RWBY / Tropes S to T

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RWBY provides examples of the following tropes:

Tropes S

• Sacrificial Lion:
  • One of the show's main characters was designed for the purpose of being killed by Cinder, which triggers plot and character development for multiple characters. Pyrrha's death in the Battle of Beacon triggers Ruby's Traumatic Superpower Awakening and leads both her and the remainder of Pyrrha's team on a quest to Haven to learn who is behind the the destruction of Beacon and why.
  • In Volume 7, Clover Ebi is introduced as one of the kingdom's most elite Huntsmen and a partner for Qrow. By the finale, Clover becomes the first major casualty of Salem's attack on Atlas and heralds the darker tone of Volume 8.
• Sailor Earth: Monty Oum came up with rules on how to name original characters:
  • The Extranormal Institute setting and color-coded characters open a lot of room for Sailor Earths. Just pick a color, give the character an outrageous (and often impractical) looking outfit (with the impractical for female characters usually involving a skirt/dress and/or high heels), an equally outrageous and complex weapon, a Semblance (a special power unique to the character) and you're done. For the furries out there, you can also make your character a Faunus by adding one and only one animal part to your character^note so you can't have both animal ears and a tail, although some people just ignore that rule, which may or may not come with additional powers such as Super-Senses, Wolverine Claws, flight, or venom.
  • The Fun with Acronyms team naming the Extranormal Institute practices is used to create entire four-person teams of characters as well and they don't even have to spell out the team name in question (e.g. the title itself.)
• Sanity Has Advantages:
  • Adam is indeed dangerous, but he's also a complete lunatic, and his hotheadedness and spitefulness lead him to make poor choices and alienate his support, as shown throughout Volume 5. By the end of the volume, his failed assassination of Blake's family has rallied Menagerie against him and cost him Ilia and the Albain brothers, his plan to blow up Haven Academy to deny Blake victory fails due to this, his dismissal of Hazel's input leading up to this moment costs him the support of Salem's faction, his own men abandon him after his attempt to blow them all up, and his running away obliterates whatever support he had left. In the end, he's alone and on the run with nothing to show for it.
  • For the first three volumes, Cinder is a calm and calculative manipulator who easily initiates Salem's plans, adapting smoothly, without panic or agitation, whenever unexpected situations occur. This all changes when Ruby confronts her at the end of Volume 3. After being maimed by Ruby's silver eyes, Cinder becomes determined to get back at Ruby. Her more negative traits — such as her anger, narcissism, and lust for power — become more pronounced. She sabotages plans for personal gain and her arrogance ensures the villains lose the Relic of Knowledge in Volume 5. Exiled from Salem, she seems to regain more of her strategist mindset when teaming up with Neo. She prioritises Salem's desires and reveals herself to the heroes in Volume 7 by triggering Ironwood's Trauma Button with a black queen chess piece, resulting in him exposing the location of the Winter Maiden. However, her sadism and marcissism get the better of her just as she's on the verge of obtaining the Maiden power, giving Fria time to retaliate.
  • Ironwood may be out to save the world and has the resources to do it, but his paranoia and pathological need to be in total control ensures that it will never happen. The trauma from the events of Volume 3 worsen his flaws to the point where he closes his kingdom's borders, withdraws all foreign aid, and essentially gives Salem's agents free reign to do as they please. Three volumes later, Tyrian outright states how bad it will be for their cause if Ironwood were to come to his senses. In the seventh volume, upon seeing how much of a police state the city of Mantle has become, the heroes hold off on telling Ironwood the Awful Truth about Salem because they worry about his overreactions. Later, just when Ironwood is starting to work with others, Cinder plants a queen chess piece made of black glass in his office, the symbol she used during the Fall of Beacon. With his Trauma Button smashed, Ironwood becomes a vicious dictator, lashing out at any who disagree with him, undoing everything he tried to accomplish and spending the next volume as dangerous a villain as Salem.
• Sarcastic Clapping: "It's Brawl in the Family" ends with Cinder clapping sinisterly as she is about to watch Emerald and Mercury face off against Team CFVY in a doubles round that she programmed.
• Saved by the Phlebotinum: In Volume 8, the solution to the crisis lies with the Relic of Creation, something all the opposed groups want for different reasons. However, obtaining it requires the Winter Maiden to kill herself in the process of accessing it. To activate the Relic, the heroes devise a plan that will allow them to save the Maiden's life with it. Penny is infected by a virus that will force her to self-terminate if she unlocks the door to the Vault. The heroes intend to use the Relic to rescue Penny before using it to save Atlas, banking on the Relic's activation time-freeze to stop Penny's auto-destruct long enough for the solution to be implemented.
