Fanfic / Holding the World On Their Shoulders

We know the stories of Cinder Fall, May Marigold, Marrow Amin, and Winter Schnee.
But this isn't their story. Not as we know it.
This is the story of a timeline where everything shifted, slightly. Where they all attended Atlas Academy, for better or for worse. Where their roles get shifted around.

Holding the World On Their Shoulders is a RWBY Role Swap AU fic by Asheskies, swapping the roles of Cinder Fall, May Marigold and Winter Schnee. After being saved from slavery by the huntsman Rhodes, Cinder is accepted into the presigious Atlas Huntsman Academy, where she is assigned as a member of team CASM along with; Winter Schnee, the disinherited child of the prestigious Schnee family; Marigold, another heir with issues relating to their identity; and Marrow Amin, a Mantle native who barely got into Atlas by the skin of his teeth. Over their time at Atlas, all four will attract the attention of forces that seek their loyalties, leading to a quite different story from the one we all know.

Holding the World on their Shoulders is the first part of the Lepidoptera series and follows the events of May's time in Atlas Academy, with two sequels; Lost In The Storm (initially published as part of HTWOTS) which follows May's life after defecting and joining Salem, and Reignfall, which follows the events of the original show from May's perspective.

The fic is loosely inspired by Blackened Bluebird, another RWBY fic with the same premise. Unlike HWS, which gives roughly equal focus to each of its four protagonists, Blackened Bluebird is entirely centered on May Marigold, who takes the role of Fall Maiden. Both Bluebird and World on their Shoulders are deeply angst-filled, bordering on Dark Fic. Trigger warnings are provided for each chapter.

Not to be confused with A New World on her Shoulders, another RWBY fic set in Atlas with a very similar name.

As the fic deals with events that were only recently revealed in RWBY, any spoilers for the show are unmarked

Holding the World on their Shoulders provides examples of the following tropes

• Abusive Parents: May and Winter were both raised in households that tried to mold them into just a second version of their parents, with no room for self-exploration or individualism. Jacques disinherits Winter when she decides to become a huntress, while May knows her parents would disown her if she came out as trans. Rhodes was better by comparison, but still treated Cinder less as his daughter and more like an obligation he had to fulfill and didn't rescue her from slavery for years. And that's not even getting into how her adopted mother treated her.
• Accidental Misnaming: The amount of times May is called by her deadname is kept to a minimum, since she mostly goes by her last name, but it happens occasionally. The fic censors it with five asterisks and her real name in parenthesis.
• Adaptational Heroism: Working for the Police State can hardly be considered heroic, and she still maintains her nasty disposition, but Cinder is at least not on the side of an Omnicidal Maniac in this continuity. Unlike May, who is.
• Adaptational Villainy:
  • In this continuity, May becomes the agent of Salem in place of Cinder, meaning that she is, among many other things, directly responsible for the fall of Beacon. Admittedly, this does not happen in HTWOTS.
  • Ironwood is hardly a saint in canon, a Token Evil Teammate with an authoritarian bend who neglected Mantle, but his more outright fascist actions were only taken after he Jumps Off The Slippery Slope into paranoid mania. Here, he's throwing innocents in shadow prison and actively oppressing Mantle years before his canonical descent into tyranny.
• Adaptation Name Change: Cinder's last name is Rhodes, instead of Fall in this continuity. Justified, as she took the name from the Huntsman who saved her from slavery. Even in canon, "Fall" is implied to be a self-chosen name.
• Adaptation Relationship Overhaul:
  • Winter and May have so far no indication that they kow each other in the show (though it is not unlikely that they do), but have known each other since they were young children here.
  • Cinder, Marrow, May and Winter, who run the gambit from colleagues to bitter enemies in canon, are here teammates with a complicated relationship. Likewise, whereas May is a member of the Happy Huntresses in canon, they are casual acquaintances of her in this continuity.
  • Weiss is friends with Ilia, which is a common headcanon, but not supported in the show.
