RWBY / Tropes L to N

RWBY Main Page | A to B | C to D | E to G | H to K | L to N | O to R | S to T | U to Z

---

RWBY provides examples of the following tropes:

Tropes L

• Lame Pun Reaction:
  • In the first episode of Season 2, after Ruby expresses a desire to "Start the semester off with a BANG!", Yang replies "I always start my semester off with a YANG!" Everyone else silently shakes their heads or Face Palms, while Nora throws a tomato at Yang's face from offscreen while booing her.
  • Near the end of "Painting the Town", Weiss attempts a Quip to Black based on Neapolitan's leaving glass statues of herself and Torchwick behind as decoys (which Yang shatters with a Megaton Punch). Yang isn't impressed with the joke's quality.
    Weiss: Yeah, I guess she really made our plans... fall apart?
    Yang: No. Just... no.
    Weiss: What? But you do it.
    Yang: There's a time and a place for jokes.
    Weiss: Is this not it?
    Yang: No, it just... wasn't very good.
  • In "New Challengers", Team SSSN scrapes through to the double's round via some last minute use of electricity by Neptune. Port asks Oobleck to guess what he's calling that victory. Oobleck goes for the pun and suggests "Shocking". Port thinks that response is stupid and states he was thinking the victory was well-earned.
    Port: You know what I call that victory?
    Oobleck: Shocking?
    Port: No. Well-earned. What you said is stupid!
• Lampshade Hanging: Twice during awkward pauses, tumbleweed blows by. The second time, Penny breaks the silence by commenting "Sure is windy!"
• Laser-Guided Karma:
  • Cinder wishes for nothing but to be strong, feared, and powerful, and appears to gain that by becoming the Fall Maiden and instigating the fall of Beacon Tower and Ozpin. After she is wounded at the conclusion of the Beacon Arc, Salem forces her to stay close for healing, revealing that Cinder now has a crippling weakness to Ruby's power. Salem's other subordinates have no respect for her, view her as a failure and mock her injuries. Cinder didn't expect this outcome and resents it, having gone from strong, feared and powerful to weak, mocked, and protected.
  • By the time of Volume 7, Jacques' Lack of Empathy towards his workers and abusive behavior towards his wife and children eventually come back to haunt him. Weiss learns that Willow once set up cameras in every room in the manor if she ever needed evidence to protect her children's safety. That act inadvertently captures the meeting between Jacques and Watts, which uncovers Watts's scheme, Jacques's involvement, and the fact that the election result was rigged. Thus, Weiss arrests Jacques for treason.
• Laser Sight: When Team RWBY fights a Paladin being controlled by Roman Torchwick, Yang explodes Weiss's ice to create a dense fog that obscures everyone's vision. Torchwick responds by activating several laser sights to see through it.
• Last Kiss: After a character spends several volumes wishing another would see them as more than just a friend, they finally get to kiss them... right before they die in battle against Salem's forces. Pyrrha has liked Jaune from the beginning, but he was initially only interested in Weiss. During the Battle of Beacon, she finally gets to kiss him and he reciprocates. However, she then leaves to fight Cinder; they both know the fight will end with her death.
• Late-Arrival Spoiler: Volume 4/5 promotional and concept artwork shows the new costumes and physical states of the characters. For anyone who is new to the show and starting from the beginning, this spoils some events that occur at the end of Volume 3 and start of Volume 4. Volume 4 artwork reveals that Yang lost her arm at the end of Volume 3. Meanwhile, the early Volume 4 artwork for Blake still hides the fact that she is a faunus, but the disguise is quickly dropped. Later on, Volume 5 artwork shows Yang's prosthetic and no longer attempts to pass Blake off as human.
• Late to the Tragedy:
  • In the Volume 3 finale, poor Ruby reaches the top of the CCT a little too late and is only able to watch as Pyrrha is killed by Cinder.
  • By the time Team RNJR and Qrow reach Haven Academy, it is almost completely abandoned with only headmaster Lionheart there at the time. While he tells them that he sent all of the Kingdom's Huntsmen out to deal with the Grimm attacks following the Fall of Beacon and sent the students home, it's later revealed that he actually sent all of the Kingdom's Huntsmen to die as he sold out their locations to Salem.
• Law of Chromatic Superiority: Silver in relation to eyes is stated to be an extremely rare color. The heroine has these very rare silver eyes and, if the legends are true, is destined to be a great huntress. Silver eyes is supposed to be a sign of a person with a mysterious, magical ability to slay Grimm; according to myth, they can slay Grimm with just a glance.
• Layered Metropolis: The Kingdom of Atlas-Mantle is better known as the Kingdom of Atlas, a symptom of its inequality, and consists of two cities and three layers. Atlas is a technologically advanced floating city where the wealthy live in comfort; it contains open spaces, greenery, fertile agricultural land, and Hard Light shields to defend against the Creatures of Grimm and harsh environmental conditions alike. Mantle is a decaying, crowded urban sprawl trapped in the shadow of the "City of Dreams". Basic needs are overlooked, digital technology hasn't been updated for years, a broken perimeter wall fails to protect from the Grimm, and an outdated heating grid just barely holds back the harsh tundra weather. The Crater contains slums outside Mantle's walls where the Faunus are forced to live. It's a shanty town built in the giant hole created by Atlas's ascent, and provides no Grimm protection. They're overshadowed by both cities.
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall:
  • "The Stray", which reveals that Blake is both a Faunus and a member of the White Fang, ends with her telling Sun "So, you want to know more about me...". The line is said in a POV shot through Sun's eyes, so it looks like Blake is directly addressing the audience.
  • Team CFVY's entrance at the end of Volume 2 results in three team members using their weapons in battle. The lone exception is Velvet, who has only ever been shown walking around with a small box attached to her hip. Just as she's about to use it, Coco stops her with a message that is meant to tease the viewers.
    "Hey, come on, you've spent all semester building that up. Don't waste it here."
• Leeroy Jenkins:
  • Ruby dashes off to fight the Death Stalker in episode 8. She's promptly smacked by it for her trouble.
  • Jaune's also fond of suicidal charges. He seems to have grown out of this by the Volume 2 finale.
• Left-Justified Fantasy Map: Vale. Averted with the world at large◊.
• Left the Background Music On:
  • Inverted in the "Black" trailer; the robot voice saying "Intruder - identify yourself" is actually from the song "From Shadows".
  • In Yang's trailer, which makes sense given it's in a nightclub. Changes to standard background music after she slams the DJ's face into the soundboard.
  • Returns again when Yang returns to the club, and the record starts skipping until the fearful DJ pulls up the needle.
  • Happens again in Episode 1; Ruby is listening to the opening theme during the robbery. There's even some distortion as she lowers her headphones to respond to the mook, and the music ends with an audible click when she switches them off while posing in front of the store.
  • Also inverted with Flynt Coal's trumpet, every attack is taken from the soundtrack.
• Legacy Character: When a Maiden dies, her Elemental Powers will pass on in a manner determined by her dying thoughts. If her last thoughts are of an eligible female (one who is under the age of 30), the power will pass to her. If the dying Maiden's final thoughts are of a male or an ineligible female (older than the age of 30), the power will pass to a random eligible female who could be located anywhere in the world. If the Maiden is murdered by an eligible female and her dying thoughts are of the killer, the killer themselves will inherit the power. Each new Maiden will interpret and express her powers in a way that is unique to her, so no two Maidens will ever be alike, even when comparing Maidens of the same Season. The lineages are: Spring Maiden, Summer Maiden, Fall Maiden and Winter Maiden. Each Season is responsible for the guardianship of a specific Relic, their power being the key that unlocks the door to the secret Vaults that hide each Relic. The Spring Maiden is responsible for the Relic of Knowledge at Haven Academy; the Summer Maiden for the Relic of Destruction at Shade Academy; the Fall Maiden for the Relic of Choice at Beacon Academy; and the Winter Maiden for the Relic of Creation at Atlas Academy.
• The Legend of Chekhov: There are numerous myths, legends and fairy tales in Remnant. If one gets mentioned in-universe, it usually ends up being revealed to have an historical basis that is plot-relevant in some way. For example, a little known legend exists about silver-eyed warriors who possess the ability to slay Grimm with a single glance. The Paragon's silver eyes are seen as a threat to the villains partially because of this legend.
  • "The Story of the Seasons": A fairy tale about an Old Wizard whose isolated existence comes to an end with the help of four kind sisters, to whom he gifts his magic. In Volume 3, it's revealed that the Four Maidens really do exist, and the villains are hunting them for their magical power. In Volume 5, it's confirmed that Professor Ozpin is the Wizard from the fairy tale and that the four Maidens are also the key to obtaining the four divine Relics that Salem is so desperately seeking.
  • "The Two Brothers": A creation story about two Brother gods — the Gods of Light and Darkness — who end their sibling feud by creating humanity together. In Volume 4, Qrow tells the heroes that these two gods really do exist. The gods created the Relics that Salem is after, and are also responsible for making both Salem and Ozpin immortal, the reasons for which have contributed to the existence of the Forever War between them.
