Fanfic / Hunters of Justice

cover by EdCOM02

A crossover of RWBY and The DCU by trestwho. The story starts during Volume 3 of RWBY when Brainiac decides to "learn" about the cultures of Remnant, a.k.a. shrinking all its major cities and destroying the rest of the planet. Team RWBY and JNPR manage to escape and arrive on Earth, where the hopes of the people of Remnant now lies in their hands and the gods that now walk among them.

The story can be read at Spacebattles, Fanfiction.Net, and Archive of Our Own.

It later inspired the Recursive Fanfiction Remnant's Mightiest Heroes which features the same basic premise, but with Marvel and replaces Brainiac with Kang the Conqueror.

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Tropes contained in Hunters of Justice include the following:

A-D

• Absence of Evidence:
  • The fact that not even the Guardians knew about Remnant before Brainiac destroyed it and RWBY and JNPR ended up on Earth leads to the conclusion that there was some kind of veil around Remnant that kept it hidden from the rest of the universe, presumably created by the Brothers. This is confirmed later by Brainiac, who notes that he only noticed Remnant when Salem activated a Mother Box and was puzzled by the distinct lack of anything substantial in the region of space when he tried to find the source.
  • When investigating the mass grave that Violet was found in, the military notes that there's no sign that the villagers were forced up the mountain.
• Accidental Public Confession: Pyrrha accidentally revealed her romantic feelings towards Jaune after the group decides to test the Lasso of Truth's abilities. Jaune does the exact same thing in regards to his complicated feelings towards her.
• Achievements in Ignorance: Nora accidentally protects herself and Pyrrha from Poison Ivy controlling them before they got their Auras up by using a strong perfume.
• Actor Allusion:
  • Nurf mentions that Jaune and David sound alike, not surprising since both characters in their original canons are voiced by Miles Luna.
  • Penny sharing her voice actress' love of betta fish.
• Adaptation Distillation: Rather than trying to navigate the convoluted comics, the DC side of the crossover borrows elements from several different continuities and compresses and streamlines them together into a more cohesive history. These continuities include the DC Animated Universe, the DC Extended Universe, the DC Animated Movie Universe, the Arrowverse, Batman/Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Fables, Flashpoint (DC Comics) and even the Harley Quinn (2019) series.
• Adaptation Species Change: It's been confirmed that Gordon Godfrey is Human instead of an Apokaliptan.
• Adaptational Context Change: The destruction of Bludhaven. In the comics, it was caused by the Society dropping Chemo like a bomb. Here, it was the result of a U.S. nuclear strike combined with Apokoliptian technology.
• Adapted Out: Since Ozpin doesn't die during the Fall of Beacon, there's no mention of Oscar Pine anywhere. There's also no mention of Maria Calavera since the cast never ended up in Argus. They aren't mentioned until Chapter 71 and it turns out, Oscar became a costumed vigilante under the moniker of "Woodsman", who is trying his best to protect innocents in the now crime-ridden Mistral. His mentor is none other than Maria Calavera or the Grimm Reaper.
• Affably Evil: The recruiter Jaune, Pyrrha, Cass, and Jason meet when trying to infiltrate Black Mask's gang. He kicks Jaune and Pyrrha out despite them passing most of the tests because they try so hard to act "gangsta" that he concludes they're actually two kids from stable, well-off families that are trying to join for the excitement, thinking being in a gang is like in a movie, and he doesn't want them getting involved in crime. Jaune and Pyrrha actually comment on how nice he was to them.
• After the End:
  • This is how life in Vale after Brainiac's invasion is portrayed. After Brainiac bottled the city, Vale descended into complete anarchy, with only Beacon and the surrounding agricultural district under any form of law and order. The city itself has been overrun by criminals, with the likes of Adam Taurus running amok and Roman Torchwick taking over most of the remaining industry. Meanwhile, the dwindling resources has caused the economy to shift to a bartering system, with things like dust fragments functioning as a replacement for the now worthless Lien. Most of all, however, is the complete sense of despair that hangs over the entire population. Within days of the invasion's end, all the alcohol stores were depleted, causing the bars to resort to moonshine, with several people having succumbed to depression. The end result is that suicide rates are at an all-time high, and, in Beacon at least, Ozpin has already started and increased the amount of group therapy sessions to keep what little morale is left up.
  • The other cities are hardly any better off, with only Vacuo and Kuo Kuana being more stable than Vale. Argus is keeping things together but is still risking major civil unrest due to portions of the military abusing their newfound authority over the populace. Atlas is on the verge of Civil War due to inequitable resource allocation straining the tensions between Atlas and Mantle, as it highlights the already-present socioeconomic disparity between the two cities. Even then, that's still better than Mistral, which has descended into complete anarchy after Lionheart's death, with over a dozen factions vying for control over the city.
• Alas, Poor Villain: Cinder's state after Brainiac captures her is absolutely horrifying, with Brainiac turning her into a test subject to better understand the Maiden powers. By the time Ruby finds her, she's left crying and moaning while Strapped to an Operating Table and Ruby actually tries to free her out of sympathy before Brainiac forces her to flee.
• Alien Invasion: Four in total:
  • The first occurred ten years ago and involved Darkseid invading Earth in search of the Anti-Life Equation. He was only defeated by the combined forces of Earth's militaries, the Amazons, and the DC Trinity.
  • The second occurred five years after the Darkseid Invasion and involved the Imperium/White Martians attempting to take over after nullifying Earth's defenses, only for J'onn J'onzz/The Martian Manhunter to thwart their attempts by bringing together the Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, The Flash, Green Lantern, and Hawkgirl. This invasion was notable for the subsequent creation of the Justice League itself.
  • The third occurred a few years after the Imperium Invasion and involved the Thanagarian Empire, of which Hawkgirl was an advanced scout, attempting to create a hyperspace bypass through Earth, the creation of which would have destroyed the planet. Hawkgirl ultimately betrayed her species to help the people of Earth, sparing it from destruction. Afterwards, the Justice League was expanded to its enlarged present state.
  • The fourth invasion was Brainiac's invasion of Remnant, which ended with him bottling Remnant's major cities and subsequently destroying the planet. RWBY and JNPR's failed attempt to stop him led to their arrival to Earth.
• All There in the Manual: Batman's Batcomputer Files, which describe in length various facets of the DC Universe. A particular notice is Batman's case files on the members of teams RWBY and JNPR themselves, which he uses to chronicle their strengths, weaknesses, and where to take their training next. He also details how to take them down if need be, an ongoing process organized into Project: HUNTER-BAT which includes, among other things, nanites meant to drain an individual of their Aura from the inside. Later used in-story after an unfortunate encounter with Poison Ivy.
• Alternate Self: When talking about The Multiverse, the Flash uses the Cosmic Treadmill to give RWBYJNPR a peek at their Earth-2 versions, whose counterparts have swapped personalities (and ages in Ruby and Yang's case). That Weiss has a more obvious scar and is apparently a Mafia Princess, etc.
• Alternate Universe: The story itself pulls from a wide variety of different sources to make up its continuity. RWBY diverges from canon with Brainiac unintentionally crashing the Vytal Festival and DC has multiple different sources being used to make up its continuity.
• Amazon Brigade: The Amazons of Themyscira.
• Anthropomorphic Personification: Black Orchid, due to her being the magic of the House of Mystery given form. Apparently, she wanted to experience life as a human.
• Apocalypse Cult: The Church of Blood, a cult that worships Trigon the Terrible, wants to bring him into the world so that he can cleanse it in fire.
• Arc Villain: Although Brainiac is the Big Bad, the story itself is structured into different arcs, centered around one or two villains and the heroes' efforts to stop them.
  • The story's Starter Villain is Scarecrow.
  • The Themyscira arc's villain was Stheno (the older sister of the much more famous Gorgon, Medusa), with Ares as its Greater-Scope Villain.
  • The Jump City or Titans arc's Big Bad was Brother Blood and Raven's father, Trigon.
  • The villains for the Fawcett City arc are Mr. Mind, Sivanna, and Black Adam, with Ares showing up again in the aftermath of someone attacking a military base with Fear Gas to draw in Grimm.
• Arch-Enemy: Aside from the usual DC fare, Brainiac has becomes this for all Remnantians, but especially for Teams RWBY and JNPR, Ozpin, and Ironwood.
• Armor-Piercing Question:
  • During the interrogation of Scarecrow by Batman after he's been caught, the madman throws all attempts by Batman to help him in his face. Only for this exchange to transpire:
    Batman: Who supplied you with your equipment?
    Scarecrow: Oh, a classic attempt at deflection! It doesn't really matter. I don't really care who you are under that mask. After all, I wouldn't be surprised if that mask is who you truly believe yourself to be. How I wish I could have the chance to analyze you in closer detail.
    Batman: Is that not what you're doing right now? Deflection, delusions of grandeur, hiding behind a mask. Behind your mask, you're just a lonely man who was never loved, a man who was scared at everything and tried to project that fear onto the world.
    Scarecrow: I am fear incarnate. Nothing scares me.
    Batman: Oh, I doubt that very much.
  • Another happens between Brainiac and Ozpin after the Coluan reveals how he saved a civilization from extinction at the hands of Doomsday. He asked Ozpin whether or not he should have left them be, and Ozpin doesn't have an answer.
• As You Know: Acknowledged when Cyborg and Yang are testing a new grappling hook function to Ember Celica. Yang calls him out on it, to which he says it was simply for the record.
• Attention Whore: Weiss deduces that Mumbo needs to be the center of attention, so she proceeds to steal his spotlight so Nightwing and Raven can rescue their friends.
• Audience Surrogate: All of RWBY and JNPR, due to them being new to the wider DC Universe. As such, the older, more experienced superheroes take the time to explain the facets of their world.
• Awesomeness by Analysis: Weiss manages to figure out that Bruce Wayne is Batman from hearing that Dick's last name is Grayson, meaning he is the Dick Grayson, adopted son of Bruce Wayne, then simply puzzling out the timeline between the adoption and Dick meeting Batman, as well as how, regardless of how much he acts like an Upper-Class Twit, Wayne would have noticed his son sneaking out to be a vigilante, meaning there would be no way for someone as young as Dick was at the time to meet Batman, train with him, and become Robin, without his father noticing unless Bruce Wayne was Batman.
• Badass Family: The Bat-Family as always. This time expanded with Nightwing (Dick Grayson), Oracle (Barbara Gordon), Red Hood (Jason Todd), Red Robin, (Tim Drake), Batgirl (Cassandra Cain) Spoiler (Stephanie Brown), Batwoman (Kate Kane), and Robin (Damian Wayne).
• Bait-and-Switch:
  • During the "Fables Among Us" storyline, Blake is trapped in the Beauty and the Beast story, and at first it seems that Adam is the Beast. But when the others arrive, they realize that Adam isn't the Beast, he's Gaston.
  • During the battle against the time-displaced dinosaurs and warriors, Willow and Whitley see a man running from a pair of the former, with neither the cops nor heroes lifting a finger to help, and Nora simply commenting on how Mayor Brown is having a blast. In the end, it turns out that Mayor Brown wasn't the man, but the T-Rex, with the man being his assistant.
