Blog / RWBY Recaps

aka: Matts RWBYJNPR Recaps

RWBY Recaps is a Tumblr blog written by Matt the Mammoth Rider.

As its name suggests, the purpose of the blog is to recap the events of Rooster Teeth's web show, RWBY. However, it also functions as something akin to a text-based Abridged Series. The posts are filled with captioned screenshots used to tell jokes about the episodes' situations or outright rewrite them, Matt gives many characters a tongue-in-cheek Alternative Character Interpretation, and there are tons of comedic references or comparisons to other works. All the while, Matt will still cover the events that actually happened within episodes and bring up his own (serious) thoughts and theories as to what's going on.

The parody has covered:

Volume 1

Volume 2

Volume 3

Volume 4

The blog went on indefinite hiatus — with the distinct possibility of permanent cessation — in February 2017, leaving Volume 4 unfinished.

Warning, unmarked spoilers for all Volumes below. We assume you've come here after having watched both the episodes and read Matt's recaps, which are usually one episode behind the actual Rooster Teeth schedule.

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Includes the following tropes:

• Accidental Truth:
  • As part of the Running Gag, Mysterious Badass Lady Person (Raven Branwen) is introduced as possibly someone's sister. The show later confirms that she's Qrow's sister.
  • In the V3C3 Recap, Winter joking tells Qrow that Ironwood is a banshee. She turns out to be correct, much to her shock.
    Qrow: (to Ironwood) BTW, she told me you're a banshee.
    Winter: It was a joke, you walking AA meeting.
    Ironwood: How did she know that? I never told anybody.
    Winter: Wait, what?
  • One of the Running Gags is about Pyrrha's impending death. As of Volume 3, Episode 12, she does die.
• Achievements in Ignorance: Ruby manages to reassure Jaune's self-doubt while sleepwalking/talking. Jaune has no idea she isn't awake.
• Adaptational Villainy: Weiss gets turned into an over-the-top evil aristocrat who looks down on 'commoners', sees faunus as less than people and enjoys the screams of orphans. It's all Played for Laughs of course, but it can get pretty dark.
• Affectionate Parody: Matt is a big fan of the series and it shows. It doesn't stop him from poking fun at it.
• all lowercase letters: Ren's lines are displayed without capitalization, to reflect his quiet nature. Inner monologues are also distinguished by this.
• Alternative Character Interpretation: invoked What most of the comedy's based on. The author actually celebrates Yang's hair issues, because they provide easy comedy fodder.
  Can I just say that, from my perspective, how glad I am that her berserk button being damaging her hair can be a thing? I mean, I've made the funny recap pics using running jokes and the like with only tangential connections to actual canon - Ruby's adorableness, Jaune's mommy stuff and the everything else, Weiss and peasants, Pyrrha and potentially psychotic niceness; Blake the queen is canon, though, and nobody can tell me different - but Yang has been the hardest to nail down.
• And Knowing Is Half the Battle:
  • Exaggerated in the recap for Vol. 2, Episode 5. Pyrrha goes through about half a dozen PSAs in the course of it, a gag which continues throughout Volume 3. She also does a far more somber (and heartfelt) one after the death of Monty Oum based on a quote of his that relates to this sentiment.
  • Volume 3 chapter 12 has Pyrrha explaining that people shouldn't fight OP fire maidens, before Pumpkin Pete's Cereals says that they need a new representative.

