Fanon / RWBY

---

Spoilers for RWBY follow. You have been warned.

---

Team RWBY

Multiple Members

• Fanon originally had it that Blake was an orphan raised by the White Fang while Weiss's mother died when she was young. Volume 4 jossed them both by showing that Blake's parents and Weiss's mother are all alive and well, albeit drunk in the latter's case.
• Fanon often suggests that Ruby and Yang grew up poor. In the show, they live in a cottage on the Island of Patch. While they appear to be comfortable and not poor, there are no indicators about their actual financial status.
• When the first trailers came out, Ruby and Weiss barely had any characterization, leaving the fans to make it up themselves. A common fanon consensus was that Ruby was The Stoic and Weiss was a Tsundere. This was promptly Jossed when the actual show started, revealing Ruby to be a Perky Goth and Weiss a Defrosting Ice Queen; Monty stated that the trailers were more about their weapons than the characters themselves.
• The characters' birthdays being their trailer release dates. (Ruby = November 7, Weiss = February 14, Blake = March 22, Yang = June 1.) Chibi jossed this for Ruby, with her actual birthday landing a week earlier, on October 31, with the CRWBY later confirming this is true for the main series too. The official RWBY twitter would later joss this for the rest of Team RWBY by revealing their official birthdays. (Weiss = May 15, Blake = January 19, Yang = July 28.)
• One very common perception among the fandom seems to be that RWBY are barely trained. This tends to ignore that in their trailers, which are all set before they arrived in Beacon, the individual members of the team are shown to be capable fighters who clearly have been trained in combat. Yang and Ruby both went to a combat school before they attended Beacon, Weiss took combat lessons, and Blake was self-taught from her time in the White Fang. The four academies themselves are elite institutions that only take the best of the best; Oobleck even criticises Cardin and Jaune at one point for failing to respect the high standards Beacon expects from its students.

Ruby Rose

• While Ruby does love weapons, several fanworks make her from weapon enthusiast, into a weapon fetishist. Fanworks also tend to make her into a weapon critic/designer, having a habit of both building new weapons and judging ones she sees.
• Yang Xiao Long and Ruby Rose are half-sisters via their shared father Taiyang Xiao Long, with Raven Branwen and Summer Rose as their mothers respectively. However, a large portion of the fanbase has believed since the beginning that Ruby is secretly Qrow Branwen's daughter and that a Family Relationship Switcheroo has occurred, leaving Ruby and Yang oblivious to the truth that they're really cousins via the Branwen twins. This persists despite the writers repeatedly debunking this fanon in Internet comments, Reddit AMAs and DVD Commentary over many years.
• Canon is vague and inconsistent on what age Ruby was when Summer died, with Yang implying she was an infant but other elements implying she was a young child. Fans usually round this off to between 4 and 9. The DC comic depicts Ruby as 8-or-under when Summer died.

Weiss Schnee

• Many depictions of Weiss' avatars give them traits similar to Stands or Personas, such as acting in her interest and behaving autonomously. This comes from how fans interpret the Boarbatusk she summoned moved to attack the Trophy Wife that was distressing Weiss without obvious direction, and the Arma Gigas she favors acting like her loyal knight.
• The beings that Weiss can summon have been called "avatars" by the writers, but the fans prefer to call them "summons".
• Fans depict Weiss as having a mental illness, usually depression, due to her abused back story, lonely characterization, and the depressed-sound lyrics of several of her songs. In the show, she is not depicted as having any mental illnesses, at all.

Blake Belladonna

• Blake is often thought to have PTSD or depression stemming from her past as a member of the White Fang and her relationship with Adam. In the show, she has had trust issues, but she hasn't been depicted as possessing any kind of PTSD. Her team partner, Yang, however, does canonically have PTSD after what Adam did to her in Volume 3.

Yang Xiao Long

• Yang calls Summer "mom" but calls Raven by either "mother" or her name. Volumes 5 and 8 confirm that Yang calls both women "mom". However, she will use "Ruby's mom" if she needs to clarify to others that she's talking about Summer, rather than Raven. As a result, fanon changed so that Yang will eventually call Raven by her name.
• In canon, Yang disliking people touching her hair seems to be just a personality trait. However, fanon decided that Yang dislikes others touching her hair because Summer praised it when she was a child, so she only let Summer touch her hair.
• Despite almost never using any in the show, Yang is regularly depicted as a Pungeon Master by fans due to her voice actress's infamous love of puns.

