RWBY Chibi

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

RWBY Chibi is what happens when you take RWBY, throw out the plot, make the cast Super-Deformed, and just decide to revel in utter comedy. It premiered online in spring 2016, and effectively served as Rooster Teeth's Summer Replacement Series for RWBY, with weekly episodes scheduled all the way until the premiere of RWBY Volume 4 on October 22, 2016. A second season began on May 13, 2017, running during the break between V4 and V5. And a third season premiered on 27 January 2018, after the end of RWBY Volume 5. While it has yet to see an official fourth season, RWBY Chibi has continued to appear via Rooster Teeth's Animated Anthology series Neon Konbini, which premiered on May 27, 2021.

Each episode is usually made up of three or so short sketches, and runs no more than five minutes.

It's available from both the Rooster Teeth website and YouTube (delayed a week).

Tropes used in RWBY Chibi include:
  • Aliens Steal Cattle: In S1E22, Nora hijacks Jaune's board game about making compost and turns it into one about defending and rescuing cattle from alien abductors.
  • All CGI Cartoon
  • Alt Text: Extra jokes and comments suitable to a Lemony Narrator can sometimes be found in the closed-captioning.
  • Ambiguously Gay: Sun and Neptune.
  • American Accents: Nora takes on an inexplicable Dixie accent in S1E22 while playing a farm-themed game.
  • And Knowing Is Half the Battle: Parodied in S3E7. And S3E15.
  • And Your Little Dog, Too: Invoked by Torchwick in S1E20.
  • Arc Words/Running Gag: For some reason, "Now [this is/that's] a katana" keeps showing up in all kinds of contexts during season 1, and continues to show up in subsequent seasons, including in the closed captioning for a S3 episode.
  • Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: Some of the steps in Cinder et al.'s Evil Plan (as seen in S1E18) are along these lines.
  • As Herself: Samantha Ireland is dual-billed as Nora and herself at the end of S1E23.
  • Ash Face: Both Roman and Neo, in S1E20.
    • Jaune after Ren's motorcycle blows up in S3E13.
  • Back from the Dead: Pyrrha in S1E6, to Ruby's complete bogglement.
  • Bank Robbery: Ruby manages to commit one accidentally, off-screen, in S3E1.
  • Bad Liar: Blake's attempts to deny being a cat burglar would work better if she weren't stealing things as she makes her denials.
  • Badass Biker: They may look like it at first, but the Cousins of Chaos in S3E13 are nowhere near badass.
  • Balloon Belly: Nora, multiple times, after demonstrating that she is a Big Eater.
  • Beach Episode: Off-screen, by implication, in S1E14.
  • Behind a Stick: Blake is very good at this, as we see in S1 and S3.
  • Being Watched: In S3E6, Ruby asks Weiss if she ever got the feeling she was being watched.
  • Belligerent Sexual Tension: Ozpin clearly thinks this is what's going on between Winter Schnee and Qrow.
  • Big Eater: Nora.
  • Big Ball of Violence: Whenever Winter Schnee attacks Qrow in S3E3.
  • The Big Board: Cinder and her minions have their elaborate evil plan laid out in detail on a huge whiteboard in their dorm room.
  • Big Freaking Gun: The "Kitten-Killer 9000" rocket launcher.
  • Big Friendly Dog: Zwei, though it's mostly the perspective change that make him look bigger, but Blake does not feel the same and goes to insane lengths to hide from him.
  • Big No: Yang for Ruby during the pillow fight in S1E19.
    • Mercury when Cinder Puppet is burnt to ashes in S3E5.
  • Big Red Button: There's one in Cinder's lair that opens a Trap Door.
    • One is found randomly on a tree in a forest in S3E7, whose function is equally random.
  • Birthday Suit Surprise Party: Appears to be the subject of an unfinished story Qrow is telling Ruby about Taiyang in S3E9.
  • Black Comedy: A surprising moment in S1E6, when Ruby almost hangs herself with her cape.
  • Bolivian Army Ending: S3E1, just as we learn that there's a Road Block ahead of the girls, off-screen.
  • Bread, Eggs, Breaded Eggs: Run backwards in S3E1, when Cinder traps Jaune and Ren in the back seat of her car:

Ren: It's a trap! She used the child safety locks! But we are neither children nor safe!