• Affectionate Nickname: After May comes out to Winter, Winter starts calling her "Princess", partially as an endearing insult, partially as gender affirmation. She also later adds "Bluebird".
• Allohistorical Allusion:
  • In the first chapter, Cinder ponders what her life would be like if Rhodes hadn't adopted her, before shoving the thought aside.
  • When Cinder has a nightmare about her enslaved childhood, it takes the form of the canonical events from the episode "Midnight".
  • Salem laments that Cinder would have made a good candidate for the Fall Maiden, if she hadn't been accepted into Atlas first.
  • Winter and May end up pondering where they'll be the next time the Vytal festival is held in Vale. May wants to fight for Mantle. Winter agrees, but says that she would have said becoming an Atlas specialist if she had been asked earlier. Both are the roles they have in canon. Doubles as Dramatic Irony, since the reader knows that May will be an agent of Salem by then.
• Alternative Calendar: Since RWBY has yet to introduce a canonical calendar for the world of Remnant, the fic uses its own version. Years are measured from the end of the Great War, with time before the Great War being denominated BGW, and years after being denominated AGW. Team CASM is formed in 72 AGW, Ruby Rose was born in 65 AGW, and the Fall of Beacon will be in 81 AGW.
• Alternate Continuity: Cinder attents Atlas, and May becomes the Fall Maiden in her place.
• Animal Motifs: May has a minor one with Bluebirds, birds that thrive when allowed to be free but suffering in captivity. May has blue hair, feels that Atlas is a Gilded Cage, and Winter even nicknames her Bluebird.
• Appearance Angst: Obiviously, May gets a lot of dysphoria from her masculine body. The way she discovers that she's trans is by standing in front of the mirror and imagining what she'd change if she could, and realizes that the changes she's making are ones that would make her look feminine.
• Armies Are Evil: A major theme of the story. Atlas, the most militarized kingdom of Remnant (the only militarized kingdom, in fact) is depicted as hopelessly corrupt and regularily comitting a long list of civil rights violations and war crimes which are kept secret to prevent outrage, all in the name of "national safety".
• Automatic Crossbow: May's weapon, Matilda in her crossbow configuration is loaded with "clips" containing several crossbow bolts that can be shot in rapid succession, though she can also load her with Trick Arrows.
• Bad Mood Retreat: May likes to retreat to the rooftop of Atlas Academy whenever she's struggling with dysphoria or other depression.
• Bait-and-Switch: When Winter returns home to visit her "brother", RWBY fans will expect her to meet Whitley. She's actually meeting Weiss, who hasn't come out as a trans girl yet.
• Berserk Button: Having been a slave to Atlas nobility as a child, Cinder reacts very poorly to classisism. Downplayed, as she only reacts that way when faced with it in person, and has no issues working for a system that perpetuates it.
• Black Site:
  • The Janus site is a secret archive where Atlas keeps a record of all its many war crimes and civil rights violations. When Salem attacks it, CASM are sent to protect it, and May, Winter and Marrow all take a peak at the contents. What they see is enough for May to defect on the spot, which gets her blackbagged.
  • The Cerberus site is a more traditional prison, where Atlas sends prisoners to be tortured, along with containing those who work with or know about Salem. The first prisoner seen is a union organizer who got mistakenly blamed for dr. Merlot's escape.
• Both Sides Have a Point: Discussed by Joanna and Marrow. Marrow believes that the tension between Atlas and Mantle is nuanced, that Atlas may not be innocent, but their treatment of the lower city is not entirely unjustified. Joanna counters that Atlas is exploiting Mantle for labor while giving nothing back. Mantle is fighting to survive, Atlas is fighting to remain wealthy. It is ultimately averted, as Atlas is rotten to the core.
• Break the Cutie: Marrow started out as the most hopeful and idealistic member of team CASM. Over the course of the fic, he sees firsthand evidence of Atlas' crimes, one of his teammates succumb to Ironwood's grooming and his partner die.
