's and Jaune's "training" amounts to striking and attacking their swords. However, this trope is both Downplayed, as Pyrrha goes for a leg sweep at the end of the fight, and Justified, as Jaune is still improving his swordplay.
  • Food Fight: One occurs in "Best Day Ever". It starts with Nora throwing grapes for Yang to catch in her mouth but escalates to a tomato to the face after a particularly bad pun. Yang retaliates and it slowly builds up with larger fruit until Nora lobs a pie which hits Weiss instead of Yang. A quick scene change later and the rest of the student body is fleeing the now devastated dinner hall, and Team RWBY and Team JNPR get into a super powered brawl using foodstuffs instead of their normal weapons; Ruby, Pyrrha and Blake substitute their blades for bread rolls, Yang uses two whole roast turkeys as her gauntlets, Weiss uses a swordfish instead of her rapier, Nora builds a hammer out of a flagpole and a watermelon, Ren uses leeks as sai... Listen, back when Monty was alive, he demanded this kind of wonderful lunacy on a regular basis, okay? Such as Pyrrha using her Magnetism Manipulation to weaponize soda cans.
    Ruby: Justice will be swift! Justice will be painful! [crushes milk carton] IT WILL BE DELICIOUS!
  • Food Interrogation: After Roman and Cinder escape, Glynda Goodwitch detains Ruby and scolds her for involving herself in a fight with dangerous criminals. After intimidating her, Professor Ozpin strolls in to calmly question Ruby about her fighting technique while offering a plate of chocolate chip cookies. Ruby happily scarfs down the offering.
  • Forced Perspective: After Ruby cuts down a tree in frustration, a feather floats down in front of the camera. It looks like it's close to the camera, but then it lands, covering the tree she just cut down. Turns out to be foreshadowing for the Nevermore which appears in the next episode. Played with slightly in that the Nevermore does look to be as huge as its feathers would imply — in fact, the feather that appeared first was smaller than the ones it threw at Ruby.
  • Foregone Conclusion: In the fight in "Beginning of the End", it's already clear from the beginning that Cinder will defeat Amber and steal half her power, as was revealed in the previous episode.
  • Foreshadowing: It has its own page here.
  • Forest of Perpetual Autumn: The forest known as Forever Fall is filled with nothing but trees with scarlet leaves, making it seem like it's always autumn.
  • Forever War: Remnant is a dangerous world where the Creatures of Grimm seek to destroy humanity. Only a few humans know that the Grimm are controlled by a woman who is thousands of years old and possessed of strange powers. This group is led by Professor Ozpin and actively hides the truth about Salem to avoid mass panic. However, some of these guardians suspect Professor Ozpin is hiding even deeper secrets, and those that have learned them have abandoned his cause. Once a great hero called Ozma, Oz has been reincarnating into different men for thousands of years. Originally lovers until he was killed by sickness, Salem is punished by the gods for attempting to resurrect Ozma. Unable to enter the afterlife, she raises an army against the gods, condemning humanity to oblivion. The God of Light resurrects Ozma to give humanity a single chance at redemption but Oz eventually comes to realize that he cannot save humanity if Salem continues trying to destroy it. He therefore hides from his allies the truth: because Salem cannot be destroyed, he is fighting a war that cannot be won and cannot be ended.
  • Formerly Friendly Family: Qrow and Raven joined Beacon Academy together. They trained together in the same team and finally became part of Ozpin's inner circle. Then Raven abandoned her team and by Volume 5 tries to have Qrow killed.
  • Four Lines, All Waiting: In Volume 4, the main characters have separated into different geographic regions due to the events of the third volume. As a result, instead of dealing with protagonists in the same area investigating the villains and working as one to progress the plot, Volume 4 has to cycle between characters on different continents to advance each separate strand of the plot.
  • Foul Fox: Corsac and Fennec Albain are two fox Faunus brothers affiliated with Adam Taurus' faction of the White Fang. While they're not quite as bad as Adam and (rightly) believe his acts of wanton cruelty will alienate potential supporters, they nevertheless share his overall goal of Faunus supremacy.