  • Bucket Booby Trap: Ruby and Weiss trade these in S1E7.
  • The Bully: Cardin Winchester makes no bones about being a bully in S3, and even tries to attach himself to Roman (who's allegedly "a legend in the bully community").
  • Butler Corps: Apparently Weiss's family has dozens of specialized butlers. She mentions that they have four butlers just for serving cake.
  • Butt Monkey: Almost everyone takes turns being this trope. Special cases of this go to:
    • Blake, concerning how her cat-like nature tends work against her concerning Zwei.
    • Weiss, whose love of quiet and cleanliness are doomed to be constantly destroyed by Ruby.
    • Pyrrha, whose magnetic powers are more an albatross than a benefit.
  • Cape Snag: Ruby suffers many of the downsides of wearing a cape in S1E6.
  • Catch Phrase: Half of Pyrrha's dialogue in S1 seems to be "Hello again!" and "I'm sorry!"
  • The Chew Toy: According to the peek into Zwei's mind we get in S3E8, this is how he sees Blake. Even though Yang has firmly informed him she isn't one.
  • Christmas Special: RWBY Chibi: Nondescript Holiday Spectacular from 2020.
  • Classy Cat Burglar: Blake, maybe...
  • Cold Sniper: In one of the few times we actually see Ruby act as a sniper in either this series or RWBY, she snipes a capsule containing pet medicine right down Zwei's throat.

Ruby: One shot, one pill.

Ruby: You know, you're a lot like those fireflies.
Penny: I am? How so?
Ruby: You light up my life.
Penny: Aw, Ruby. You are a bioluminescent bug to me as well!

  • Eyelid-Pull Taunt: Weiss gives one to Yang when Yang runs out of Dust rounds during a sparring session.
  • Face Fault: Blake on occasion.
  • Fall of the House of Cards: Poor Ruby.
  • Finishing Each Other's Sentences: In Pyrrha's dream in S3E12, she and Jaune do this constantly.
  • Flanderization: Played for Laughs with every character.
  • Freak-Out: Ruby does this to Blake after having read her favorite trashy novel, calling it "filth". Not that she plans to give it back anytime soon or stop reading it.
  • Funny Background Event: Zwei dragging a comatose Blake past the girls' dorm room door in S1E4.
  • Gag Echo: In S3E8, Winter characterizes the girls in Team RWBY as acting much younger than they really are, ending with "I'm Yang, let's fight!" After Ruby similarly distorts the adults, we look into Zwei's mind; he characterizes the girls by what they mean to him, ending with "I'm the Yang, let's fight!"
  • Genre Savvy: Neo, much of the time; sadly, being mute and only Talking with Signs, no one notices or listens to her advice.
  • The Ghost: Professor Peach, continuing a Running Gag from the main series; the girls mention how she is one of their favorite instructors.
  • Girls' Night Out Episode: The back half of S3E5 sets itself up like this, but we only see the preparation (primping at a mirror and shooing out the boys) and the aftermath -- a building on fire, with Yang and Ruby clearly approving, Weiss disbelieving, and Blake stunned with Blank White Eyes.
  • Good Cop, Bad Cop: Neptune and Sun have a little trouble with the roles in S1E14.
  • Gravity Is a Harsh Mistress: Afflicts Ruby frequently during her attempts at cooking.
  • Green-Eyed Monster: Ruby is more than a little jealous of Weiss and Blake's ice sculpting abilities.
  • Hachimaki: Both Ren and Ruby wear one in S1E9, as Ren trains to be worthy of being chosen "it" in a game of Tag.
  • Hammerspace: Ruby apparently keeps at least one fire extinguisher there.
  • Hand Puppet: In S3E5, Mercury has a Cinder puppet with which he acts out fantasies of her finally realizing his worth as both a minion and a romantic interest. He even has a backup puppet in case the one he's using is destroyed. (Amusingly, the puppet gets its own voice credit in the cast list -- which is Mercury's actor, of course.)
  • Hard Work Montage: A very brief one, of course, in S1E8, as Yang vigorously exercises.
  • Harmless Freezing: Don't invite Weiss to swim with you.
  • Hawaiian-Shirted Tourist: Zwei, in S1E14.
  • He-Man Woman Hater: Strongly implied by the presence of an elevator button labeled "Fort Port - No Girls Allowed" in S1E8.
  • Hollywood Giftwrap: Several times -- every time a present is given.
  • Homage: To the classic Road Runner cartoons in S1E20.
  • How the Character Stole Christmas: Torchwick employs a "spirit sucker" to steal the holiday spirit from everyone in Beacon in 2020's Nondescript Holiday Spectacular.
  • How We Got Here: Multiple instances in S3E11, starting with an explanation for Ruby's Drives Like Crazy sequence, and stepping back several more times to show how we got to each previous point.
  • Hugh Mann: Marty and Mike, two Grimm attempting to masquerade as a pair of Totally Radical dudes in S3E4, utterly fail to be convincing.
  • Hurricane of Puns: Yang and Taiyang at the end of S3E4 -- which turns out to be a lead-in for a Public Service Announcement about the dangers of puns.
  • I Am Not Left-Handed: Weiss believes herself the victor in a fight because Yang ran out of ammo for her weapon... and forgets Yang can simply punch her.
  • In Memoriam: In the midst of the Training Montage depicting Ruby's driver education in S3E11, there is one for the Xiao Long household car, shown in flames.
  • In One Ear, Out the Other: A firefly passes through Penny's head in this manner in S3E8, lighting up her eyes along the way; given she's a Robot Girl, this isn't as impossible as it might be for an organic being.
  • Incendiary Exponent: Yang sets herself on fire when she gets angry.
  • The Jinx/Doom Magnet: Played for Laughs with Qrow in S3E9.
  • Kick the Dog: The "Evil Chart of Evil" seen in S3E2 graphs "Candy Stolen" against "Puppies Kicked".
  • Large Ham: Roman Torchwick.
  • Laugh Track: The "live Studio Audience" in S1E24 is really just this.
  • Law of Inverse Recoil: Watch those gravity rounds, Ruby.
  • Lemony Narrator: Whoever writes the subtitles/closed captions. S3E15 is a good one for that.
  • Les Yay: There seems to be some between Ruby and Penny.
  • Let's You and Him Fight: When the Red Huntress interrupts the Huntsman's peril at the hands of Torchwick and Neo in S3E11, the Huntsman treats her as a supervillain. Actually a subversion, since he knew she'd come to rescue him, but he'd wanted to see Torchwick's new Death Trap in action first and she wouldn't wait. And subverted in that she welcomes his "undivided attention" and oath to chase her day and night.
  • Lethal Lava Land: In S1E22, Ruby insists the floor of their dorm room is deadly lava, despite (still) looking like a rug. The rest of the team indulges her, getting from the door to their beds without walking on it. Then Roman Torchwick throws open the door, and despite Ruby's earnest (and the rest of the team's bored) warning that the floor is lava, he rushes in. Cue shocked expressions from everyone but Ruby when he sinks in and burns.

