RWBY



"Red like roses fills my dreams and brings me to the place you rest

White is cold and always yearning, burdened by the royal test

Black the beast descends from shadows

Yellow beauty burns gold"

In the world of Vytal, humanity clings to civilization in the face of the creatures of Grimm, a veritable army of monsters and supernatural forces. Only the power of a substance known only as "Dust" allowed humanity to win a battle for its survival against the Grimm, and even now its creatures are only barely held at bay.

Responsible for defending human civilization from the forces of darkness are the Huntsmen and Huntresses, highly skilled individuals with unique weapons and a mastery of the use of Dust. These guardians are trained in special institutions, such as Beacon Academy in the nation of Vale.

RWBY follows the story of four extraordinary girls and their friends as they make their way through their training at Beacon, and come face-to-face with not only the creatures of Grimm, but all-too-human threats to the survival of humanity in this dangerous world.

An innovative Web Animation series by Monty Oum of Rooster Teeth, it was heralded months in advance by a series of carefully doled-out trailers ("Red", "White", "Black" and "Yellow"), which built up a remarkable level of excitement and speculation before its premiere in July 2013.

As of Fall 2013, it has completed sixteen episodes -- the first half-season of a projected ten seasons.

A dedicated wiki exists for the show, containing a surprisingly vast amount of detail gathered from a wide variety of sources.

RWBY includes examples of the following tropes:
(List compiled at the end of Volume One of Season One, and is subject to update/revision.)