• Battle in the Center of the Mind: In order to save Penny from Brainiac's virus, Cyborg must interface his systems directly with hers, thus linking their consciousnesses together. The plan is not without risks as anything that goes wrong could put both of them in danger.
• Better as Friends: Downplayed. Pyrrha still has feelings for Jaune and the two went on a date to see if anything would come of it. Unfortunately, despite trying, Jaune has no romantic feelings for Pyrrha. Although disappointed, they both decide to be happy as friends, even should they fall in love with other people. And there's always the chance to try again and see if they catch a spark.
• Big Damn Reunion: After over fifty chapters, Qrow is finally reunited with Yang and Ruby, and Weiss is reunited with Willow and Whitley after their rescue by the Green Lanterns.
• Big "NO!": Ruby does this when Trigon is about to kill her friends, activating her Magical Eye powers in the process.
• A Birthday, Not a Break: Ruby's 16th birthday coincides with Brother Blood's attack on Titan's Tower.
• Bittersweet Ending: "The Green Light of Will" arc has this kind of ending.
  • The Sweet:
    • Brainiac has been defeated by the Green Lantern Corps and forced to retreat, shattering the belief in his invulnerability. Furthermore, the damage the Corps did has prevented him from conducting any more 'preservations' for at least a year while he recovers.
    • Qrow, Penny, Willow, and Whitley are rescued, and they finally learn that RWBY and JNPR are alive and well and now living on Earth, with both groups posed to reunite soon.
  • The Bitter:
    • 107 Green Lanterns died fighting Brainiac, a loss that Ozpin laments.
    • While the Green Lantern Corps managed to unlock the bottled cities, they have no way of safely getting them out. They found this out the hard way when one bottled civilization was destroyed by lifting it up. This forced them to leave the cities behind.
    • Penny was torn apart resisting Brainiac and is now in a coma.
    • Brainiac is still at large, stewing with rage, and is plotting a nasty comeback.
• Both Sides Have a Point:
  • The argument after the Aura-draining nanites are revealed to RWBYJNPR. On the one hand, the humans of Earth are a lot more fragile than the average inhabitant of Remnant, as Weiss points out, but Yang is most disturbed by the fact that Bruce went behind their backs to make them in the first place, not to mention that the nanites rely on the Aura-scanning tech that the Remnantians freely gave to the League.
  • When Ironwood reveals his secret plan to use Nuclear power Dust, everybody is mad. However, both sides bring up good reasons.
    • For Ironwood, he safely tested them before going through with it. And states that they can't rely on outside help, let aside see RWBY and JNPR since realistically, they could be who knows where. And while the plan may fail, it could also succeed since Brainiac isn't invincible.
    • The others feel it's too dangerous, and if it fails they'll just be eliminated. And while Ozpin agreed to it, he refused since it can harm not just them, but all the other cities with them leading to genocide.
• Brainwashed and Crazy:
  • Jaune and Ren get mind-controlled by Poison Ivy in the middle of a double date with Pyrrha and Nora, much to the latter two's distress.
  • Later, during the Green Lantern ambush on Brainiac, it is revealed that Brainiac installed a malware program within Penny's systems to allow him to directly control her in the event she tried to escape. When Penny makes to Kyle Raynor, Brainiac activates the malware and forces Penny to fight Kyle.
• Break the Cutie: Poor Ruby and Nora.
• Break the Haughty: Being abandoned by his father and spending five months in Brainiac's captivity as one of his lab subjects has stripped away Whitley's Smug Snake tendencies and left behind a quiet, traumatized kid that has been thoroughly broken by his experiences.
• Brick Joke:
  • In order to solve one of Riddler's puzzles, Ruby has to direct a bunch of blimps that have had parts of a question mark painted on them into a specific formation. Two chapters later (during events that take place at the same time), while waiting to infiltrate Black Mask's gang, Jaune, Pyrrha, Jason, and Cassandra notice a bunch of blimps moving strangely, and pick up Ruby directing them from the ground over the radio.
  • Ruby finds out Billy's secret identity by literally running into him at the mall. The Marvel Family is rather flabbergasted to find this out.
  • In the time-travel arc, when it turns out that the whole thing was a Stable Time Loop, Ruby realizes that Team RWBY and Qrow were the five people that they couldn't identify in the picture Penny showed them before they went back in time.
• But for Me, It Was Tuesday:
  • When jumping out of their Javelin over Bludhaven after it was hit by a League of Shadows attack, Black Canary expresses concern that Team RWBY does that kind of thing enough to have a name for it.
  • The people of Metropolis have been exposed to Mr. Mxyzptlk's antics so frequently that many start recording it on their phones once they're far enough away.
• The Cameo: RWBY and JNPR come across an imprisoned Doomsday on Brainiac's ship. They wisely decide to get as far away from him as possible.
• Cape Wings: Ruby's trademark red cape is upgraded to serve this capacity, turning it into a glider, not unlike the glider-cape Batman and his allies use.
• Card-Carrying Villain: Scarecrow, full stop. He sees everyone as potential test subjects to learn more about fear, and is willing to plunge an entire city into chaos just for a chance to test his latest formula, sell it to potential buyers, then use that money to fund further experiments. RWBY and JNPR note that he's the most insane man they've ever met in their lives.
• Catapult Nightmare: This happens to both Ruby and Weiss after they have their respective nightmares about Brainiac capturing and experimenting on their friends and loved ones.
• Catch and Return: Brother Blood smashes Crocea Mors and throws one fragment of it at Jaune. Jaune catches it mid-throw and returns the favor, with better results. It's lampshaded when Jaune comments that he didn't think it would work.
• Clap Your Hands If You Believe: In his conversation with Salem, Ares reveals that the gods of Earth exist because people believing they exist caused them to become real.
  Ares: On Earth, the gods were created by the collective belief of humanity attempting to explain the natural and unnatural world around them. Through that belief, they gained the very powers and domains that humanity prescribed to them. This happened for the ancient Greeks, where I hailed from, the ancient Norse, Egypt, and every other religion across history. It still happens now.
• Clark Kenting: The Trope Namer, of course. Lois figured it out a while ago, and Blake, already feeling like she recognized Clark from somewhere, realized it when Lois mentioned that he was from Smallville, with the other members of RWBYJNPR and the Titans (save Dick, who knew already), being surprised by it, and/or not them realizing it earlier.
• Common Tongue: Though there are many languages on Remnant, most of the modern population speaks Vytalan, a language created and popularized after the Great War.
• Commonality Connection: Ruby bonds with Vigilante and Jason Todd because of their appreciation for guns.
• Continuity Nod: During Bane's appearance, he mentions the fact that he broke the Bat and then performs the iconic "Bat Breaker" on Yang. Luckily for her, her Aura holds, meaning she doesn't suffer the same broken spine that Bruce did.
• Crazy-Prepared:
  • Batman, as usual. He's even created countermeasures to take down mind-controlled or gone rogue members of RWBYJNPR, and it's implied he has similar contingencies for the rest of the superhero community by Nightwing.
  • He also deliberately focused on Yang and Pyrrha's armor to counteract the wounds that they canonically received in the Fall of Beacon after seeing their injuries in alternate timelines, or in Pyrrha's case, that she died from them in a large number of them.
• Creepy Doll: Weiss, Yang, Pyrrha and Jaune encounter a room full of them in the House of Mystery, and it's lampshaded by the two blondes in the group, though Pyrrha doesn't really get it.
• Curb Stomp Cushion: The Marvel Family and RWBYJNPR's fight with Black Adam was mostly in the latter's favor, and they only won by getting him to leave of his own free will, but they still got some good hits in and prevented any civilian deaths.
• Cut Lex Luthor a Check: As Ruby points out to Control Freak, why doesn't he use his powers to entertain people? The Titans and RWBYJNPR actually had a lot of fun fighting him, so he could just offer to let people do stuff like that while making sure they weren't harmed, and he could still play the villain like he wants to. As he's being arrested, it's made clear that he's actually putting serious consideration into it. Later chapters reveal he plead guilty at his trial so that way he could get out sooner to start up his new business.
• Dark Fic: Played With.
  • As noted below, just because Brainiac unknowingly stopped the Fall of Beacon (and thus Yang losing an arm, the death of Pyrrha, and Ozma shifting to Oscar didn't happen in this universe) doesn't mean it's Lighter and Softer. First, there's Brainiac's usual shtick of shrinking certain cities to preserve a planet's knowledge, then destroying the rest, so while Vale is safe, Remnant itself is destroyed and Vale has descended into anarchy and depression.
  • There's also the fact that some of the darker stories in DC's history are canon, so there's the matter of Barbara Gordon being Oracle (wheelchair and all), Jason Todd and Superman having died and come back, and Damian Wayne being a Child by Rape. Additionally, among the villains, RWBY and JNPR fight are the Scarecrow, the Penguin (having the personality of his Batman: Arkham Series incarnation), and Trigon.
    • That said, the teams are doing relatively well given the circumstances, and most of the heroes' familial relationships are relatively intact - the aforementioned Jason Todd is a wholly accepted part of the Batfamily compared to his usual status in most continuities.
  • Several of the Elseworld chapters play this straight. The first features a universe based on Kingdom Come, where Blake ends up just like Orion did in the original, with additional misanthropy over the injustices on Earth, and another based on DCeased, though that one ends better than the original. Chapter 52 features a RWBY Chibi-inspired short — and followed up with two, one inspired by Tales from the Dark Multiverse and the other by Batman: Last Knight on Earth, with all the horror those concepts have.
• Darker and Edgier: Zig-Zagged, befitting a crossover with DC.
  • The very first chapter dwarfs the entirety of the canon fall of Beacon. Brainiac invades Remnant, slaughters millions of people, kidnaps thousands for his experiments, shrinks and bottles up the planet's major cities, and then blows up the planet.
  • Teams RWBY and JNPR get front-row seats to the last bit before getting teleported by a Mother Box to Earth. From then on, while the teams face quite a bit of peril from both the DC Universe's cadre of villains and increasing Grimm presence - as well as the trauma from Brainiac's attack - they also ingratiate themselves with many of the heroes, and are more united than ever.
  • When the focus turns to the bottle cities of Remnant, it's clear just how much the survivors/prisoners are suffering, and struggling to find hope.
• Dating Catwoman: Batman, as usual, has an on-again/off-again relationship with Selina Kyle. Yang finds it hysterical, while Blake can't help but think back to the books she liked to read at night. The rest of the Bat-Family are resigned to it at this point.
• Dead Man's Switch: Ozpin has a theory that Brainiac has one that would destroy his captive cities if he were somehow taken out, which is why no one's dealt with him yet. This is eventually confirmed during the Green Lanterns' attack on his ship.
• Deadly Gas: Scarecrow's Fear Gas, which he used to poison much of Gotham City. RWBYJNPR shudder to think of how bad it would have been on Remnant though, drawing hordes of Grimm towards cities. Even worse, he's developed a variant that can get past conventional gas masks which is later used in an attack on Luke's military base.
• Deal with the Devil: When visiting the Rock of Eternity, the Seven Deadly Sins tempt Ruby to release them in exchange for the power to take revenge on Brainiac. Ruby soundly rejects the offer.