Ruby: I tried to warn him.

Jaune: C'mon, Ren, let's go raise the roof!
Ren: (panicked) Why? Is something wrong with it?

  • Living Shadow: The V1 black silhouette background characters are invoked, examined and lampshaded in one sketch during season 1.
  • Loophole Abuse: Why Weiss and Blake have better ice sculpting abilities than Ruby.
  • Lovable Rogue: Qrow prefers this description to "drunken loudmouth".
  • Lower Deck Episode: The members of a small band of Grimm -- including a pair of beowolves named Marty and Mike, and a geist named Floyd -- are the focus of several sketches starting in S2.
  • Magnetic Girlfriend: Literally. Don't try to use a compass around Pyrrha.
  • Man on Fire: Mercury in S3E2, after he annoys Cinder with his demands for better working conditions.
  • Mind Control: Ruby manages quite well with suggestions whispered into her sleeping teammates' ears.
  • Mundane Utility: Blake's weapon makes a nice jump rope.
    • And the flames Yang emits when angry are great for roasting marshmallows.
  • My Instincts Are Showing: Subverted. Blake doesn't even get to finish telling off Yang for getting her a ball of yarn as a joke gift before Ruby is rolling on the ground playing with it. Played straight as a Brick Joke when Yang gives her a serious gift, and Blake leaps into the box after emptying it.
  • My Name Is Not Durwood: During his interview in S3E2, Cinder insists on calling Cardin Winchester "Carin". He tries to correct her, but gives up after an intimidating show of power.
  • Neat Freak: Weiss, to the point of delighting in her compulsive cleaning. Except when she's not.
  • Negative Continuity: Ruby is boggled by Pyrrha's appearance in S1E6, and alludes to her death in V3E12 of the main series. However, Nora insists it never happened. And at the same time Yang still has both her arms.
    • In S1E18, Weiss shows complete incomprehension of the very concept of cleaning, despite all the cleaning she does in earlier episodes.
    • Roman Torchwick is incinerated by a lava floor in S1E22, and returns to rob a shop in S1E23.
    • Let's just say that this show is Ruled By Funny and doesn't care to make sense if it'll spoil the fun.
  • Never Say "Die": Insisted upon by Nora in regards to Pyrrha:

Ruby: How are you even here?
Pyrrha: What do you mean?
Ruby: I mean, I watched you d...
Nora: NOPE! Neeeeever happened!