• Saying Too Much: In "The Stray", Blake and Weiss are having a heated argument spurred by Weiss' outspoken prejudice against the Faunus of the White Fang, who she believes are all evildoers. In the heat of the moment, Blake accidentally reveals to all of Team RWBY that she's a Faunus and associated with the White Fang.
  Weiss: You want to know why I despise the White Fang? It's because they're a bunch of liars, thieves, and murderers!
  Blake: Well, maybe we were just tired of being pushed around!
• Say My Name:
  • In "Heroes and Monsters", Torchwick shows his first bit of genuine emotion for someone else when he cries out Neo's name after Ruby activates her parasol and makes her fly off the airship.
  • At the end of Volume 3, Ruby yells out Pyrrha's name when she sees her being killed and disintegrated by Cinder.
  • "Vault of the Spring Maiden" begins with Jaune calling out Weiss' name after she is impaled by Cinder.
• Scary Scorpions:
  • While in a dark cave, Jaune mistakes a giant scorpion Grimm's glowing stinger for a relic he and Pyrrha were looking for. Hilarity Ensues.
  • Later in the series, Tyrian Callows is introduced as an Ax-Crazy Serial Killer who happens to be a Scorpion Faunus working for the Big Bad Salem.
• Schizo Tech: Remnant is a world where fantasy monster-slayers and sword-wielding nobility co-exist with portable music players and tablets with holographic displays. At least one country has developed humanoid combat robots, tiltjet aircraft and a Humongous Mecha. It's mentioned that, even though Remnant's level of technology is far beyond that of our world, they have never developed a space program because Dust doesn't work the moment it leaves the planet, and the people of Remnant have never bothered to look for an alternative fuel source. While they have an Internet on Remnant, it's not based on satellites and instead is based on four massive terrestrial communications towers. This eventually bites everyone in the ass: when one of these towers is knocked out in the finale of Volume 3, the resulting communications blackout combined with the last images being relayed from Vale being those of Beacon's Huntresses inflicting grave harm on their fellows and Atlesian robots attacking innocent people, it's enough to discredit both Beacon and Atlas in one swoop and drive the Kingdoms to the brink of war. Just as Cinder planned. During Volume 7, General James Ironwood comes up with a plan to restore communications and warn the world about Cinder's boss Salem. However, he abandons this plan and turns against the heroes before it can be completed and forces them to finish it in Volume 8.
• School Forced Us Together: This can very easily happen, given that teams are essentially formed at random and spend their school career together. Weiss never would have had anything to do with Ruby or Blake if she had any choice otherwise.

• Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!: This is what kicks off the major conflict of Volume 8 as RWBY refuse to follow Ironwood's orders to abandon Mantle to secure Atlas and, eventually, even a few of his own soldiers decide he's not worth following after he threatens to bomb Mantle.
• Secret War: The Creatures of Grimm are controlled by Salem, a woman who is human in form but who has the strange black and white appearance, and burning red eyes, of the Grimm. She has spent many thousands of years manipulating humans and Faunus from the shadows in her attempt to destroy them. Professor Ozpin, the affable headmaster of the prestigious Beacon Academy, has to be careful who finds out about Salem's existence as her control of the Grimm means that anything that could cause mass fear and panic would give the Grimm the power to wipe out the four protected kingdoms inside which most of humanity survives. Ozpin has been cursed by the gods to walk the earth for thousands of years attempting to stop Salem's evil while she wants to destroy humanity just to destroy Ozpin's faith in their potential. He created the Huntsmen Academies as a way of protecting four divine Relics from Salem, which used together could bring destruction and chaos to the world.
• Sedgwick Speech: Torchwick gives one to Ruby in "Heroes and Monsters", bragging that heroes like her will die while dishonest men like him survive... right as a Griffon swoops down and swallows him whole.
• Senseless Sacrifice: In Volume 3, one character's attempted Heroic Sacrifice has limited benefit, and acts as an example of Roman Torchwick's argument that Huntsmen only exist to die. Pyrrha fails to stop Cinder destroying Beacon Tower; her death triggers Ruby's Traumatic Superpower Awakening, which freezes a Grimm Wyvern to the remains of the tower and acts as a magnet for ever-increasing numbers of Grimm, preventing the Huntsmen from being able to recover the school. The heroes are inspired by her to quest around the world trying to stop the villains, but Pyrrha's death has little relevance to the events that follow.