  • "The Girl in the Tower": A tale of a woman who is locked in a tower by her cruel father until she is rescued by a noble hero. They fall in love, have adventures and live happily ever after. As the heroes learn, not all fairy tales tell the truth. This is the story of how Salem was rescued by Oz. They did indeed fall in love and have adventures together, but his premature death from an incurable sickness sets Salem on a path to becoming the Big Bad and the eventual resurrection of Oz as the Big Good, pitting them against each other in a Forever War for the fate of humanity.
  • "The Girl Who Fell Through The World": The story abour a girl who falls from Remnant into a magical world. She causes chaos in the new realm until she learns from her mistakes and returns home. After falling into the Ever After, Team RWBY spends the ninth volume learning the truth behind the fairy tale as they try finding their way back to Remnant.
• Leitmotif: In the episodes, melodies from the trailers play during character-important moments. Examples:
  • In Episode 1, a melody from "Red Like Roses" plays when Ruby shoots herself up the building that Roman Torchwick is escaping up. A little xylophone-like tune also plays during two of Glynda's appearances, first during her Big Damn Heroes moment, and then when a hologram of her appears in the airship.
  • The second part of Weiss' rant in her debut is accompanied by part of "Mirror, Mirror". When Blake joins in seconds later, though, the music switches to the melody in "Red Like Roses" that plays at 'Black the beast descends from shadows', meaning "Red Like Roses" might be the Leitmotif of the team.
  • A form of "I Burn" appears in Episode 5 as Yang flies through the air. "Mirror, Mirror" also reappears when Ruby runs into Weiss.
  • "Red Like Roses - Part II" plays as the two teams begin fighting the Deathstalker and Nevermore in earnest.
  • An orchestral rendition of "This Will Be the Day" plays as Jaune fights the Ursa in Episode 14.
  • A short snippet of "Red Like Roses" can be heard in Episode 16, when Ruby shows up at the docks and confronts Roman Torchwick.
  • The motifs during the food fight in "Best Day Ever" change depending on which main character is in focus. "Mirror, Mirror" and the end of "Red Like Roses Part I" are the more distinct ones that can be heard.
  • Roman Torchwick's theme. It's subtle and underscored, but if you listen closely, you notice that the music sounds like a darker rendition of certain parts of "Red Like Roses 1 & II".
  • Qrow has an associated melody first heard in his introduction at the bar.
  • Winter has a theme that can first be heard when she flies in for the Vytal Festival.
• Let's Split Up, Gang!: At the end of "Two Steps Forward, Two Steps Back", Jaune and Ruby take Qrow to Kuroyuri in the hopes of finding help or supplies while Nora and Ren take the mountain path towards Mistral in the hopes of getting aid for the wounded huntsman.
• Letting the Air out of the Band: When Weiss is hit with the pie in "Best Day Ever", the boisterous theme sputters and crashes to a halt.
• Life Meter: Huntsmen can use their Auras as personal force fields, justifying their toughness. As damage accrues, the shield starts losing energy. Although devices do exist that can help characters monitor their Aura levels which is useful during training and tournaments, the main sign of a depleted Aura in a real battle is a sudden, colored visual effect that plays across the body like breaking glass; this reveals when the Aura has shattered, which leaves them without access to their Semblance and vulnerable to damage like a normal human.
• Light Is Good: There is a legend about silver eyes that says anyone born with silver eyes is destined to be a great warrior whose eyes shine like mirrors, reflecting the light of the world onto darkness. As a result, Silver-Eyed Warriors are believed to be able to kill the Grimm with merely a glance. Ruby Rose, who learns about this legend in Volume 3, is the silver-eyed leader of the fight against Salem, who has a great deal of interest in capturing her because of those eyes. Silver-Eyed Warriors possess the power of Light, being able to activate a blinding flash of pure light all around them that destroys any Grimm caughting with its effect. Grimm can be turned to stone, blinded or vapourised by this power. The power comes from the God of Light, who also had silver eyes, and Jinn implies that they may have been passed on to humanity through two silver-eyed children that were fathered during one of Ozma's past lives; Ozma's Resurrective Immortality was bestowed upon him by the God of Light when he was tasked with the job of redeeming humanity for a past wrong that was instigated by Salem, who targets Silver-Eyed Warriors for either death or corruption.
• Light Is Not Good: The God of Light is a being of creation, not Goodness, who created all plants and animals; he and the God of Darkness created humanity together, but he is the god humanity prefers to seek blessings and help from. However, when the God of Darkness destroys humanity for rebelling against the gods, the God of Light justifies it by claiming that humanity is a failed 'experiment'. He leaves the rebellion's leader alone on an empty world as punishment for defying the gods; while he later offers Ozma one chance to redeem humanity, he makes it clear that failure will result in him declaring humanity irredeemable and destroying the world.
• Lightning Bruiser: Despite its size and inertia, the Colossus is surprisingly fast on its giant armored feet, being able to chase an airship. In "Our Way", Cordovin has it run across half of city-spanning Argus bay in seconds, leap in the air and deliver a flying punch with the drill-fist to the Leviathan Grimm, impaling it in the chest.
• Limited Animation: Most noticeable in Season 1 where all unnamed characters were animated as a black silhouette (though this was actually an artistic experiment dropped in Volume 2). All of the characters are flat and cartoony without much shading and their movements are broad and poorly synced with the background, though part of this is due to an intentional Jitter Cam effect. It can be quite jarring when viewed on a large screen. Some of this appears to be deliberate choices for a series created primarily for small screens (computers phones and tablets) All of it improves somewhat in the later seasons, though it always retains the distinctive "cartoony" style.
• Literal Cliff Hanger: In "Mountain Glenn", Ruby is trying to get back to her camp with Zwei, but the pavement suddenly collapses. Ruby is able to save Zwei before the pavement she's holding onto breaks off.
• Literally Prized Possession: Volume 4 reveals that the hoodie Jaune's been wearing under his armor since he was introduced is a promotional item he won by sending in fifty "Pumpkin Pete" cereal box tops. As a bonus, it ties into the fact that his armor now incorporates elements and metal from Pyrrha's, since she was the spokesman for the brand.
• Little "No":
  • Ruby's reaction to the announcement that Penny will be fighting Pyrrha at the end of "Destiny".
  • Blake's reaction to seeing Adam in "Battle of Beacon".
• Locked Out of the Loop: Members of the White Fang are able to roam about Blake's hometown of Menagerie freely, because the inhabitants don't know that the White Fang chapter led by Adam Taurus played an instrumental role in the invasion of Vale and the destruction of Beacon Academy, with Blake's parents only finding out when Blake and Sun inform them as such when White Fang representatives of another leader, Sienna Khan, come to visit her father. Said representatives are able to avoid suspicion by claiming that the group led by Adam is a rogue splinter faction and they're trying to apprehend him, which is a lie.
• Look on My Works, Ye Mighty, and Despair: The Kingdom of Atlas has the largest military force of all of them in the present, it's a leading kingdom in technological advancement, and socially speaking, it unsurprisingly has a self-superior view of itself despite being a comparatively young kingdom and despite its contemporary socio-economic flaws such as class division. In Volume 8, Atlas falls hard. Atlas effectively ceases to exist as a territory when Atlas City literally falls on Mantle and both cities are erased by a inland sea flooding in due to the crash, leaving thousands of evacuated survivors displaced in Vacuo.
• Loophole Abuse:
  • In Vol. 2 Episode 8, Professor Ozpin, of all people, lets Team RWBY take on a mission in the southeast quadrant, where some suspicious activity is taking place. They originally weren't allowed to because it's normally not open to first year students. But he figures since they're going to end up there anyway, he'll allow the rules to be bent slightly so they can go there to investigate.
  • In Vol. 2 Episode 9, we have this exchange:
    Oobleck: From this point forward, you have to do exactly as I say. Do you understand?
    Team RWBY: *nod*
    Oobleck: Ruby, I thought I told you to leave all your bags back at school.
    Ruby: But you didn't tell us to listen to you yet. So I didn't.
    Oobleck: ...she's not wrong.
• Lovecraft Lite: Bizarre, gibbering monsters of unknown origins and unknown motivations wage war on humanity, which are sequestered in four little pinpricks of safety, barely able to break out of this siege. What do we get out of this dark tale? Four cute, combat-capable girls, ready to stab the monsters in the face!
• Love Dodecahedron: Volume 2, hoo boy. Pyrrha likes Jaune, Jaune likes Weiss, Weiss likes Neptune, and Neptune likes anything in a skirt...
• Low Clearance: Volume 6 opens to a battle that's taking place on the roof of a speeding train between the protagonists and a pack of Manticore Grimm. When the Grimm suddenly back off from fighting, rising up into the air away from the train, the protagonists are momentarily confused until Oscar realises the train is speeding towards a tunnel. While the protagonists make it back inside the train in time, Dudley doesn't quite make it, and his arm is crushed by the impact with the tunnel. Jaune is able to use his Aura to amplify Dudley's so that it can heal Dudley's injuries.