• Author Appeal: The creator adores Blake, and is not shy about showing it- other characters frequently refer to her as 'the queen', and the title of Episode 2 is simply BlakeBlakeBlakeBlakeBlake (And other people appeared too, sure). However, Neo's introduction temporarily made Matt forget all about Blake and Coco's introduction nearly broke him.
  Matt: Blake who?
• Badass Boast:
  • Penny: "I'm like the angel of death! Y'all have any regrets yet?"
  • Velvet...tries.
    "I will have my Easter-y revenge!"
• Bait-and-Switch: The recap for Volume 2's opening ends on this:
  Gimmie an H!
  Gimmie a Y!
  Gimmie a P!
  Give me directions to the dining car because the Hype Train has left the station already and I'm hungry.
• Beach Episode: Jaune comments, after the end of his arc, that he hopes they get one.
• Belligerent Sexual Tension:
  • Ozpin see how much Ruby and Weiss argue during the Beacon initiation, and from that deduces they will end up making out by the end of the year. Or kill each other. It could go either way.
  • Cinder and Ozpin's fight consists of her getting completely hot for him, which is perfectly fine because he remembered to bring protection. It takes them two hours to actually get around to fighting. In the end, Cinder proves to be too much woman for Ozpin, but Matt still thinks it's amazing such an old guy could get it up without pills.
• Big "WHAT?!": Matt's reaction to learning that Weiss has a sister. It even gets interrupted by the screencaps twice!
• Blatant Lies:
  • Yang catches Adam stabbing Blake in the abdomen, only to get told the lamest excuse ever.
    Adam: She fell down some stairs, I swear!
  • When Tyrian is first introduced, Matt describes him as a perfectly sane individual. Anybody who's actually watched the show knows Matt is lying and that Tyrian is completely off his rocker.
• Blood Knight: Professor Port.
  Professor Port: I was invited to don the guise of a chap named Ernesto and get my jollies off in a blood sport at Miss Schnee's summer home! A rather good show all said.
• Bonus Material:In-Universe.
  • RWBY’s Greatest Plot Twists That Totally Happened.
  • RWBY Volume One Awards
  • What RWBY JNPR ‘n Pals Are Getting Up To In Their First Hiatus
• Boob-Based Gag: Yang's breasts are typically a source of such humor as:
  Yang Xiao Long of the Xiao Long and Daughters Law Firm. Attorney at boobs. Nice to meet you.
• Bread, Eggs, Milk, Squick: Matt's analysis of Weiss.
  Weiss Schnee works hard to be a good student. She is bullish, prideful, and quick to anger. She had a lonely and fear-filled childhood. She is tenacious and stubborn to a fault. She is capable of learning from her mistakes, and she can apologise for those mistakes and mean it. She is probably secretly a mastermind who dreams of ruling the world and bathing in the blood of all those considered inferior. She is also definitely not actually that last one...
• Breaking the Fourth Wall: When Weiss references the series' game-esque physics.
  Weiss: You moved out of turn!
  Ruby: What are we, in a JRPG?
  Weiss: We could be!
• Brick Joke: In Jaunedice, Ruby wonders idly if Pyrrha wants her cookies. A while later...
  Pyrrha: Let's leave and eat some cookies.
  Jaune: Why don't you steal Ruby's cookies?
  Pyrrha: Not out loud Jaune, dammit!
  Ruby: I freaking knew it!
• But for Me, It Was Tuesday: Matt intended to make a joke about this during CFVY's entry, with Fox stating it was actually Friday, only to realize given the last few episodes' pacing and the show's dialogue, it really was Tuesday.
• Butt-Monkey:
  • Starting in Volume 3, a lot of jokes are made at the expense of Yang, such as her Missing Mom, being The Unfavorite compared to Ruby, and her missing arm. This continues on to the Volume 4 recaps.
  • Pyrrha has started to become one after her death. Her circlet on Jaune's shield is replaced with Penny's head and it's implied none of team RNJR remembers her death.
• Cargo Ship: Invoked.
  • Ciel is in a relationship with her watch.