• Death by Adaptation:
  • In canon the Wyvern wasn't killed just Taken for Granite, here it was destroyed by Brainiac.
  • The short story based on Last Knight on Earth in chapter 52 depicts Batman as having indeed died during the siege on the Hall of Justice with Ruby becoming Omega instead.
• Death Glare: A Gorgon's stare, par for the course. One look upon a Gorgon's face will turn a victim to stone.
• Deducing the Secret Identity: Weiss is able to deduce Batman's identity when, during an undercover op with Raven and Nightwing, some women recognize the latter as Dick Grayson. Since it would be difficult for Bruce Wayne to not know about his adopted son's vigilantism, the only other option is that he would be in on it, ergo...
• Demonic Possession: Trigon's ultimate goal towards Raven. A goal that he succeeds in, at least temporarily. He then possesses Brother Blood when the vengeful Titans come after the cult leader.
• Did We Just Have Tea with Cthulhu?: Pyrrha's reaction when she realizes that she's talking with Death of the Endless in the House of Mystery.
• Dirty Coward:
  • Raven Branwen, unsurprisingly; she's working under Brainiac with the claim that she's ensuring her own survival when, in reality, it's because she's too scared to even try opposing him. She later even gives up her own brother Qrow to him.
  • Jacques Schnee, who sells out his wife and son (the latter of whom is supposedly his favorite child, mind you), just to save his own skin. He didn't even bother fighting or resisting — the very moment Brainiac asked for them to be handed over, he gave them up without a second thought. No wonder Willow considers herself divorced now.
• Disposable Pilot: The pilot that flew RWBYJNPR into Brainiac's ship dies in the ensuing crash. Yang actually blames herself for this, and later vows to become a pilot in her own right so that she won't have to force anyone else into such a situation ever again.
• Does Not Know His Own Strength: RWBYJNPR have to go through several training sessions on the Watchtower, as since they've been fighting the superhuman Grimm and other Hunters with Aura and Semblances all their lives, they have to learn to hold back against mundane thugs in the DC universe lest they cripple or kill the Mooks they fight.
• Doing In the Wizard: Downplayed in regards to aura and semblances. DNA testing by the Justice League reveals that every living creature on Remnant has an active metagene which allows them to generate aura. Word of God goes in further detail that while all Remnantians have a metagene, their metagene only grants aura generation. Semblances are still the manifestation of the soul.
• Double Standard Rape: Female on Male: Averted with Damian's conception. While the comics tend to play this straight (Bruce is usually only mildly disgusted at most and still has feelings for Talia afterwards), here Bruce is clearly traumatized by what happened, all of the Remnantians are horrified when they realize what happened, and Damian himself absolutely despises his mother for what she did.
• Double Take: On their first night at Wayne Manor, Weiss wakes up at the feeling of someone chewing on her hair, wakes up to see a cow, then goes back to sleep. Then she realizes what she saw and flips out.
• Downer Beginning: The story begins with Brainiac successfully shrinking the cities of Remnant, storing them in his ship, and destroying the planet.
• Dramatic Irony: Qrow, not knowing of Salem's immortality, assumes that Brainiac killed her when he destroyed Remnant despite it having been made clear that she's still alive. So in his mind, the Grimm on Earth are merely following a contingency plan she made. Then, at the end of Chapter 51, Lex Luthor opens up a boom tube to the Monstra, floating in space...
• The Dreaded:
  • Brainiac is, unsurprisingly, this to RWBYJNPR, even after growing stronger and getting the support of Earth's heroes.
  • Despite only being mentioned and having a cameo appearance, The Joker is one of the most feared villains around. Flash even mentioned that other villains tell scary stories about the Joker, most of which are true, and the Remantians sincerely hope they never ever get the chance to meet him.
  • As the most feared entity in the universe and the embodiment of tyranny, Darkseid is vile by nature, and nobody enjoys the thought of fighting him. When Ozpin mentioned his name, the nearly emotionless Brainiac shows obvious fear of him.
• Drowning My Sorrows: The destruction of Remnant and the presumed deaths of teams RWBY and JNPR drive Ironwood, Taiyang, and Qrow towards this. Fortunately, the latter two get better after learning that the two teams survived.
• Due to the Dead:
  • After becoming the Winter Maiden, Penny uses her newfound powers to cremate Fria's body to prevent Brainiac from dissecting her corpse.
  • Qrow later offers a silent prayer to the Green Lanterns that died during the assault on Brainiac's ship.

E-J

• Earth-Shattering Kaboom: After collecting all the major population centers and any other areas of note, Brainiac destroys the planet they were located on and continues on to the next one. This is what he did to Remnant, and poor RWBY and JNPR all got front-row seats.
• Elseworlds: While the story itself technically counts as this, there are chapters not canon to the story that also count.
  • There are chapters based on skit comedy the vein of RWBY Chibi.
  • Additionally, there are two chapters (so far) with two vignettes each, the first featuring hypothetical scenarios (respectively Ozpin meeting Death and Ruby wanting a Sexy Whatever Outfit for Halloween, much to Yang's chagrin) and the second based on Elseworlds stories done by DC (again respectively, Kingdom Come and DCeased).
  • Another chapter is later published with RWBYJNPR ending up on the Earth of Superman: Red Son. Chapter 52 sees short stories based on the concept of the Dark Multiverse and Batman: Last Knight on Earth.
• Enemy Mine:
  • Chapter 1 sees faunus in White Fang masks joining forces with Atlesian and Vale military against Brainiac's forces.
  • Green Arrow, Black Canary and RWBY end up teaming up with the Suicide Squad to go against the League of Shadows.
  • Mr. Mxyzptlk reveals that during his time on Remnant he was so annoying that Salem and Ozma joined forces to get rid of him.
  • Hazel suggested to Salem that she could form an alliance with the Justice League, but ultimately it wouldn't be practical since the Justice League would connect Salem to the Grimm attacks and try to detain her.
• Et Tu, Brute?: Coco is extremely unamused to see Mercury and Emerald working for Torchwick, and barely holds herself back from attacking them.
• "Eureka!" Moment: While traveling to Slaughter Swamp with Beast Boy and Raven, Weiss learns about the Elemental Forces of Life from Swamp Thing and Raven. It is then she theorizes that these forces are the same type of forces that give Dust their power. She realizes that this could be the breakthrough they need to manufacture Dust on Earth.
• Even Evil Has Standards:
  • Most of the mob bosses and (relatively) saner criminals in Gotham refuse to work with or sell to psychos like Scarecrow, though it's only partly due to having standards. The rest of it is that they know people like Scarecrow are just as likely to use anything they sell him on their men as he is to use it on the heroes.
    • While Scarecrow did use software programmed by the Riddler, he got it from a third-party Riddler had sold it to, and even then the Riddler only sold it to them because they lied about who they were, pretending to work for Black Mask.
    • When Penguin found out some of his men went behind his back and smuggled weapons in for Scarecrow, he personally fed them to his shark.
    • Black Mask executes some of his men for helping Scarecrow. He believes them when they say he told them to, knowing it was probably a shapeshifter or illusionist pretending to be him, but kills them for being stupid enough to fall for it, as they should have known that he'd never help Scarecrow and that there are tons of people in Gotham who could pretend to be him (though he does imply that if the impostor had been Clayface, aka a shapeshifting professional actor, then he might have let them off lightly).
  • While musing on Brainiac's motives for his villainy, Ozpin sincerely believes that not even Salem would've gone as far as to destroy all of Remnant.
  • Most supervillains, even ones like Deathstroke, find the Grimm unnerving. Even some of the members of the League of Shadows are creeped out by them, despite planning on using them in their plans, and Lady Shiva admits that she only works with them herself because she was ordered to.
  • Several members of the Suicide Squad; Deadshot doesn't like Waller's tendency to abandon allies mid-fight, Boomerang only kills on Squad missions, and Killer Croc might eat people, but only if they piss him off first, and he wants nothing to do with Frost's psychopathy.
  • Surprisingly, Brainiac. He will not attempt to preserve a civilization that isn't, according to him, on the verge of collapse due to a variety of factors. If they're stable, he'll leave them alone. In some cases, the civilizations he collects have decayed so badly, Brainiac collecting them is a blessing.
  • Livewire doesn't like hurting kids, and doesn't attack Nora until the latter provokes her by, among other things, calling her a C-List villain.
  • Junior is a mob boss, but he's disgusted with Raven selling out to Brainiac. When she has the nerve to show up at his makeshift bar, he angrily tells her to Get Out!.
• Even the Girls Want Her:
  • During their visit to Themyscira, Yang, Blake, and Weiss have to politely reject several Amazons who want to ask them out.
  • During an omake, all the members of RWBY and JNPR admit that Wonder Woman is the most beautiful person that they've ever met. Diana is, thankfully, rather flattered by this.
• Everyone Can See It: Harley Quinn, at least, claims that Blake and Yang's attraction is obvious, though she has the advantage of being a trained psychologist.
• Everyone Has Standards: Brainiac is already a long-established monster, but subjecting Whitley Schnee to beatings and experimentation is so horrid that even other Remnantians (who already hate Brainiac plenty) are surprised and horrified to hear about it. Blake lampshades this, noting how she didn't think her opinion of Brainiac could ever get any lower until she heard about what happened to Whitley.
• Evil Is Not a Toy:
  • The Grimm, as always, cannot be controlled by anyone who's not Salem or one of her minions. Not that it stops several of Earth's supervillains from trying. Trigon comes the closest to succeeding mainly because he used them as the basis for the attack on Raven's mind instead of trying to control the physical Grimm, along with being a similar entity to them as a God of Evil, and even then it backfired due to Ruby's Silver Eyes.
  • Luthor himself has had decent success in selling them. However, the League believes he's playing with fire as they note that something or someone is using his selling of them as a means to spread the Grimm's influence.
  • Mr. Mind's Psychic Powers enable him to direct the Grimm for his own ends, but even he admits that he can't control them. He later tells Sivanna that it's taking all his focus just to keep them from attacking the two of them.
• Evil Power Vacuum: Lionheart's death might have been well-deserved, but it was also ill-timed and ultimately disastrous for Mistral. Without Lionheart or the remaining civilian government, the citizens have no central authority to rally around and thus the city itself has completely fractured, with over a dozen 'warlords' carving it up into pieces in hopes of consolidating enough power to take over. The most prominent of these warlords are Sienna Khan, who tried to step into Lionheart's shoes and took over Haven Academy in his stead, and Lil' Miss Malachite, who took over most of the lower parts of the city. Both of them are currently just gathering resources and establishing their positions, but Brainiac suspects it's only a matter of time before their respective factions start coming to blows.
• Eviler than Thou:
  • Brainiac is this to every other villain and criminal on Remnant. He captured Cinder with contemptuous ease and is currently using her as his lab rat, he cowed Raven into working for him, and the rest are either dead or shrunken and bottled up. Even Salem is currently in hiding, after Brainiac's attempt to capture her ended in him seemingly killing her.
  • In turn, Darkseid is this to Brainiac. The first time he's alluded to by Brainiac is the first time Ozpin sees anything remotely resembling fear on the alien warlord's face.
  • When talking to her mother about Lex Luthor, Weiss tells her that Lex is far worse than Jacques.