• Breather Episode: Between each major storybeat, there are a few chapters detailing May and her ex-friends hanging out and not doing anything while the major players are active.
• Calling the Old Man Out: In chapter 20, May gives her father a "The Reason You Suck" Speech for his racism and exploitation of Mantle, and tells him he can stuff it because she doesn't need his support at all. It unfortunately doesn't stick, since he threatens to sue any hospital she volunteers at into bankruptcy if she continues.
• Cast Full of Gay: May is trans and likes women (or at least, likes Winter). Winter realizes she's grayromantic and lesbian after a talk with Fiona. Marrow is gay and comes out during the Vytal festival. Cinder is too preoccupied with being the best to care about romance, though it's implied she might be aroace. Fiona, Joanna and Robyn are in a polyromantic sapphic relationship.
• Cerebus Syndrome: Literally. Though the fic is rather dark from the start, with depictions of child abuse, police brutality, and Salem. It still had a good balance of sweet and emotional moments to go with the angst, however. After the introduction of the Cerberus site, though, things go downhill, with Atlas' authoritarianism and Police State becoming more apparent. It goes further to hell with the Janus mission, which ends with May being arrested for knowing too much and sent to a government Black Site, Winter and Marrow being hospitalized and having no way of knowing what happened to May, and Cinder letting it all happen without objection.
• Character Focus: May is the main character of the entire story, with Cinder, Winter, and Marrow serving as deuteragonists.
• The Chessmaster: Salem, as befits an antediluvian witch. She makes her plans in terms of decades, and uses careful manipulation to get what she wants. After realizing that May is a perfect Maiden candidate, she puts two of her agents to work discovering May's real name, then uses that name to push May away from her friends, ensuring that she's has no where to turn to for support. She even sends her agents to occupy Ironwood, so that CASM would be the only available team to be sent to Janus. She most likely didn't expect May to be blackbaged, but she adapts quickly, offering May a hand when she is at her lowest and most likely to accept it.
• Combat Medic: May is a trained huntress and powerful fighter, but her family history and volunteering at hospitals has given her enough medical know-how to serve in a pitch.
• Coming-Out Story:
  • May ends up coming out to Winter in chapter 14. Chapter 15 is about the immediate aftermath.
  • Marrow comes out as gay to May during the Vytal dance, then to everyone else by asking a guy he likes to dance.
• Competition Freak: A lifetime of enslavement and being saved by a Huntsman who trained her has left Cinder with a desire to be the at the top of any situation. In Atlas, this manifests as a desire to drive her team into being the best of their year on the leaderboard. Once she does that, she aims for the top ten overall. Then the top five, etc.
• The Confidant: May ends up coming out to Winter, who's supportive, before anyone else. Part of Salem's manipulation is to make May think Winter betrayed her trust. In reality, Winter kept May's secrets even after her apparent death.
• Content Warnings: Each chapter has a comprehensive list of potential triggers at the start, ranging from child abuse and cult brainwashing to common phobias.
• The Corruptor: Ironwood grooms Atlas students into mindless obedience to the kingdom of Atlas, and, by extension, him. Clover has already fallen for it by the time the fic stars, which is how the happy huntresses know to warn May and Winter about Ironwood's tactics. Cinder's arc revolves around her falling for his grooming, while Marrow manages to avoid it.
• Culture Shock: Team CASM and the other Atlas students are surprised at the difference between Atlas and Beacon when they arrive for the Vytal festival. Whereas Atlas praises conformity and obedience, and team members are encouraged to view each other as co-workers, Beacon prioritizes comfort and self-expression, and teams are encouraged to view each other as close friends or family.
• Darker and Edgier: To RWBY, which is impressive since RWBY already depicted Police Brutality, descent into fascism and child abuse. This fic takes it a step further by detailed depictions of emotional and physical abuse, grooming, brainwashing, and a Black Site that tortures innocent people.
• Desperately Looking for a Purpose in Life: Marrow seeks a cause to dedicate himself to, which is currently Atlas' military. Joanna, Robyn and Fiona attempt to persuade him to turn that dedication towards helping Mantle instead.