• Lyrical Cold Open: On the soundtrack, "Shine" starts out with nothing but Casey Lee Williams' vocals.
• Lyrical Dissonance: RWBY as a series is fond of this trope, with many of its songs fitting its fun, quick action sequences and style in terms of pacing and beat... which contrasts heavily with the serious, even depressing, lyrics used.
  • During the climactic fight sequence with the the Nevermore in Episode 8, the song "Red Like Roses Part II" plays. As background music, the theme fits the sequence perfectly... but the song itself (at least the part that played in the episode) is about the singer feeling depressed over the death of a loved one.
  • Volume 2 Soundtrack contains a remix of "Time to Say Goodbye" which is a lot more upbeat than the original. Cheerful tone of the remix contrasts heavily with the original lyrics which tell about lost innocence, impending doom and fighting for an uncertain cause.
  • Smile describes Illia's tragic past and her hatred towards humanity, yet the melody is very upbeat all the way through.

Tropes M

• MacGuffin Super-Person:
  • The Fall Maiden is introduced in Volume 3 as a scarred and comatose woman, whose body is being kept in a secret location while her protectors try and figure out what to do about her. Amber was hunted by Cinder to steal her magical powers. Cinder was able to steal half her power before Amber was saved by Qrow, but it left Amber comatose. Ozpin's inner circle have no choice but to try and find a trustworthy heir to receive Amber's remaining power before Cinder locates her and steals the other half. Choosing Pyrrha to inherit that power is the plot device that allows Cinder to obtain great magical power and kill off one of the main characters. The method Cinder uses to obtain Amber's power, and the deaths of both Amber and Pyrrha, is what brings the main characters into the plot, activates Ruby Rose's secret ability, and leaves Cinder hateful and vengeful against Ruby for maiming her. Amber herself barely regains consciousness before her death, and takes no active part in the plot beyond a flashback revealing how Cinder stole the first half of her power.
  • The Winter Maiden is introduced in Volume 7 as an elderly woman who needs to be hidden away to prevent her power from being stolen. Advanced old age has left her very forgetful, easily confused, and on her death bed. Cinder engineers the means by which Ironwood's actions reveal Fria's secret location, allowing her to go there in an attempt to steal Fria's powers. Fria is able to use her power just long enough for the heroes to arrive in time to prevent Cinder obtaining the power. Fria's sole role in the story is therefore to show the audience what a natural Maiden transfer of power looks like, what a fully-trained Maiden is capable of after decades of mastering the power, and to give a power-up to an existing character.
• Macross Missile Massacre: The Colossus contains a cannon on its right arm. Linked to it is a missile launcher that loads sixteen missiles at a time. It therefore has the option of firing a single missile or a barrage at its target.
• Made of Explodium: Dust is extremely volatile. It can explode from being sneezed on.
• Magic A Is Magic A:
  • Dust is a crystalline substance that is obtained in large quantities by mining. It can be used naturally, which requires great discipline to control, or artificially, which makes it easily accessible to anyone. Dust possesses four basic attributes (Fire, Earth, Air and Water), but it can be combined either naturally or artificially to produce new kinds of properties and attributes (such as Lightning or Gravity). Dust is considered highly volatile which creates dangerous issues with mining and storage, although its energy can be harnessed reliably in either crystal (uncut) or powder form. It has therefore been incorporated into all levels of technology from modern use in weapons, cybernetics and ammunition to old-fashioned uses such as weaving Dust into clothing or fusing it directly with a person's body.
  • Aura is a physical manifestation of the soul that can empower both humans and Faunus with training. It can block damage, enhance senses, empower weapons, heal damage and activate dust. Even animals possess Aura. Only Monsters of Grimm do not.
  • A Semblance is an ability related to an awakened Aura that manifests in ways unique to each individual. There are a wide variety of Semblances from Super-Speed to Instant Runes to Selective Magnetism. It's an ability Huntsmen incorporate into their arsenal of skills and powers.
• Magic Fire: Whenever one of the Maidens taps into their powers, it is represented by their Aura forming flames around their eyes that conform to the colour of their Aura. Amber and Cinder have natural-looking eye-fire because of their orange-gold Auras; the Spring Maiden's eye-fire is an unnatural red hue and Fria's is an icy blue. Penny's eye-fire is emerald green and Winter's is icy-blue.
• Magical Incantation: When Pyrrha realises that Jaune hasn't activated his Aura and doesn't even know what one is, Pyrrha decides to awakening his Aura so that it will protect him. She places one hand his chest and the other on the side of his head. By activating her Aura and reciting a short phrase, she successfully releases Jaune's soul and is able to tell that he appears to have a lot of Aura.
  Pyrrha: For it is in passing that we achieve immortality. Through this, we become a paragon of virtue and glory to rise above all. Infinite in distance and unbound by death, I release your soul, and by my shoulder, protect thee.
• Magic by Any Other Name: Every living thing possesses Aura, a soul-generated power. Huntsmen are trained to use Aura defensively, offensively and manifested as a Semblance, such as Super-Speed or Magnetism Manipulation. Combined with Dust, a mined crystal that produces elemental effects, magic-style acts like summoning storms or wielding ice or fire can be produced. However, none of this is magic, which is believed to not exist. True Magic is a secret that is independent of Aura, Semblance or Dust. Everyone could wield magic until stripped by the gods for an ancient wrong, leaving behind remnants in the form of Aura, Semblance and Dust. The two remaining humans from that era are immortals battling secretly for the fate of the world. The Big Good sacrificed most of his magic to create the Four Maidens, who — along with the Huntsmen Academies he invented — protect four divine Relics, which are needed by the Big Bad to destroy the world.
• Magic Is Feminine: Subverted trope. True magic is extremely rare and associated with the Maidens, four women who wield Elemental Powers that pass upon their death to any young woman who is in their final thoughts, or a random young woman if their final thoughts are about a man or a woman older than 30. However, the Maiden magic actually originated from a man, a legendary "old wizard" who was once helped by four kind sisters; in gratitude, he transferred most of his magic to them so that they could use it to help humanity. Humanity used to be an entirely magical race until condemned by the gods. Now, only two immortal humans from the magical era remain: the Big Bad and the Big Good. Salem has Complete Immortality and her full magical ability. Ozma has Resurrective Immortality; after he transferred his magic to the Maidens, the magic started passing on according to the rules of his reincarnation cycle, where his soul transfers to a young man upon his previous body's death. Unlike Salem, Ozma only has personal access to a fraction of his original magic because he split it with the Maidens.
• Magic Skirt: Monty Oum was adamant that the show would be clean and responsible, and the show makes an active effort to ensure every outfit design either averts the trope or enforces it, no matter what camera angles occur.
  • Played straight with academy skirts from the three academies that use uniforms. No matter what happens, a girl's skirt will always protect her modesty regardless of what combat moves or gravity pull is involved.
  • Averted for Ruby, Weiss and Nora. All three girls start out wearing heavily layered skirts that reveal nothing even during upskirt shots. Later outfits include hotpant shorts under the skirts instead. It fails in-universe on one occasion for parody, when Ren accidentally sees up Nora's skirt and gets chastised for it. In the Volume 5 trailer, Nora's skirt — which normally averts the trope — barely falls even though she's hanging upside down from the ceiling.
  • During Volumes 1-3, Penny and Pyrrha's skirts never move in any manner that allows anything untoward to be seen. Even in battle, their skirts manages to protect their modesty from all angles. In Volumes 7-8, Penny's rebuilt form averts the trope by wearing a layered skirt and white hotpant shorts.
    Monty Oum: RWBY will be tasteful, clean and responsible. I implemented very effective ANTI-UPSKIRT TECHNOLOGY! for this show.
• Magitek:
  • All advanced technology is powered by Dust, a magical substance, whose properties vary depending on the type of Dust. While the technology of that world is quite advanced by our standards, space flight is still an impossibility for them, as Dust stops working in orbit. This also means no satellites. Because of this, the Kingdom's of Remnant lose contact with each other once the Cross-Continental Transit System tower in Beacon is taken out by a Wyvern at the end of Volume 3. However, General James Ironwood later converts Amity Colosseum into Amity Communications Tower in order to restore communications with the other Kingdom's and warm them about Big Bad Salem.
  • As of Volume 7, Penny's been revealed to be this, being an android with a core powered by a piece of her creator's aura. By the end of the volume, she gets access to real magic, too, becoming the Winter Maiden.
  • Atlas is a floating city whose levitation is powered by the Relic of Creation, one of the four surviving Relics of the gods' power.
• Male Gaze:
  • In "Dance Dance Infiltration", as Cinder walks into view wearing a catsuit, the camera angle remains focussed entirely on her butt as she enters the building.
  • During "Breach", Emerald walks away from the camera to approach some Grimm. The camera remains focussed entirely on her butt as she reaches back to draw her weapons, which are holstered at the small of her back.