• Expy: In-Universe. In a Hunters Of Justice Chibi! chapter, Ruby meets her own Emoticlones, who each wear the color of and share some mannerisms with people Ruby associates with those emotions.
  • Her Knowledge is based on Weiss and wears a white cloak.
  • Her Bravery is based on Yang and wears a yellow cloak.
  • Her Timidity is based on Blake and wears a purple cloak.
  • Her Joy is based on Penny and wears a green cloak.
  • Her Rudeness is based on Qrow and wears a dark red cloak.
  • Her Love is based on Wonder Woman and wears a cloak of red, blue and gold.
  • Her Anger is based on Batman and wears a black cloak.
  • Her Hope is based on Superman and wears a cloak of blue and red.
• Fairytale Motifs: Lampshaded In-Universe when the Queen of Fables thinks that Team RWBY actually are Red Riding Hood, Snow White, Beauty, and Goldilocks, respectively.
• Fantastically Indifferent: Years of experience with superheroes, supervillains, and alien invasions have left a lot of people on Earth rather unaffected or unsurprised by weirdness. After living on Earth for six months, RWBY and JNPR start showing this attitude as well. Perhaps best shown by the citizens of Andrews, Texas, who aren't in the least bit fazed by Hogzilla, with one of them even saying it was bound to happen eventually. After killing it, the citizens' biggest concern is whether or not they can eat Hogzilla in a victory barbecue.
• For Want Of A Nail: By crashing the Vytal Festival, Brainiac has effectively prevented nearly all the events from the following volumes from ever happening. Pyrrha's death and Yang losing an arm are also avoided.
• Forced to Watch: After getting utterly curb-stomped by Brainiac, teams RWBY and JNPR are given front-row seats to witness Brainiac bottling Vale and destroying the planet afterward while all they can do is look on in silent horror.
• Foreshadowing: Early on in the story, Brainiac reveals that he left the Summer Maiden alone in Vacuo to act as his 'control' while he studied the other Maidens and tested their abilities. Later on, after Qrow is rescued by the Green Lanterns, he realizes that Brainiac had used Winter as his 'control' for the Schnee Family's Semblance when he meets two of the other refugees, Willow and Whitley, and that is why she was left alone in Vale.
• Forgiven, but Not Forgotten: Ultimately, this is the attitude RWBYJNPR adopts after learning about Batman's aura-draining nanites and all of his reasons for doing so. While they can understand where he's coming from and even approve on some level, he still betrayed their trust which is something they can't easily let go of. This fuels their decision to move out of Wayne Manor and into their own residence in Metropolis.
• "Freaky Friday" Flip: During the team's training in the House of Mystery, Yang and Weiss, as well as Jaune and Pyrrha, get their minds swapped, done by Black Orchid as revenge for Constantine and Zatanna bringing a Beowolf into the House of Mystery. They still have their original Semblances, but have to work with their new bodies' different physicality and levels of Aura (much to Yang's dismay, Weiss's body isn't exactly great for brawling). The magic is strong enough that Constantine and Zatanna can't undo it, while Etrigan refuses to help because it's just too funny. They're advised to just wait a day or so for the spell to wear off.
• Fridge Logic: In-Universe example, when Nora hears about the capabilities of Mr. Mind's hyperfly form^note Namely the part about them being able to eat entire universes.
  Nora: Wait…then how does everything still exist if there used to be an entire species of that?
• Full-Boar Action: RWBY and JNPR begin chapter 51 by fighting a giant, radioactive, mutated feral pig that they call Hogzilla alongside Captain Atom and the Titans.
• Ghost Town: Bludhaven was rendered uninhabitable for at least a century after a tactical nuclear weapon, detonated during the Apokoliptian invasion to try and keep Kalibak's forces at bay, had its effects exponentially magnified by Apokoliptic technology caught in the blast. This allows the League of Shadows to build a hidden base of operations there.
• God Needs Prayer Badly: It's mentioned that the reason Ares was able to kill the other Olympians was due to them being weakened by Constantine's then rising Christian kingdom slowly overtaking their worshippers. Likewise, Zeus was the first Olympian to reconstitute due to Christianity adopting his image for their depictions of God.
• Gone Horribly Right: While Jaune and Pyrrha got kicked out of the recruitment effort for being too nice, Jason nearly ended up joining the gang because his efforts were too convincing.
• Greater-Scope Villain: Although RWBY and JNPR still have to deal with various DC villains, the threat of Brainiac still looms over all.
• Groin Attack:
  • Yang subjects the Penguin to this after she forces him to give up some evidence. This is after he himself forced her to fight off a veritable army of criminals and Bane, so it was rightfully deserved.
  • Oscar lands a devastating one on a downed White Fang thug with his axe.
• Hallucinations:
  • What Scarecrow's Fear Gas inflicts upon its victims. It causes a person to see their worst fears, subsequently causing a city-wide panic attack and riots. It would have gotten worse had Batman and his allies not managed to stop him.
  • He later inflicted RWBY and JNPR with an experimental formula of the fear gas that destroyed their rebreathers, forcing them to face their greatest fears. Ruby sees Brainiac reaching out for her, Weiss sees her father subjugating her, Blake sees Adam attacking her, Yang sees everyone she loved abandoning her, Jaune sees all of his friends dying because of him, and Ren sees the Grimm that orphaned him.
• Harmful to Minors: It's mentioned that several children were captured for Brainiac's experiments during his Invasion of Remnant. That is proven true when Qrow meets one of the captives during the Green Lantern Corps' attack/rescue attempt: Whitley Schnee, who can't be any older than fifteen at most. He was forced through numerous, brutal combat simulations for the past five months to force him to awaken his Aura and Semblance for Brainiac's studies. By the time Qrow meets him, he's been bruised, scarred, and thoroughly traumatized.
• Hated by All:
  • Adam Taurus has become this in Vale after he reveals his true colors and proves to be a petty, spiteful terrorist that would rather make things more difficult for everyone and execute anyone he doesn't like or disagrees with him than work with the local authorities to help everyone survive the current situation. This includes other Faunus, many of whom he dismembers with prejudice.
  • Beacon's staff, her own family, and even criminals like Junior can't stand Raven for working with Brainiac.
• Haunted House: The House of Mystery technically qualifies as one, due to its location in both the physical realm as well as the Dreaming, making it a focal point of mystical energies. In addition to having Chaos Architecture, the mansion contains numerous magical monsters for RWBYJNPR to train against.
• Healing Factor:
  • Stheno, a Gorgon from Greek Mythology, is immortal. Any wounds she received from Pyrrha was quickly negated by her healing.
  • Aura itself also provides a limited healing factor as well, allowing the individual to recover from wounds more quickly.
• "Hell, Yes!" Moment: The Ozluminati are outright jubilant when they learn RWBY and JNPR are alive and, more importantly, have escaped Brainiac. It's made clear that it's the best news they've heard since Vale fell, and Ozpin hopes that, at the very least, Remnant will live on through them.
• Hero Insurance: Lex Insurance covers all sorts of scenarios, from the mundane like fire to things like rampaging spirits or temporal anomalies.
• Heroes Love Dogs: Ruby, Weiss, and Nora immediately start playing around with Krypto when they first meet him, and Weiss can't help but gush and coo over Ace's manners during training in the Batcave. Hilariously inverted in Blake's case, as she tries keeping as much distance as possible from the two, while Krypto and Ace respectively lick and implore her to pet him. Weiss even jokingly lampshades her popularity with canines.
• Heroic BSoD:
  • RWBY-JNPR suffered a week-long one after they arrived and woke up on the Watch Tower, thanks to the two-day Trauma Conga Line they went through during Brainiac's invasion of Remnant. It was only due to the patience and understanding of the various members of the Justice League that they were able to break out of it.
  • Most of the Ozluminati and allies are hit with this, but Qrow and Taiyang are hit the worst. Qrow's alcoholism has gotten even worse, and Taiyang has also become an alcoholic, but while Qrow still at least talks to people, Tai has all but shut down, doing nothing but drink and occasionally glare at people. Ozpin finding out from Brainiac that Ruby, Yang, and the others are not only alive but managed to escape snaps both of them out of it.
• Heroic RRoD: Throughout the fight with Black Adam, Nora uses her semblance to absorb Black Adam and the Shazam Families' lightning to boost her strength. However, as the fight drags on, she runs the risk of overloading her Aura. When she saves Jaune from a deadly attack by jumping in the path of Black Adam's massive lightning strike, she gains a tremendous amount of power from her semblance; however, it shatters her Aura and she suffers severe damage to her body. After she manages to knock Black Adam away, she immediately collapses. Were it not for Jaune awakening his semblance there and then, she would have died.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Fria uses the last of her Maiden powers in order to cut a path for Qrow and Penny to escape from Brainiac. Due to her advanced age, the strain of using her powers ends up triggering a fatal heart attack. However, this was her plan all along so that she wouldn't slow down Penny and Qrow.
• Hiding Behind the Language Barrier: Jaune and Yang do this briefly in "First Impressions".
• Holding Out for a Hero: This is part of why Clark isn't Superman full-time; when he first came to Metropolis as a Daily Planet intern, he did try to spend every spare moment that he could helping people. Unfortunately, this made people reckless because they assumed that he would save them, some even deliberately endangered themselves so they could meet him, forcing him to step back. Lex Luthor often cites this in his arguments against Superman, and even Clark has to admit that he has a point.
• Hong Kong Dub: In-Universe. The Legion of Superheroes' rings translates their spoken words into a language and dialect appropriate to the current time period in real time. But as Jonah Hex points out, if you look closely, you can see that the Legionnaire's lip movement doesn't perfectly match their spoken words.
• Hope Spot: RWBY and JNPR arriving on Earth is one for Remnant, not that they know it.
• Horror Doesn't Settle for Simple Tuesday: Brother Blood's major offensive takes place on Halloween.
• Human Aliens: RWBY and JNPR to the people of Earth. Functionally, they are similar enough to humans in that they are biologically compatible. However, enough key differences remained in order to classify them as an entirely new species dubbed Remnantian. These differences include:
  • Their muscles and skeletons are denser than a human being's, granting them increased strength and durability.
  • Blake, in particular, is noted to be even more genetically distinct, due to her being a Faunus. As such, Blake is noted to have strands of extra DNA that are similar to felines.
  • Finally, every single Remnantian is noted to have the ability to unlock an Aura, which the Justice League discover to be the result of a universal meta gene held within their genetic makeup.
  • Weiss theorizes that this is the result of evolutionary pressures created by the constant Grimm attacks.
• Human Sacrifice: The Church of Blood sacrifices some of its members in their worship of Trigon.
• Hunter of Monsters: What Huntsmen effectively were on Remnant, whose job was to hunt Grimm before they became dangerous to people. After Remnant was destroyed, teams RWBY and JNPR, who were training to be Huntsmen, decide to use the skills they already learned to become superheroes instead of letting them go to waste.
• I Know You Know I Know: The dynamic between Lex and Salem; neither one trusts the other, both are planning to betray the other the moment they're no longer useful, and both are aware the other has the same idea.