• Deuteragonist: May Marigold is ultimately the character with the most focus, with Cinder, Winter and (to a slightly lesser degree) Marrow serving as deuteragonists.
• Dies Differently in Adaptation: The silver-eyed fox faunus that would become the Hound in the show dies years earlier here, killed by Salem as part of an experiment to create the Doppler.
• Dramatic Irony:
  • May doesn't want to come out to her team because she doesn't feel that she can trust them to not have an issue with it, particularily Cinder, who's a Jerkass by nature, and Winter, who's father is infamously intolerant. The reader gets to see Winter handling her sister coming out with grace, showing that she is nothing like what May feared. Weiss comes out publically soon after, so May still learns about it, just a bit later than the audience.
  • When he overhears Salem discussing Maiden candidates, Watts suggests Marigold, since her invisibility semblance could be useful. Salem does note them down, but dismisses them as a Maiden because they need a girl. As the reader will already know, Marigold is a girl. To her credit, Salem does realize her mistake and returns May to the candidate list.
  • When asked what she will be doing the next time the Vytal festival is held in Vale, May says she wants to fight for Mantle's rights. The reader knows she will have become an agent of Salem by then.
• Dream Walker: Stella Nyx, an infamous bounty hunter whom Salem brings into her employ, has a semblance that lets her inhabit and control the dreams of people, as long as she has their name. She ends up using this to build a psychological profile on team CASM, going through their dreams to learn their history.
• Dude, Not Funny!: When she and Marrow are bullied for being from Atlas during their visit to Vale, Cinder fires back that, unlike Vale, Atlas can defend their expansions, alluding to the infamous Mountain Glenn. Marrow objects that she's going too far.
• Emo: Deconstructed. May comes across as a brooding loner because she doesn't like to be around people and keeps to herself even with her team, but it's not out of choice. Instead, she's scared of what they will think if she comes out as trans, and constantly hiding who she is has a poor impact on her mental state.
• Even Evil Has Standards: Watts, to the surprise of Stella, has no issues with Marigold being trans, saying that he accepts that gender is far more complicated than the mere physical.
• Everyone Has Standards: Ironwood, for all his many many faults, defends Marrow from the Marigolds' racism. Downplayed in that he will only object to it when faced with it personally, and doesn't actually care about the way his kingdom oppresses faunus.
• Evil vs. Evil: Since the main characters are all from Atlas, far beyond Ozpin's reach, the overarching conflict is between Salem, an Omnicidal Maniac on a Suicidal Cosmic Temper Tantrum, and Ironwood, a paranoid dictator who throws any objectors to his authoritarian ways in shadow prison.
• Fake-Out Opening: The first chapter opens on Cinder fighting Rhodes in what seems to be a retread of their dramatic fight in the episode Midnight. Turns out that Cinder is 17, soon to be attending Atlas, and they are merely having a sparring match.
• Faking the Dead: Arthur Watts, like in canon, fakes his death to go work with Salem full-time.
• Fantasy Counterpart Culture: Atlas is largely based on the United States, mostly in the negative aspects (war crimes, civil rights violations, institutional discrimination), but also in minor elements, such as 21 being the legal drinking age and diners being a common establishment.
• Fictional Currency: Like the show, the fic uses Lien as the international currency of Remnant, which the author states is somewhere between American dollars and Japanese yen in terms of value.
• Flanderization: May eating pizza with chopsticks is a reference to Connect Four by Badendchan. There, May eats a pizza with chopsticks as a joke because Robyn forbid her from eating it with fork and knife. In this fic, on the other hand, she does it regularily.
• Forced Out of the Closet:
  • Winter unintentionally pressures Weiss into coming out while training her to use her semblance.
  • May is unknowingly outed to Salem's inner circle when Watts digs through her scroll history. May doesn't learn about it at first, since Stella needs her name to communicate with her, but they eventually learn it and use it to sow paranoia, making May think that Winter accidentally outed her and lied about it.