Team JNPR

Jaune Arc

• In the show, Jaune being ignorant of Pyrrha's affection is due to him being Entertainingly Wrong about Pyrrha attracting other men and his own attraction to Weiss. Once he gives up on Weiss and Pyrrha becomes more direct about expressing her feelings, he seems to catch on very quickly. Fans tend to exaggerate that aspect of Jaune's person, often to the point of making him look mentally deficient or at least selectively blind; rarely, he'll be depicted with obfuscating stupidity about the matter.
• Jaune's great-great-grandfather is thought to have been The Warrior King of Vale, as it would fit both the timeline and would explain Jaune's angst about not living up to his legacy. This assumption also leads to some less common, but popular theories, such as Crocea Mors being secretly one of the relics or Jaune himself having some sort of mystic power.
• Crocea Mors is often portrayed as being literally unable to dull no matter how often it is used, either through the usage of a vibranium-like metal or genuine magic. This is often done for the double purpose of giving Crocea Mors something more interesting going for it than just "family heirloom" (at least before it gets upgraded) and for giving Jaune one less thing to worry about during his initial skill progression.
• Fans have commonly assumed that Ozpin is fully aware that Jaune's transcripts are faked, and is simply looking the other way because he sees Jaune's character and potential. While Ozpin implies he's aware of the transcripts in Volume 1, it's never been actually confirmed.

Nora Valkyrie

• Some people portray Nora as being particularly doting and protective of Oscar, given how she is the only one to openly admit that he's a "little cute boy". This is reinforced by canon regularly using Nora to express how the group feels about Oscar, such as her greeting him with The Glomp (from Volume 6) or a tender hug (Volume 8), or panicking about his safety in Volume 7. In truth, the entire group is very protective of Oscar, ranging from Ruby constantly keeping an eye on him in battle to make sure he's doing okay, to Jaune, Yang and Ren doing everything within their power to rescue him in Volume 8. Fanon, however, tends to focus almost exclusively on Nora.

Pyrrha Nikos

• Lemon fics nearly always depict Pyrrha, of all people, as an aggressive lover. This is probably an extrapolation of the scene where she pins Jaune to a tree to, um "partner" with him.
• Fanworks often portray Pyrrha's feelings for Jaune as well known to all of Team RWBY, apart from occasionally Ruby herself. In canon, none of the four ever show any sign that they are aware of Pyrrha's crush, and Yang even encourages Jaune's pursuit of Weiss, if only very minorly.
• Pyrrha is frequently depicted as having smothering, or even emotionally abusive, Sports Parents. Canonically, her family situation is one of the only one of RWBY and JNPR's that remains completely unexplored, but her status as a famous tournament champion and being Lonely at the Top does lend itself well to these interpretations. That said, she seems to speak fondly of her mother to Ozpin in Volume 3, and Volume 6 has Jaune speak with a woman heavily implied to be said mother, and nothing about her seems to be abusive or smothering.

Lie Ren

• Ren as asexual (or demisexual) pops up quite a bit due to the fanon assumption that he's Oblivious to Love, and because he wore an apron that said "Please Do Nothing To The Cook" (as opposed to the classic "Kiss The Cook"). Alternatively, Ren is just as likely to come up as a Covert Pervert, who manages to hide his perversion behind a stoic facade.

Ozpin's Inner Circle

Multiple Members

• Some fans believe that Qrow, Glynda and even Ironwood have met before joining Ozpin's Inner Circle. This is more common to people who ship Ironwood/Glynda or Ironwood/Qrow, creating a sort of Everyone Went to School Together fanfic. Cinder used to be a part of this fanon, but this tailed off for obvious reasons when she successfully posed as a Haven student in Volume 2. After Volume 3, most of the fanon regards to Qrow meeting Ironwood after having fought against his team in the Vytal Festival back when they were in academy.

Ozpin

• Ozpin's mug also being a weapon appears in many fanworks, usually as a joke. Then again, considering almost everything can be a gun in this universe, this is occasionally played seriously. After the Volume 2 reveal that Oobleck's thermos flask transforms into a flamethrower, even when still full of coffee, the fandom doubled-down on Ozpin's mug.
• Fanon depicted Ozpin's mug as being full of coffee. Even after the writers confirmed he actually drinks hot chocolate, many fans still prefer the coffee. By extension, fanon assumes that whenever Oscar is seen drinking hot drinks, it's hot chocolate. This is partially because of what the writers have said about Ozpin and partially because Oscar's seen as being too young to portray with caffeine.