  • Framing Device: During the episode "Kuroyuri", Ruby and Jaune are in the long-destroyed town of Kuroyuri attempting to locate medicine to save Qrow's life. Every so often, a Match Cut is used to switch from the devastation to the sight of the exact same town when it was a thriving hub of activity. The flashbacks are used to show how the town was destroyed, leaving Ren and Nora as its only survivors. Ren and Nora themselves don't appear in the present-day storyline until the end of the episode once their flashback story has been told...having accidentally come across the trail of the creature that destroyed Kuroyuri in the flashback (and more recently Shion) only to see that it's headed towards their friends.
  • Free-Fall Fight: In "A Place of Particular Concern", there's a brief sequence of two characters fighting as they're falling. A recap of the previous volume's ending is shown from Ruby's point of view, and includes additional footage; while falling into the Void, Neo reaches Ruby and tries fighting her. Ruby fends her off as Neo shapeshifts through a variety of forms resembling Ruby's friends.
  • Freeze-Frame Bonus:
    • Blake's bow twitches slightly when she sees Ruby fall from the sky. Because, underneath the bow, she has cat ears.
    • In "Players and Pieces", when Nora lands her killing blow, and launches Jaune and Pyrrha tumbling over its back, Pyrrha uses her semblance to grab her spear in mid-air. It's hard to spot, but going frame-by-frame reveals that it actually changes trajectory slightly before she's actually touched it.
    • In Episode 9, pausing where Blake accidentally spills her suitcase on the floor reveals that she has "Shi-nee" toothpaste.
    • In Episode 12, a sharp eye can see Cardin Winchester eavesdropping on Jaune and Pyrrha's conversation during the zoom-out.
    • In Episode 16, when Penny cuts the Bullheads in half with lazer beams, the RWBYsaurus can very briefly be seen falling along with the others. It's visible for about a quarter of a second during a very Gun Porn-esque scene, and it wasn't discovered until four months later, after Monty made a tweet saying that no one noticed it yet. Also, Penny's swords aren't swords in that scene.
    • In the warehouse in Vol.2 Episode 1, when Roman group hugs Mercury and Emerald, Roman and Emerald's hands can be seen brushing past each other's pockets. Roman's hand sweeps past Emerald's back pocket for the paper, while Emerald's sweeps past Roman's left jacket pocket for his lighter. Bonus points for both of them reaching for the place they thought they had their item in.
    • In Vol.2 Episode 3, the boxes that Ruby knocks over while chasing Penny are labeled "Breakable Things".
    • In Volume 6, Episode 3, Ozma has two children who are only briefly seen. Freezing the scene is required to spot the little white notches in the eyes that makes it clear the children have silver eyes like Ruby rather than ordinary grey eyes. No character in the episode draws attention to the children and their eyes so it takes attentive viewing for the audience to realise that this is another clue as to the origin of Ruby's power.
  • Freudian Excuse:
    • When called out on her Fantastic Racism against Faunus, Weiss explains that the Faunus terrorist group White Fang has targeted her company, and by extension her family, ever since she was a little girl. Aside from seeing close family friends "disappear", the constant attacks on her father's company left him enraged at home, which, in her own words, "made for a very... difficult... childhood."
    • Adam is filled with hatred for humanity and doesn't want Faunus equality, he wants humanity broken beneath his feet. Blake once describes him as a person who is trying to hurt the world that hurt him. He wears a mask because his left eye has been ruined from a brand that was burned into his face bearing the 'SDC' logo.
  • Freudian Slip: When arguing with Weiss about the nature of the White Fang and faunus in general, Blake accidentally uses 'we' when referring to the Fang, revealing her nature as a faunus with some form of involvement with the questionable organization.
  • The Friends Who Never Hang: Downplayed with Ruby and Blake. Every pair of Team RWBY has something unique to themselves, except for Ruby and Blake. Ruby and Yang are sisters; Ruby and Weiss are partners; Blake and Yang are partners, and Yang helped Blake out of her White Fang obsession; and Weiss and Yang were tournament doubles partners leading to Weiss sacrificing herself to save Yang. However, Ruby and Blake don't get any shared moments until Volume 8, where so many awful things are happening that Ruby begins doubting herself; while she and Blake are mission partners to activate a Schnee generator, Blake tells her how similar they are as people and reassures her that it's Ruby's ability to do something even when she doesn't know what to do that Blake most admires. It brings Ruby out of her despair and allows her to do the same for Blake a short while later when fighting some unusually dangerous Grimm.