• For Want Of A Nail: The main point of divergence for this entire continuity seems to be Rhodes taking in Cinder after she murdered her adopted family. Because of this, she ends up on a team with Winter, May and Marrow, Winter ends up interracting more with the Happy Huntresses and learns more about her family's crimes, and Salem has to find a new Maiden candidate, setting her sights on May.
• The Friend Nobody Likes: Cinder Rhodes, to a T. While she isn't an Ax-Crazy powerhungry lunatic like in canon, her extremely competitive nature and dismissal of personal issues wins her no friends, even within her own team. She gets slightly better as she spends more time with her team.
• From Bad to Worse: Chapter 25 and 26. Cinder learns that Rhodes was killed by a criminal Winter and Marrow failed to arrest, driving a further wedge between her and her team. Stella discovers May's real name and tricks her into thinking Winter accidentally outed her. Winter promises that she won't keep secrets from May, but soon after has to reveal that she knows something about Janus, but doesn't have time to elaborate why she didn't say anything sooner, causing May to distrust her further. May, Marrow and Winter learn about the wildly unethical stuff Atlas has been up to from the Janus archive. Winter and Marrow are hurt in the escape, leading to May confronting Ironwood about it alone. Ironwood gets a case of the old paranoia and blackbags May, meaning that May is now completely sepparated from her support network and in a government prison, Winter and the happy huntresses thinks she simply ran away, and Cinder is more under Ironwood's thumb than ever.
• Fun with Acronyms: As is tradition with RWBY. The main characters are on team CASM (Chasm), while the secondary characters are on team CGHT (Candlelight). May and Winter end up sharing a laugh over team KROT (Carrot).
• Good Parents: Marrow's moms are about the only ones in the entire fic that qualify as this (Summer is mentioned, but is in a depressive phase after her husband's death). They support his goal to fix Atlas from the inside, even if they believe its futile, offer sincere love and advice when he's having a crisis, and show nothing but love and affection for him or his siblings.
• Hate Sink: May's parents and cousin Henry are introduced treating her like a fashionable commodity. When they show up again a few chapters later, they discuss Weiss in highly transphobic terms, and are shocked that May supports trans rights. Jacques is, of course, even worse.
• The Heart: Discussed. Robyn was apparently openly called this in Atlas, having been the one who kept her team together despite their differences (something that should've been Clover's job). While she has issues with the sexist history of the trope, she otherwise embraces it and tries to help everyone with their problems, including her girlfriends, Winter, Marrow and May. Though in May's case, her attempts were cut short.
• Height Angst: May's uncertainty about wearing high heels is in part from not wanting to be taller than she already is. Winter convinces her by saying that she finds tall women hot.
• Humiliating Wager: After winning a duel, Winter gets the right to dress May in whatever embarassing outfit she wants during their next rooftop meeting, and picks an extremely frilly princess dress and tiara. Downplayed, since no one but them can see it, and Winter knows May actually enjoys it.
• I Have No Daughter!: May is certain that she'd be disowned by the Marigolds if she ever came out as trans.
• Inside Joke: After winning a dart game at the Vytal festival, May picks a giant yam plushie as her award. At Cinder's objections, she declares that the yam is like family to her. Yam Marigold. Marrow and Cinder don't get it, but Winter does a Spit Take.
• Insistent Terminology:
  • It's Doctor Watts, not "Arty".
  • May's weapon is a she, not an "it". Justified, as she takes out her frustration at being misgendered by being pedantic about her weapon's pronouns.
• Last-Name Basis: Team CASM, reflecting their rather strained relationship, refer to each other mostly by last names. Marigold does call Winter and Marrow by their given names because she's closer to them than Cinder, but insists that she herself only be called Marigold, since she's not willing to come out as trans, but feels strong dysphoria from her deadname. This ends up saving her from Stella Nyx, who's semblance requires her to know the victim's true name.
• Living Lie Detector: Robyn's semblance lets her know if someone is lying, as long as she's in physical contact with them. This makes Marigold hesitant to be around her, since she has quite a big secret she doesn't want let out.