• I Told You So: When Poison Ivy captures Jaune and Ren, Batman can tell Robin (who was against JNPR's double date) is thinking this by his expression alone. He later says it word for word once they're in the Batmobile.
• Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy: Lampshaded by Cyborg about Control Freak's Stormtroopers failing to actually hit anyone. It turns out that he had invoked this deliberately so that they'd be strong enough to keep the police out without actually hurting anyone.
• Implacable Man: As always, Solomon Grundy cannot be stopped unless his heart is removed.
• In Spite of a Nail: Discussed in regards to The Multiverse, with things like Krypton being destroyed tending to happen despite the various factors.
  • Despite the varying circumstances, Penny does eventually get a version of the upgrades that she has during the Atlas arc, including becoming the Winter Maiden.
• Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain: Michael Mayo, the Condiment King, who only returned to villainy when he lost his job and his wife (who was having an affair) left him while taking the kids. Nora, Ren, Stephanie, Tim, and even the people he was trying to rob end up pitying him.
• Instant Web Hit: To rescue Mumbo Jumbo's hostages, Weiss distracts the villain by upstaging him with her singing. One of the hostages had recorded her performance and uploaded it to YouTube after he was saved. The video got five million views in three days.
• Internal Reveal:
  • In the first chapter, Jaune let's slip that he got into Beacon on falsified papers, figuring that given the Alien Invasion that's going on, it doesn't really matter at this point who knows or not.
  • Raven reveals her status as the Spring Maiden to Qrow and Taiyang, giving similar reasons to Jaune above.
• Intimidating Revenue Service: Name-dropped in a RWBY Chibi skit involving Joker, Salem, and a bank heist foiled by RWBY JNPR and the Batfamily.
• Intrepid Reporter: Blake eventually gets a job at the Planet as Lois's understudy.
• Introduced Species Calamity: The outbreak of Grimm on Earth is compared to this by the Justice League rather than a deliberate invasion by another alien entity, complete with people facilitating their spread out of short-sighted beliefs that doing so would benefit them.
• Irony: In his many arguments against Superman, Lex Luthor often cites Clark Kent's articles.
• "It" Is Dehumanizing:
  • During her captivity, Brainiac refers to Penny as "the gynoid".
  • When Raven whisks Qrow away during his escape attempt she refers to Penny as "the android." Qrow immediately tells her that her name is Penny.
• Joisey: Gotham is confirmed to be in New Jersey.
• Jumped at the Call: When the Justice League offer to train RWBY and JNPR to be superheroes, the teenagers barely give it a second thought before agreeing. They literally do this when Gotham comes under attack from Scarecrow.

K-P

• Laser-Guided Karma: Penguin, after being humiliated by Yang, Blake, and Batwoman, decides to send his entire gang after the three inside the Iceberg Lounge with the assistance of Bane, specifically requesting for them to be killed. In consequence, he watches his entire organization get beaten to a pulp, Bane beaten to the point of hospitalization, and gets kicked in the crotch courtesy of Yang. Plus, he gets arrested on top of it all.
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall:
  • In Chapter 43, Yang says that if she didn't know any better, she'd say that Earth was a comic book. When talking about The Multiverse, and how some realities could have them as fictional characters, Ruby goes Who Would Want to Watch Us? and wonders if they'd be a web show or comic.
  • In Chapter 48, Mr. Mxyzptlk, among other things, thinks of referencing RWBYJNPR's Fairytale Motifs, and leaves off doing a "Freaky Friday" Flip since it already happened last chapter.
  • The Queen of Fables goes a step beyond the imp and actually thinks that they are their respective motifs.
  • While on a time travel misadventure, the Remnantians can't agree on what year they came from thanks to the Timey-Wimey Ball, each thinking of a year ranging from 2019 to 2023; Hunters of Justice itself was updated in each of those "modern day" years.
• Legion of Doom: One of Salem's potential plans after arriving on Earth is to form her own alliance with Earth's supervillain community for the purpose of destroying Brainiac. Ultimately the story points out that alliances between self-centered criminals don't last too long.
• Likes Clark Kent, Hates Superman: Clark only writes articles on Superman because he has to in order to keep his job, so he tries to be critical of himself in them. The irony of how Luthor often cites them in his arguments against Superman is not lost on him.
• The Lost Lenore: Even over a century later, Diana still misses Steve Trevor.
• Magical Eye: Ruby's eyes, as in RWBY canon. Only here they're connected, somehow, to the Life Equation.
• The Masquerade: The Fables wish to conceal their existence from the "Mundies", though they will make begrudging exceptions for the Justice League and affiliates if needed.
• Mid-Season Upgrade: Upon their arrival at Titans Tower, RWBYJNPR receive weapon and equipment upgrades to acclimate them to their new role as superheroes. They continue up to upgrade their equipment as time goes on.
• A Million Is a Statistic: Deconstructed. Remnant had a population of 250 million people, and over half of that population was killed in either the destruction of the planet or due to the anarchy each of the cities descended into after they were bottled. Ozpin is rightfully horrified that so many died, and is disgusted by the fact that Brainiac treats it as a random factoid rather than the complete and utter tragedy that it is, taking it as another example of how much of a monster Brainiac is.
• Mission Control:
  • During Scarecrow's massive terror attack on Gotham, RWBY and JNPR are assigned as this since the heroes don't consider them ready to go out into the field yet.
  • Oracle acts as this for the Bat-Family and RWBYJNPR when they run missions in Gotham.
• Mistaken Identity: The Queen of Fables mistakes Team RWBY for their Fairytale Motifs of Red Riding Hood, Snow White, Beauty, and Goldilocks.
• Mob War: After the Kingdom of Mistral was bottled, Professor Lionheart was found dead in Haven Academy (killed by Salem's Seer Grimm). The entire kingdom was quickly swallowed in a power struggle among all the criminal elements from the Wretched Hive of Mistral's lower levels capitalizing on the loss of leadership. The two biggest names in the ongoing turf war are Sienna Khan and the White Fang against Lil' Miss Malachite and the Spiders.
• Monster Protection Racket: Lex Luthor is selling Grimm to villains and terrorists across the world, then selling experimental anti-Grimm weapons to the people fighting against them. Undermining the Justice League is a bonus.
• Mood Whiplash: Chapter 52 is a Halloween-focused Elseworld chapter with the first story being a RWBY Chibi-inspired tale making fun of Comic-Book Time and the second and third being horror tales based on the concept of the Dark Multiverse and Batman: Last Knight on Earth respectively.
• Mugging the Monster:
  • A trio of thugs tries to mug the RWBYJNPR and Titans' girls while in Jump City, and while Yang was willing to just let them go with a purple eye, when one of them insults Ruby, she punches out a few teeth and breaks his nose before dropping them in a dumpster.
  • It happens again in Gotham, with Damian outright calling Gotham a Wretched Hive when Weiss expresses disbelief that someone tried to mug them in broad daylight.
• The Multiverse: RWBYJNPR learn about the multiverse in Chapter 43 as a prelude to the League revealing to them the existence of the Justice Lords as the main reason for Batman's contingency plans. The Earth-Prime Theory is also discussed as a possible reason for why so many alternate timelines and universes are so similar.
• Mundane Luxury: A variation. Willow and Whitely note that their new rooms at RWBYJNPR's apartment are nice, but still a massive downgrade compared to Schnee Manor. However, considering the fact that they spent the last several months living under Brainiac's thumb, the apartment might as well be heaven, so they have no complaints about moving in.
• Mundane Solution: Ruby encounters one of Riddler's puzzles - a bunch of blimps have parts of a question mark painted on them and she has to get the blimps to create the question mark. However the Riddler was expecting her to solve the puzzle, it most likely wasn't by having Ruby just get on the radio, explain the situation to the pilots of the blimps, and direct them like an air traffic controller.
• My God, What Have I Done?: Raven feels this way when she almost kills Mumbo Jumbo by overloading him with her magic.
• My Greatest Failure: The Fall of Remnant was this for several characters, but most of all for Teams RWBY and JNPR, Ironwood, and Ozpin.
  • For Teams RWBY and JNPR, they were literally Remnant's last hope of saving the planet and the other cities. And yet, despite their best efforts, they were painfully curb-stomped by Brainiac and were Forced to Watch both the bottling of Vale and the complete destruction of their planet. It was only by meeting the Justice League that they were able to recover from this and regain the hope of saving what was left of their people.
  • For Ironwood, he was the head of the military forces of Vale, and thus he feels that the inability to save the city and stop Brainiac lands on his shoulders. The fact that he had been too far away to save Atlas as well did not help matters.
  • As for Ozpin, he had spent thousands of years trying to unite and save humanity from the threat of Salem, suffering untold amounts of pain, betrayal, and loneliness all the meanwhile. And then in comes this alien warlord that wrecks all the progress he made within a scant two days, murdering millions and destroying his planet. Understandably, Ozpin is the one who both feels the most guilt for what happened and bears the strongest hatred of Brainiac of all.
• Mythology Gag:
  • Brainiac's identifier for Remnant is "R2003T". Rooster Teeth was founded in the year 2003.
    • He later refers to Remnant's solar system as the Oum System.
  • Like in Batman Begins, when a thug swears to God on something, Batman yells "SWEAR TO ME!" before dropping him from a roof and pulling him back up with a grapple.
  • As she's consulting Aphrodite's shipping chart, Wonder Woman comes upon names of heroes she hasn't met yet.
    Aphrodite: Some would, admittedly, require more effort than others. But, who doesn't love a good redemptive love story?
    Wonder Woman: I'm fairly certain that wouldn't be the actual result. (continues reading) Hold on, most of these people they haven't even met yet. Who's Kara?
    Aphrodite: (ignoring Diana's question) Oh, as if such paltry concerns as time and space, or whether they've actually met each other, matter in the face of love!
  • Yang saves a girl from the Mad Hatter who gives her name as Imra Ardeen, who then gives her some advice regarding Bruce's betrayal by making the Aura-draining nanites, giving a parallel reminiscent of her history with Brainiac-5, and Yang sees what looks like a Legion flight ring on her finger.
  • When discussing The Multiverse with RWBYJNPR, the Justice Lords, Batman/Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and Flashpoint (DC Comics) all get mentioned. Also, when Ruby expresses a Who Would Want to Watch Us? belief, Beast Boy says that a show regarding them would be awesome, either referencing Teen Titans (2003) or Young Justice (2010). After seeing their Earth-2 versions, Jaune, like Owlman, wonders if any of their choices even really matter, but Pyrrha thinks that they do matter.
  • Like in canon Atlas, Jaune is a big hit with single moms.
  • Just like in her debut story, the Queen of Fables mistakes a character for Snow White, Weiss in this case.
  • As a reference to the episode of RWBY Chibi where Team RWBY put on a Red Riding Hood play, when forced to reenact the Red Riding Hood fairytale with Bigby Wolf thanks to the Queen of Fables, a lot of the dialogue of them following the story is lifted from the short, with Bigby in the place of Blake.
  • Just like in Harley Quinn (2019), the Queen of Fables is defeated by sealing her in a copy of the U.S. Tax Code. Bigby even jokes that she could become an accountant.
  • Like in SHAZAM! (2019), Billy records himself testing powers, and even posted them online.