  • In "Out In The Open", an upshot of the back of Cinder's phone turns into a gratuitous shot of her upper thighs and groin as she walks across the camera to leave the scene.
• Man of Kryptonite: Near the end of Volume 3, Ruby is revealed to be this to the Creatures of Grimm. She is part of the Silver-Eyed Warriors, an ancient lineage of legendary warriors who possessed special abilities through the usage of their namesake, and are incredibly deadly to Grimm. Ruby's first usage of these powers petrify the Grimm Dragon and critically injure Cinder, who is revealed at the end of Volume 5 to have a Grimm arm.
• Masculine Girl, Feminine Boy:
  • Jaune and Pyrrha. The former's a clumsy timid boy who seems to be new to everything around him while the latter's an experienced and more talented girl who looks after him.
  • Nora and Ren. Nora is a boisterous Thrill Seeker who loves hitting things with her hammer, while Ren is a graceful, quiet man, who loves to cook and read.
• Mass "Oh, Crap!":
  • In Volume 2's "No Brakes", the Vale populace is bewildered when the White Fang's train bursts from the underground, with Team RWBY still dazzled from the impact. Then the Grimm emerge from the breach and invade the streets, causing a mass panic.
  • In Volume 3's "PvP", the world witnesses a savage fight that appears to result in the death of a person, and the broadcasters cannot control their own feed to cut off the grisly sight. While Ironwood attempts to take control of the crowd, the stadium is attacked, causing mass panic. Pyrrha accidentally tears Penny apart, leading Cinder to announce everyone's in danger and they can't trust the authorities to protect them, followed by the Grimm invading the kingdom en masse.
• Match Cut:
  • In "The Stray", a shot of Ruby and Yang sadly watching Weiss and Blake argue outside in the daytime cuts perfectly into a shot of them with the same expressions still watching them argue inside their dorm late at night.
  • Tons of them in the volume 2 opening, used to interchange between the different members of Team RWBY engaged in battle or running.
  • Near the end of "Burning the Candle", a white rose that Jaune drops on the ground after seeing Weiss asking Neptune to the dance fades seamlessly into a drooping white rose amongst a bouquet at the dance.
  • The penultimate shot of "Field Trip" cuts from Team RWBY's excitement to fight alongside a real Huntsman to their shocked reactions to finding out that said Huntsman is Dr. Oobleck.
  • In "Breach", a shot of a pink cloud-filled sky fades into a shot of a yellow cloud-filled sky.
  • In Vol. 3 Episode 1, Ruby's reaction to winning against Team ABRN in the Vytal Festival tournament is jumping into the air and shouting "WE DID IIIIT!"; as she's midair, the scene behind her changes to the Vytal fairgrounds.
  • In "Fall", a shot of Amber's face cuts perfectly into a shot of Cinder's.
  • To show the stark difference between the modern desolation of the town of Kuroyuri and its thriving past, the episode "Kuroyuri" uses match-cuts to switch between present day and the past. A lingering shot of a destroyed, wilted water lily lying on solid ground fades seamlessly into a shot of the same flower when vibrant and floating on the surface of peaceful water, while the sight of a barren, wasted tree fades into a picture of it in full bloom, in front of which a very young Ren and his parents pose for a picture.
• Meaningful Echo:
  • "Burning the Candle", Pyrrha gives advice to Jaune on talking to Weiss about his feelings: "No ridiculous schemes, no pick-up lines. Just... be honest." The following episode, Jaune gives the exact same advice to Neptune, signifying that he's giving up his crush on Weiss in favour of helping Neptune to woo her instead.
  • "Fall". Pyrrha is invited up to Ozpin's office where she receives praise for her exemplary performance in the recent tournaments from both Ozpin and a more cynical Qrow. When Ozpin abruptly asks her "What's your favourite fairy tale?", the normally unflappable Pyrrha is momentarily speechless. That simple question reveals the existence of earth-shattering secrets that are being kept hidden from the world by a small group of very powerful and mysterious people. This line is later codified in-universe as a signal of major plot reveals through Qrow repeating Ozpin's question word-for-word when it's finally time to bring the main characters into the loop.
  • "My hero." Sun jokingly says this towards Blake in "Of Runaways and Stowaways" after Blake catches him during the fight against the sea dragon Grimm. At this point, Blake is not happy towards this, as she is surprised and shocked at the fact that Sun has been following her ever since she decided to leave unnoticed in fear of causing any more harm to her friends. Eight episodes later, after Sun finally calls her out on her attitude of not wanting her friends or family near her, Blake heartwarmingly says it, not only being simple acknowledgement of Sun truly helping her, but also a sign that she has finally gotten over that fear of seeing her loved ones harmed.
  • During the battle of Haven, Cinder mocks Raven as being nowhere near as clever or powerful as her reputation claims. This triggers her attack on Vernal, which leads to a fight with Raven. When both their Auras shatter, Raven tells Cinder that if she "were stronger or more clever" she would remember to watch her back; behind her, Vernal uses the last of her strength to fire her weapon and distract Cinder, allowing Raven to throw Cinder off the vault ledge.
  • After Fria transferred the Maiden power to Penny towards the end of Volume 7, Winter states Fria wasn't truly gone because she was now a part of Penny. Once Penny transfers the power to Winter in this episode, she states that she's not truly gone because she's a part of Winter.
• Meaningful Name:
  • This is enforced in-universe as a result of the Great War that occurred 80 years before the story begins. One of the causes of the war was an effort to destroy individuality, and artistic expression. After the war, people across the world began naming their children after colours and colour references as a way of remembering what it was they were fighting for. Almost all the characters therefore has a name that deliberately references a colour, either directly (such as Weiss Schnee, which is German for "White Snow"), or indirectly (such as the yellow-themed Yang Xiao Long, whose name translates in-universe as "Sunny Little Dragon"). Some names are colour puns, such as the newscaster Cyril Ian (a pun on "cerulean").
  • Cinder Fall is the Maiden of the season of autumn, better known as the Fall Maiden. In Volume 5, Raven sarcastically says Cinder's surname is so appropriate, she probably chose it herself as an act of egomania. Watts agrees with her. Raven spots this because she protects the Spring Maiden, Vernal (as in vernal (spring) equinox); Raven created Vernal to be a decoy so that she can keep the real Spring Maiden hidden away from the Big Bad.
  • The Huntsman Academies are named after sources of protection and/or comfort in what is a Death World, such as Haven Academy (Mistral). Beacon Academy (Vale) is the shining light of Remnant, implied to be its top academy. Atlas Academy is named after the Greek Titan Atlas, whose punishment was to hold up the pillar between the heavens and the earth, and suggests a motif of protection and responsibility; it replaced Mantle, named for the same theme, after the Great War that Mantle helped start. Shade Academy is located in the harsh desert environment of Vacuo, implying protection from the sun. At the end of Volume 3, a Grimm Wyvern is frozen on the top of Beacon Tower where, in its latent state, it continuously attracts more Grimm to the area; the ruined Beacon Academy therefore becomes a beacon for the very creatures it was built to protect humanity from.
  • The continental island of Menagerie (which means a diverse collection of animals) was given to the Faunus as token gesture towards the Fantastic Racism against them. It is two-thirds desert with extremely dangerous wildlife, resulting in the coast being the only inhabitable place. The population is crowded into limited living space, but the Faunus make sure that any Faunus in the world who wants to live there, can do so.
  • Even the world of Remnant itself. It is revealed that in ages past, Remnant was a beautiful High Fantasy world where the gods walked the surface of the world and magic was a powerful force everybody could use. Then Salem spited the gods with her Rage Against the Heavens, so they wiped humankind from the world and rendered their old civilizations into dust and then departed. When humanity eventually returned, they found a hostile world overrun with Grimm and their magic potential stunted into a single ability unique to each person - a Semblance.
• Mecha-Mooks: Atlesian Knights are commonly used by the military of Atlas, especially when overwhelming numbers are required. The original model is first seen in the Black Trailer, trying to protect a train from Blake and Adam who are trying to steal the train's cargo. Despite being surrounded, the pair have no trouble defeating them. In Volume 2, General Ironwood introduces an upgraded model. However, even the upgrade is shown to be weaker in combat than the superhuman Huntsmen and Huntresses, including trainees. This is because only living things have Aura, which grants powerful attack and defense abilities; soulless automatons are never going to be able to equal someone with even a small amount of training. Ironwood's primary use for them is to fight the Grimm in the hope that humans won't have to keep dying to keep the Grimm at bay. By the time the heroes reach the Kingdom of Atlas and see the state Mantle is in, the Atlesian Knights are shown patrolling the streets of Mantle and end up easily being overwhelmed by the Grimm that enter the city. Later when General James Ironwood and the rest of the military turn against the heroes, the Atlesian Knights are among the most common enemy of the military that they face.