  • Fun with Acronyms: The show enjoys playing with acronyms; Professor Ozpin, headmaster of Beacon Academy, is based on The Wizard of Oz, whose full name forms the acronym O.Z.P.I.N.H.E.A.D. The elite Huntsmen Academies sorts their students into four-person teams with a name that is an acronym formed from the members' names and it must have an association with colour in some fashion. The headmasters of each Academy are responsible for creating and assigning the team names, a system that was originally created by the founder of the schools, the King of Vale. The King of Vale was a previous incarnation of Professor Ozpin.
    • Beacon Academy teams:
      • RWBY (pronounced "Ruby") gives the team a red-themed name and stands for Ruby, Weiss, Blake and Yang. It also represents each of their individual colours (Red, White, Black, and Yellow respectively). At the beginning of Volume 3, Ruby does lampshade that this causes confusion between her name and the team name.
      • JNPR (pronounced "Juniper") stands for Jaune, Nora, Pyrrha, and Ren. Juniper is a shade of green.
      • CRDL (pronounced "Cardinal") stands for Cardin, Russel, Dove, Lark. The team name covers both the team's bird and Christian themes, both of which are associated with the colour red.
      • CFVY (pronounced "Coffee") stands for Coco, Fox, Velvet, Yatsuhashi. The team colour theme is brown. However, each of the members have a food-themed name, which the team name also shares.
      • STRQ (pronounced "Stark") is a now-graduated team consisting of the parents and uncle of Ruby and Yang. They are Summer, Taiyang, Raven, and Qrow.
    • Haven Academy teams:
      • SSSN (pronounced Sun) has a yellow-themed name based on its leader, Sun Wukong. The rest of his team-mates are Scarlet, Sage and Neptune.
      • ABRN (pronounced Auburn), which comes from the members' names: Arslan, Bolin, Reese and Nadir.
    • Atlas Academy teams:
      • FNKI (pronounced Funky), which is made up of a team of wildly coloured members: Flynt, Neon, Kobalt and Ivori. The reason for the name is that the characters are all based on colour-connected Internet memes.
    • Antagonists:
      • CRME (pronounced "Crime"; a Fan Nickname), consists of the primary antagonists of the first three volumes: Cinder, Roman, Mercury, and Emerald. Being an unofficial Fan Nickname, it isn't related to a color.
  • Fun with Subtitles: The Netflix captions feature a number of typos and goofs. Most of them are fairly prosaic, but don't be drinking something when you read the line "Brothers of the White Fang, why are you eating this scum?"
  • Funny Background Event:
    • In Welcome to Beacon, team RWBY is playing a board game. As Ruby activates Yang's trap card, the camera cuts to team JNPR, while Ruby and Yang's argument audibly carries on, with a few playing pieces being flung over team JNPR's table.
    • While team RWBY is still playing, Jaune comes over and tries to convince Weiss to trust him to play her hand. Pyrrha perks up, gets out of her chair, and speeds over to his side just before he reveals that Blake is a f-"fun-loving person!"
    • In Painting the Town..., when Ruby is answering Blake's call for help, the dumpster behind Ruby is boarded up after her hearing squeaks inside it earlier.
    • In Field Trip, while the focus is on Weiss and Ruby watching Yang read her father's letter, Blake can be seen creeping around on Ruby's bunk bed, irritably watching the dog as he barks cheerfully up at her.
    • In the battle with Amber, as Cinder's presence becomes apparent, Mercury can be seen dodging lightning by backflipping up and down like some weird spring-loaded slinky.
    • While Jaune is observing the damage in Volume 3's tenth episode, Sage and Scarlet can be seen riding an approaching Ursa Major, hanging on for dear life.
  • Futile Hand Reach: Every time a character sees someone they're close to in trouble, they stretch out an arm towards them and call out their name. This is first seen in the Black Trailer, when Adam reaches out a hand upon realising Blake is abandoning him and is next seen during Volume 1's initiation fight whenever Yang is worried about Ruby or Nora is worried about Ren. From there, it becomes a staple of the show, occurring in every single volume whenever one character gets worried for the safety of another.