• Martyr Without a Cause: Cinder does everything because it has some direct benefit, usually by making her stronger. She has genuinly no idea what to do with herself during her time off, though Winter suggests she could take up gaming.
• Meaningful Name: Inverted. "May" isn't particularily meaningful by the standards of Remnant, but Watts and Stella are able to work backwards from May's passwords to discover her real name by looking at the passwords' shared meaning; Several allude to the end of spring, as in the month of May, and one is "Perhaps", a synonym for "may".
• Mythical Motifs: A whole lot of them.
  • The Atlas Black Sites are the archive Janus (Roman god of transitions and beginnings) and the prisons Cerberus (the dog who guards the underworld) and Tartarus (the deepest part of said underworld). Appropriately, team CASM's mission to Janus is what causes May to defect from Atlas and fall into Salem's waiting arms.
  • Stella Nyx is based on the classical god Morpheus, god of sleep and dreams. Her semblance lets her enter the dreams of others, and her last name is taken from the goddess of the night and Morpheus' grandmother.
• Named by the Adaptation: Winter's swords, which are simply "Winter's swords" in the show itself, are here named Erfrierung, meaning "Frostbite" in German.
• Narcissist: Watts, even more so than in canon. Stella's psych profile of him indicates that the reason he never tried to unlock his semblance is that he considers using one to be beneath him.
• Nice Guy: Marrow Amin, the only male and faunus member of Team CASM, is a friendly and open guy who's only real flaw can be said to be naivete.
• Nightmare Weaver: Stella Nyx uses her semblance for this. Technically she's a Dream Weaver who can make any sort of dream, but, seeing as how she works for Salem...
• No Name Given: Trans characters are always referred to by their real names in narration, while their deadnames are kept completely out of it. The few times it comes up in dialogue, it's censored by five asterisks and their real name in parentheses.
• O.C. Stand-in: Stephanie Santiago, Ironwood's Number Two, is from the show, but only ever appears as a name on a screen. Her personality and role in the fic is largely original.
• The One Guy: Marrow Amin is the only male member of team CASM, and Clover Ebi is the only male member of team CGHT. Played with in that, to everyone else, it looks like CASM is gender balanced, since May is still in the closet.
• Point of Divergence: There are two, though one only comes up in chapter 13;
  • The first and most obvious one is that Cinder was taken in by Rhodes after murdering her adopted "family", leading to her training as a huntress and eventually attending Atlas. This in turn leads to other characters being put on a different team and having different relationships.
  • The second is that Taiyang Xiao Long died when his daughters were young, leading Summer Rose to raise Yang and Ruby.
• Power Copying: Silver Chorus, who is appropriately enough based on Echo from Classical Mythology, can copy the semblance of someone nearby, doing it with a teleporter to escape prison, and later May to avoid pursuit.
• Power Incontinence: Semblances can misfire if the user is under extreme stress. May's semblance in particular activates when she's in situations she wants to escape from, such as the first time she admits to herself that she's trans.
• Power Nullifier: Atlas uses Aura Dampening Handcuffs that prevent prisoners from manifesting their aura or use their semblance.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: May gives on to Ironwood in "Janus", calling out all the horrific civil rights violations she saw evidence of in the Janus archive, the fact that Ironwood collaborated with Jacques Schnee to break up unions, the false accusations of Amarillo Suadere, and the many, many censored documents indicating even worse things. It gets her blackbagged and sent to a secret prison.
• Recursive Fanfiction: While it can be discussed if the fic counts as one itself, being inspired by Blackened Bluebird but not directly related to it, it does have its own fic in the form of Gayme Night by The_Valaxy, a shortfic set in an au where the events of "Janus" didn't happen, seeing the Happy Huntresses (including May) playing Dungeons & Dragons.
• Resurrective Immortality: Ozpin/Ozma, per usual. He and Qrow ends up having a back and forth about who's older, since Qrow is older than Ozpin's current body.