• Serial Escalation: The first three volumes consists of a story arc that increasingly escalates the stakes for the heroes. The climax of the plot involves a war that sees the deaths of students, civilians and main characters, the separation of the titular team due to personal and family issues, and Beacon Academy's destruction. The story arc that begins in Volume 7 is lampshaded early on by one character as being "just like Beacon again", setting up Atlas Academy's destruction. This time, however, Volume 8 escalates certain things from the Beacon storyline beyond expectation: one hero becomes an Arc Villain, the titular team is separated by falling into the Void Between the Worlds, and the entire kingdom is destroyed rather than just the academy.
• Set Swords to "Stun": Whenever the protagonists employ sharp weapons against other humans, they either use this or just hit with the blunt part (one example being the opposite end of the blade of Crescent Rose, Ruby's weapon, another being when Blake puts her sword to Roman's throat; it's obviously with the blunt part in). It's unclear if they intentionally use this against their more badass opponents, since they can usually deflect their attacks one way or another. Averted for robots, monsters, and the like. This is explained by way of Aura, in that it acts as a "shield" for characters who have a soul, so any attacks to them would first harm their Aura as it shields them until it's depleted in battle. Weapons that hit people who are not shielded by Aura have more realistic (and often gruesome) effects. Also, while blunt impacts are usually nonlethal even against people with weak or drained Auras, bladed weapons are presented as vastly more deadly, with most of the onscreen deaths thus far being at the hands of enemies with piercing and cutting weaponry.

• Shamu Fu: Weiss improvises a swordfish for her rapier during the food fight.
• Shared Signature Move: The Glyph Semblance of the Schnee family is a very rare hereditary Semblance. While all the users have their own style, they all possess the ability to summon avatars of Grimm they defeated in ways that were pivotal to their character growth. As a result, the way they summon and what they summon are unique to each Schnee, but the fact they need to use white glyphs to trigger the power is shared between them all.
• Ship Sinking: Due to the Black Trailer setting up Blake and Adam as partners, shipping existed for the two from the beginning. However, the end of Volume 3 makes it clear that Adam is a Psycho Ex-Boyfriend when he vows to destroy everyone she loves for rejecting him. He starts by cutting off Yang's arm; in Volume 5, he tries assassinating Blake's parents; in Volume 6, he pursues Blake across Remnant and tries killing her, which forces Blake and Yang to kill him for good.
• Ship Tease:
  • Blake Belladonna/Yang Xiao Long: Yang reveals her past obsession with finding her Missing Mom when Blake's White Fang obsession burns her out, offering the first dance if Blake rests and relaxes at the school ball; Blake accepts despite attending with Sun. After her tournament disqualification, Yang is reduced to tears when Blake struggles to believe her version of events. She sheds tears of rage when Adam injures Blake; he maims Yang to punish Blake for abandoning him by hurting those she loves, and a distraught Yang later tells Weiss that her anger over Blake's subsequent disappearance is because she needed Blake to be there for her. When Blake and Yang again fight Adam, Blake declares they're protecting each other; he compares it to the promise Blake once made to him, and struggles to understand what she sees in Yang. In Volume 7, Yang complimenting Blake's new haircut reduces her to blushes, others comment on how much time they spend together, and Nora speculates that something may be going on between them. Their Volume 8 reunion involves a Headbutt of Love embrace and, in Volume 9, they finally admit they're in love and kiss.
  • Blake Belladonna/Sun Wukong: When Sun first meets Blake, he winks at her as he runs by in slow motion. He sticks by her for two days when she temporarily abandons her team after accidentally revealing she's ex-White Fang. In Volume 2, Sun gushes to Neptune about how great she is and that he doesn't want to mess things up with her; she eventually agrees to attend the ball with him as his date, and spends most of the evening dancing with him. When Sun's team wins their tournament match, he spots Blake in the crowd and makes finger pistols at her, causing her to smile and blush. During their time together in Menagerie, Blake's knowledge and experience teaches him to be more mature and tactful while his optimism, earnestness and selflessness teach her the value of friendship and give her the strength to face her fears. At the beginning of Volume 6, they part ways with a chaste kiss.