  • No Fourth Wall: When Ren asks if the cast wants to keep doing comedy segments after an unexpectedly serious moment passes in S1E6.
    • Nora winks at the camera at the end of S1E10. In S1E23, she presses her face up against the screen during one of the bumpers between sketches.
    • In S1E20 Roman Torchwick swears his revenge on Ruby for moving on to a comedy spin-off without him.
    • Ruby explicitly addresses the "Studio Audience" several times in S1E24.
  • Non-Fatal Explosions: Zwei causes one in S1E20.
  • Noodle Incident: In S2E13, Ruby and Yang are in trouble for... something.

Professor Ozpin: The good news is that the fire is finally under control, and the cats are expected to regrow most of their fur.
Qrow: Well. You gotta admire their ambition.

    • In S3E1, Ruby accidentally robs a bank off-screen. Even she's not quite sure how it happened.
  • Not the Way It Is Meant to Be Played: What happens with the "Compost King" game in S1E22.
  • Not What It Looks Like: Cardin's claim when Roman sticks him with a bag of stolen lien after robbing a shop.
  • Nothing Is Scarier: The most we see of the giant Grimm monster in S3E15 is its shadow.
  • Offscreen Inertia: Subverted in one S1 episode. Ruby spies Zwei sleeping in the middle of the floor and makes a comment about how lazy he is. We then follow him through a busy day of rescuing other characters and thwarting the plans of evil-doers. He has barely returned to the dorm room and laid back down again in the same spot when Ruby returns and comments on how he "hasn't moved all day."
  • Oh Crap: Ruby's response to Yang's reaction upon discovering her game controller has "disappeared" in S1E4.
  • The One With...: S1E24, explicitly entitled "The One With a Laugh Track".
  • Orbital Shot: Around Ren as he realizes the implications of being "It" in S1E9.
  • Oven Logic: In S1E18, Ruby makes the mistake of leaving Weiss to watch over a baking cake. Weiss gets curious about the controls and five minutes later, Ruby walks back in on a kitchen on fire and the cake already bunt to a crisp.
  • Paper-Thin Disguise: Beowolves Marty and Mike attempt to disguise themselves as humans in S3E4, using only hats, sunglasses and fake beards.
  • Parasol Parachute: Neo, in S1E20.
  • Parody Commercial: A couple, in S1E24.
  • The Peeping Tom: Both Yang and Weiss try to see into the boys' showers with binoculars in S1E24.
  • Perp Sweating: Neptune and Sun try to do this to Nora in episode 14, but it doesn't quite go as planned.
  • Personal Raincloud: Ruby gets one when hanging out with Qrow in S3E9.
  • Pet the Dog: Cardin Winchester cites his aversion of this trope as a reason Cinder should hire him in S3E2.
  • Photo Album Limbo: Jaune inflicts this on Ren in S3E5 as his idea of a "wild night". Ren's expression, by the way, clearly says "kill me now".
  • Pillow Fight: Team RWBY has one in their own inimitable style in S1E19. Later, when Ruby spies Son, Neptune and Ren engaged in a more traditional pillow fight, she dismisses them as "amateurs".
  • Pillow Spam/Pillow Hell: Yang's tactic during the pillow fight in S1E19.
  • Plot-Sensitive Button: The Big Red Button in the forest in S3E7.
  • Porn Stash: What Blake's favorite book effectively is, all by itself.

Ruby: Now that's a katana.

Blake: Ninja Vanish!

    • Averted when she runs out of smoke bombs at the end of the episode and she has to resort to a ride service.
  • Something They Would Never Say: Weiss does this to herself, sort of, in S2E13:

Weiss: I agree with Yang. ... Oh! That felt strange to say.