Qrow Branwen

• Qrow is often seen as religious, if only slightly at all, due to the Creepy Crosses he incorporates into his outfits. The slanted cross he wears as a necklace with his first outfit is often thought to represent him carrying a burden of some kind, or to remind him of a loss. The lack of said necklace in his second outfit is likewise seen as him trying to move on from said loss or burden.
• Qrow's relationship with Summer is up to interpretation, though he is typically depicted as having been in love with Summer before she got together with Tai, making her The Lost Lenore to both of them. Even if there's no romance between them, they're usually portrayed as very close and Like Brother and Sister. Just as likely is to depict him as being present at, if not the cause of, Summer's death, typically by virtue of his bad luck semblance. In either case, her death is often depicted as when Qrow fell off the wagon completely and became a full fledged alcoholic.
• Much like his niece, portraying Qrow as bisexual is popular. It gained even more popularity in Volume 7 due to his interactions with Clover and Ironwood, though it is also popular as him being bisexual, but unaware of it until he starts getting immensely attracted to the two Atlesian officers.

General Ironwood

• Penny and Ironwood's relationship is given little focus in the series, leading to different interpretations of it for fanfic writers. Most will see Ironwood as a father or mentor-like figure for Penny, sometimes having a similar relationship to Ruby and Qrow. When the two return to the series proper in Volume 7, while Penny is a part of Ironwood's inner circle alongside the Ace Ops and Winter, little is actually shown of their specific relationship outside of Penny serving directly under him now.
• Like Qrow, Volume 7 saw an uptick in people who believed Ironwood to be bisexual due to his hug with Qrow.
• Fans tend to assume that Winter and Ironwood work closely together and possibly share a personal relationship. Volume 4 confirms Winter is one of his most trusted operatives and Volumes 7-8 show how their close, professional relationship works: he relies heavily on her support, groomed her to be the next Winter Maiden, and — no matter how paranoid he gets — assumes she's the one person who will never betray him.

Villains

Cinder Fall

• Cinder was originally presumed to be around Ozpin, Glynda, and Ironwood's age. However, when Volume 2 showed that she can easily pass as a late teenager, fans lowered her age by around 10 years. When the creators confirmed women are only eligible to become Maidens if they're under 30 (give or take) and that Salem is older than the students, the default assumption became that she's early-mid 20s.
• Cinder's Semblance is often mistakenly believed to be Dust Manipulation, then the ability to manipulate normal dust particles thanks to a 2017 panel where Miles said as such. However, her Semblance had never actually been revealed, until the 2019 guidebook. Her semblance is actually the ability to melt and reshape materials, usually metal and glass. All instances of Dust Manipulation come from Dust that she sewed into her clothing. This is evident from when she does manipulate Dust, patterns on her clothing begin lighting up, indicating the Dust infused into her clothing is being used.

Emerald Sustrai & Mercury Black

Mercury

• Mercury is often depicted as being protective of Emerald, often being the one trying to tell her that Cinder doesn't love her or pushing for her to leave Salem's forces due to her relative innocence. This came from Mercury's inspiration, the Roman God, being known as the "Protector of Thieves", while Emerald draws inspiration from Aladdin, alongside Mercury's past as an abuse victim letting him see how Cinder was grooming Emerald. So That's How It Is and Lost had all of these confirmed, barring pushing for Emerald to leave.
• Mercury's part in the song I'm the One, along with his comments that Qrow smelled like his dad after a bad day, and the Word of God that Mercury has one of the darkest backstories in the show, have drawn many to the conclusion that Mercury was horrifically abused by his drunken father Marcus, who forced him to have his legs replaced by cybernetics and who left him teetotal because he hates alcohol so much. Lost confirms the abuse, with Marcus beating Mercury daily under the pretext of "training". The "defiled" part is interpreted to refer to Marcus defiling Mercury's soul by taking away Mercury's Semblance with his own.
• Mercury is often thought to be a Serial Killer due to his behavior and upbringing as an assassin by Marcus. However, Mercury is only known to have killed two people, his abusive father Marcus, and the former White Fang member Tukson. The former was killed the night Mercury met Cinder and Emerald as a result of the abuse Mercury suffered at Marcus' hands. The latter was killed as Roman was supposed to kill him before he fled to Vacuo, and Mercury and Emerald took it upon themselves when it seemed like Roman was going to let him escape. Aside from those two however, there is little evidence to suggest Mercury has killed anyone else.
• A lot of fan characterization of Mercury, especially thanks to Chibi, plays up his jokester attitude and portrays him as a meme-loving prankster who takes nothing seriously while mocking everyone around him. While he does have that aspect to his personality, it's vastly exaggerated by the fandom. Volume 6 shows him to take things rather seriously while in Salem's domain, being quick to tell off Tyrian whenever he tries to antagonize himself or Emerald, and is just as quick to tell Emerald off for her Undying Loyalty to Cinder. Tyrian indicates that his "smug prick" attitude is largely just grandstanding.