  • Weiss Schnee/Jaune Arc: Jaune spends the first two volumes nursing a crush on Weiss, who irritably rejects it and assumes he's just a Gold Digger; he only gives up when he sees her asking Neptune to the Beacon dance. Putting her feelings before his own, he encourages Neptune to spend the dance night with her, forcing Weiss to reassess Jaune when Neptune admits what happened. At Haven, Cinder deliberately strikes Weiss with a fatal blow after realising Jaune cares about her, resulting in him unlocking his Semblance to save her. Their deepening friendship in Atlas results in them going to the movies platonically in a deliberate Call-Back to her rejecting his romantic movie date suggestions at Beacon. In Volume 9, Weiss shows immediate attraction to his older appearance, and they continue to grow closer as the volume progresses; after Weiss' encouraging words drives Jaune to tears, they embrace and retain lingering touches after parting. As they were brought to the Tree, Weiss completes Jaune's Meaningful Echo of the Cat's words ("It's not a place you go, it's a place you know."), and in a cut sequence the two are shown holding hands longer than the others. At the end of the volume, when Jaune recovers his youth and is utterly embarrassed by his youthful voice, Weiss giggles at him, showing that she finds his silliness endearing now, which is a far cry from the irritation she displayed in the past. Not to mention that, upon hearing her giggle, Jaune has the goofiest little grin.
  • Weiss Schnee/Neptune Vasilias: Weiss and Neptune were briefly interested in each other. Weiss tried to arrange the scouting groups so that she's paired up with Neptune, and asks him to accompany her to the dance. He only turns her down because he can't dance but, once he gets over that, he jumps at the chance to spend time with her. Weiss supports him in the tournament until Team SSSN fights Team NDGO; Neptune openly flirting with the all-female team changes Weiss's mind. Although Neptune briefly shows concern for Weiss during the Battle of Beacon, their romantic interactions end during the tournament and they show no interest in talking to each other when Sun sees off Blake at the beginning of Volume 6.
  • Jaune Arc/Pyrrha Nikos: Pyrrha was eager to get to know Jaune from the moment they met, saves his life despite barely knowing him, and quickly becomes his mentor, unlocking his Aura with an intimate gesture and training him to become a better fighter. She's willing to give Jaune relationship advice over Weiss even though it hurts her to do so, something Nora takes note of. Just before she heads off to fight Cinder, she grabs Jaune and gives him a kiss, knowing that she probably won't come back alive. It takes Jaune until the end of Volume 6 to come to terms with her death.
  • Lie Ren/Nora Valkyrie: Together from a young age, Ren and Nora are often confused as a couple by others; even Nora has to convince herself that they're Just Friends. The journey to Haven Academy forces Ren to confront his painful past, with Nora staying by his side even when Team RNJR splits apart to allow Ren to avoid his home village. When Team RNJR is rescued and taken to Haven, they hold hands and snuggle. When Cordovin attacks Ren with her mecha, Nora angrily demands she come back with 'her man'. In Volume 7, Ren and Nora argue about the Salem situation until Nora gives up on words and kisses him. When Team JNR and Oscar later fight Neo, fighting Neo disguised as Nora reduces Ren to tears. In Volume 8, they finally discuss their relationship and agree to wait for Nora to find herself before they get together, concluding the talk with a Headbutt of Love.
  • Glynda Goodwitch/James Ironwood: When Ironwood first arrives in Vale, he greets Glynda enthusiastically, offering a hug; she rebuffs his advances. During the school ball, he asks her to dance with him and this time she accepts. While Glynda struggles to accept his gung-ho, militaristic approach to dealing with every problem, she thinks that he has a very good heart and is the first to offer her support whenever he's troubled. However, whatever relationship they had before was ruined after Ironwood planned to abandon Mantle to die in order to save Atlas and was killed as a result of his actions.
• Shoehorned Acronym: All student teams have names based on acronyms formed from initials of the members' names. The names are colour-associated, either directly or indirectly. An indirect example is Team JNPR (Juniper), which is based on a shade of green called Juniper. This can make finding a colour-associated acronym from student names creative and awkward, such as Team SSSN (Sun). Every time groups of people work together, the fandom searches for an acronym. For example, Salem's four subordinates are nicknamed Team WTCH (Witch). The fandom has even given itself and the show's creative team acronyms (FNDM and CRWBY, respectively).
• Shout-Out: Has its own dedicated page.
• Shut Up, Kirk!:
  • In the seventh volume, Ruby tells Salem they know everything about her thanks to the Relic of Knowledge and she may be immortal, but she's still fallible and can be stopped. Salem says Summer said exactly the same thing to her and was wrong, causing Ruby to burst into tears.
  • In the episode "The Enemy of Trust", Oscar points out fighting each other is exactly what Salem wants, and notes Ironwood's plans have unintended consequences on his part. Oscar tells Ironwood he's sacrificing millions and abandoning Remnant to save the few who live in Atlas, but Ironwood notes Oscar's position is just a philosophical point that won't matter if Salem wins. Oscar tells Ironwood he's become as dangerous as Salem, only for him to shatter his Aura in response.