"Weiss: No. She seems much more coordinated."
 * Absurdly Sharp Blade: Ruby's scythe, which can effortlessly slice were beowolves in half, chop down old-growth trees, and is capable of decapitating giant monsters.
 * Academic Athlete: Pyrrha Nikos.
 * Action Girl: Pretty much every female character.
 * Alien Sky: Vytal is definitely not Earth, not with two moons in the sky (one of which is shattered).
 * Alternate Universe: No argument. Two moons in the sky, active magic with technology, humanity beseiged by hordes of monsters...
 * Ancestral Weapon: Jaune's sword and shield, which belonged to his great-grandfather, a great hero.
 * Artsy Moon: If you consider being broken into a few dozen pieces "artsy".
 * Ascended Fangirl: Ruby, who geeks out over huntsmen and huntresses, manages to get into Beacon Academy years before she normally would be old enough, on the basis of both skill and overwhelming enthusiasm.
 * Applied Phlebotinum: Dust, which seems to be a fuel for magic or magic-like effects.  Plus, whatever it is that makes all the weapons do what they do.
 * Badass Adorable: Ruby Rose.
 * Also Nora Valkyrie and Velvet Scarletina (the latter mainly by Word of God as of November 2013).
 * Battle Aura: Demonstrated by Yang in her trailer as part of her fire powers, but also seems to be a visible manifestation of "aura" or a "semblance" in use.
 * Beast Folk: The Faunus, who are treated as second-class citizens.
 * Berserk Button: Never, ever, touch Yang's hair.
 * Beware the Silly Ones: Nora.  If only because she has a Grenade Launcher.
 * Big Ball of Violence: Ruby and Yang, the first night at Beacon.  Complete with the sound of That Poor Cat.
 * Big Eater: Ruby, at least as far as cookies are concerned.  And Nora when it comes to sweets.
 * Bizarre and Improbable Ballistics: Blake's weapons seem to demonstrate this in the "Black" trailer.
 * The Blade Always Lands Pointy End In: .  Then again, her weapons are clearly designed to do this.
 * Blah Blah Blah: Professor Port's first lecture turns into this as the camera focuses on Weiss's growing irritation with Ruby's behavior in class.
 * Blackmail: Cardin uses  secret to basically turn him into a lackey and dogsbody.
 * Blank White Eyes: Numerous times in the series.
 * Bloodless Carnage: The closest thing we see to spraying blood are showers of rose petals.
 * Butt Monkey: Jaune.  Lampshaded when he complains to Pyrrha that he wants to be more than just the "loveable idiot stuck in a tree while his friends are fighting for their lives."
 * By the Lights of Their Eyes: Several times, most notably during the "initiation" sequence.
 * Call a Rabbit A Smeerp: A mix of averted and expressed.  The obvious werewolves Ruby fights in the "Red" trailer are called beowolves, but many of the other creatures of the Grimm are original and have original names.
 * Catch Phrase: It's too early to be completely sure, but Penny appears to have one in, "I'm combat-ready!"
 * Catgirl:.
 * Cheaters Never Prosper: Appears to be subverted with.
 * Chest Insignia: All of the girls in Team RWBY as well as a few other characters have distinctive symbols that are worn or appear on their equipment.
 * Ruby's rose symbol can be seen on her headphones in the first episode.
 * Yang wears her insignia, partly hidden, on one breast.
 * Nora's symbol is a heart, which appears on her grenades and launcher and as the cutout of her decolletage.
 * Circling Birdies: When Ruby is momentarily stunned, alternating stars and cartoon wolves orbit her head.
 * In the yellow trailer, a stunned Junior momentarily is circled by a ring of hearts.
 * Cyborg:, maybe.  If she's not a Robot Girl.
 * Diegetic Switch: Subverted.  In the opening scenes of the very first episode, Ruby's clearly listening to "This Will Be The Day" until she decides to interrupt the robbery of the Dust shop.  After she follows one of the Mooks through the shop window, the music switches from a tinny, "heard over headphones" version to a high-quality version -- until we hear the "click" of Ruby turning off her player and the music stops.
 * Drop the Hammer: Nora's weapon, which is also a Grenade Launcher.  With hearts on it.
 * Everything's Worse With Rapier Wasps
 * Extraordinarily Empowered Girl: Most if not all of the female cast.
 * Face Fault: Not long after team RWBY meets Penny for the first time.
 * Fairy Tale Motifs: Everywhere you look.
 * Fantastic Racism: Towards the Faunus.
 * Fantasy World Map: Glimpsed in part or in full several times so far during the first season.  Played with, in that Monty Oum allegedly squirted ketchup into a paper napkin, wadded it up, and then unfolded it to determine the basic landmasses of the world.
 * Feather Flechettes: The Nevermore fires its immense feathers in this manner.
 * Genki Girl: Ruby.
 * Grenade Launcher: Nora's weapon is one of these, when it isn't a warhammer.  With hearts on it.
 * Guns Do Not Work That Way: Certainly not as part of transforming gadgets which are melee weapons half the time.
 * Averted in the "Yellow" trailer, by Junior: using it as a bludgeon is a great way to break your rocket launcher.
 * Hair of Gold: Yang.
 * Hammerspace: Where Ren keeps his gunblades.
 * And where Cardin kept that box of rapier wasps.
 * Hand Blast: 's Wave Motion Gun, with extra bonus swords.
 * Heart Symbol: Nora, all over.  Literally -- from her weapon to the cutout on her decolletage.
 * I Call Her Vera: Ruby with Crescent Rose (and to a lesser degree weapons in general).
 * Idiot Hair: Penny.
 * Imagine Spot: Weiss plotting in S1E2 how she and Pyrrha will be an unstoppable team together.
 * Important Hair Accessory Blake's bow.
 * Instant Runes: Weiss's snowflake-like "glyphs".
 * Ironic Echo: Penny's rapid-fire recitation of all the fun things she and Ruby can do together since they are now friends echoes word-for-word Weiss's sarcastic inventory of "girl things" to (not) do with Ruby when they met for the second time at the Beacon opening ceremonies.
 * Ruby picks up on some of this, asking Weiss moments afterwards, "Is this what I was like when we met?"

"Penny: It sure is windy today."
 * Ki Attacks: One way that Aura can manifest.
 * Kill It With Fire: Yang.
 * Kill It With Ice: Weiss incorporates this in her style.
 * Large Ham: Professor Peter Port.
 * Lampshade Hanging: The Dramatic Wind.