Roman Torchwick & Neo

Roman

• Torchwick's strength and importance often gets overstated by the fans. In the show, he is merely one of Cinder's subordinates who follows her more out of fear than anything else. And while he is certainly a skilled fighter, he still gets defeated multiple times, at one point losing to Blake alone. Even his skills as a criminal are questionable, as he was caught at least once before the events of the series and had to rely on hired mooks to perform robberies. Fanworks tend to portray him as a criminal mastermind and strong enough to threaten the entire team RWBY in combat, when a Tumblr Q&A confirmed that he never even unlocked his Semblance. Earlier works would sometimes even make him into a Big Bad of the story, though that portrayal became unjustifiable after the events of Volume 3. In the manga, Roman is an Adaptational Badass and turned into a famous criminal, at the cost of Adaptational Villainy stripping him of his sympathetic qualities.
• A surprisingly large amount of fics posit that Roman created Jaune's fraudulent transcripts, often with Junior acting as a middle man, either to create a connection between the two for story reasons or just because there are not many villains in the show to choose from. With Junior's status as an information broker and confirmed connection to Roman, it's not impossible, but the show has not suggested where he got them from.

Neo

• Neo is a Silent Snarker who is never depicted talking. The fandom consensus quickly became that's she's either mute or selectively mute and will communicate in sign language with Roman as her interpreter. Neo's original voice actress fell through, so she was never given any lines; she is eventually confirmed mute in Volume 6. The canon novel RWBY: Roman Holiday confirmed that Neo has voice technology that she doesn't like using because she can't find an electronic voice that suits her. Both the novel and Volume 8 confirm that Neo will use her illusion Semblance as a visual communication aid; the novel also confirms that Roman is the only person that she's ever met who had an instinctive ability to understand her perfectly.
• Due to her ice cream motif, Neo's favorite food is ice cream (and that she's obsessed with it). Roman Holiday somewhat leans into this, as the first thing Trivia does when sneaking out of her home to hit the town is buy a milkshake.
• Neo and Yang see each other as rivals (or, at minimum, Yang does). This comes from their fight together and the way their fighting styles clash, however the series itself hasn't noted this. Yang otherwise never mentions Neo and Neo instead is more focused on Yang's sister Ruby.

Adam Taurus

• A common conclusion is that Adam's blade can cut through Aura, which became increasingly popular when he used it to pierce Blake's belly (even though she still had Aura as evidenced when she used her Semblance to get out of there), slice off Yang's arm, and kill Sienna Khan in an ambush. This has been debunked for the most part, as Volume 5 clarified that one needs to be actively using one's Aura to defend oneself, and Adam's attacks often simply come too quickly to be protected from.
• Adam and Raven are assumed to have some form of relationship due to their visual and combat similarities, with the common guesses being that Raven trained him in iaijutsi, Adam is a former member of the Branwen Tribe, or that Raven is Adam's mother.

Team STRQ

Entire Team

• Team STRQ is often imagined as having a loose polygamous relationship during their Beacon years (barring Raven and Qrow for obvious reasons). While the general meme is that Taiyang was the one to seduce his entire team, some interpretations have Summer either doing it after him or giving him the idea.