• MegaCorp: The Schnee Dust Company which is one of the largest producers and exporters of Dust. It's so big that it has its own security force and fleet of airships. It used to be run in an ethical way, but became much more exploitative of its workers after Jacques Schnee took over such as forcing them to work in unsafe conditions and it's mistreatment of Faunus workers. Even it's human workers were mistreated by how easily be considered laying them off in order to make up for company losses after General James Ironwood placed a Dust embargo on the kingdom of Atlas. Among it's victims were Illia Amitola's parents who died in a mining accident and Adam Taurus who has his face branded with the company logo which eventually led to both of them joining the White Fang.
• Men Are Generic, Women Are Special: Warriors who fight Grimm are called Huntsmen if male, and Huntresses if female. "Huntsmen" is also a gender-neutral term.
• Mentor Occupational Hazard:
  • After a training arc spanning several volumes, one of the heroes loses their closest mentor, who is killed by Cinder. This starts their journey of opposition against Cinder and, ultimately, Salem. Jaune's partner, Pyrrha, becomes his mentor to give him extracurricular combat training so that he can catch-up to his peers, but she is murdered by Cinder in Volume 3. In Volume 4, it's revealed that Jaune still has a training video she once made, where she confesses that she's never met anyone with as much drive to better themselves as Jaune. When he finally confronts Cinder at Haven, Jaune loses all self-control and tries to kill her.
  • Flashbacks reveal that Cinder stole a Huntsman's sword when she was ten years old; he decides to train her to become a Huntress, hoping he can give her a legal route to a better future instead of her throwing her life away by killing her abusive family. The training lasts for several years until his death triggers her Start of Darkness. Unable to cope with the abuse any longer, Cinder kills her family; when Rhodes tries to arrest her, his training has been so effective that she is able to kill him. Years of torture ending in four murders is how her road to villainy begins.
• Merchandising the Monster: The Creatures of Grimm infest the planet; humanity only survives by living in fortified kingdoms protected by Huntsmen. Grimm evaporate upon death, so don't leave harvestable bodies behind; this has created markets aimed at children and adults alike: Grimm figurines for children, as seen on Ruby's bedroom shelves; expensive statues, as seen in the homes of wealthy elite like the Schnee family; taxidermic mock-ups for people who want hunt trophies on their walls; and so on. Nora once dreams about killing Grimm and selling their pelts as rugs.
• Mercy Kill: What Raven claims killing the previous Spring Maiden was.
  Raven: She wasn't cut out for this world, and with those powers she would have been hunted her entire life. What I did...
  Yang: Wasn't personal.
  Raven: It was mercy!
• Meta Power: According to Mercury Black, his father Marcus took away other people's Semblances. When Mercury first unlocked his, Marcus removed it since he considered Semblances a "crutch". Though Marcus wanted Mercury to become strong first, he never did restore his son's Semblance. Even after Mercury killed him, his Semblance never returned. Now he's a Badass Normal in a world of Semblance-powered fighters.
• Midair Collision: Happens with Ruby and Jaune in Episode 8.
• Midfight Weapon Exchange: During Cinder and Raven's fight, they exchange strikes so fiercely they temporarily lose grip of their swords only to continue the fighting with each others' swords after grabbing them midair.
• Mildly Military: The Kingdom of Atlas is the only kingdom with a standing army. All four kingdoms rely on their Huntsman for protection from the Creatures of Grimm who are trained in Huntsman Academies to maximise their Aura, Semblances and combat skills in a way ordinary people and even soldiers are not. They are encouraged to express individuality and diversity while possessing no loyalty to any kingdom or hierarchy in order to put the needs of the people first. Atlas' controversial decision to merge its Huntsman Academy with its military provides it with super-soldier "Special Operatives" that prioritise their hierarchy over protecting the people. The Special Operatives stand out from the uniform rank-and-file soldiers and officers by personalising their uniforms and appearances as a nod to their Huntsman origins, although this individualism is more muted than is seen with proper Huntsmen.
• Miming the Cues: Jaune gets asked a question in class that he doesn't know the answer to. Pyrrha tries to mime it to him — the answer is night vision — but he misinterprets it and answers, "Binoculars?" Cue Face Palm.
• Minidress of Power:
  • Pyrrha Nikos wears a midriff-covering tube top-like armor with a mid-thigh skirt. It does not bother her at all, probably because it is elastic. So her skirt actually makes sense.
  • Penny, Nora, Ruby, and Weiss also count as this (though as Weiss insists, it's a combat skirt).
• Mini-Mecha:
  • The Black Trailer introduces the Spider Droid, a massive arachnid-shaped beast of a combat machine. Although it appears to function like the humanoid Atlesian Knights, the first manga reveals that it is actually a huge mecha that is powered by a tiny security robot.
  • The Atlesian Paladin is a vaguely humanoid robotic war-machine that can function as a remote-controlled battle drone. However, the torso is a cockpit that can fit an adult, who can control the Paladin directly from an internal console. While the Paladin is bigger than a human to be able to comfortably accommodate one in the cockpit, it's only approximately 2-3 times the height of a human, making it a relatively small mecha option.
• Minor Crime Reveals Major Plot: In the pilot episode, Ruby foils a local criminal's attempt to rob a Dust shop. When Dust robberies keep happening, and seem to also involve the terrorist White Fang organisation, Team RWBY begins a vigilante investigation that eventually drags them and their friends into a vast, global conspiracy that has spent millennia waging a Secret War to decide the fate of humanity which eventually ends up resulting in the destruction of one of the four remaining Kingdoms of Humanity.
• Minor Injury Overreaction:
  • In "The More The Merrier", Cinder Fall toys around with Jaune Arc during their fight and doesn't take him seriously. Then he barely manages to graze her mask. She goes berserk, beats him into the ground, and yells that he has some nerve to try fighting her. And then she looks over at Weiss getting beaten and decides to Kick the Dog.
  • It has been said before and it does bear repeating: if you don't want to be beaten to a mushy pulp and set on fire, do not damage Yang's hair.
• Mini-Mecha: The Atlasian Paladin, developed by the kingdom of Atlas in cooperation with the Schnee Dust Company, which allows human soldiers to fight alongside Atlas' Mecha-Mooks. Torchwick stole some for the White Fang, and used one to fight against team RWBY in "Painting the Town."
• Missed Him by That Much: In "The Beginning of the End" Blake arrives back at her camp just as Cinder is leaving for the first time.
• Missing Mom: Ruby and Yang both have missing mothers:
  • Yang's mom left Taiyang shortly after Yang's birth. She does show up briefly, but shows no interest in actually mothering Yang.
  • Ruby's mom Summer disappeared while on a mission; Yang says this is what broke Taiyang emotionally. So far neither the characters nor the viewers know where she is, although she is assumed dead.
• Missing Steps Plan: Due to villainous activity in the kingdom, Ironwood's plan to save Atlas is missing one important step in the middle that neither he nor the heroes consider. He decides to abandon Mantle and fly Atlas into the upper atmosphere away from Grimm and Salem, while the heroes want to evacuate Mantle to Atlas and then let Ironwood carry out the plan. The plan rests on Atlas' Hard Light shield maintaining an artificial atmosphere and Salem having no presence in the city. It skips over the problem of abandoning its source of Dust (meaning the shield will eventually fail) and Salem already having a known presence in the city. Even when she breaks the shield and lands her army on Atlas, Ironwood and the heroes still don't change course. The heroes only abandon their plan when Ironwood gives them an ultimatum so impossibly time-limited that they're forced to Take a Third Option.
• Mix-and-Match Weapon: Most weapons in the show are multi-functional, able to switch between close-combat and ranged fighting, usually involving blade/gun combinations. For example, in Team RWBY, Ruby has a scythe that can fire as a rifle, Weiss's rapier has a revolver-style chamber that she can rotate to produce ranged elemental attacks, and Blake dual-wields a sword with a sharpened sheath, which has a pistol and lengthy ribbon attached, allowing her to use it akin to a Killer Yo-Yo or a kusarigama. In Team JNPR, Nora's weapon transforms between a grenade launcher and warhammer, Pyrrha's weapon transforms between a sword, javelin and rifle, and Ren dual wields combination gun-knives.
• Moral Disambiguation: General Ironwood was originally portrayed as someone who ultimately meant well and just wanted to keep everyone safe, but made drastic and controversial decisions in order to do this. He begins suffering from Sanity Slippage after the villains play him like a fiddle to successfully topple Beacon, making him extremely paranoid and hell-bent on protecting everyone at any cost. During the Atlas arc, he loses it completely and starts making unambiguously immoral choices, trying to kill Oscar and even plotting to drop a massive bomb on his own people.
• Morality Kitchen Sink: The series begins as a group of kids training to be Huntresses and Huntsmen. They specialize in killing Grimm, an evil race of monsters that prey on humans and Faunus. As the series progresses, other organizations are introduced with their own motives and reasons for fighting. Even among the heroes, there are different motives behind becoming Huntsmen, which sometimes causes trust issues.