  • Ozpin asks Pyrrha to tell his penis chair he loves "her" should he not make it out alive of his confrontation against Cinder.
• The Casanova: Taiyang. Apparently his missions consist of him impregnating three women. Per day.
  Taiyang: So anyways, tell me a little about the girls from your school. I hear good things about that Coco chick...
  Ruby: Dad, no.
  Taiyang: Penis, yes.
  [Later]
  Qrow: Get going, Tai. And try not to impregnate any more of your teammates on the way out.
  Taiyang: Entire team, Qrow. Entire. Team.
• Catchphrase
  • Sun's is "Apple?"
  • Pyrrha has a few variations of "How grand."
  • Qrow's "I've heard it both ways."
• Character Exaggeration: Velvet's awful attempts at taking pictures in canon is made even worse here, starting with showing Ruby a picture she thinks is representative of Blake (a sasquatch). Later on, Ruby muses that if Velvet were to take a picture of Mercury caught in blatant crime, it'd look instead like the Loch Ness monster.
  • Joining Velvet is Qrow and his alcoholism, Taiyang and his sex drive and Raven and her abandonment issues.
• Chew Toy: Ren gives off the aura of a tired man due to having to deal with Nora.
• Cloudcuckoolander: Cinder, especially with her obsession over potatoes and popcorn.
• Comically Missing the Point: As an explanation of why only Jaune was present in one of the class scenes, Jaune thinks to himself as he watches Weiss fight the Boarbatusk:
  Okay I guess it was worth skipping out my team's trip to the water park for this
  Though I just realized why Pyrrha asked for a white t-shirt for the trip so... Fiddlesticks
• Cool and Unusual Punishment: It's revealed that Adam spent the first two volumes trapped on the moon because Cinder banished him there.
• Cutaway Gag:
  • Roman appears in one of these Once an Episode in the Volume 3 recaps due to there not being enough appearances by him for Matt's liking.
  • Winter appears in "V3C11: Heroes and Monsters" as a sort of flashback mentoring, though she says some nasty things that the characters hilariously end up brushing off. At one point Jaune thinks about Winter, even though the two of them never met!
• Cut Himself Shaving: Double Subverted. When Emerald asks what happened to Mercury's eye, he explains that he tripped and fell down the stairs. Then his dad hit him for being clumsy.
• Damned by Faint Praise: Ren comments that a dead beowulf is one of the 'more thoughtful' birthday presents Nora's given him.
• Darker and Edgier
  • Nora's suggestion of how to deal with Cardin is even bloodier than it was in the original.
  • As is Pyrrha.
  "Let's go somewhere and discuss how we'll dispose of his body."
  • Speculation that this is going to happen in the show itself is a common source of comedy.
• Distracted by the Sexy: Torchwick gets distracted by Sun's abs. Even Blake is not immune to the abs.
  Blake: Your abs do have a point. <Thinking> I could grate cheese on 'em.
• Double Entendre: The scene where Pyrrha unlocks Jaune's Aura is played for all the sexual comedy it's worth.
  • As is Cinder and Ozpin's brief battle.
• Don't You Like It?: Nora gives dead Beowolves to her friends. Pyrrha is suitably unimpressed.
• Dual Wielding: In Episode 10, Ruby notices that Ozpin is carrying both his coffee mug and his cane instead of one or the other. When she asks what's up with that, Ozpin explains that he's learned how to dual-wield. As a result, he's having a great day. Unfortunately for Ruby, this means he celebrated by eating all the cookies.
• Evil Overlord: Weiss is flanderized into one of these.
  "Live in fear, commoners, for I will gut you like pigs- literally. You've seen me do it now. To an actual pig."
• Exact Words: This funny exchange between two Goliaths in "V3C7 Beginning of the End":
  Goliath 1: Why are we walking so slow, Francis?
  Goliath 2: You said you wanted a day of victory.
• Feathered Fiend: Discussed.