    Tropes G 
  • Gatling Good: Gianduja, Coco's main weapon. It is somehow concealed in a ladies' handbag.
  • Gender-Restricted Ability: Although the world does not believe in true magic, it secretly exists in the form of the Maidens of the Seasons, who wield Elemental Powers. When a Maiden dies, the magic transfers to a young woman who is in the dying Maiden's final thoughts. If the Maiden's final thoughts are of a man or a woman older than 30, the magic transfers to a random young woman. However, the magic actually originates from a man, an "old wizard" who sacrificed his magic to empower four kind-hearted sisters who once helped him; ever since he gave them his magic, it has stayed gender-specific. Ancient humans all had the ability to use magic, but only two individuals survive from that era — the Big Bad having Complete Immortality and the Big Good having Resurrective Immortality. The Maidens' magic originally belonged to the Big Good, and it passes by copying his gender-restricted reincarnation cycle: when his physical body dies, his soul, Aura and mind transfer to an eligible young man, who becomes his next host.
  • Gender-Blender Name: Blake is a girl, and Dove and Sky of Team CRDL are boys. Another example is Scarlet, part of Team SSSN and voiced by Gavin Free.
  • Gender Flip:
    • According to this post by Monty Oum, the inspirations for each member of team JNPR all disguised themselves as the opposite gender. This suggests that Jaune, Pyrrha, Nora, and Ren are respectively based off Joan of Arc, Achillesnote , Thornote , and Mulan.
    • Volume 7 introduces the Happy Huntresses, an all-female team that follows their leader, Robyn Hill, in fighting against Atlas to achieve equality for Mantle citizens. Robyn Hill is a gender-flip of Robin Hood and the Happy Huntresses are based on the Merry Men.
  • The Red Prince in Volume 7 is based on the Queen of Hearts, who is female in the story. However, the Red Prince appears to identify as male.
  • Ghost Town: Haven Academy in Mistral is almost entirely deserted when RNJR arrives there. According to Professor Leo, Mistral suffered similar damage as Vale did in the months after the end of Volume 3, with the fear and dread from those events drawing in large-scale Grimm attacks. Haven had to send out all of its Huntsmen to fight the Grimm across the kingdom's vast lands, leaving only Leo to tend to the school. Later in Volume 5 however, it's revealed that while Leo was telling the truth about sending Huntsmen throughout the kingdom, he actually sold out their locations to Salem and her forces so they would be killed.
  • A Glass in the Hand: At the beginning of the Volume 2 Food Fight, Ruby declares war on Team JNPR while crushing a full carton of milk in her hand.
  • Godzilla Threshold:
    • When Yang, Jaune and Ren try to rescue Oscar from Salem, they are only able to escape through Oscar's decision to use a power that can only ever be used once. This puts Salem out of commission for a few short hours, just long enough for the heroes to save a kingdom that's on the verge of destruction. Ozpin has spent centuries building up kinetic energy inside his cane, but never using it. Oscar decides to unleash almost all of it in a Fantastic Nuke that completely destroys Salem and most of the Grimm army assaulting Atlas; having Complete Immortality means Salem does regenerate, but not in time to stop the heroes from evacuating the kingdom of Atlas's people. Oscar warns everyone that they will need to use the cane's remaining power far more carefully after that.
    • When Penny's life is put in danger by Watts and Ironwood, the heroes — who have been doing everything in their power to prevent both Salem and Ironwood from gaining access to the Relic of Creation — end up deciding to access the Relic of Creation after all, in a desperate Take a Third Option attempt to thwart both parties and save the day in an unexpected way. Penny has obtained the Winter Maiden powers, resulting in Ironwood using Watts to hack her to force her to go to the vault and access the Relic. However, the hack will cause her to self-terminate if she does so. With only an hour to spare before Ironwood bombs the city of Mantle to force Penny's surrender, the heroes decide to let Penny go to the vault, but to ensure they can "steal" the Relic to use its power to mass-evacuate the kingdom to a different continent via a magical solution.