Summer Rose

• "Gold" is often seen as a lullaby by Summer to Yang and Ruby. She taught it to Yang, who would sing it to Ruby after Summer's death. This was jossed by Word of God, that clarified the song was Yang's attempt at comforting Ruby after Summer died.
• Summer is often thought to be a case of He's Just Hiding, owing to both how she is only said to have "never come back" from her final mission and that her grave is empty. This has been jossed repeatedly though by Word of God, who outright confirm that Summer did die, they just Never Found the Body.
• As the details behind Summer's death and even the final mission she was on before then are lacking, a common interpretation is that Salem had something to do with her death, and that said mission was Summer trying to defeat Salem for Oz. Volume 7 would hint at both. The mission is briefly discussed by Ruby and Qrow, the latter noting that only Summer knew about the mission's contents, and that even Oz seemed to be Locked Out of the Loop, though Qrow does add the caveat that he isn't as certain about Oz not knowing after he became a Broken Pedestal. Salem meanwhile would end up speaking to Ruby herself, and after she tries to give Salem a Kirk Summation, Salem's Shut Up, Kirk! moment heavily implies she had a hand in Summer's fate, sending Ruby into a breakdown.
  Salem: Your mother said those words to me. She was wrong, too.

Taiyang Xiao Long

• It's never clarified whether Taiyang married Summer. The most common fan-consensus is that he married Raven but not Summer, hence why Ruby and Summer's surnames are not "Xiao Long". RWBY: Amity Arena would later confirm that Tai did indeed marry Raven, as Raven's description lists her as a "wife".
• It is widely agreed that Summer liked Taiyang dating back to their Beacon days, but he was only interested in Raven.

Team CFVY

Entire Team

• While the partnerships were never stated in series, it was often thought that the partnerships were Coco and Fox, and Yatsuhashi and Velvet. After the Fall would later confirm this canon.
• CFVY getting revenge on CRDL for their bullying of Velvet is a near constant in stories focused on either team. While Blake's anthology manga does depict CFVY assaulting CRDL at one point as revenge for Velvet, due to the dubious canonicity of the anthology manga, its ambiguous if this is true for the main series.
• From their introduction in volume 2, it was widely assumed that Team CFVY spent their downtime trolling each other. After The Fall would partially confirm this, at least with Fox and Velvet.

Velvet Scarlatina

• Why exactly Velvet, a second year, was in Oobleck's first year history class is never said in universe, but the common idea is that Velvet flunked the tests the first time around and was catching up. Equally prevalent is the idea Beacon classes function on a similar principle to that of American colleges, where students from any year can attend the same class.

Fox Alistair

• Although hinted, it was never confirmed for several years that Fox, who has pure white eyes, is blind. His bio in Amity Arena finally confirmed that yes, Fox is blind. He 'sees' by sensing Aura, and using high-tech equipment to map his surroundings.
• Equally prevalent was the idea Fox was mute, due to his nature as The Quiet One. After the Fall would joss this, clarifying that he can speak, but only does so when he needs to, instead preferring to use his telepathy Semblance to talk with his teammates.

Atlas

Penny Polendina

• After she was ripped to pieces as part of Cinder's plans in Volume 3, many began to doubt the validity of Penny's death, thinking that as she was a robot, she could be rebuilt easily. Volume 7 reveals that her father Pietro managed to revive her after Amity Arena returned to Atlas, and made it clear that so long as her core survives, she can be repaired from anything.
• A common idea is that the Aura Penny generates belonged to the real daughter of her father. After Ironwood introduced the Aura Transfer machine Ozpin's Inner Circle intended to use to merge Amber's Aura with Pyrrha's, he made a comment about how Atlas had been experimenting in regards to artificially transferring Aura, leading many to believe that Penny was the prototype for said project, that her Aura belonged to Pietro Polendina's real daughter who had been injured in some way, and that Pietro is ultimately using Penny as a Replacement Goldfish. This was Jossed in "Worst Case Scenario", as it turns out that Pietro donated part of his own Aura to create Penny. This also limits the amount of times Penny can be rebuilt even if her core is intact, as he's running out of Aura to sustain his own life.

Jacques Schnee

• Jacques Schnee as being not just emotionally abusive but also physically abusive to his family appears a lot, but it isn't supported in canon. Judging by Weiss' reaction to being slapped, his hitting her is not a regular occurrence.