• Shut Up, Hannibal!:
  • In the eleventh episode of Volume 2, after being subdued by Blake, Torchwick attempts to convince her they're on the same side. Blake listens at first, but the moment she sees Weiss on the ropes, she knocks Torchwick out cold and rushes off to help.
  • In Volume 8, Robyn casually rebuts Harriet's attempts at blaming Qrow for the death of Clover, pointing out that she's very clearly just looking for a scapegoat who she can vent her problems on.
  • In Volume 9, Ruby is Disappointed by the Motive when Neo reveals the reason she's trying to kill Ruby is to avenge Torchwick. She points out that Torchwick's demise was entirely self-inflicted and happened quite some time ago. She refuses to apologize to a murderer who's trying to kill her, stating that Neo has wasted her time.
• Sibling Yin-Yang: When Qrow is telling Team RNJR stories around the campfire, he tells them of a creation myth about two brothers, the God of Darkness and the God of Light. The God of Light creates life while the God of Darkness creates destruction. In the myth, they don't get on very well and keep trying to one-up each other. In the end, they decide to create a single thing that they can both be proud of, something with the power to both create and destroy: humanity. Qrow tells Team RNJR that, while humans have come up with dozens of gods throughout Remnant's history, Ozpin once told him that the Gods of Light and Darkness are actually real: the God of Light created plants and animals while the God of Darkness created the Creatures of Grimm. They left behind four extremely powerful artefacts in the form of relics: the powers of Knowledge, Creation, Destruction and Choice, which are protected by the four Huntsmen Academies and which Salem is trying to find.
• Sickening "Crunch!":
  • When Yang breaks Mercury's leg at the end of "Fall".
  • Again when Penny is split apart by her own wires in "PvP".
  • In "Argus Limited", when Dudley is a bit slow to avoid the tunnel, resulting in a broken arm.
  • When Neo stomps on Little and kills them, this is the result.
• Sigil Spam: Several examples of different uses, since pretty much every significant character has a specific symbol associated with them. For reference, the Volume 1 credits after each episode (except for the finale) show silhouettes of the characters and their corresponding symbols.
  • Ruby's symbol is featured on her belt, headphones, and journal. Blake's emblem is on her stockings (and it may or may not be an oddly-placed badge), and her sleepwear. Yang wears her emblem on her undershirt and on her skirt, and it's also present on her own sleepwear. Adam's symbol is present on Blush and the back of his coat. Jaune's symbol has so far only been seen on his shield, but since it's mentioned that his great-great grandfather used it, the symbol may belong to the Arc family rather than just him. Nora's symbol is on the back of her shirt and her hair brush she was using in her introduction. Pyrrha's symbol appears on the buckle of her sash and the way she stores her spear and shield make her symbol on her back.
  • Weiss' symbol seems to be used by the Schnee Dust Company, and it has appeared on the company's bottles and crates (and also the toothpaste tube Nora has in the fourth episode), certain places in the castle where Weiss fights the Knight, as well as the back of her bolero and on her nightgown. Unlike all other revealed symbols, though, it also shows up when she uses her Semblance. It's probably a family crest.
  • Beacon's symbol features most prominently on Ozpin's coffee mug, but can be spotted frequently all around the academy.
  • Ozpin's personal symbol appears in the credits for Episode 9 and looks similar to the cogs found on the handle of his cane.
  • Glynda's symbol is a tiara and can be found on the back of her cape as well as the credits for Episode 9.
  • Cinder's is tattooed on her back. In Torchwick's case, a pumpkin face is carved at the end of his cane.
• Significant Background Event: In a quick shot at the top of the roof; one sees Cardin in the window right below.
• Silly Rabbit, Cynicism Is for Losers!:
  • Briefly showcased in "The Shining Beacon, Part 2", when Ruby optimistically responds to Blake's cynical rebuttal against her idealized visions of being a Huntress, agreeing with Blake's statement that the world is corrupted but also adding that Huntsmen exist to make it better.
  • In "Heroes and Monsters", Torchwick gives Ruby a brooding Shut Up, Kirk! speech about how her spirit will be worthless in the real world, and that survival is the only thing that matters. He gets killed by a Grimm immediately afterwards.
• Silly Rabbit, Idealism Is for Kids!:
  • When Ruby and Blake first meet, Ruby states her vision of huntresses, that she wanted to be like the storybook heroes — someone who fights for right and protects the vulnerable. Blake tells her that's ambitious for a child and that the real world is not like a fairy tale.
  • Ruby's idealism infuriates Roman, who rants at her that this heroic spirit will get her nowhere in this kind of world, and that she should do what every single huntress in history does and die. He believes the only thing that matters in this world is the ability to survive.