• More Dakka: The weapons of both robots, such as the Atlesian Knights (who fire a hail of bullets from their fingertips) and people, are capable of overkill where firing ammo is concerned. Huntsmen often have weapons that look traditional or old-fashioned, such as axes, maces, hammers, javelins, blades, etc. However, most of them are made out of modern technology and will transform into various types of firearms. Examples include Ruby's scythe which is also a high-impact sniper rifle or Nora's hammer, which is also a grenade launcher. The fashionable Cocoa's handbag transforms into a rotary cannon, and Dr. Oobleck's thermos flash transforms into a flame-thrower. The exceptions seem to be Jaune and the Malachite sisters. Jaune's weapon is a sword and collapsible shield that either function as a traditional sword and shield or can combine into a dual-edged sword. The sisters rely on claw weapons and bladed heels.
  Random Fan: Is there going to be any weapon that does not somehow have a gun in it?
  Kerry: Why would you want that?
• Monkey Morality Pose: In the dining hall, Nora throwing food for Yang to catch with her mouth escalates until Nora accidentally hits Weiss in the face with a custard pie. Team JNPR is shown with Ren covering his eyes, Pyrrha covering her mouth and Jaune covering one of his ears. Nora, meanwhile, points at Ren, passing the buck in a parody of the fourth monkey, 'Do no Evil'.
• Mood Whiplash:
  • Vol.1 Episode 12 ends on a rather foreboding note... only to immediately go into the credits featuring the bouncy theme of the hyperactive Prof. Oobleck. The DVD version ended this episode with the more mellow leitmotif of Jaune and Pyrrha.
  • "Extracurricular" has Ruby, Weiss and Yang worrying about how Blake is too upset about Torchwick and the White Fang to bother sleeping or eating... to Jaune trying (and failing) to serenade Weiss into going to the dance with him.
  • In a meta/real-life example, Volumes 1 and 2 were added to Netflix... the day before Monty Oum's death.
  • In the Volume 3 opening, it starts off with some nice soothing piano, and on screen it says "Created by Monty Oum", with a solitary red rose behind it in twilight, and a red rose petal falling onto the rose... and then the theme tune is the hard-hitting rock song "When It Falls".
  • Watching the rather touching and heartwarming "World of Remnant: The Four Maidens" is this after the dark episode "PvP".
  • Nora provides a brusque but very much needed mood shift in "Destiny" after Team RWBY gets disqualified from the Vytal Festival tournament and Blake admits her reluctance to believing Yang with a hilarious rapid-fire scene trying to get Pyrrha physically pumped for her match that ends with her lifting a 1-ton barbell only for the weight to slowly overwhelm her and make her fall back.
  • In "Welcome to Haven", a drunken guy tries advancing on Yang and receives an overcranked haymaker from her when he touches her hair. The moment's badass...until the guy starts bouncing off the walls and out of the room like a tennis ball, at which point it becomes hilarious.
  • In "Unforeseen Complications", the scene where a kidnapped Weiss is informed by her captors that Winter, her only hope for a rescue, is no longer in Mistral is directly followed by Nora lightening the mood with a quick, mile-a-minute scene of her gushing over Oscar.
• Mook Chivalry: In Episode 1, Roman's mooks attack Ruby one at a time. Whenever human goons are smart enough to attack as a group, they usually get swept away with some kind of Spin Attack.
• More than Just a Teacher: Beacon Academy's history teacher, Dr. Oobleck, lampshades the fact that all Academy teachers are Huntsmen by explaining why he feels being a teacher is more important than being a Huntsmen; putting knowledge of how to fight and survive the Grimm without repeating the mistakes of history into the hands of future generations is extremely important. His boss, Beacon Academy's headmaster, Professor Ozpin is the living example of Dr. Oobleck's message. An immortal warrior-wizard, Professor Ozpin has been secretly fighting the equally immortal Salem. She controls the Creatures of Grimm and is trying to destroy the world to free herself from a divine curse; his divine mandate is to save humanity, and he taught the world how to fight back against the Grimm. As they're ex-lovers, she's Never My Fault and he has a Guilt Complex, they've been stuck in a rut for millennia — trapped by their history instead of learning from it.
• Motion Capture: More obvious during the Maya-animated seasons, but the show is partially animated via this method.
• Mr. Exposition: Dr. Oobleck is the history teacher for Beacon Academy. His primary role is to educate the students, and therefore the audience, on the world of Remnant. Even when he's leading Team RWBY on a field-trip, he scatters lectures throughout their mission to explain the setting to the audience. Through him, the students and audience are introduced to the existence of a series of Faunus Wars between humanity and Faunus because the Faunus struggle with racism and equality; he explains the history of Mountain Glenn, and introduces the concept that the Grimm gain intelligence and patience as they get older and more experienced. During the Vytal Festival, he acts as one of the tournament commentators, introducing the in-universe and out-of-universe audiences to the students taking part in the competition and their abilities.
• Mr. Fanservice: Sun's outfit of choice, a long white jacket with no shirt underneath, leaves little to the imagination in regards to his very muscular chest and abs.
• Ms. Fanservice:
  • Yang Xiao Long, who the song "Red Like Roses" refers to as "yellow beauty burns gold". Her primary outfit◊ shows off a bit more of her figure than the rest of the cast, with some exposed cleavage.
  • Pyrrha Nikos◊. Her combat outfit features a miniskirt and thigh-high boots, corset, and low neckline. She's also noticeably taller, curvier, and more athletic than most of the other girls at Beacon.
  • Cinder Fall, who under several occasions has worn outfits that show off her voluptuous body. Let's not forget the butt shot◊.
  • Prior to Volume 6, Weiss' outfits involve mini-dresses without tights that expose her long legs. Her outfits often involve a Cleavage Window as well, creating bare skin between her dress and the balero jackets she often wears.
• Mukokuseki: Akin to the classic anime style, character features do not automatically reveal nationality or race. Since the setting is explicitly not based on real life Earth, names that may have strong cultural associations in real life cannot be used to determine the race or nationality of the characters. Certain continents and the naming schemes of characters from those continents have overall themes that parallel real-life cultures, but are not intended to reflect the reality of those cultural inspirations. Characters from Atlas have German or French names (such as Weiss and her father Jacques), or names associated with English translations of Russian storytelling (James Ironwood's name comes from the Russian version of the Tin Man. Pyrrha, who is Greek-influenced, and Lie Ren, who is Chinese-influenced, both come from the continent of Anima, which is the Asian-themed continent. While Ren's hair, manner of dress and martial arts style of fighting are heavily Chinese-influenced, his features are as pale as any other white-skinned characters. Dark-skinned characters do exist in the show, but no more indicate where a character is from that white skin does.
• Mugging the Monster:
  • In the very first episode, some thugs are robbing a store that main character Ruby Rose just happens to be in. When one of them brings her attention away from her headphones and magazine by trying to get her to put her hands up, she responds by throwing the offending man across the room and attacking the entire group. The main theme even begins to play as a mook spots her, and the lyrics match the situation perfectly.
  • When Yang stops in an Anima fuel station, she gets hit on by a lone bandit. When Shay D Mann refuses to take the hint, she punches him out of the shop and earns a free bottle of water from the attendant for getting rid of a pest. When Shay realises that Yang is looking for Raven, he offers to take Yang to her. When they reach an isolated spot in the forest, Shay gets seven fellow bandits to help him gang up on Yang to give her a beating and steal her motorcycle in revenge for being punched so hard he lost a tooth. Yang's response is to single-handedly thrash all eight of the bandits before informing Shay that she's his boss's daughter. Shay mournfully concludes that Raven is going to kill him. A few days later, he decides to try and take out his frustrations on four people who arrive at the camp, only to discover that he's dealing with a Maiden (Cinder), two Huntsman-trained fighters (Emerald and Mercury) and someone who really has no interest in him (Watts).
• Multinational Team: Each continent of Remnant has at least one kingdom, a safe place for humanity to flourish among the nightmarish creatures that stalk the world. Each kingdom contains an elite school that trains people to become Huntsmen and Huntresses, heroes who protect humanity from the threats to their existence. The world's best school is Beacon Academy, based in the Kingdom of Vale on the continent of Sanus, and run by the enigmatic Professor Ozpin; it either attracts the best students in the world or Ozpin actively headhunts them, so Beacon teams can consist of students who come from many different places. The heroes helping the Big Good to fight the Big Bad consist of two teams from Beacon Academy: Team RWBY, which contains Vale locals Ruby Rose and Yang Xiao Long, Weiss Schnee who is native to the Kingdom of Atlas on the continent of Solitas, and Blake Belladonna, who comes from the distant Faunus island of Menagerie. Team JNPR contains two characters of unknown origins, Jaune Arc and Nora Valkyrie, Pyrrha Nikos, who comes from the City of Argus on the continent of Anima, and Lie Ren, who comes from a completely different location on Anima, the village of Kuroyuri just outside the Kingdom of Mistral.
• Multi-Part Episode: Volume 1 is predominantly two-part episodes, with only 4 of the 16 episodes being standalones. The fact that episode-splitting is discontinued in future volumes makes their abundant use here even more apparent. Subverted in the Blu-Ray Release of Volume 1 where the two-part episodes are shown combined together as just one episode each, resulting in the Blu-Ray version cutting the episode amount down from 16 to 10.