Willow Schnee

• Weiss' mother was given the Fan Nickname "Willow" to go along with the Family Theme Naming. This stemmed from pseudo-canonical information due to intrepid fans reading some of Monty's open files during a behind-the-scenes video. It was confirmed come her physical debut in Volume 7, Chapter 8, where her name is listed in the credits as Willow Schnee.
• Weiss' mother is an alcoholic, but it's never mentioned to what degree. Fans have a tendency to depict her as a heavier drinker than even Qrow. Weiss eventually admits in Volume 5 that her mother is a frequent day-drinker and she's later shown casually drinking from a bottle of vodka in front of her daughter. Volume 8 explores in more detail just how incapacitated Willow can become when stressed — alcohol is her coping mechanism.

Whitley Schnee

• Whitley and Winter are both assumed to have complicated relationships with alcohol, usually seeing both swear off it entirely or only drinking in moderation to avoid their mother's fate.
• It's common for Whitley to be written as gay. In canon, he hasn't shown interest in anyone.

The Ace Ops

• Thanks to the comments made about him being kicked out of places as well as the other members rather dismissive attitude towards him, many believe Marrow Amin to be a case of My Friends... and Zoidberg amidst that Ace Ops, mainly due to being the least professional of the group and the only Faunus. Some go as far as to believe that Marrow is only a member of the Ace Ops as a publicity stunt meant to make it seem like the Atlesian Military is equal opportunity for Faunus and Humans alike due to their elite squad having Faunus and Humans. Marrow's voice actor, Mick Lauer, talked about this during a Reddit AMA: Marrow is fully aware of how rare the opportunity for a Faunus to get such a high place in the military and is incredibly grateful to Ironwood for hand-picking him.

Others

Jaune's Family

• Tons of stories have Jaune's mother obsessed with having grandchildren, even though she has yet to appear in the show proper.
• Fanfic fans use the names Nicholas and Juniper for Jaune's parents due the popularity of fanfic author Coeur Al'Aran, who gave them these names (in particular, though his mother's name will sometimes not be Juniper, Nicholas's name has become all-but constant). Both parents have been mentioned repeatedly, but a name has never been dropped.
• Jaune's father is almost always characterized as a Huntsman, current or former, who became disillusioned with the Huntsman profession at some point and refused to train Jaune from an early age as a result of that disillusionment, which eventually drives Jaune to fake his transcripts instead. In canon, there's no discussion on how long Jaune has wanted to be a Huntsman or why he had to resort to faking it.
• Most fans assume that Jaune has at least one set of twin sisters and/or is a twin himself. If he is one of a set of twins, the girl is almost always named Joan. A photo of them as kids in Volume 6 shows that there is at least one pair of twins in the family.
• All of Jaune's sisters are blondes. They are all either civilians or they are all badass huntresses, no variation permitted. The blonde theory was confirmed in Volume 6 with a shot of the Arc Family as kids showing all of them are natural blondes.

Team SSSN

• Scarlet is often thought of by fans as either non-binary or a trans boy. This would be jossed with the introduction of May Marigold, who is confirmed by Word of God to be the first transgender character shown on screen. Scarlet has however been confirmed homosexual by Word of God.
• Neptune's flirtatious demeanor is occasionally depicted as due to being an Armored Closet Gay, with it being a means of trying to come across as straight. If not that, his flirtatious demeanor is instead depicted as his means of overcoming his social awkwardness by appearing confident, similar to Jaune's canon reasoning for trying to appear confident.

Team CRDL

• The members of Team CRDL are generally depicted as complete pushovers, viable to all be beaten by any member of the main cast alone. While they do lose both their canon fights pretty badly, neither of them were to normal opponents- Pyrrha is a prodigy fighter and Penny is an android designed for combat (and who took out a group of airships and a small army of White Fang in the Volume 1 finale). The only canon evidence for this is Cardin accidentally taking out Dove with an ill-considered mace swing in their fight against Pyrrha; however, his team-mates were trying to use team tactics against Pyrrha, and the team did make it to the doubles-round of the tournament. In the Volume 2 DVD commentary, the creators comment that Team CRDL does genuinely have skill and ability, it was just their bad luck to have to fight a prodigy like Pyrrha.