  • Like in Shazam!: Magic and Monsters, Mr. Mind's plans involve breaking into the Rock of Eternity to steal its power for himself. He also ends up freeing Black Adam, but intentionally this time.
  • During her fight with Bane, after suprising him with her Semblance, Yang states that she's more than meets the eye.
  • Penny's upgrade has deliberate similarities to the canon Atlas version.
  • David once got held up by a plant named Frank.
  • When Team JNPR meets Mystery Incorporated, Jaune decides to call his team the Mystery Bunch to keep from being recognized as superheroes.
  • Daphne mentiones how Mystery Inc was operating ever since Scoob was just A Pup Named Scooby-Doo.
• No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: What an angry Ren finishes Scarecrow off with.
• "No. Just… No" Reaction: When discussing with Qrow on the need to get a job on Earth, Qrow initially suggests taking on a job as a mercenary. Ruby and Yang immediately shut down the idea.
• No-Sell:
  • Ren's Semblance is Emotion Suppression. While he was affected by the fear gas, his Semblance allowed him to circumvent its effects.
  • Violet's powers allow her to protect herself and others from the gas.
• No True Scotsman: While Adam Taurus attacks everyone in the city of Vale, earning everyone's hatred and ire, he saves the worst of his treatment towards his fellow Faunus who decide to work with humans to survive rather than lash out as he has. He brands them as race traitors, then proceeds to mutilate them by cutting off their Faunus traits.
• Noodle Incident:
  • Batman mentions having to freeze the Gotham River once using Mr. Freeze's gas; however, he refuses to elaborate when prodded by Flash and Wonder Woman.
  • Mr. Mxyzptlk once visited Remnant (or at the very least, a version of it from The Multiverse). All we're told is that he was so annoying, Ozpin and Salem were forced to team up and managed to banish him from Remnant permanently.
  • Damian apparently did something to goad Whitley into wanting to train with Willow and Weiss. What exactly happened is unknown as all we are treated to is a disheveled and pissed-off Whitely covered in food stains and an unrepentant Damian being looked at with disappointed glares by the rest of the Bat Family.
• Normal Fish in a Tiny Pond:
  • The immortal Salem, Arch-Enemy of Ozpin, has plagued Remnant for thousands of years and has essentially shaped the entire world with her control over the Grimm. When Brainiac came for her, the only reason she survived was thanks to her immortality and she's stuck in hiding for fear of becoming another one of his lab subjects. Ozpin himself notes that, with the way things are, she's currently the least of his problems. Upon reaching Earth, Salem is rather nonplussed to learn that her Complete Immortality isn't particularly unique, and the Spectre comes within a hair of actually killing her.
  • Applies even more to her subordinate Cinder Fall. By the end of the first day of Brainiac's invasion, she was captured and made into another one of his lab subjects, showing just how low on the scale even the most powerful people on Remnant are compared to the top tiers of the DC Universe.
  • Weiss lampshades this when they're heading on a mission to Bludhaven, theorizing that the Grimm created selection pressures that led to the extinction of the non-Aura versions of the meta-gene on Remnant, and that if they hadn't been a factor, Remnant would be more like Earth, with not everyone able to manifest powers, but with more variety in the power levels of those who can.
• Not His Sled: In the non-canon Chapter 52's vignette based on Batman: Last Knight on Earth, Ruby is Omega, not the original Bruce Wayne.
• The Not-Love Interest: Despite knowing how the other feels, Jaune and Pyrrha do not instantly get into a relationship after Pyrrha's Love Confession. This is because both of them acknowledge that neither of them are emotionally ready for such a commitment. They decide to go on a date to see if it works out after they take down Black Mask. To their mutual dismay, the date feels no different from just hanging out normally, but after pep talks from Ren and Nora they decide they're currently Better as Friends.
• Not Me This Time: Upon learning that her teammates and Qrow got into a bar brawl while in the Wild West, Ruby immediately scolds Yang for starting a fight, only for Yang to deny responsibility. Ruby tries again by scolding Qrow, only to be informed that he didn't start it either. She's incredibly baffled to learn that Weiss was the instigator.
• Nothing Is Scarier: Nora's fear gas hallucination is not shown, but it leaves her curled up in the Troubled Fetal Position on the ground. Pyrrha's hallucinations and reactions are also not shown, but she's left as traumatized as the rest of her friends, so it couldn't have been pleasant for her either.
• Nothing Is the Same Anymore: The destruction of Remnant has changed the lives of the Remnantians, for better and for worse. This especially applies to RWBY and JNPR, who have realized that even if they manage to free what's left of their homes from Brainiac's clutches, things will never go back to the way things were. This is partly why they chose Starting a New Life on Earth and wait for Brainiac to come to their new home rather than seek him out themselves.
• Nuclear Weapons Taboo: Downplayed. Shortly before Watts (supposedly) died, he and Penny's father came up with the idea of using Dust to cause a fission reaction, either for power, allowing Dust to be freed up solely for anti-Grimm use... or weaponry. It was shelved after the Paladin incident in favor of Penny herself, but Penny studied nuclear science after she was built in the hopes of one day making nuclear power plants, and after discovering that Brainiac's robots use nuclear power cells, she was helping Ironwood make a nuclear bomb before Brainiac captured her. Needless to say, the rest of Ozpin's inner circle are horrified and furious at Ironwood when he reveals that he built it behind their backs.
• Obfuscating Stupidity: Implied when Yang rescues a girl named Imra Ardeen from the Mad Hatter, given that in the source material, Imra Ardeen is actually Saturn Girl, a powerful telepath from the Legion of Super Heroes. When she's forced to blow her cover later, Imra admits that she staged the incident to have a talk with Yang.
• Offscreen Villain Darkmatter: Lampshaded by Weiss when dealing with the Riddler, wondering where he gets the resources and money for his various death traps and the like.
• Oh, No... Not Again!: Raven's reaction upon seeing that Mumbo has turned the Titans into animals.
• One-Steve Limit: There are two Ravens, Raven Roth of the Titans and Raven Branwen. So far they haven't been near each other so there's no confusion.
• Outside-Context Problem:
  • Brainiac to Remnant, whose focus on the Grimm made them completely ignorant of life beyond their planet. Then in swoops an alien threat that makes even the most dangerous Grimm look cute and cuddly in comparison.
  • The Grimm are this for Earth, with Superman outright admitting that they’re completely different from any threat the Earth has faced. They don’t eat, don’t sleep, and can spawn endlessly. Even Darkseid had to worry about things like supplying his troops or actually running out of them. While many of members of the Justice League can effortlessly wipe Grimm out, they can barely make a dent in the Grimm’s sheer numbers. Not to mention that unlike Remnant, Earth’s infrastructure isn’t designed to handle something like the Grimm.
• Parent-Child Team: Bruce Wayne and his son Damian Wayne.
• Parental Betrayal: Whitley Schnee modeled himself after his father in order to minimize any verbal and emotional abuse he might endure, the same kind he saw his sisters go through. It seemed to have worked, as Whitley was clearly Jacques' favorite child. Then Jacques proves that he only loves himself by handing over Whitley and Willow to Brainiac.
• Patchwork Fic: The DC side of the crossover blends elements different incarnations:
  • Wonder Woman's origins come from the New 52, being the daughter of Hippolyta and Zeus.
  • Superman's backstory resembles his DC Extended Universe counterpart's history.
  • Batman sporting the more fatherly behavior of his Young Justice (2010) incarnation, with Beast Boy's origin story also partially taken from that series (a blood transfusion from Miss Martian).
  • The origin of the Justice League being that of the team's DC Animated Universe origin (outside of swapping Wally for Barry as the Flash present) and Hawkgirl's backstory being similar to her DCAU counterpart.
  • The Riddler's backstory as a former GCPD forensic tech coming from Gotham while the Penguin is based on his Batman: Arkham Series incarnation (a modified version of the Killer Croc side mission in Batman: Arkham Knight also occurred here).
  • The events of The Death of Superman are based on both the animated The Death of Superman/Reign of the Supermen duology (Superman's final moments after the battle with Doomsday
  • Doomsday's origin of being a creation of Apokolips to take out Superman) and Justice League (2017), with Superman's resurrection done by Batman and Wonder Woman, being prompted by the need for help against an invasion from Apokolips.
  • Chapter 31 heavily implies that Legion of Super-Heroes is also a part of the universe, as well as showing that the League once had an encounter with the Justice Lords.
  • The Fables also exist, and met the League during an incident with Lamia before the incident with the Queen of Fables.
  • Chapter 53 implies that the events of SHAZAM! (2019) happened, and this world's version of Halo wakes up in a mass grave and is named Violet.
• Pheromones: Poison Ivy's Mind Control works via using these. Nora manages to accidentally protect herself and Pyrrha before they activated their Auras by using strong perfume.
• Pinned to the Ground: After being beaten down by Brainiac, Ruby tries to get up only for the villain to pin her back down with his foot on her head mocking her attempt as futile.
• Power Crystal:
  • Dust, a crystalline substance found exclusively on Remnant, whose civilizations utterly depended on it for everything due to their fantastical properties. Has the noticeable drawback of being unable to work outside of Remnant's atmosphere, and when RWBY and JNPR arrived on Earth any Dust they had left became inert as a result. They are working, however, on trying to recreate Dust on Earth.
  • Weiss eventually theorizes that Dust might be connected to the primordial Elemental Forces of Life, such as the Red and the Green, due to Dust's ability to seamlessly interact with Aura and all of the countless legends from across Remnant where Dust was both referred to as "Nature's Wrath" and how humanity "sprang from Dust."
• Properly Paranoid:
  • Raven was terrified of Trigon managing to possess her, and as such helped the Titans create a magical barrier around Titans Island meant to contain her in such an event. It ends up getting used when her fears come to pass.
  • Batman, as usual, which is even lampshaded in-universe.
  • In the "Hunters of Justice Chibi" chapter "Kringle's Angels", any objections to the intensity of the security measures are dropped once what happened at Titan's Tower is mentioned.
• Psychic-Assisted Suicide: Mr. Mind threatens to force several police officers to shoot their own brains out if RWBYJNPR and the Marvel Family don't let him and Sivanna go without a fight. They do, but he tries it anyway, though Pyrhha's Semblance lets her stop it.
• Punch! Punch! Punch! Uh Oh...: Yang, in Weiss's body, lands several punches while fighting Etrigan, but she ends up finding out the hard way that Weiss lacks Yang's strength when Etrigan isn't even fazed. Even using her semblance, she ends up hurting herself more than she hurts Etrigan.
• Pyrrhic Victory: The mission to stop Poison Ivy can be seen as this. While they did managed to capture Ivy and free Ren and Jaune from the brainwashing, they failed to stop Isley from killing the Directors of ACE Chemicals for illegally contaminating the environment, and the method Batman used to incapacitate Ren and Jaune left the rest of the Remnantians shaken and distrustful of the Dark Knight.

R-Z

• Railroading: When Team RWBY is sent into the stories of their respective Fairytale Motifs by the Queen of Fables, Ruby meets Bigby, who explains that the stories will force them to go along with the plot of the tales if they try to resist, but luckily there's been so many variations over the centuries that they have some flexibility. For example, since some versions of the story have a hunter save Red Riding Hood, and Ruby is a Huntress, she can "save" herself.