• Role Swap AU:
  • The basic premise is that May Marigold becomes Salem's subordinate in place of Cinder, Cinder Rhodes becomes Ironwood's right hand woman in place of Winter, and Winter Schnee becomes a happy huntress in place of May. HTWOTS and Lost in the Storm are dedicated to exploring how this swap actually happens, while Reignfall explores how this will impact the main plot of the show.
  • Chapter 13 also reveals that Taiyang and Summer have swapped roles; Taiyang died on a mission, and Summer survived to raise their children.
• Sadistic Choice: On their first mission beyond Mantle, CASM end up in a lab that's about to explode, with the option to direct the explosion into a lab with thirty scientists, or to a server room with five scientists but invaluable and unique data. The team is split on the issue, but Cinder makes a last-minute decision to sacrifice the thirty scientists with the hope that the data will save lives in the future. This drives a further wedge between her and her team.
• She Knows Too Much: After looking through the Janus archive, May defects from Atlas on ethical grounds. Ironwood is initially okay with letting her go, but when he realizes that part of what she read were references to the Maidens and Salem, he orders Cinder and the future Ace-Ops to arrest her and send her to a Black Site.
• Shout-Out:
  • Marrow's old instructors at combat school were named Vander and Greyson, and one scene takes place at a bar in Mantle named the Last Drop.
  • Ash the pilot is based on Four-Seven-Niner from Red vs. Blue.
• Side Bet: When Winter comes out as aromantic lesbian, Robyn hands Joanna a pile of lien. Apparently they have a betting pool on everyone at Atlas, including Cinder (they think she's aroace) and May (they have her pegged for an egg).
• Sins of Our Fathers: Tobias of team KROT, is obsessed with the Great War and hates CASM because they're from Atlas, the successor state to the Kingdom of Mantle that Vale fought in the war.
• Sitcom Arch-Nemesis: Qrow Branwen and Glynda Goodwitch get along fabulously poorly, which leads to some amusing commentary when they are assigned as announcers at the Vytal festival together. It's implied that Ozpin assigned them to work together for his own amusement.
• Snark-to-Snark Combat: In their first appearance, Ozpin and Qrow end up having some back and forth. Qrow complains about feeling old, Ozpin points out that he's older than recorded history, Qrow fires back that Oz is an outlier that shouldn't be counted, etc.
  Qrow: You're a sadist.
  Ozpin: Must you harass an old man?
• Stock "Yuck!": Cinder and Winter both find May's preference for pineapple on pizza to be disgusting. Winter's favorite pizza topping in turn is so bizarre that everyone hates it.
• Supernaturally-Validated Trans Person:
  • Stella Nyx is able to invade the dreams of any person she knows the true name of. May ends up unintentionally No Selling it, since no-one knows that her actual name is May.
  • Weiss is only able to manifest her aura and semblance when she admits that she wants to become a Huntress, not a huntsman.
• Sword and Gun: Unlike her Bow and Sword in Accord weapon in canon, Cinder's two swords can here transform into guns. She's the only one on team CASM who uses this combination, since Winter relies on her semblance for ranged attacks and May prefers the crossbow. Marrow's boomerang-rifle can be used as a sword in a pitch,though.
• Teens Love Shopping: Discussed. In Vale, CASM and the Happy Huntresses go on a shopping trip, and all enjoy themselves. Winter, Marrow and Cinder particularily enjoy finding their own style. May, on the other hand, ends up feeling constrained, since she's not out and can't shop for the clothes she actually wants. After coming out to Winter, she's taken on a shopping trip where Winter buys her clothes she's comfortable with.
• That Came Out Wrong: When Marrow comes out to May and tells her he has a crush on someone, she initially thinks he has a crush on her, and has to clarify that her scared reaction was about that, and not about Marrow being gay. Then she has to clarify again that she has nothing against the idea of a gay man liking her, she just wouldn't be able to reciprocate.