  In hindsight, I’m not shocked all of CRDL are dicks. Their names are all based on birds and stuff. Birds suck, man. Spring soon here in Australia and that means swooping magpies. Birds succcccccck. Addendum: Shoutout to Rustic_Ghost who sent me a solidarity ask in this matter, affirming that magpies do indeed suck.
• Forgotten Fallen Friend: Subverted with Pyrrha. During Volume 4 Chapter 1 team RNJR seems to have forgotten her death completely, even telling the blacksmith who brings her up he's "projecting". Chapter 2 reveals that Jaune does indeed mourn her, but does it in secret at night.
• For Science!: The reason why Velvet raised her hand when Oobleck asked of any had been persecuted for their faunus heritage.
  Velvet: Yesterday somebody tried to cut off my foot to make a lucky charm.
  Weiss: Pfft. It was for science.
• The Fourth Wall Will Not Protect You: There is a reason Coco stopped Velvet from opening that box.
  Coco: No! Don't do it! You'll kill us all! Even the viewers!
• Glad I Thought of It: Inverted. Ruby credits the idea of making bunk beds to Blake.
• Gratuitous Spanish: Most of Juane's and Hispanic JNPR'S include illegible spanish texts. The author lampshades it beforehand.
• Gratuitous French: Jaune says 'J'accuse!' when he accuses Weiss of killing Colonel Mustard (in the ballroom, with the lead pipe.)
• Grave Humor:
  • Tombstones are often presented with a name and a varying lifespan of chapters when Matt thinks a character is either dead or has triggered a certain deathflag. He even does it for minor setpieces like Amber's horse!
  • In "V3C9: PvP", Pyrrha's supposed grave for the slated lifespan of V1C3 - V3C9 constantly changes captions according to the things she says. And then it changes to Penny's.
  Pyrrha: Oh sure, they spell her name right...
• #HashtagForLaughs: Neo (who is mute in the original show, but has communicated through text messages) has a Verbal Tic where all of her dialog is hashtags.
• Hero of Another Story: During "The Badge and the Burden", Team JNPR (sans Jaune) is apparently off on their own adventure. The details of their outing aren't fully given, but it somehow led to Ren getting turned into Ruby's sleeping mask.
• Hilarious Outtakes: Referred to as 'leftover screencaps' on the series page, they incorporate jokes that didn't make it into the actual recap.
• Hope Spot: Blake gets one in Black and White.
  Blake: I'll prove the world wrong. The White Fang aren't evil.
  Mook: Steal the dust and go kick some puppies, or something!
  [Blake's face falls]
• Hypocritical Humor:
  • In "V3C7: Beginning of the End", Adam criticizes Phineasberg for being a Third-Person Person. He refers to himself in the third person immediately afterward.
  Phineasberg: Phineasberg don't like this.
  Adam: I don't like it much either, Phineasberg. Also, Phineasberg, stop speaking in third person, Adam finds it kinda weird.
  • Roman chastises Ruby for making a Princess Bride reference, asking if she has any respect or value for originality. Ruby made her reference right after Roman made a near identical one.
• I Call It "Vera":
  • Torchwick calls his cane "Stevey."
  • Coco calls her gatling gun "Mabel."
• In-Series Nickname: Pyrrha is called "P-Money" by the other characters.
• In Which a Trope Is Described: Used in the chapter titles.
  Episode 10: Ruby And Weiss Learn Life Lessons All Over The Place (Blake And Yang Just Chill Out)
• I Resemble That Remark!: Neptune questions Junior about a bomb, Yang tells him there is no bomb:
  Junior: What is this, dumb cops, boobs cops?
  Neptune: But I don't have boobs
• Kissing Cousins: When Sun inquires about why Ghira and Kali are the only parents that are remotely normal (compared to, say, Raven and Jacques) and wants to know if there's a catch, they reply to him that they're first cousins, and that royalty can't marry with anything other than cousins. Sun promptly remarks that he took hold of knowledge he shouldn't have.
  Kali: I like [Sun]. It's a shame you can't marry him because he's not your first cousin.
  Blake: Mom pls.