  • When Blake and Adam confront each other, Blake tells Adam she never wanted what Adam has done: she wanted equality and peace between the Faunus and humans, not violence, bloodshed, and war. Adam bluntly tells her that what she wants is impossible.
• Single Stanza Song: "Red Like Roses." The page quote is the lyrics of the song.
• Single-Stroke Battle: In "Heroes and Monsters", after Yang sees Adam stab Blake, she activates her Semblance and launches towards him. Though she doesn't have a blade, the result is more or less this trope. Adam cuts Yang's arm off in one swing.
• Sink the Lifeboats: In Volume 8, the citizens of Mantle need to be evacuated before they're destroyed by Salem's Grimm army. Their only chance rests upon the heroes dispatching a fleet of civilian cargo ships that are piloted by drones. Unfortunately, Ironwood shoots down the ships and publicly announces his intentions to bomb Mantle if Penny does not surrender. This act convinces both Winter and Marrow that Ironwood has become a true villain, resulting in them siding with the heroes to stop him.
• Slobs Versus Snobs: Definitely an undercurrent of the antagonism between Ruby and Yang's Cool Uncle, Qrow Branwen, and Weiss's Cool Big Sis Winter; she's the prim and proper specialist in an actual military (and is severe enough in her style to make Weiss seem relaxed), while he's the unkemp and rude spy. She refers to him with a certain upper class contempt, he calls her an Ice Queen (making her the second member of her family with that nickname in the show).

• Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism: Quite firmly on the idealistic side, even in the show's darker moments.
• Smug Smiler: Neo during her fight with Yang in Volume 2 Episode 11.
• Sneeze of Doom: Ruby has a massive Dust-empowered one in Episode 2, which covers Weiss in ash. Weiss is unamused.
• Social Services Does Not Exist: Cinder comes from a family who openly abused her, but no-one ever tried to remove her from that situation. Starting in an abusive orphanage, she's legally adopted by a cruel hotelier and her two daughters; they starve and abuse her, use shock collars for fun and work her until she collapses. The guests turn a blind eye, except for one Huntsman whose solution is to secretly train her for the Huntsman Academy entrance exam while expecting her to survive seven more years of abuse. Unable to cope, Cinder eventually snaps and murders them all.
• Soft Water: Cinder managed to survive a long drop into a pool of water while being frozen and having run low on her aura.
• Sorting Algorithm of Evil: The first three volumes of the show sees The Heavy enacting a You Can't Thwart Stage One plan for the Big Bad. The first villain introduced is the Starter Villain who introduces the audience to the setting and becomes the window through which the heroes become involved in the villainous plot. Volume 2 sees his boss, The Heavy, who is briefly seen but not identified in the pilot episode, take direct control of the villainous plan, as the threat level for the heroes escalates when they investigate the Fantastic Terrorists being used as mooks. The villainous plan reaches its final stages in Volume 3 with a full-blown invasion and several character deaths; the volumes closes with the formal introduction of the Big Bad declaring this was just the first move in a larger, more horrific plan; from this point on the villains that are faced depend mostly on exactly what the Big Bad is trying to achieve at any given stage. The Big Bad is revealed to be the Female Narrator that introduces the pilot episode with hints of the darker plot line to come.
• Sound-Coded for Your Convenience: According to the production diary, Monty himself makes sure that every weapon featured in the series has its own unique set of sounds.
• Soundtrack Dissonance:
  • Played for laughs at the end of the first episode, which has the airship flying to Beacon with a suitably uplifting music, except our protagonists are freaking out over Jaune vomiting on Yang's shoes.
  • The music to the eponymous action scene in "Food Fight" is deadly serious, but the fight itself is anything but.
• Species Title: The World of Remnant mini-series that aired between Volumes 2-4 of the main show had the following episodes:
  • Grimm: This episode introduces the Creatures of Grimm; while many different types of Grimm exist in the show, this episode only discusses the general characteristics and behaviours that are common to all Grimm.
  • Faunus: This episode delves into the background of the Faunus, the species that shares Remnant with humanity. Although Faunus and Humans are considered separate species, they can produce children together. These children are not hybrids. They will be either Human or Faunus, with a Faunus outcome being the most common.
• Speed Blitz: In her fight against the White Fang Lieutenant, Weiss uses her glyphs to dash back and forth while attacking, appearing like a white blur. Really, any time she uses her Time Dilation glyphs can count.
• Spent Shells Shower:
  • Ruby's trailer concludes with shell casings falling from the sky ejected from her weapon.
  • Yang ejects a lot of casings from her gauntlets in her trailer.