• Mundane Made Awesome:
  • Professor Port's lecture in Vol.1 Episode 9. It sounds nice, but he's talking about a Beowulf, a low-level, cannon fodder Mook in detail.
  • In Volume 2, Episode 1, Teams RWBY and JNPR square off in a Food Fight. The food isn't so much thrown as it is hurled at high velocities or used as bludgeons in intense duels.
• Mundane Utility:
  • In Episode 9, Ruby uses Crescent Rose to hang up a curtain. And promptly slice it in two by accident as she turns around.
  • Prof. Oobleck's weapon transforms into a coffee thermos when he's not using it.
  • The Food Fight that kicks off Volume 2 features boatloads of this, from the start right through to Glynda using her powers to clear everything up at the end.
  • In Vol.4 Episode 9, Weiss uses a glyph to slam a door closed.
• Muscles Are Meaningless: The creators have stated that Aura renders muscle mass pointless, so Remnant women are not viewed as weaker than men. Many characters therefore don't look like they can even lift their weapons, let alone fight with them; Ruby and Nora are both small women who use huge polearm-based weapons, and Yang who, despite being tall and slim, still doesn't look like she'd be one of the hardest hitters of the show. Aura isn't possessed solely by humans, animals possess it, too. As a result, Zwei, who is a tiny corgi pet of Ruby and Yang, is able to take down giant robots simply by using momentum to send them flying.
• My Friends... and Zoidberg: In Volume 2, a Running Gag occurs where Weiss is singled out by the people around her.
  • In Best Day Ever, Ruby announces to both her team and JNPR that she has plans for them to spend their last day before school term begins having the most fun possible. However, she begins with "Sisters! Friends! Weiss!" Weiss responds with an indignant "Hey!"
  • In Welcome to Beacon, Sun arrives in the library to introduce his team-mate Neptune and introduces Team RWBY as "Ruby, Yang, Blake, Ice Queen". An indignant Weiss demands "Why does everyone keep calling me that?!"
  • In Painting the Town..., Roman decides to escape his encounter with Team RWBY by declaring "Ladies! Ice Queen!" resulting in an indignant exclaimation from Weiss.
• My Instincts Are Showing: Played with. Yang attempts to invoke this when she uses a laser pointer to distract a Cat Faunus. At first the Cat Faunus alternates between ignoring the red dot and poking at it, then ends up stalking it with her eyes fixated on the moving laser, just like a cat stalking a laser pen before it makes up its mind whether or not to pounce.
• Mythical Motifs: Has its own dedicated page.

Tropes N

• Narnia Time: It's implied that the flow of time between Remnant and the Ever After may not be like-for-like. Although the last to fall from the Central Location, Jaune appears to be the first to land in the Ever After, before accidentally sending himself decades into the past. However, within his lifetime, he meets Alyx and Lewis, becomes The Rusted Knight of a beloved Remnant story about Alyx's experiences, and then years later reunites with Team RWBY. Despite this occurring within his lifetime, Professor Ozpin has previously described the tale as "a very old fairy tale", indicating time may move differently between the two worlds. The Blacksmith also makes it clear that she can control what time period she sends Remnant natives to, as she sends Team RWBY and Jaune into Remnant's future rather than the time period they're from.
• Neutral No Longer:
  • In the backstory, during the Great War, Mantle and Mistral attacked Vale, while promising Vacuo, the last nation, that they would have their independence as long as they stayed out of it. But since Vacuo was already occupied by Mantle and Mistral, Vacuo quickly realized they would be double-crossed. So instead they kicked all the enemy soldiers out and went to war on Vale's side.
  • In Volume 5, the White Fang is planning an assault on Haven Academy, but Blake and Sun are unable to convince the citizens of Menagerie to help them protect Haven because, as Blake explains, Menagerie has been populated by Faunus who are tired of fighting or struggling and just want to be left alone, and asking them to go and fight other people's wars is asking them to put strangers before themselves. This all changes in "True Colors" when White Fang members, acting on Adam's orders, attack Blake's parents, the chieftains of Menagerie, and try to kill them. The assassination fails, but the attack nonetheless provides the opportunity Blake needs to rally the citizens, convincing them that they have to get involved in the fight, or else what the White Fang are doing in their name is going to make things permanently worse for Faunus everywhere. They begin forming a militia to defend Haven Academy against the White Fang.
• Never Found the Body: At the climax of volume 3, Ozpin fights Cinder and appears to be winning when the scene cuts away to Jaune and Pyrrha. As they debate what to do, Cinder suddenly bursts up the lift to the top of Beacon Tower; the students assume Ozpin's dead while the audience assumes He's Just Hiding At the beginning of Volume 4, Salem interrogates Cinder over whether or not she really killed Ozpin because the idea of Cinder succeeding makes her suspicious. When Cinder insists she's telling the truth, a baffled Salem wonders what Ozpin is planning. Salem knows that Ozpin was a reincarnation of her ancient lover and nemesis Ozma, and that every time the physical body dies, Ozma's soul, Aura, memories, and abilities transfer to a new host. The transfer begins a process of merging between Ozma and the identity and abilities of the new host to become Ozma's newest reincarnation. While Salem remains mysteriously disturbed by Cinder's success, Ozma's legacy transfers from Ozpin to Oscar.
• Never Trust a Trailer:
  • The Volume 2 trailer in spades, to the point that it may very well be parodying the trope given how quickly various moments in it were revealed in the show. Ruby holds Weiss in Pieta style, with a Skyward Scream, and (clean) Team RWBY laughing in school cafeteria, but these were all part of the food fight sequence of the first episode with no real harm done to Weiss.
  • The final group shot scene in the trailer doesn't show up in the episode it seems to occur (V2E4). The closest to that scene is Ruby and Weiss' "Ice Flower" combo attack from the same episode.
  • The trailer for the Volume 3 episode "Lessons Learned" makes Winter look a lot harsher than she actually turns out to be. The episode itself actually shows more of her sisterly side.
  • The trailer for the Volume 3 episode "Fall" implies that the main focus will be the Yang v Mercury tournament fight, with a sub-plot involving Pyrrha. The episode is instead one long Info Dump focusing on Pyrrha, and the Yang v Mercury fight lasts for all of about three minutes at the end of the episode (although it does tie heavily into the plot).
  • The trailer for "Destiny" only shows Blake telling Yang that she wants to believe her, making it come off as having lost all faith in Yang. The episode only shows her needing some convincing (that being Yang looking her in the eye and claiming her innocence) before deciding that she does trust Yang.
  • This show has a repetitive problem with an Opening variant; both the openings for Volume 2 and Volume 3 give major prominence to characters that either don't fulfill anything important or don't fulfill much before disappearing. Of note are Team SSSN and Winter Schnee—Team SSSN was teased with a similar team shot that all of the other characters got, but unlike them, half the team doesn't appear in the volume except for barely noticeable background characters. In Volume 3, they actually get more prominence in the opening than TEAM JNPR, the secondary team of the show, but got no more prominence than their one fight scene in the second episode, which did not reflect well on them. Winter Schnee similarly gets a lot of focus in the Volume 3 opening, showing her strained relationship with Weiss and her enmity with Qrow Branwen. Unlike Qrow, who sticks around the Volume, Winter is only around long enough to fight Qrow not ten seconds after she arrives, give Weiss a life lesson, drop off some cargo, and then leave.
• Nice, Mean, and In-Between: It's not immediately apparent, but the trio formed by Cinder and her two direct subordinates form such a dynamic as they become fleshed out. Emerald (Nice), while no saint by any stretch, is the least malicious and most sensitive of the three, and she solely goes along with the trio's atrocities out of a misplaced sense of profound gratitude to Cinder, eventually making a Heel–Face Turn. Cinder (Mean) is a remorseless, rampant and self-serving sociopath who only sees her subordinates and everyone else as tools to be used, takes pleasure in inflicting suffering where she goes, and is driven by insatiable megalomania. Mercury (Inbetween) is sadistic and cruel like Cinder, but cues in his interactions with Emerald indicate that he cares about her more than he says he does, and Tyrian suggests that Mercury is a terrorist less because he wants to be one and more because he's too afraid to break the chain of abuse that he was raised in.
• Nightmare Sequence: Yang has one in "Family" where she is trapped in a dark room with Adam, powerless and helpless.
• No Body Left Behind:
  • The Creatures of Grimm dissolve into black smoke upon death, making it very difficult to learn more about them. Grimm hunting trophies, such as those owned by Professor Port are always taxidermied replicas. In the White Trailer, Weiss fights an enormous animated suit of armour that dissmoves into snowflakes when she finally destroys it. This is a clue that the armour is being animated by Geist Grimm called Arma Gigas, artificially created by the head of the snowflake-themed Schnee family, Jacques.