  • Good Eyes, Evil Eyes: Has been mentioned as a factor in the protagonists' designs, with the most heroic and innocent character (Ruby) having the largest eyes. This is noticeable in the animation: characters of upstanding morals either have larger and more noticeable eyes (RWBY, Pyrrha, Nora, etc) or eyes of vivid color (Neptune's and Jaune's deep blue eyes, as well as Ren's pink ones). Villains play to the opposite effect, either having clearly villainous eye colors (Cinder's fiery orange ones and Emerald's straight-up red ones), darker ones (Torchwick's and Mercury's very dark eyes), or eyes that are not visible at all (Adam, the White Fang Lieutenant). Neo is a notable aversion, as not only does she look positively adorable, she has eyes to match, making her villain status that much more disturbing. Then again, Cute Is Evil... When Adam's eyes are eventually revealed, he has one vivid blue eye akin to the hero eye colours and one bestial eye that has been deformed by torture; his story is one of a person who started fighting for Faunus rights but who descended over time into a monster who cared only for himself.
  • Good Is Not Soft: Humanity struggles to survive in a world full of monsters who seem to exist solely to destroy humans. As a result, the Huntsmen that protect people from the Creatures of Grimm need to give no quarter just to survive. The very first lesson Beacon Academy teaches its new students consists of Professor Ozpin launching the teens over a cliff into a monster-filled forest, with the warning that they need to kill everything that moves because the teachers won't come to their rescue. At the same time, Professor Oobleck challenges his students to understand what their motivation for becoming Huntsmen actually is. This challenge causes Team RWBY in particular a crisis of faith as Weiss (who joined to restore honour to her family name), Blake (who joined to atone for the crimes of her past), and Yang (who joined to experience the thrill of danger) begin to realise their personal desires are restricting their growth. Oobleck is extremely pleased when the girls' realise the most important duty of being a Huntsman is to protect the vulnerable and innocent... and no matter how brutal the world, or their lessons, this is the one thing they must never forget.
  • Good Parents:
    • Ghira and Kali Belladonna show this off by their first reaction to seeing their daughter after the fall of Beacon is to hug her and sigh in relief, not caring that she ran away. Although Ghira's somewhat overprotective, it's clear that it's out of love for his child.
    • When a comatose Ruby is taken home, Taiyang sleeps in a chair by her bedside until she wakes up and is willing to bring his kids breakfast in bed. He is always there to support and advise his kids as they need it and stays with Yang during her long recovery, keeping a watchful distance, or offering brutal honesty and high praise as needed. He is determined to pull in favors wherever he can to obtain a cyberarm for Yang, only to discover that Ironwood has beaten him to it. He then helps Yang get back in shape, adjust to her new arm, improve her combat abilities, and reveals that if she decides to search for her mother, he'll support her.
    • Ren's mother was a cheerful, caring woman who loved to spend time with Ren and who felt that Ren had inherited his sassy personality from her. His father was more serious, but a wise hunter who tried to teach his son to always take the right action and to stand up for people who needed protecting. Ren's village, Kuroyuri, was destroyed in a Grimm attack; his mother woke him up from his nap to try and get him out of the house to safety, but died when she paused to soothe his fears. His father gathered him up and attempted to run with him to safety until his wounds prevented him from running any further; his final act was to die fending off the Grimm in a desperate attempt to buy Ren the time he needed to escape and survive.
  • Good Prosthetic, Evil Prosthetic: The protagonists who have prosthetic replacements have limbs that are made with advanced Atlesian technology which function like their missing limbs and also incorporate their style of fighting to ensure they can still function as Huntsmen.
    • General Ironwood uses clothing to completely hide the prosthetic right half of his body, even when it means wearing one hand gloved and one hand ungloved, and he only uses his prosthetic arm in battle against the Grimm where its great physical strength allows him to fight without weapons. His turn as a villain sees him gaining a new prosthetic to replace his injured left arm. This one is notably less refined and human than the right one, black metal with exposed mechanisms. While he continues wearing a glove on the right hand, he rolls up the sleeve on the new left arm and frequently uses it to commit acts of violence.