• Spider Tank: The Spider Droid is a huge machine that crawls like a spider, even though it only has four legs. It can function on two legs as well. In the first manga, it is piloted by a tiny security droid that sits inside the tank's cockpit.
• Spin to Deflect Stuff: Almost everyone uses this to deflect or parry just about everything. Yes, even bullets. Rule of Cool is in full effect here.
• The Spartan Way: The initiation at Beacon Academy is to be launched at high speeds into a forest full of monsters to fight through them and take a "Relic" from a temple.
  Ozpin: Do not hesitate to destroy anything in your path... or you will die.
• Split Screen: Throughout the initial Grimm encounter in Vol.2 Episode 9, as well as Oobleck's subsequent interrogation of Yang.
• Spoiler: The first episode of a volume always has a cold opening. In Volume 9, the episode opens straight into a mysterious woman's narrating the in-universe fairy tale of The Girl Who Fell Through the World. Her identity is not revealed into the final episode. However, the Blu-ray's English language subtitles reveal immediately who the person is, spoiling a major plot twist. The mysterious narrator is Summer Rose, with the final episode revealing the real Summer Rose rather than Ruby's memory of her.
• Spoiler Opening:
  • The Volume 1 opening reveals which characters will be on the same team many episodes before it happens, and reveals a character that has a cameo in the pilot episode is going to be a major villain; without the opening credits, this villain only returns in The Stinger at the end of the volume to reveal she's Roman's boss rather than a lackey.
  • The Volume 4 opening shows Blake aboard a ship with companions. When Episode 3 introduces her being followed around the ship by a hooded figure, it's easy to guess the stalker's identity before the in-episode reveal occurs.
  • The Volume 7 opening includes such a big spoiler that the writers asked the fandom to watch the first episode before watching the opening credits. This isn't a problem for most people as first episodes are always a cold opening with the opening credits occurring at the end of the episode and then opening all subsequent episodes in the volume. However, opening credits are also often released online as a teaser before the pilot episode. Fans who are used to checking out the opening credits before the first episode drops were asked not to do so this time. The opening credits reveal that Penny, who was destroyed in Volume 3, has been rebuilt and returns to the show.
• Squee: Ruby has a tendency to do this; see her character entry.
• Stab the Scorpion: In "Heroes and Monsters", Qrow unveils his full scythe and charges at Ironwood, who is initially shocked but then stands guard as he thinks Qrow is about to attack him. As he jumps into the air, Qrow flies right past Ironwood and bisects the Griffon lunging towards him.
• Stealth Pun:
  • The Creatures of Grimm are so named because they were created by the God of Darkness, who is the brother of the God of Light. This makes them the 'brother's Grimm', a reference to the 'Brothers Grimm', whose fairy tales form the basis of the inspiration behind the creation of the show.
  • The Beowolves are Grimm. By using a scythe on them, Ruby is a Grimm Reaper.
  • In the pilot, when the camera first pans to Ruby in the dust store, she's reading a magazine called "Weapons". Thus making it "Weapons Magazine".
  • In the food fight in episode 2, when Blake and Pyrrha are dueling with loaves of French bread as if fighting with swords. A bâtard (bastard) loaf is a French bread that shares its name with the bastard sword.
  • Vale = Veil = Curtain. Where is the great and powerful Ozpin?
  • Blake's semblance is to create copies of herself as decoy, and she's a cat Faunus. She's also a copycat.
  • Semblances are supposed to be something unique to each person. The Schnee family has a hereditary semblance, so you could say they're special snowflakes.
  • The first gay character on the show has their sexual orientation revealed several episodes after their introduction. Their name, however, gives this away if the translation is known. Ilia's surname is Amitola, a Sioux word for 'rainbow'.
  • Yang goes berserk when somebody damages her hair. She has a hair-triggered temper.
  • If a cat possesses a person, the cat has literally got the victim's tongue. When the Curious Cat takes control of Neo's body, they enter through the mouth, literally and metaphorically taking control of her tongue.

• Stock Sound Effects: A jackhammer is heard while team RWBY turns their 4 beds into 2 bunk beds.

• The Stinger: Every single volume ends with a short scene that takes place after the end credits have planed. All of the stingers occur as a result of something that happened during the volume and most include a revelation of some kind that sets up the next volume. Examples include Volume 1's stinger revealing the mysterious woman from the pilot episode or Volume 4's stinger, which shows Oscar tracking down Qrow.