• Lampshade Hanging: Qrow groans at the fact that most fairy tales end with "[X] character was Neo all along".
  Qrow: Is it just me, or do a lot of our fairy tales end that way...
• Like an Old Married Couple: Nora and Ren apparently like to go antiquing.
• Loves the Sound of Screaming:
  Ruby: Haven't seen Weiss this happy since that bus full of orphans crashed.
  Weiss: I did love hearing their screams on the news, it's true.

• Medium Awareness: Cinder spends a good part of "V3C7: Beginning of the End" repeating that it's a Whole Episode Flashback and that there's no way any character in it will change what's in store for them in canon.
  Cinder: Spoiler alert: we know that you end up working for me, so don't fight me on it.
  Adam: [Beat] Anyways...
  [Later, while fighting Amber]
  Cinder: [To herself] Why is she even putting up a fight we know she loses. Seriously, do people not get how flashbacks work?

• Misplaced Kindergarten Teacher: Salem is given the caring personality of a Kindergarten teacher. She hands out gold stars to her minions and even checks attendance.
• Mood Whiplash: The recap consists of captioned screenshots- the content of which is exaggerated for comedy- interspersed with more serious paragraphs of text, in which the author explains and analyzes what's actually happening in canon. So you get, for example, a sombre retelling of Blake's past right above an image where she declares her desire for vengeance on a chess piece.
• Mundane Utility: Weiss tries to use her summoning glyphs to summon a muffin that she ate earlier so that she can eat it again.
• My Friends... and Zoidberg:
  • "And so, the volume ends with Team RWBY united...and Sun, who is just there to get laid."
  • The Episode Six recap had it describe the preceding episode with "On the previous episode of RWBY, the initiation for Beacon Academy's best and brightest (and also Jaune) landed to varying degrees of success in the Emerald Forest..."
• Not Evil, Just Misunderstood: A good chunk of the Grimm shown doing extended speeches talk about having come for peace talks to the rest of the cast, and are confused as all hell when they get attacked in the middle of their attempts to talk about peace (which translates to as much chaos as in actual canon).
• No, You:
  Neon: Hey, you suck~
  Yang: No, you suck!
  Narration: [They went on like that for two hours before the fight actually started.]
• "Not Making This Up" Disclaimer: Taiyang's joke about Yang's arm.
  Taiyang: I guess you lost some brain cells along with that arm!
  [* Actual Canon Line]
• Not What It Looks Like: While bringing Pyrrha down to a dark and ominous basement, Ironwood reassures her that it's not a "sex dungeon-y thing", and that the comatose Amber is scantily dressed for medical reasons.
• Oblivious to Love: Jaune's inability to see Pyrrha's attraction to him is exaggerated, particularly in Episode 12:
  Pyrrha: [after bringing Jaune to the rooftop of Beacon] "This would be a good place to propose to me at hint hint."
  Jaune: [looking over the edge] "Also a good place for suicide; it's dual purposed so I approve of it."
• Obviously Evil: Emerald notes that team RWBY never seems to pick up on her being a villain:
  Emerald: You guys are so oblivious to my obvious evilness I bet if I told you I kicked a puppy you'd still rationalize it.
  Yang: Wow that puppy was super racist.
  Ruby: Suuuuuuper racist puppy.
• Odd Name Out: The spelling of Glynda's name wasn't known when the first recap was made, so Matt labels her as "Glynda/Glenda/Glinda/Bart Goodwitch" when she's first introduced.
• Oh, My Gods!: Characters swear on Dust.
• Our Vampires Are Different: Winter is apparently a vampire, judging by the length Weiss goes to subtly get rid of her ^* with a stake, and later on some holy water from Flynt's dad (and failing at it). Qrow disagrees and instead suggests she's a zombie, to which Weiss nods since Winter is walking in the sunlight without catching on fire.
• Out of Focus: Parodied trope. With Blake's reduced screentime in Volume 3, other characters start forgetting who she is.
• Overly Long Gag:
  • A couple in "V3C6: Fall", where Ozpin, Qrow, Glynda and Ironwood all repeat "Joiiiiinnnnnnn usssssssss" or "For the greater gooood", at which point Pyrrha lampshades how creepy they sound.
  Pyrrha: Well, I'm in as long as you stop saying "For the greater good"
  Ozpin: For the greater gooooo- sorry, habit.
  Pyrrha: At least it's less creepy than the joinnnnn ussssss.