 * Legacy Hero: What Jaune feels he has to be.
 * Limited Wardrobe: The most we've seen anyone own is three outfits:  battledress, school uniform, and sleepwear.
 * Little Miss Badass: Just about every girl in the cast who isn't a Badass Adorable.
 * Little Red Fighting Hood: Ruby, oh so much.
 * Machinima
 * Magical Security Cam: Several instances of footage reused as cam views.  Possibly justified by the (perhaps literal) magical computers in use.
 * Mana Meter: Actually present within the story -- every student at Beacon can check their aura level with their handheld computer/phone/PDA, and are exhorted to do so when fighting, so they know when to shift to defensive tactics if it gets too low. The aura display appears as a classic colored bar, starting out green, growing shorter as aura is used, and turning red when too much aura has been expended.
 * Meaningful Name: It appears that nearly everyone in the cast has a name that makes some kind of reference to fairy tales or fantasy literature.
 * Mix and Match Weapon/Impossibly Cool Weapon: Everybody's got one!  Most combine a firearm of some sort with a melee weapon, and change shape between functions.
 * Son Goku goes one better: his weapon is a staff that splits into a pair of nunchaku, which themselves are made out of pairs of pistols (which look like flintlocks, but are multi-shot).
 * Blake's Gambol Shroud can be a used as one or two blades for melee, as a kusarigama/sickle-and-chain, and as a gunblade.
 * Pyrrha's spear/rifle and chakram-shield.
 * Jaune seems to avert this; his sword doesn't appear to turn into anything else, even if it is an Ancestral Weapon. His shield, though, folds for convenient storage.
 * Mooks: Torchwick has a small crew of them, and he's not impressed by their quality.
 * Junior's minions in the "Yellow" trailer seem to be the same group -- they have the same black-suit-and-little-red-sunglasses look. Given that Torchwick is very briefly seen concluding some kind of deal with Junior in the club just before Yang walks up to the bar, it's possible that the acquired his goons from Junior.
 * Torchwick later appears to be in charge of a squad of.
 * Motionless Chin: Averted. In close-ups, chin movements are obvious and clearly synchronized to the Mouth Flaps.
 * Motor Mouth: Ruby, when she gets excited.
 * Named Weapons: Most if not all of the multiform weapons have names:
 * Ruby named her scythe Crescent Rose.
 * Weiss' sword is Myrtenaster.
 * Blake's gunblade/kusarigama is called Gambol Shroud.
 * Yang's "Dual Ranged Shot Gauntlets" are called Ember Celica.
 * Possibly averted by Jaune's sword, which seems to have no name.
 * Off With Its Head: Ruby decapitates a fair number of the beowolves attacking her in the "Red" trailer.
 * Ruby killing the Nevermore during the Emerald Forest initiation.
 * Jaune killing the ursa in S1E14.
 * Personality Powers: The Beacon students all appear to have gifts or talents, and most of the ones we've seen seem to be reflective of their owners' personalities:  Ruby's speed, Yang's fire, and Pyrrha's magnetism, for example.
 * Petal Power: Any time Ruby's in action.
 * Reckless Gun Usage: The Vale police investigating the dust shop robbery.
 * Rich Bitch: Weiss gives this impression during her first few screen appearances, and bits of it keep surfacing throughout volume one, but she's considerably more complex than this basic character type.
 * Robot Girl:, maybe.  If she's not a Cyborg.
 * Rule of Cool: Appears to be a law of nature.
 * Set Swords to Stun: Despite being all about flying swords, none of 's attacks actually draw blood, and her Wave Motion Gun only damages property, not people.
 * Shields Are Useless: Averted by Jaune, whose shield seems pretty awesome even if he doesn't quite realize it.
 * Also averted by Pyrrha, whose shield is rather handy itself.
 * Shout Out: Built on them, and many are rolled into Meaningful Names.  Where can we start?