  • Spice Up the Subtitles: It's not uncommon to get extra jokes in the closed captioning, or even see the captioner acting as a Lemony Narrator.
  • Spin-Off: Of RWBY. Duh.
  • Spin the Bottle: RWBY and JNPR play it (briefly) in S1E13.
  • Split Personality: Klein Seiben is a bit more ... extreme here than he is in RWBY, copying the traits of each person he encounters.
  • Squeaky Eyes: Neo.
  • Stage Magician: Jaune tries to show his chops as one in S2E3, but is constantly upstaged by Ruby.
  • Sticky Fingers: Demonstrated by Blake even as she protests being suspected of being a cat burglar.
  • Stock Parodies: 2020's Nondescript Holiday Spectacular is a case of How the Character Stole Christmas, but ends with half the cast showing up late and dressed for a Charlie Brown Christmas parody.
  • Stop Poking Me: Yang doesn't say it, but she does burst into flame...
  • Studio Audience: S1E24 has one.
  • Summer Replacement Series: For RWBY during Summers 2016, 2017 and 2018, and probably for the foreseeable future as well.
  • Super-Deformed
  • Superhero: Jaune Arc is The Huntsman! But who is the mysterious Red Huntress? Okay, okay, it's Pyrrha. Sheesh, you people.
  • Suspiciously Similar Song: An arrangement of Yang's Image Song "I Burn" made to sound like "Eye of the Tiger" in S1E8.
  • Suspiciously Specific Denial: Cinder's reflexive declaration "We're not evil!" when Ruby and Nora burst in the room she shares with Emerald and Mercury.
    • Torchwick's claim in a fake commercial in S1E24 that "Neo's Neo" brand ice cream is definitely not poisoned. The announcer Rattling Off Legal at the end of the commercial begs to differ.
  • Sweet Tooth: Ruby, to the point that she may well run out of ingredients for chocolate chip cookies before she can finish mixing them.
  • Talking in Your Sleep: Jaune at the end of his Dream Sequence in S3E12. And Mercury in S3E14.
  • Talking with Signs: Neo.
    • Nora waves the occasional "Notice Me!" sign -- once at Ren during a S1 episode, subsequently in one of her inter-skit bumpers.
  • Tempting Fate: Weiss asking "How can this day get worse?" in S1E24.
    • Everyone whose first reaction upon encountering the Big Red Button in the woods in S3E7 is to push it.
  • That's What I Call X: "Now that's a katana!" from season one.
  • This Is Something He's Got to Do Himself: Taiyang in the Escape Room in S3E14.
  • Too Stupid to Live: Both Jaune and Sun at times.
  • Training from Hell: Ren puts himself through this upon becoming "it" in a game of Tag in S1E9.
    • In S1E13, Nora puts Yang, Blake and Ruby through her own version of it.
  • Training Montage: In S3E11, a series of still black-and-white images relate Ruby's alleged driver education, including one with an In Memoriam caption for "Zippy", the Xiao Long household car, shown in flames as Ruby feigns innocence.
  • Transformation Sequence: S3E10: When simply changing into Huntsman in his locker doesn't quite go as planned, Jaune somehow manages transformations based first on Wonder Woman, then Sailor Moon.
  • Trap Door: Cinder has one in her lair, operated by a Big Red Button.
  • Thing-O-Matic: "The Torchwick Trap-O-Matic", from S3E9.
  • Ultra Super Death Gore Fest Chainsawer 3000: In S1E11, Ruby declares that her favorite video game is Kung Fu Ninja Slayer Ultimate Death Battle 2.
  • Unstoppable Rage: From Jaune, of all people, after his attempts to call Weiss for a date suffer apparent Epic Fail.
    • He's not too happy about tripping over Blake's candlestick, either.
  • Useful Book: In a season two episode, Yang and Ruby as Blake for some books. Blake, being the bibliophile she is, goes wild handing out cherished and favorite volumes from her collection. And then we see that Ruby and Yang are using them to build forts and fight a mock battle.
  • What Could Possibly Go Wrong?: Weiss utters "Today couldn't possibly get worse" in S1E24, triggering the appearance of Drop-In!Jaune.
    • When they encounter a Big Red Button in the woods in S3E7, Sun insists on pressing it, asking Neptune, "What's the worst that could happen?" As soon as he presses it, the episode ends.
  • When You Snatch the Pebble: How Ruby knows Ren is ready to be "it" in Tag.
  • Wingding Eyes/Blank White Eyes: Blake, after various mishaps.
    • Weiss on occasion, too.
    • Yang, after witnessing Nora swallow an entire cake whole.
    • Ruby, after sheer boredom causes her to belly-flop on top of Weiss' study materials.
    • Let's just say everyone at one time or another.
  • Wimp Fight Weiss and Ruby decide to settle their differences in S1E5 with a bunch of hand slaps.
  • Wire Dilemma: Zwei helps Ren defuse a bomb by choosing the right wire in S1E19.
  • Yandere: As of S2E15, Nora's starting to show signs of becoming one.
  • You're Just Jealous: Jaune's interpretation of Team RWBY's reactions when they come upon him trying all their weapons.


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