  • Another one happens in "V3C11: Heroes and Monsters", where Ozpin repeatedly tells Pyrrha to "get in the pod".
  Ozpin: What part of "get in the pod" does this chick not understand?
  Jaune: Pyrrha, just get in the fucking pod already, Christ.
  [Later]
  Ozpin: Get in the pod, get in the pod, get in the pod...
  Cinder: Stop that.
• Patriotic Fervor: The Ursa Majors are hardcore British. In the Volume 2 finale, Jaune tries to fake being British in order to stall for time, then in his moment of badassery reveals his true colors.
  Jaune: God Bless America.
• Phrase Catcher: Whenever Cinder says "Phase 2", somebody nearby (usually Mercury) will reply with "I hate Phase 2".
• Plot Twist: At the end of Volume 2, the Moon Logs are confirmed to be over... except they're not. Scarlet and Sage have been there all along, investigating evidence that someone else used to live there before them!
  Boom. Turns out the moon's like the Island Of Misfit Toys. Bow in that plot twist.
• The Rival: Oobleck is quite bitter about Ozpin's monopoly of the reputation for being a hardcore coffee drinker. He's willing to interrogate students over it if he has to.
  Oobleck: (to Jaune) Tell me who's better at drinking coffee? Me or Ozpin? I should remind you that I will end you if you say him.
• Rhymes on a Dime: The screencaps for Volume 1 Episode 7 are all written in rhyme.
• Robosexual: Ironwood tries to defend himself from being perceived as this following Penny's destruction.
  Ironwood: Ozpin? I can explain! The robot girl was not a fetish thing! [Beat] ... This time.
• Rouge Angles of Satin:
  • The spelling is generally spot-on, but the author did take inspiration of the community's frequent misspelling of Jaune's name as "Juane" to make up the joke character of Juane Arc, Jaune's Hispanic cousin.
  • Avoiding this trope is what spawned Pyrrha's In-Series Nickname of P-Money.
• Running Gag:
  • Mooks screaming "Now we have regrets!" upon being beaten.
  • Torchwick declares he's made a "flawless escape" whenever he cuts and runs.
  • The screencap of Emerald ringing the bookshop bell will show up randomly.
  • "Adam's Moon Log, Week [X]," followed by Adam lamenting that he's stuck on the moon.
  • "I should go." Lampshaded after Chapter 8 where he observes that Velvet (who actually says "I should go" in the episode) has completely sniped him.
  • Whenever Matt finds a frame with Team RWBY and JNPR all together, he names it RWBYJNPR Family Photo and numbers it.
  • After Weiss was revealed to have a sister, Matt started guessing that everyone had a sister.
  • Many characters have admitted "Yeah, I don't care much for Yang", starting from Qrow referencing Arrested Development.
  • Starting in Volume 3, each death flag is often accompanied by a character specifically describing the things they end up suffering in canon and how it's not like it'll actually happen, followed by the caption that they said that without irony.
  • Numerous times Matt has compared the various parents in the series to Raven Branwen, usually saying that their a better parent than her like Summer or Weiss' dad.
  • The Menagerie recap has random, deliberately bad jokes.
  • Any mention of Taiyang will usually involve a sex joke.
• Running Gagged: Adam's Moon Logs were discontinued once Adam returned at the end of Volume 2, and were replaced by Scarlet and Sage's Moon Logs, which themselves only lasted for one episode, due to their appearance in Volume 3.
• Sacrificial Lion: While analyzing the second Volume's opening, Matt speculates that either Pyrrha or Velvet will end up becoming this. It gets to the point that everyone expects Pyrrha to die, and after the battle in Breach they all assume she died, despite her protests.
  • Milked for all it's worth in V3E12.
• Safe Word: "Hammertime."
• Self-Deprecation: Ruby's drawing of Professor Port is noted as "still a better artist than the guy who makes these screencaps".
• Self-Disposing Villain: Lampshaded when a Nevermore shows up and eats Torchwick when he's in the middle of beating Ruby with his cane.
  Ruby: Well that was a freebie.
• Serious Business: Apparently humans discriminate against Faunus because they cancelled Firefly.
• "Shaggy Dog" Story: In the The First Step- Part 2, the author writes a 150-word backstory simply to make it funnier when Ruby crashes into a random bird on her way into the Emerald Forest. (Transcript hidden to avoid spoiling the joke.) ^note 