    • The Volume 3 finale sees both Yang and Cinder lose an arm which is replaced in Volume 4 by General Ironwood and Salem respectively. Yang chooses to paint her prosthetic in her signature colour scheme (yellow with black accents), incorporating it into her asymmetrical fashion style and therefore displaying it openly. Cinder hides her prosthetic behind an overlong sleeve which allows her to use her new arm as a surprise attack: her new limb is a Grimm arm that is capable of stretching well beyond its normal range. It also enables her to easily steal the power of other Maidens, absorbing it as her victim dies in agony.
    • Mercury Black, one of Cinder's minions, has prosthetic legs that double as his personal weapons. The reveal involves using them to frame Yang for an unprovoked attack, letting her damage them but pretending that she'd injured him. The limbs are notably much lower-tech than typical Atlesian prosthetics, basically plates and loose wires over a central rod.
    • Cool Old Lady Maria has goggle-like prosthetics, giving her a quirky and comical appearance. They turn out to be incredibly significant, as she was blinded in her youth by one of Salem's assassins but retains the knowledge to begin mentoring Ruby in the use of her powers.
  • Good Versus Good:
    • The conflict between team RWBY and their allies on one side and Cordovin with her forces on the other. The protagonists seek to take the Relic of Knowledge to Atlas and, after being denied entrance through the border, decide to steal a military aircraft and fly to Atlas illegally. Cordovin, not knowing the full importance of their mission and being blinded by her hatred towards her Sitcom Arch-Nemesis Maria Calavera, tries to stop them and resorts to rather excessive means in doing so. The resulting battle draws a horde of Grimm towards Argus, forcing both sides to set their conflict aside and fight to protect the city instead. Afterwards, Ruby apologizes on behalf of her group for the trouble caused and Cordovin decides to let them leave for Atlas in peace.
    • Volume 7 is full of conflict between people who should be allies. Thanks to the villains turning Atlas and Mantle against each other, on top of an historic wealth divide between the two cities, Ironwood and the Ace-Ops are pitted against Robyn and her Huntress team. The heroes enter this conflict initially on Ironwood's side, but are sympathetic to Mantle and encourage Ironwood to join forces with Robyn. Eventually, they do all come together to protect Mantle from invasion and capture Watts and Tyrian. Cinder then presses Ironwood's Trauma Button, sending him into a villainous spiral for the climax of Volume 7, that pits him and the Ace-Ops against the heroes and Robyn due to his decision to abandon Mantle and Remnant and fly Atlas to safety. In Volume 8, he becomes a full Arc Villain and his decision to bomb Mantle to bring the heroes into line results in most of Ace-Ops turning against him, too.
  • Gosh Dang It to Heck!: In Volume 3, the barkeep says, "Gee darn it!"
  • Graceful Landing, Clumsy Landing: In Volume 1, the nascent Team JNPR fights a giant Death Stalker in the Emerald Forest. The final blow in the fight comes from Nora, whose explosive power sends them all flying. Jaune lands on his back, Nora lands on her butt, and Ren collapses face first after staggering into view. However, Pyrrha, who is a record-breaking Mistral tournament champion, makes a perfect Three-Point Landing.
  • Grave-Marking Scene: Volume 3 begins with Ruby at her mother's grave.
  • Great Offscreen War: A century of rising tensions exploded into all-out war that lasted for ten years. Mantle attempted to ban emotions and artistic expression to combat the negativity-powered Grimm, and maintained a trading relationship (technology for supplies) with Mistral. Mistral tried to expand into Vale, triggering war that brought Mantle to Mistral's defense. Initially neutral, Vacuo joined Vale when threatened by Vale's enemies. The war empowered Grimm activity, which destroyed settlements all over the world and forced a brief truce in the war so that the kingdoms could fight the Grimm together. Mantle and Mistral then attempted to end the war by taking the Vacuo Dust mines that supplied their enemies, forcing the Warrior-King of Vale to personally take to the battlefield. Legend claims he single-handedly ended the war with a single, apocalyptic event that forced the other kingdoms to submit; he instigated the Vytal peace treaty, set up the Huntsmen Academies, removed the kingship of Vale and spent his days as a teacher. In Volume 2, Ozpin marks the eightieth anniversary of the war's end with a speech to the huntsmen students of all four kingdoms who are in Vale to attend the Vytal tournament that occurs every two years in honor of the original peace treaty.