• Real After All: The main villain of the Scooby-Doo arc is revealed to be Nyarlathotep, who confirms the Cthulhu Mythos is real. He explains Lovecraft's works were in fact based on real visions he had of them during his dreams, which he used as inspiration for his writing.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: The leaders of NATO, Russia, and China accept the Justice League's warnings about Brainiac and quickly begin to prepare for a potential invasion. Considering the fact that Earth has already undergone three different alien invasions, it's not that hard to see why.
• Red Shirt: Horrifically averted. Team RWBY are upset seeing so many soldiers die in the hopeless battle against Brainiac. Jaune goes into wall-punching fury seeing a soldier willingly throw down his life, and Yang mutters a silent prayer for another one who died trying to help them rescue Ruby from Brainiac's clutches.
• Reduced to Ratburgers: After Vale's bottling, the food shortages get so bad, many people are reduced to eating rats. As far as alcohol goes, they're settling with moonshine, some of which has been brewed in toilets.
• Religion of Evil: The Church of Blood publicly worships an Allfather, one whom encourages His followers to embrace their darker natures in the pursuit of enlightenment. Said 'Allfather' is merely a watered down name for Trigon.
• Renegade Splinter Faction: The Red Fang is a group of extremist former White Fang members who refuse to give up their hatred of humans in the face of Braniac's invasion. Led by Adam Tarus, the Red Fang kill or attack humans and Faunus they deem "traitors" in the bottled Kingdom of Vale.
• Revealing Cover-Up: Someone or something, presumably the Brothers, was apparently shielding Remnant from the rest of the universe. It's theorized that Brainiac found the planet specifically because he noticed an anomaly caused by said cloaking field in comparison to the surrounding regions of space, which attracted his curiosity. Brainiac later confirms this to Ozpin, saying that he noticed the Mother Box that RWBYJNPR used to escape activating thanks to Salem, then was puzzled when the region of space Remnant was in had absolutely nothing notable.
• Riches to Rags: The Schnees, after Lien became effectively worthless in the wake of Remnant's fall. While it isn't an issue for Winter (who was disowned a long time ago) or Weiss (who, after landing on Earth, was financially supported by the JL before getting a job), the rest of the Schnees aren't as lucky. Jacques is only maintaining his current lifestyle because Atlas is hoarding all the resources at the expense of Mantle, while Willow and Whitley are now lab rats of Brainiac, leaving them with nothing except each other. When they are later rescued by the Green Lantern Corps and join Weiss on Earth, it's considered a massive upgrade of their previous situation even though it still leaves them as middle-class citizens.
• Riddle Me This: Weiss, Ruby, and Damian end up going against the Riddler, solving puzzles and riddles throughout Gotham.
• Rogues Gallery Showcase: During their stay at Gotham City, RWBY and JNPR help the Batfamily deal with several of the most famous Batman Rogues. Scarecrow, Riddler, Penguin, Bane, Black Mask, Two-Face, Solomon Grundy, Mr. Freeze, Poison Ivy, Clayface, and Mad Hatter are all seen. Even the Condiment King shows up. Catwoman, Deadshot, Harley Quinn, and Killer Croc also appear, although in a far less hostile capacity.
• Running Gag: Nearly every time someone from Remnant is introduced to Earth, their first impression is how unimaginative the name of the planet is despite the fact that they named their own planet "Remnant".
• Sand In My Eyes: After Ruby demonstrates Crescent Rose's new 20mm firing mode, Stephanie asks if Jason is crying. Jason responds with the trope.
• School Grade Hacking: While Cyborg and Penny are going through his memories, she learns how Victor did this to help a fellow student who had fallen behind in her schoolwork due to the fact that her home had burned down.
• Sealed Evil in a Can:
  • The Queen of Fables was trapped in a book of fairytales, and in the end, she's resealed by Ruby tricking her into a copy of the U.S. Tax Code.
  • Mr. Mind was sealed in the Rock of Eternity but managed to escape due to Sivanna and the Sins.
  • Mr. Mind's plan turns out be releasing Teth-Adam from his seal inside the Rock.
• Secret Secret-Keeper: It's heavily implied, though not outright confirmed, that Commissioner Gordon is aware of his daughter's vigilante activities but chooses to let his daughter keep believing that he doesn't know.
• Seen It All:
  • The hunters RWBY and JNPR team up with the Titans against Hogzilla aren't particularly amazed that the creature exists, saying that something like that "was bound to happen eventually".
  • RWBYJNPR themselves have entered this territory after several months of living on Earth. Meanwhile, new arrivals such as Whitley and Qrow are nowhere near as nonplussed, and Hazel and Watts are outright rendered catatonic after their first true encounter with regular DC Universe weirdness.
  • Jonah Hex has enough experience with time travelers to not only immediately identify RWBY and Saturn Girl as such, but also correctly guess which centuries they came from.
• Shell-Shocked Veteran: All of RWBY and JNPR after surviving the destruction of Remnant.
• Shout-Out:
  • After watching football with Cyborg, Yang tells him about a similar sport on Remnant called Grifball.
  • Call of Duty made a game about the Apokoliptican invasion.
    • The Fast and the Furious did something similair.
  • Ruby is playing Pokémon, using a Zubat named 'Nox'. Weiss, Blake and Yang talk about their favored pokemon, which happen to be Ralts, Gastly and Torchic respectively.
  • When talking about The Multiverse teams RWBY and JNPR are shown images of Spawn and Sub-Zero.
  • John Constantine mentions the Overlook Hotel, and the Creepy Twins from it show up in the House of Mystery.
  • When Ruby learns of the Fable concept of "Mundies", she immediately compares it to Muggles from Harry Potter.
  • After RWBYJNPR's encounter with Lex Luthor at a charity gala, Nora notes that he "trapped them with societal convention".
  • During Brainiac's invasion of Remnant, Yang puches out a drone whilst screaming 'E.T. go home'.
  • The fight against Control Freak is filled with this, as he summons enemies, locations, and scenes from Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Jurassic Park, Terminator, Predator, The Lord of the Rings, King Kong, and Ghostbusters.
  • Several to Dragon Ball Z Abridged:
    • When Ruby and Beast Boy are about to fight a horde of Grimm in Raven's mind, they give us this classic exchange:
      Ruby: Alright... You take the hundred on the left, I'll take the hundred on the right.
      Beast Boy: Heh, I'll take a hundred-and-one.
      Ruby: That's the spirit.
    • Ruby, when Lady Shiva notices her team's hiding spot during their mission in Bludhaven:
      "Ah, crapbaskets."
  • Many a reference to Inside Out is made when the Emoticlones are mentioned.
  • When Ruby decides to test her cloak's new glider function by jumping from Titans Tower, most of the Remantians are naturally worried. Nora's response?
    Nora: Do a flip!
  • Deadshot clarifies that he's not a serial killer, he's a professional killer.
    Ruby: What's the difference?
    Deadshot: One's a job and the other's mental sickness.
  • Family Guy of all things is referenced when Ruby wakes everyone up with by playing a loud tune on a whistle, something Weiss doesn't take kindly to.
    Weiss: You blow that whistle again and I swear to the Gods that I will shove it-!
  • When asked if he wants to interrupt Yang whilst she's venting in the training room, Flash responds "No thanks, I choose life".
  • In "Kringle's Angels", Ruby unintentionally eats a plate of pot cookies, then hallucinates a unicorn turning into snakes.
  • When he mentions how he tried to convince Penny to have a digestive system installed, Cyborg claims that going through life without eating burgers isn't living.
  • In chapter 54 it's revealed that the daycare Jaune works at is Camp Camp.
  • Thanks to a time paradox dumping people and animals from all times in Metropolis, a Mêlée à Trois breaks out between groups of knights, samurai, and Vikings.
  • Nikki names the green Utahraptor she and the platypus tamed Yoshi.
  • When JNPR and Penny go to Rhode Island to solve a mystery, they run into Scooby-Doo.
• Side Bet: After the craziness of superhero life, Ruby and Yang fully expected to eventually experience Time Travel. They've bet twenty bucks between each other that they'd either end up in World War II or The Wild West first. When Irma takes them to 1889 Texas, Ruby wins the bet.
• Significant Birth Date: Downplayed. Appropriately for someone with a gothic theme and a reaper's scythe for a weapon, it turns out that Ruby's birthday falls on the same day as Halloween.
• Spotting the Thread: Wonder Woman realizes that the Grimm on earth are evolving too fast despite only being there for months. While the League does believe it's possible that the Grimm' unknown evolution could be natural, Batman then states that someone could be manipulating them using Luthor's selling of them as a start-off. When Flash says RWBY and JNPR made no mention of this, Batman points out that at the end of the day, the teams don't know everything about the Grimm or Remnant's secrets.
• Stable Time Loop: The whole mess with Chronos turns out to be one when Jonah Hex and the time-traveling Team RWBY, Qrow, and Saturn defeat him.
• Starter Villain: Scarecrow serves as this for the Remnantians as the first threat they help to combat with the Bat-Family. Although everyone is involved in finding him, it's ultimately Ren that takes him down. Stheno the Gorgon is the second major threat but is only slightly more difficult, taken down only by Pyrrha and Wonder Woman. Trigon, on the other hand, is a massive threat and they barely escape alive.
• Starting a New Life: What RWBY and JNPR elect to do after landing on Earth and finally coming to terms with their situation. First, they only planned to stay as superheroes; but after experiencing normal life with the Titans and realizing they've essentially been freeloading off the vigilantes, they've all decided to lay down roots and get jobs once they've fully settled down somewhere.
• The Stations of the Canon: Despite Braniac knocking RWBY's plot completely Off the Rails, certain plot points still happen.
  • Leo being killed by (what's implied to be) Salem.
  • Nora overloads her Semblance and gets Covered in Scars.
  • Penny becoming the next Winter Maiden.
  • Penny is torn into pieces by her own weapon cables and is given a new, more mature looking body.
  • Enforced by Temporal Inertia, which is the multiverse's habit of self-correcting wayward timelines. Batman hopes to avert certain events from happening, namely Yang losing her arm and Pyrrha dying to a shot to the chest and internal burns.
• Subbing for Santa: In the "Hunters of Justice Chibi" chapter "Kringle's Angels", RWBYJNPR's security system shoots down Santa, forcing Team RWBY to fill in for him while JNPR tends to the injured gift-giver.
• Sure, Let's Go with That: Pyrrha's and Jaune's reaction when their attempt at infiltrating a gang recruitment for Black Mask goes awry. It turns out that the recruiter who 'recruited' them felt that they were too nice, but instead of thinking they were undercover cops or heroes, they were instead just two rich kids itching for some excitement. Especially Pyrrha. Neither of them corrects him.
• Synchronous Episodes:
  • When in Gotham, RWBYJNPR split up into groups along with various members of the Bat Family to pursue various leads to loose ends from Scarecrow's rampage, with nods to what the other groups are up to popping up every so often.
  • While RWBY, Green Arrow, and Black Canary deal with the League of Shadows in Bludhaven, JNPR and the Bat Family deals with Poison Ivy in Gotham.