  For many minutes upon hours upon days upon weeks upon months upon years upon decades upon centuries, I have survived. Trapped in this witless bird’s body, flying as the seasons change for [no other] reason than my instincts telling me to, but I am still myself where it counts. I had grand plans once, of making the legends of Grimm seem naught but a stubbed toe compared to the horrors I would unleash upon every living being, dawn to dusk, in dreams and nightmares. I would place the world beneath my heel and squash it like it was an ant. Then that Huntress, all those centuries ago, wielding Dust in ways we ancient ones considered as easy as taking a breath, and those pitiful mortals now could never manage, sealed me in this form. But I have been patient. I outlived her. I outlived her kin. The curse won’t hold forever, and when I… Wait. What’s that red blur flying towards- RIP: "Birdie, no!" bird (Many centuries ago — Episode Five)
• Shaped Like Itself: The comparison made from Jaune attacking Cinder.
  He’s about effective in a fight against a fully-powered Maiden as a Jaune fighting a fully-powered Maiden.
• Ship Sinking: Discussed in the Jaunedice recap; the author reassures Arkos shippers that this is not happening when Jaune fights with Pyrrha.
• Ship Tease: In Volumes 2 and 3, Blake and Weiss.
• Shout-Out
  • In Forever Fall- Part 2, Pyrrha quotes the song I Will Survive. She doesn't.
  • Beacon Academy is compared both to Hogwarts and Balamb Garden.
  • Ozpin once shot a man in Reno just to watch him die.
  • Blake begins her exposition in episode 16 by quoting Star Wars.
  • The tumbleweed's theme song is Wrecking Ball.
  • "The ice prison around Weiss’s heart melts, though a full breakout might take as long as it took Andy in The Shawshank Redemption..."
  • In The Emerald Forest, Pyrrha remarks: "You know nothing, Jaune Arc."
  • The Forever Fall recap references both Pokemon and Princess Peach.
  • Adele's "Rolling In The Deep" seems to be Matt's soundtrack of choice for Arkos angst.
  • EVERYTHING that comes out of Cardin's mouth in Jaunedice is a line or more from some song. Even Jaune gets in on it at one point.
  Cardin: (after stuffing Jaune in his rocket-propelled locker): He's a rocket man!
  Jaune: Major Tom to ground control: Screw you.
  • Volume 2 has a Running Gag of a lot of characters considering Mass Effect Dialogue Trees before speaking, with the iconic "I should go" being in each one.
  • Example: Ciel speaks in a manner identical to that of HK-47.
  • Yang refers to Neo as a Teacup Human
  • Team ABRN (minus Reese) end up getting sent through time after Yang's punch propels them past 88 miles per hour.
  • When Winter asks Weiss if the latter can summon anything in her current state, she takes a cue at two famous franchises:
  Winter: Who can you summon so far? Shiva? Ifrit? Odin? Ramuh? Alexander?
  Weiss: Uhhhh...
  Winter: And what about Saber? Archer? Lancer? Rider?
  Weiss: Uhhhhhh...
  • Cinder cites An Offer You Can't Refuse in verbatim to Adam, to which he mentions having found a horse's head in his bed beforehand.
  • Yang and Mercury's duel has them taking lines from various sci-fi franchises.
  Yang: I'm going to terminate you like just like John Connor does in the Terminator!
  Yang: Fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate, hate leads to you suffering when kick your freakin' ass!
  Mercury: Uhh... live long and prosper?
  • Qrow talks about tracking Raven as if she were a roaming Legendary Pokémon.
  Qrow: Thankfully, I cheated and have 99 Master Balls, so catching her should be easy.
  • Velvet's Volume 3 name tag (in V3E8 when she's taking photos) mentions that she's covered wars, you know.
  • Penny quotes Portal 2's Fact Core during her bout with Pyrrha.
  • Ironwood's "This is not just a gun. This here is a Halo 1 pistol, bitch."
• Skewed Priorities: In "The End of the Beginning", Ruby is completely unconcerned about Yang (her sister) losing an arm and is more worried about whether Roman Torchwick (her enemy) had died from being Swallowed Whole by a Grimm.
• Sophisticated as Hell: The Ursae speak in stereotypical British slang. When Yang punches one, its response is: "Cor blimey! My royal jewels!"
• So Proud of You: Weiss' reaction to Ruby discriminating against fish.
• Spared by the Adaptation: As part of a joke, Roman survives the end of Volume 3 instead dying after getting eaten by a Grimm.
• Speak of the Devil: Ozpin's appearance right behind Ruby in The Badge and the Burden part 2.