  • Green-Eyed Monster: Weiss accuses Whitley of being jealous of the abilities that she and Winter possess, concluding that the reason he doesn't like his older sisters is because he doesn't like it that they can do things that he can't. He calmly dismisses her claim, emphasizing that he prefers an army to a single Huntsman; armies are more efficient and less barbaric.
  • Green Rocks: In its raw form, Dust is a crystal that can be mined. It is the sole energy source known to Remnant and powers all the tech seen. Dust can be used in weapons to create various elemental effects, such as producing fire, lightning, ice, stone, or gravity. Experimentation has yielded other forms such as Hard Light. It can also be fused with the body and used directly, but this causes intense pain to most.
  • Green Rooming:
    • Adam, Junior and the Malachite twins are introduced in the trailers (Black and Yellow respectively). Junior and the twins finally enter the show in Vol.2 Episode 4, while Adam doesn't appear at all until the very end of Volume 2.
    • Sage and Scarlet (as well as Neptune) are introduced in the trailer for Volume 2. However, Sage and Scarlet don't appear in the entire volume at all except for tiny background characters in one scene. This has so far continued into Volume 3, with Sage and Scarlet finally getting one line each....and then getting knocked out, in less than fifteen seconds in the case of Sage. So far they have not had any more significance than being characters in the arena stands watching the Tournament.
  • Grief Song: "Cold", from the Season 3 end credits, a tribute to both Monty and Pyrrha.
  • Grim Up North: Solitas is the smallest and northernmost continent of Remnant and by far the coldest. The primary landscape is nothing but an endless tundra inhabited by what Grimm have adapted to the cold, making them Elite Mooks. Solitas' civilization, the Kingdom of Atlas, seems an improvement when it is shown to be the most advanced and powerful nation in the world, but is in fact filled with Fantastic Racism and much of their power comes at the exploitation of the City of Mantle, which, despite being next door to a Floating Continent, can barely protect itself from the cold and the Grimm.
  • Groin Attack:
    • In the Yellow trailer, Yang interrogates Junior by grabbing him by the testicles and continually squeezing.
    • In "Breach", Coco takes out a Beowulf with a kick to the groin before dispatching it by smashing its head in with her purse.
    • In "New Challengers," Scarlet gets hit in the crotch by a coconut, depleting his Aura to critical levels and knocking him out of the Vytal Tournament match.
      Sun: Nuts.
    • In "The Next Step", Jaune gets thrown backwards by the Geist pounding the ground and ends up hitting a boulder crotch-first.
      Jaune: You’ll be fine without a weapon. You’re the strategist.
  • Ground Pound: In the Yellow Trailer, Yang punches the dance floor to attack Junior. It's also how she triggers her half of Freezer Burn
  • Growling Gut: In "Round One", after Blake says she may have worked up an appetite at the Vytal fairgrounds, her stomach growls loudly.
  • The Guards Must Be Crazy:
    • In Season 2, Episode 10, Ruby finds Zwei outside and narrowly avoids getting caught by two White Fang henchmen who naively dismiss Zwei's bark.
    • An aversion straight out of the Evil Overlord handbook. In Season 2, Episode 11, when a guard sees an unusual red something on the back of the train, he does not go look around the corner. He immediately gets his phone out and radios in an intruder. (He still gets knocked out, but the message is received.)
  • Gunship Rescue: An airship arrives in the nick of time to "save" the criminal Roman Torchwick from Ruby in "Ruby Rose".
  • Gut Punch: Attracting both adults and children, the show initially follows teenagers adapting to their new school, training to protect their world from scary monsters, getting involved in light-hearted, wacky hijinks, and glossing over serious events such as off-screen murder or easily fixed monster invasions. During the third volume's combat tournament, Yang predictably defeats Mercury but is unexpectedly attacked behind from the sore loser; she punches him to the ground only to be arrested by security in front of an angry, booing crowd. The episode ends as arena television reveals the truth to the fanbase and Yang; a defenseless Mercury was lying on the ground while Yang needlessly assaulted him, shattering his legs. After the episode, the creators released a statement requesting that, from now on, adults should supervise any child access to the show; originally intended for a mature audience, this episode was designed to be a gut punch warning fans that a darker storyline was starting.

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