  • During the Battle of Beacon, Cinder kills one character by burning them from the inside-out with an incendiary arrow. With a single touch of her fingers, Cinder instantly cremates their body, which turns to ash and billows away on the wind, leaving behind only the deceased's armour and weapons. The character Cinder kills is Pyrrha; in Volume 4, the surviving metal from her circlet and weapons is incorporated into Jaune's own armour and weapons as a Tragic Keepsake.
  • During Volume 8, Ironwood starts wielding a massive laser-gun that is so powerful it can destroy anything in its path, including vapourising human bodies. While Jacques is in prison, Ironwood fires the gun at the cell, destroying the cell and leaving behind no trace of Jacques' body.
  • During Volume 8, an unusual Grimm is killed in battle, unexpectedly leaving behind a body. This shakes the heroes to their core; when Ruby and Yang discuss the implications, they are both reduced to tears. The Hound is an experimental Grimm created from a Silver-Eyed Warrior. Upon death, the Grimm body dissolves, but a human skeleton is left behind. Ruby and Yang are devastated by the realisation that Salem wants Ruby alive, despite historically killing Silver-Eyed Warriors, because she must have learned how to create these hybrids from their own silver-eyed mother, who died years ago under mysterious circumstances.
• No Conservation of Energy: Averted. Weiss's overuse of her Semblance in Vol.1 Episode 8 (during the Nevermore battle) makes her gasp for breath. The implication is that Semblance takes some kind of energy away from the caster. Happens again later when she summons the knight she fought in the White trailer during "Heroes and Monsters." There's also a hint of this in "A Minor Hiccup" when Ruby carries Penny away from the soldiers chasing her for a short while before stumbling and dropping Penny. She dropped Penny because Penny is a robot and heavier than Ruby was expecting.
• "No. Just… No" Reaction: Yang, of all people, has one in "Painting the Town" after Weiss comes out with a lame pun. And it's verbatim, no less.
• No OSHA Compliance:
  • Conversed in Volume 6. Yang and Blake are searching a dilapidated farmstead for some means of transport that may make their journey through the wilderness to Argus a bit easier. Upon spotting a rusting old tractor that has clearly seen better days, Blake jokes about how unlikely that vehicle is to be street-legal and then moves on.
  • Deconstructed in Volumes 7-8. The heroes quickly discover that Mantle's defences are sub-par and unable to stop the Grimm from entering the city to attack. There is a hole in the wall that cannot be repaired because General Ironwood is redirecting the construction materials to a secret military project hidden in the tundra. Ironwood has massively upgraded all of Atlas' security, but neglected any of Mantle's. The villains are able to exploit the security deficiencies in an effort to try and turn the two cities against each other. Mantle's deficiencies include the security systems, which were designed by Watts and have been so neglected by Atlas that he can easily hack it as it's still using his original code. The Big Bad's plan was counting on Ironwood making the same mistake all Atlesians make — neglecting Mantle's infrastructure and software even when he's paranoid — for it to work, and it does. Characters point out the flaws in neglecting Mantle's infrastructure with increasing urgency until it finally leaves Ironwood abandoned by his allies and at the mercy of his enemies.
  • Played for Laughs in Volume 8. Central Command is run by rows of computer operators. A massive poster warns staff to never bring food and drink into the room. When May trips up a worker to create a distraction, the worker's coffee goes flies across two computers to land in the lap of another worker. The two computers spark out, and the one of the affected workers begins ranting about the fact that "Bill" is always violating the sign, has a terrible work ethic and even violates the unwritten social code of not heating fish in a communal microwave. Later in the volume, Bill can be seen sat at his desk. Not only is he still employed, but he has yet another mug of coffee in his hand, which he drops again when an emergency broadcast suddenly activates.
• Noodle Incident:
  • How Ruby and Weiss got themselves a ride in the talons of the giant Nevermore is never explained.
  • The time Jaune locked himself out of his room is mentioned in "Forever Fall" but is never seen or elaborated upon more.
  • In "Lessons Learned", Qrow defends his old Beacon team STRQ's fashion sense by saying that there are a number of "inappropriate stories" that can back up the fact that they looked good, but he decides to wait on telling them until Ruby and Yang are older.
    Ruby: Ugh, gross!
  • In Volume 5, "Rest and Resolutions", Teams RWBY and JNPR are catching up. Everyone expresses embarassment over how they acted back at Beacon, but Nora interrupts.
    Nora: Now hold on! I thought I was pretty great in school!
    Yang: Even at the dance? When you spilled punch all over yourself in front of-
    Nora: YES, ESPECIALLY AT THE DANCE! THANK YOU YANG!
  • The story of how Professor Port captured a Beowolf in his youth is glossed over by the episode to reflect the fact the kids aren't paying attention. The one bit that is focused on is that his grandfather, despite smelling of cabbages, was a wise man. While his grandfather was referenced because his wise advice was relevant to the tale even though the kids don't listen to it, the story behind the unfortunate smell isn't even hinted at.
  • Something big apparently happened the first time Yang got a haircut... something related to her Semblance. It's implied that fire was involved.
  • How Nora discovered her Semblance is a downplayed example, as we are told the gist, but not the details:
    Nora: Oh. Struck by lightning. Didn't die. Craaaazy Thursday.
  • Marrow Amin has apparently been banned from the same place three times.
  • At some point in the past, the Atlesian Paladins were created by Atlas scientist Arthur Watts as killing machines. After Pietro's idea to create Penny Polendina was chosen over his, an incident known as "The Paladin Incident" led many people in Atlas to believe that Arthur Watts was killed. He made people think that this was the case so that he could easily join Salem's forces.
• Not Drawn to Scale: Monty released a height chart, but it's not fully accurate to the show. The most blatant case is Glynda: she's supposedly one inch smaller than Ironwood, but when they're actually together, he's One Head Taller.
• Not the Intended Use:
  • The Atlesian military has created a large pilot-controlled robot that is capable of protecting the city of Argus from Grimm attacks that come from the deep ocean. However, Cordovin finds a different use for the robot than the one the designers originally intended. When Cordovin discovers the protagonists' attempt to steal an Atlesian airship, she deploys the Humongous Mecha to put the group down herself. Jaune identifies the true purpose of the robot and realises that it isn't designed to handle multiple opponents that are as small as humans. This allows the heroes to run circles around Cordovin, picking away at the Mecha's weapons and defenses until the robot is rendered inoperable.
  • Time Stands Still whenever Jinn is summoned from the Relic of Knowledge for everyone but the person or people asking the question. However, exploiting the ability just to freeze time without asking a question is something Jinn doesn't approve of. Ruby uses it to freeze time while she figures out how to activate her silver eyes; Jinn admires her creativity but warns that she will never permit this to happen again.
• Nothing Is the Same Anymore:
  • Volume 3 climaxes with an all-out assault on the City of Vale and Beacon Academy by the villains, the White Fang and the Grimm all at the same time. Although the city is saved, Beacon Academy is destroyed, leaving the students without a functional school. Volume 4 therefore kicks off with Team RWBY scattered to the winds, as a result of Weiss being taken home to Atlas by her father, Blake going on the run due to the emotional trauma of what she's experienced and Yang being left at home to recover from trauma inflicted upon her during the battle. Only Ruby is curious enough about the villains to push the plot forward in Volume 4. From this point on, childhood has ended for the students, forcing them to confront a world full of dangerous secrets even most adults don't know about. The battle results in the deaths of Pyrrha and Ozpin, the destruction of Penny, the crippling of Cinder, and the introduction of the true Big Bad Salem; meanwhile, Adam promises Blake he will destroy everything she cares about before proving it by deliberately hacking off Yang's arm to punish Blake for abandoning him in the Black Trailer. Ruby joins forces with Jaune, Nora and Ren to spend Volume 4 travelling across the continent of Anima to Haven Academy in search of information about who the villains are, what they're up to and how they can be stopped.
  • Volume 8 covers Salem's all-out assault on Atlas in a war of attrition that she will inevitably win due to her ability to spawn replacement Grimm faster than the kingdom can reinforce its army, even after recruiting child soldiers from the academy. The volume's climax shows shows just how far the heroes are forced to go in order to save people's lives. With Ironwood transformed into an Arc Villain who threatens to bomb Mantle in his attempt to save Altas, the heroes steal the Relic of Creation in order to save Penny's life from a viral hack by Watts and to magically evacuate the kingdom's people to Vacuo, the last kingdom left with enough Huntsmen to protect the incoming refugees. As Staff can only do one thing at a time, this means ending its job of floating the city of Atlas. While Ironwood thinks he has to sacrifice Mantle to save Atlas, the heroes decide to sacrifice both cities to save the people of both. Due to Cinder and Neo pursuing the heroes into the Void Between the Worlds, Volume 8 ends with the complete destruction of the Kingdom of Atlas, the loss of Team RWBY and Jaune to the Void, the death of Penny, and Salem obtaining both the Relics of Knowledge and Creation. Although the surviving refugees have the Winter Maiden's protection in Vacuo, they have no home left to return to and are now at the mercy of Remnant's most resource-scarce kingdom, which everyone knows will be Salem's next target.

---