• Strange Minds Think Alike: In Jaunedice- Part 1, Pyrrha and Ruby use the same phrase in their internal narration.
• Spiritual Successor: Followed by the RWBY Micksterecaps.
• Take That!:
  • When Ironwood is presenting the AK-200 units via hologram:
    Ironwood: Now I couldn't be here in person on account of the high possibility of these machines turning on humanity and horrifically murdering us all.
    Spectators: [Mild applause]
    Ironwood: Why would you applaud that? What is this, an Apple press conference?
  • Matt does not like the Bumblebee pairing (Blake x Yang), and will make jokes at its expense.
    Qrow: I saw [Winter's] ship flying into town and wow what a crappy ship. I mean, it's still a better ship than Bumblebee, but...
  • There is a snide remark about people who insist that Blake be drawn as dark-skinned in fan art.
  • As a joke, Glynda apparently hates vegans.
    Glynda: Also, when you become a maiden you'll have to go full vegan.
    Pyrrha: What's a vegan?
    Glynda: Someone who's incapable of going twenty minutes without telling someone they're a vegan.
  • In the "PVP" recap, Matt makes an offhand comment about Torchwick's piloting skills that's meant to be a potshot towards people who objected to Rey in The Force Awakens.
    He took to those ship controls right away. Either he’s a hella skilled pilot, or a natural Force user who’s just a natural and will get erroneously labelled a Mary Sue because of morons refusing to call every other male character who did the same kinda things the same…
  • In the "End of the Beginning", Ruby declares her intent to kill the Grimm Dragon, to which it responds that it will wait for an online petition to bring it back, because those ALWAYS work, in response to the fan petition to bring Pyrrha back from the dead.
• Teacher/Student Romance: Glynda seems to want one with Mercury.
  Glynda: Oh my, Mercury...if you weren't my student, I would devastate your entire pelvic existence.
  Mercury: But I'm not really a — I mean what? Dammit, I hate phase two.
• Took a Level in Badass: Phineasberg goes from a White Fang grunt to a chainsaw wielding badass.
• The Unfavorite: Yang, in a Shout-Out to Arrested Development.
  Qrow: I don't care for Yang.
  • Became a Running Gag that various other characters joined in on.
• Upper-Class Twit: Because Kali and Ghira Belladonna are actually Good Parents, he portrays them as a Dumb Is Good version of this, being hedonistic but well-intentioned buffoons who may be suffering from inbreeding.
• Unintentionally Unsympathetic: In-universe; Jaune's attempts to throw team BRNZ off guard with tragic backstory wouldn't work anyway, but Pyrrha adds that his ability to garner sympathy has waned due to chasing after Weiss in the last season.
• Verbal Tic:
  • Mercury frequently starts his appearances with "ayy lmao", to the point where Emerald voices her desire to choke him out.
  • Neo's lines in V2C11 and onwards are always preceded by hashtags.
• Waxing Lyrical: All of Cardin's dialogue in his introductory episode, such as "Bye Bye miss American Pie" as a Pre-Asskicking One-Liner, or "He's a rocket man!" when he shoves Jaune into the rocket-propelled locker.
• What Does She See in Him?: Lampshaded in the report cards, when Ozpin questions why Pyrrha would willingly team up with Jaune.
  I am thinking of booking Miss Nikos in for some kind of brain scan, just in case.
• What the Hell, Hero?: Weiss is given one in Black and White.
  Ruby: Like, I'm not even surprised Weiss caused another implosion in our group dynamic.
  Weiss: But I'm always right, dammit! And Jaune imploded his team and didn't get this much grief.
  Yang: Yeah, but Jaune apologized- you know, like a human being!
• Who's Laughing Now?: Averted. Jaune considers turning evil twice so he can invoke this trope, but decides against it because Pyrrha gives him hope of getting laid.
• Yandere:
  • Nora in the deleted screencaps.
    "I'm not saying 'Love me or you'll die...' but I also don't want you to die, if you catch my drift."
  • Penny, at one point.
    Penny: I can be your new favorite if you love me. LOVE ME!
    Ruby:: Aaah, please don't stab me!
• Yank the Dog's Chain: One of Adam's Moon Logs has him on the receiving end:
  "Adam's Moon Log, Week Fifty-Five: Someone finally made contact with me today. But before I could explain my plight and beg for a rescue, the feed cut out. Hope is fleeting and a fickle bitch. I hate everything."

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