 * The fairy tale references in and around the girls of Team RWBY.
 * The Wizard of Oz references in Professor Ozpin and Glynda Goodwitch.
 * Jaune Arc and his tormentor Cardin Winchester.
 * Son Goku
 * Roman Torchwick, whose name has echoes of "roman candle" (which is what his gun-cane looks like in action), and who looks like he just stepped out of A Clockwork Orange.
 * The White Fang.
 * might be a reference to both Pinocchio and Blaz Blue, and possibly to Inspector Gadget.
 * Professor Bartholomew Oobleck obviously references Dr. Seuss' Bartholomew and the Oobleck.
 * The Grimm are an obvious play on the Grimm Brothers' fairy tales.
 * Shy Finger Twiddling: Ruby during the first time she meets Weiss.
 * Slow Motion Pass By: When Blake and Son Goku first see each other.
 * Snakes Are Evil: The King Taijitu, a monstrous two-headed duotone snake fought by Lie Ren in the Emerald Forest.
 * Stealth Hi Bye: Penny, most notably.  Ruby's speed lets her do basically this if she wants.  Other characters manage this when it's funny.
 * Super Deformed: Ruby in her first moments on the Beacon campus, as well as the images in her "thought bubble" as she races to find a partner in the Emerald Forest.
 * Swiss Army Weapon: Most of the weapons we see in the series. The few exceptions include Jaune's sword (although his shield might count), Ren's pistols (which while combining blades and guns haven't yet shown ability to change shape), and Torchwick's cane-gun.
 * Theme Naming: All over the place.
 * The girls of Team RWBY all have names which are or reference colors. ("Ruby Rose" is obvious; "Weiss Schnee"="Snow White"; "Blake" is an old English word for "black"; "Yang Xiao Long" is Chinese for "Little Dragon of the Sun", but includes characters which can mean "yellow" or "gold".)
 * Theme Song Reveal: It's hard to be sure this early, but "This Will Be The Day" definitely seems to be hinting at something.
 * The songs from the four Trailers also are clearly implying things; as of the first season's halfway point, "From Shadows" (from the "Black" trailer) seems to be the most comprehensible, referring (in retrospect) to Blake's history.
 * Theme Tune Cameo: In the first scene of the first episode, Ruby's listening to "This Will Be The Day" on her player, before it's been used as the theme tune for the first time.
 * Throw Down the Bomblet: Although she uses a grenade launcher instead of throwing them, Nora certainly demonstrates the "poor impulse control" aspect of this trope.
 * Throwing Your Shield Always Works: Pyrrha's shield.
 * Throwing Your Sword Always Works: Especially if you're telekinetically controlling a dozen or so...
 * Too Soon: Asked by Son Goku of Blake after making a comment about  in her presence.
 * Trailers: Starting November 5, 2012, Rooster Teeth released four trailers, spaced eight to ten weeks apart, which each featured one of the four main characters. Combining beautiful animation, non-stop action, Foreshadowing and awesome music, they were responsible for a remarkable level of anticipation and speculation before the series' premiere in July 2013.
 * Train Job: The "Black" trailer is about one.
 * Vomit Discretion Shot: Jaune at a trash can.
 * Wacky Girl: Nora.
 * Web Animation
 * Weird Moon: There are two moons in the sky, and one of them is shattered.
 * Well Intentioned Extremist: The modern incarnation of the White Fang, but there are hints that they are being manipulated for some sinister purpose.
 * Western Terrorists: The current version of the White Fang is somewhere between Type VII and Type VIII.  It started out as a non-violent Civil Rights Movement for Faunus, but there was a change in leadership about five years before the start of the series, and their methods turned violent.  There are hints that they are being manipulated by someone else for more sinister purposes.
 * Your Terrorists Are Our Freedom Fighters: What the current version of White Fang thinks of itself, of course.