• Take That!: Control Freak's entire motivation stems from Jump Studios' planning to cancel the critically acclaimed Wonder Twins television show and replace it with a kids-oriented Flash animated show. Sound familiar?
• Takes One to Kill One: The whole of Mr. Mind's plan is to release Black Adam so he and Billy will either kill each other or be weakened enough that the victor will be more easily defeated by him and Sivanna.
• Taking You with Me: Downplayed. Part of why Raven chooses to seal Trigon within her chakra is because if she dies, he will die with her. However, she has no plans of dying anytime soon.
• Teen Genius: One WayneTech engineer ends up seeing Ruby as this. He agrees to watch over her while Lucius Fox is talking with Weiss thinking that he'd just be babysitting, then he witnesses her expertise in engineering and metallurgy (she did forge Crescent Rose by herself after all) and demands that Lucius hire her on the spot.
• Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: Team RWBY, Green Arrow, and Black Canary don't enjoy their Enemy Mine with the Suicide Squad much, especially with how bloodthirsty and/or just plain insane the members of the latter are.
• Teleportation: The method RWBY and JNPR used to arrive at Earth. Specifically, via Boom Tube generated by a Mother Box found inside Brainiac's laboratory.
• There Are No Therapists: Averted. All of RWBY and JNPR are dealing with PTSD, which the League takes great care to provide all of them with appropriate and professional support. M'gann M'orzz is specifically noted to be a child therapist, which she uses in a therapy session with the team during their time with the Titans.
• Throwing Your Sword Always Works: Jaune throws the broken fragment of Crocea Mors right into the stomach of a Trigon-possessed Brother Blood. Even he was surprised it worked.
• Time Crash: An event called a "temporal cascade" is triggered in Metropolis by Chronos traveling through time and stealing items from their proper places in history. Time will occasionally skip ahead a few hours, and more alarmingly time rifts open at random depositing everything from dinosaurs, future robots, to warrior groups across history into the present day which causes complete chaos.
• Timey-Wimey Ball: According to Irma, the timeline of the 21st century is a complete jumble of possibilities that make it almost impossible to accurately say what did happen between 1940 and the 31st century. This is thanks to the Flashpoint Paradox and subtle nod to the many Continuity Reboots prevalent in DC comics.
• Totalitarian Gangsterism: Torchwick pretty much rules the industrial district of Vale with an iron fist and hoards the bulk of the food there for himself and his gang while the people who live there are having to eat rats to avoid starving.
• Tranquil Fury:
  • Penny enters into this state after becoming the Winter Maiden and obliterates an entire platoon of Brainiac's drones using her new-found power.
  • Weiss on two separate occasions finds herself in this state. The first was when she was almost as mad as Yang about the Aura-draining nanites, she's just a lot better at keeping her cool about it, and at trying to see it from the other point of view. The second time was when she learned that Jacques gave up Willow and Whitley to Brainiac, and the only reason her reaction isn't more violent is because Yang got to the holographic training room before she could.
• Translation Convention: When the Remnantians and the Justice League first encounter each other, though their speech is written in English to the readers, it's made clear that they are speaking completely different languages. J'onn has to take the time to telepathically teach them English over the next few days.
• Trapped in TV Land: The Queen of Fables sends Team RWBY into the stories of their respective Fairytale Motifs, believing them to actually be the characters from those stories, forcing them to act out the stories to escape.
• Trauma Button: It's mentioned in one of Batman's files that Flash accidentally hit this for the Remnantians when he showed them A New Hope. Suffice it to say, the destruction of Alderaan hit a little too close to home...
• Trauma Conga Line: Over the course of two days, RWBY and JNPR had to watch Brainiac invade their planet, kidnap and slaughter their fellow citizens, and then kidnap Ruby, right in front of them. While they manage to break into his ship and get Ruby back, they then learn that Brainiac hasn't destroyed Remnant's cities, but instead shrunk and bottled them for his own studies. Their own attempt to fight and stop Brainiac completely fails, with them failing to do any lasting damage, and after it's over they get front-row seats to him shrinking and bottling Vale, and then destroying their planet. All of that reduced them to a week-long Heroic BSoD and lingering PTSD that might never completely go away.
• True Companions: After the Fall of Remnant Teams RWBY and JNPR are more united than ever by their shared experience. They are also starting to become this with the Titans.
• Uncertain Doom:
  • The Ozlluminati don't know what happened to Salem, only that all the Grimm retreated from Vale after the Grimm Dragon died, and haven't even been seen in the vicinity since then. The same goes for Raven Branwen, who used her powers to get Taiyang off of Patch and to Vale, but then seemingly disappeared. Emerald and Mercury also disappeared after Cinder was captured.
  • It is revealed in Chapter 18 that Emerald and Mercury are now working for Torchwick, who controls most of Vale's remaining industry. Raven Branwen and her tribe now work for Brainiac, and Brainiac believes that Salem is still alive, though he has no idea where she is.
• The Unpronouncable: Mr. Mxyzptlk, of course, which is actually exploited by Ruby. At first, she unsuccessfully tries to pronounce his name, but after that, she keeps saying it wrong on purpose, as part of an ultimately successful Batman Gambit to trick him into saying "Kltpzyxm" (though she never did learn how it was actually pronounced).
• Villain Has a Point: Brainiac attempts to invoke this to Ozpin, explaining that he only attacks civilizations that he's determined are most likely about to be destroyed, either internally or externally. To prove this point, he shows him a city that was the last remaining one of a world being ravaged by Doomsday and cites Salem's machinations as justifying his attack on Remnant.
• Villain Respect: Brother Blood may be fighting against the Titans, but he still genuinely respects their dedication to protecting innocent life and minimizing collateral damage.
• Villain Team-Up: Because of Scarecrow's terror attack, several of Gotham's rogues begin forming alliances, Penguin with Bane and Black Mask with Two-Face. Both alliances fall through thanks to the Bat-family and RWBY-JNPR.
• Villain with Good Publicity:
  • Lex Luthor, as per usual.
  • Jacques Schnee, which is fitting for a man whose daughter described him as 'Lex Luthor-lite'. At least part of his current influence over Atlas is due to him leveraging the sympathy he received from the populace after Willow and Whitley were abducted by Brainiac — as Jacques made sure to cover up the fact that he let it happen.
• Villainous Breakdown:
  • Just as Trigon is about to finish Ruby off, she activates her Silver-Eye Powers, which are infused with the Life Equation, which severely injures the demon. As a consequence, both Trigon and Brother Blood see their plans fall apart almost instantly and are barely able to put up a last-minute fight against the vengeful Titans.
  • Raven suffers one while viciously fighting with Qrow, unable to comprehend why he would risk his life fighting a lost cause.
  • Brainiac loses much of his calm after being forced to flee, and is clearly fuming in his last communication with Ozpin. However, this is deconstructed somewhat: Ozpin's joy is muted since he knows Brainiac is now an animal pushed to the corner and will unleash something terrible on the world to cope with his wounded pride.
• Villainous BSoD: After Raven's fight and defeat at the hands of Hal Jordan, her Social Darwinist worldview is shattered right in front of her. When she is escorting Ozpin to Brainiac, she is completely unresponsive when Ozpin mentions Qrow and Penny escaping.
• Villainous Rescue:
  • "We Fall Apart" reveals that Brainiac managed to "preserve" Kandor before Krypton was destroyed.
  • There's also one city he bottled whose civilization was nearly destroyed by Doomsday. They're one of the few, if only, people to actually be grateful for what Brainiac did to them.
• Voices Are Mental: Averted, the "Freaky Friday" Flip has the voices stay with their original bodies.
• The Walls Are Closing In: One of the trials Weiss, Yang, Jaune and Pyrrha face in the House of Mystery is a room like this. When Weiss questions how the ceiling lowering and the walls closing in can happen at once, Yang points out that it's magic.
• Wham Episode:
  • The two-part Grand Finale of the Titans arc. Trigon possesses Raven after Beast Boy almost dies to Doctor Light, and proceeds to almost Total Party Kill all of the Titans along with RWBY and JNPR, only for Ruby to activate her Silver-Eye Powers for the first time. That by itself is enough of an in-universe shock, but the fact that fragments of the Life Equation crossed Ruby's mind just before she used her powers certainly qualifies.
  • Chapter 41 has Yang rescue a girl named Imra Ardeen from the Mad Hatter, who then gives Yang some advice, but more importantly Brainiac captures Penny and introduces her to Fria. Most shockingly, the existence of the Multiverse is revealed to RWBY and JNPR.
  • Chapter 53 sees Ares and the Spectre taking a trip to Salem. During their visit, the Spectre discloses two significant revelations. Firstly, there is someone out there who has the power to permanently end her life, and they will eventually succeed. Secondly, when Salem passes away, she will not find peace but rather suffer eternal damnation for all the harm and wickedness she has caused.
• Where Does He Get All Those Wonderful Toys?:
  • Lampshaded when Ruby and Weiss learn that the hazardous environment suits that Lucius Fox made for RWBYJNPR each cost 25 million. Basically, with both Bruce's financial backing and the rest of the Justice League's resources, he has no shortage of funding.
  • Brought up by Weiss in regards to Riddler, and how he can find the time and resources to make his death traps.
• Who Would Want to Watch Us?: When discussing The Multiverse with RWBYJNPR, it's brought up that in some alternate universe they could only exist as fictional characters, prompting Ruby to almost say this word-for-word.
• A Wizard Did It: Whenever something strange and nonsensical occurs (especially when magic is afoot), Yang has learned to just throw her arms in the air and declare it 'magic bullshit'.
• Worthy Opponent: Pyrrha earns the respect of Artemis of Bana-Migdhall by lasting as long as she did in their fight of Themyscira's festival.
• Wrecked Weapon:
  • Crescent Rose is destroyed in the battle against Trigon, while Crocea Mors is broken during the subsequent fight against Brother Blood. Both Ruby and Jaune have made plans to make new weapons.
  • Later, Black Adam snaps Magnhild in half during his fight with the Marvel Family and the Remnatians. Nora also has plans to make a newer, better model.
• Wretched Hive:
  • Damian actually drops the trope name when describing Gotham to Weiss after someone tried to mug the group in broad daylight, Weiss then being reminded of Mantle back on Remnant.
  • While all of Vale is badly off, its industrial district under Torchwick's rule is especially seedy: blood sports, gambling, and people subsisting on rats for sustenance. This is not helped by Torchwick hoarding the food he gets for himself and his inner circle.
• Xanatos Gambit: Mr. Mind's plan to release Black Adam to destroy Billy and company didn't care about who won, just that they're weakened enough for him and Sivanna to take them out themselves, assuming that they didn't just kill each other. The heroes manage to show Black Adam the condition of his homeland, besieged by the Grimm, causing him to set aside his hatred for the Wizard for the moment and go to aid the people living there, an outcome which didn't cross Mr. Mind's… mind.
• Year Inside, Hour Outside: When Team RWBY and Bigby are sealed in a book of fairytales by the Queen of Fables, the trope is all but name-dropped.
• You Can't Go Home Again: For all living Remnantians, Remnant itself is gone and is not coming back. If the bottled cities are ever released, they'll have to start a new society from scratch.

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