Miscellaneous

• The Malachite twins either see Junior as a Parental Substitute or he is outright their father.
• Zwei is an emotional support dog that Taiyang got after Summer's death. This idea was strengthened by canon events. Zwei comforts Tai in Volume 4 when he's reminiscing about his former team, and in Volume 8, when Tai is distressed at seeing Ruby's global transmission about Atlas' plight be cut off mid-sentence; it's the first time he's seen her since she ran away from home at the end of Volume 3. However, despite these moments, the link between Zwei and Summer's death has never been confirmed.
• The "Red Haired Woman" is unanimously considered to be Pyrrha's mother. This is because she looks like an older Pyrrha, gives flowers to Pyrrha's memorial statue in her home city of Argus, and thanks Jaune for saying she was a Huntress. In Volume 3, Pyrrha mentions that her mother loves "The Story of the Seasons" in the present tense, indicating her mother is still alive. Add in an official video confirming that she wasn't Pyrrha's ghost and Miles' statement in the commentary that it should be obvious who she is despite only being credited as the "Mysterious Red Haired Woman", and the common consensus is that she's Pyrrha's mom.
• Amber's surname being "Autumn" is very well-established fanon despite her having no confirmed last name. Besides the obvious connotation for the Fall Maiden and the Added Alliterative Appeal, the idea partially comes from the fact that Qrow mentions "Autumn's condition" in It's Brawl in the Family, but given that he's speaking in code it's not evidence that he was referring to her by her literal name.

General and Settings

General

• It's a very common assumption that the Grimm eat emotions because they're attracted to negative emotions. However, neither the show nor the World of Remnant mini-show have claimed that. The show doesn't even claim they're empowered by negative emotions, which is another common interpretation. Increasing power of negative emotions will increase the number and power level of the Grimm that show up. The one canon exception is the Apathy, which drains people of the will to live, sapping away their emotions in the process.
• Many fans take a Fantasy Counterpart Culture approach with the kingdoms. For example, Atlas is a mishmash of European countries with a heavy German lean, due to it being a cold, northern kingdom with the Schnees having German names.
• In their first night in Beacon, Blake tells Ruby and Yang that she's reading a book about a man with two souls. If this book gets referenced in a fan work, it will undoubtedly be named "The Man With Two Souls", after being named as such in RWBY Chibi. If there is a sequel, it will likely be called "The Man With Four Souls" in a similar nod to the Chibi shorts. Even though it's never been confirmed, the fandom accepts it as fact that Blake's story is based on Ozpin like many of the in-universe fairy tales are; this became much more firmly established after Oscar first meets Team RNJR in Volume 5 and Ruby says "we've never met someone with two souls before", which lent credence to the assumption.
• The area in which Salem and her subordinates reside is often referred to in fan works as the Grimmlands, acknowledging the fact that this is where the Grimm seem to originate from thanks to the pools. In actual fact, it is actually called either the "Land of Darkness" or "Evernight" (with the latter sharing the name with the castle Salem operates from); though neither name has ever been used in the show, Kerry Shawcross referred to it as Evernight in several scripts and Rooster Teeth later created a t-shirt that utilized both names.

Academies

• In fanworks, Beacon is mostly portrayed as poorly organized, extremely dangerous and/or flat-out ineffectual as a school. Events like the Food Fight between teams RWBY and JNPR are shown to be common, Headmaster Ozpin is portrayed as neglectful to his duties at best and downright insane at worst, and Glynda is seen as the Only Sane Man struggling to keep a semblance of order.
• It's common in fan works to portray the combat schools, especially Beacon, as having a forge where students can upgrade/fix their weapons on their own time. Ruby often spends most of her time there, and if the building has a professor or blacksmith, she will be their apprentice. This is usually designed to explain how students can consistently mangle their weapons in spars yet still have them functioning later on; alternatively, Ruby and a forge are also a quick way for one of the main cast to upgrade/change their weapon as an author desires. In canon, even when After the Fall revealed the existence of a "Weapons Crafting and Upgrade" professor named Harold Mulberry, it doesn't mention a forge.

Aura

• One common fanon interpretation of Aura is that it is a form of 24-Hour Armor: a shield that is always on and will deflect incoming attacks. This actually goes against how it is depicted in the show, where characters are frequently dealt knockout or even lethal blows by attacks that come abruptly or without warning, such as Coco getting knocked out by Emerald in their battle in the Vytal Festival or Yang's injury from Adam's sudden sword strike at the end of Volume 3. Ren clarifies in Volume 5 that it takes a conscious effort to use Aura for protection; with enough training, it can eventually become second nature. The fanon on how Aura works is so embedded that the fandom often claims that later information on Aura has retconned older information when it's only debunked the fanon.
• When Pyrrha unlocks Jaune's Aura, she recites a short chant. Fans, especially fanfic writers, tend to assume that doing so is necessary for the process and that every character has a version of the chant unique to them.