• To Be Lawful or Good:
  • Cinder admits that she struggles with this, worrying that she can't balance being a good soldier for Atlas with being a good leader for her team. Winter advices her that she will have to chose, since a soldier needs to follow orders, while a leader must prioritize her people, and tries to push her towards the latter. She falls into it even harder when Ironwood orders her to arrest May. She follows his orders and hides her objections, but is torn in the aftermath, especially when it looks like following orders led to May's death.
  • Marrow believes he can be both, serve Atlas as a specialist while also being a proponent for Mantle's rights. Joanna disagrees, since any work he does for Atlas will only perpetuate the oppression of Mantle.
• Took a Level in Kindness: Cinder spends most of the first ten chapters being, well, Cinder. After bonding with the members of her team, she starts showing signs of improving, offering an arm to lean on when Marrow gets airsick and apologizing when her anger issues act up. She goes straight back to start once Ironwood's grooming takes hold.
• Too Much Alike: When they're put on a team together after Winter leaves and May defects, Cinder and Clover end up butting heads due to both being very authorative and used to leadership positions. Cinder gives out orders despite not being the team leader anymore, and Clover instantly contradicts her, causing confusion.
• Transforming Weapon: As is tradition in RWBY. Winter and Marrow use the same weapons they use in canon, a sword that can sepparate into a saber and a rapier named Erfrierung and a rifle that becomes a boomerang named Fetch, while Cinder and May's are different. Cinder's, while still a pair of swords named Midnight, turn into guns instead of a bow. May uses a bastard sword named Matilda that can transform into a repeating crossbow.
• Trans Tribulations: Marigold and Weiss are both terrified of coming out, since Atlas society is not particularily kind to those who stand out. After coming out, while her mother and sister are supportive, Weiss still deals with transphobia from her father and virtually every upper class person in Atlas.
• Trauma Button: When Amarillo uses Cinder's own aura-draining handcuffs on her, the electricity they use to drain aura cause her to have a flashback to the Shock Collar she was put in as a child.
• Trauma Conga Line: The leadup (and immediate aftermath) of May defecting from Atlas is nothing but trauma for the poor girl. A villain who can give her nightmares learns that she's trans and implies that Winter outed her, Winter turns out to have been keeping secrets from her, she learns that Atlas is even worse than she previously thought from the Janus archive, her two best friends get wounded and leave her to face Ironwood alone, one of her friends stabs her in the back on Ironwood's orders.
• Trick Arrow: May makes heavy use of a grappling hook arrow for her crossbows.
• Weapon-Based Characterization:
  • Marrow's weapon, Fetch, is the same as in canon, a rifle that becomes a boomerang.
  • Cinder's weapon, Midnight, is a pair of swords that can turn into guns.
  • Winter's weapon is initially Erfrierung, a saber who's core can be taken out and used as a rapier. She leaves it to Weiss when she moves to Mantle, and switches to a standard Happy Huntresses crossbow-staff.
  • May, while in Atlas, uses a crowssbow-bastard sword named Matilda.
• Wham Episode: Chapter 26: May, Winter and Marrow see all the skeletons in Atlas' closet while on a mission to the Janus archive. Winter and Marrow are wounded in the retreat, leaving May to confront Ironwood about it with only Cinder for company. May blows up at Ironwood, and Ironwood orders Cinder and the Ace-ops to arrest May, sending her to the Cerberus Black Site. Cinder does so without complaint, cementing how far Ironwood's grooming has brainwashed her, May is completely separated from everyone she loves, and Marrow and Winter are none the wiser.
• Whip Sword: Orchid Morrigan, a rival huntress from Beacon May fights during the Vytal tournament, uses a fencing sword that can turn into a whip.
• White Sheep: Winter and May are both scions of wealthy families that object to their family businesses' unethical practices.
• Xanatos Speed Chess: Salem adapts her plans on the fly, making sure to always stay one step ahead of her enemies. When she realizes Cinder is no longer a viable Maiden candidate, she shifts her focus to find another candidate, then immediately puts all resources towards recruiting May.

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