Faunus

• Many fans assume that all Faunus have perfect night vision. In fact, it's only stated that "many" Faunus can see in the dark, and in Menagerie there are many places with the lights still on at night. It is logically assumed that Faunus only have good night vision if their animal counterpart does. For example, cat Faunus like Blake would have good night vision but most bird Faunus wouldn't. The same applies with hearing. This has led to dissatisfaction with certain episodes, where the fandom assumes that any Faunus should be able to automatically see anything that's happening in darkness, even though that's not canon.
• Faunus and humans have various cultural and behavioural differences. The fandom create extreme cultural and animal-based trends for their Faunus characters, especially in pornographic works, which depict Faunus with oestrus cycles or having bizarre non-mammalian reproductive organs. Velvet is often depicted as an Ethical Slut due to being a rabbit Faunus, and Faunus offspring are often called "cubs" or "pups", etc. However, in the main show, Faunus only display a few stereotypical quirks, with it exaggerated for comedy in RWBY Chibi. They are "human" with benefits based on their animal trait (such as cat hearing or venomous scorpion tails) and some implied cultural trends (such as Menagerie having a nocturnal section and aquatic market stalls). In the defictionalised RWBY: Fairy Tales of Remnant, Ozpin confirms there is a Faunus culture when discussing the differences between Faunus and Human tales, even apologising for potential cultural appropriation because he's included a near-extinct Faunus tale in the hope it can be saved.

Maidens

• It's common fanon that only one person can have any one Maiden's powers at a time, despite the fact that all of the Maidens' powers originated from one person: Ozpin himself. This was ultimately debunked in Volume 5, when Cinder attempts twice to take the Spring Maiden's powers, and even starts to drain them from Raven with no adverse effects, proving that one person can have multiple Maidens' abilities. However, some fans think she would have been overloaded with power had she succeeded, and that there is a difference between modern-day humans and Ozma.
• A common fanon idea was that each Maiden power possessed a single Elemental Powers, typically seeing Fire as belonging to Fall, Ice belonging to Winter, Wind belonging to Spring, and Lightning belonging to Summer. This however ignored that the Fall Maiden before Cinder, Amber, demonstrated the ability to use all four elements (though with a focus on Blow You Away). This would be completely jossed in the battle between Raven and Cinder, where both demonstrated the capacity to use Ice, and Raven used Lightning while Cinder used Fire, implying the specific elemental use was simply what they preferred to use. The creators have even said that Amber's battle against Cinder was meant to specifically disprove this. However, like the Aura fanon, this continues to persist in the fandom.
• Yet another fanon idea about Maidens is that the power transfer is akin to Ozma's reincarnation, with the spirit of the previous Maiden sticking around and conversing with the new one. It draws its roots from Ozpin's concern that Pyrrha might suffer Death of Personality should they transfer Amber's Aura into hers, and Qrow and Ozpin using similar language in Volume 4 to describe Maiden transfer and Ozpin's reincarnation, respectively. This is usually used in fanfiction to keep Penny alive, but occasionally used for Amber as well. While the show has implied there's a link between the transfer mechanics, it has never suggested that past Maidens can mentally communicate with current Maidens the way Ozpin communicates with Oscar.

Religion

• It's a common fanon concept that one of Remnant's major religion worships Dust. In fan-works, phrases like "oh my dust" are commonplace. Other common examples of this exclamation include either "Gods", "Monty", or "Oum" where the word "God" would usually go, such as "Oh my Monty" or "Oum have mercy". After Remnant's actual religions were revealed, fan-works began using oaths to them instead, but some of the old fanon is still sometimes used.
• Speaking of Oum, it is common in some fanfics to make him some sort-of saint or well-respected Huntsman, in a similar vein to Jesus Christ. Bonus points for if Oum was a previous incarnation of Ozpin.
• Many fans assume the Brothers Church has a cross. This is because Ruby and Qrow both wear crosses. This goes hand-in-hand with Qrow being a Religious Bruiser who converted to the Brothers Church. In the Volume 6 episode "The Lost Fable", Jinn's vision show that altars to the God of Light do indeed have crosses that are almost identical in shape to the cross Professor Ozpin wears at his throat for Volumes 1-3.

---