• Story Arc: The series goes through several short arcs each season, with a larger arc always on the backburner that comes into play for the season finale. Season 1 had the Beacon initiation ritual (episodes 1-8), Ruby and Weiss's rivalry (9-10), Jaune's bully problems (11-14), and Blake running away because her team finds out she's a Faunus (15-16), with the overall arc being Roman Torchwick's mysterious crime spree. Season 2 had Team RWBY hunting down Roman (episodes 1-4), the Beacon Dance and Blake's health problems (5-7), and the team's mission to Mountain Glenn (8-12), with the overall arc being Cinder's infiltration of Beacon. Season 3 has the Tournament Arc, which then segues into the Fall of Beacon arc.
• Stuffed into a Locker:
  • Jaune gets thrown into his locker by Cardin in episode 11. To make matters worse, the locker is then launched into the sky.
  • This happens again towards the end of Volume 3, but this time it's Pyrrha who stuffs him into the locker to launch him to safety while she heads into a Suicide Mission.
• Sucks at Dancing: Blake has been shown to have some very awkward dance moves.
• Summoning Artifact: According to one of Remnant's Creation Myths, the Two Brothers who created humanity created four relics with powers representing the gifts the gods gave to man. As revealed in the sixth volume, the relics also have a summoning ability. If the four relics are brought together in one place, the Two Brothers will be summoned back to Remnant. This will be the day of reckoning as the Brothers will judge humanity to see if they are worthy of being restored to their original glory; if not, they will instead be destroyed.

• Superhero Speciation: Pyrrha explains that Huntsmen can use a "Semblance", i.e a specific power that is unique to each person.
• Super-Persistent Predator:
  • The Death Stalker and the Nevermore in episodes 7 and 8. Even though the students try to get away from them, those two creatures relentlessly pursue them, forcing them to take them down. Justified in that Grimm are soulless monsters who usually care more about killing humans than their own survival.
  • Later defied in Vol.2 Episode 9, when the Dr Oobleck explains that some Grimm that have lasted long enough learn that humans are dangerous prey, and that they seem to be waiting till they have an advantage.
• Superpower Lottery:
  • The Four Maidens of the Seasons wield tremendous Elemental Powers, inherited at the moment of their predecessor's death. As a result, a Maiden has both a Semblance and true magic, making them more powerful than almost any other character in the setting. Known Maidens include Amber and Fria, and Cinder. However, both the Spring and Winter Maidens possess a combination of Semblance, abilities and magical powers that make them two of the most powerful characters in the setting. Raven Branwen is an elite Huntress with a teleport Semblance, the ability to shapeshift into a raven, and the powers of the Spring Maiden; she can also out-gambit the exceptionally cunning Fall Maiden, Cinder. Winter Schnee possesses a unique, hereditary family Semblance that allows her to summon avatars of her fallen foes and use Dust and Glyphs in such a versatile way that it almost seems like magic in its own right; she becomes the Winter Maiden at the end of Volume 8, allowing her to out-fight Cinder by combining her Semblance and magic together.
  • There is a very rare type of person who is born with the ability to slay the fearsome Creatures of Grimm with a gaze that manifests the power of Light. This ability also gives them the potential to become the greatest warriors in the world, skilled with Aura, Semblance and their innate abilities, but only for the purpose of protecting life. Silver-Eyed Warriors include the legendary Grimm Reaper, Maria Calaveras, who possesses the ability to sense attacks almost before they happen and can still fight skilled Huntsmen despite being a blind, elderly woman; and The Paragon, Ruby Rose, who is still learning to master her power, but already possesses exceptional combat ability and a Semblance that defies the physics of mass to give her a super speed Semblance that borders on teleportation.
• Super-Reflexes: Nearly every Aura-using combatant has this to some degree, since they regularly deflect projectiles with their weapons without a second thought.
• Super-Soldier: The Huntsman Academies train people to fight, manufacture customised weapons, and unlock their soul power to master both Aura and Semblance. Huntsmen are capable of physical feats far beyond a normal person or soldier unless their Auras run out. Their purpose is to independently protect humanity's existence from the Creatures of Grimm without being beholden to political or military interests. However, the martial kingdom of Atlas uses its academy to produce Special Operatives, Huntsman-trained super-soldiers. The other kingdoms and academies do not approve, and the Atlas Arc explores the clash between Huntsmen who are trying to protect all the people, and Huntsman-trained super-soldiers, who are being ordered to protect only the kingdom's elite.
• Super Window Jump: In the first episode of the series, Ruby sends a mook through the window with a kick and follows directly afterwards.

• Survival Mantra: The title of "Never Miss a Beat" is taken from the phrase Neon constantly utters while in battle.
• Swiss-Army Weapon: As Ruby explains in the second episode, "It's also a gun" applies to almost every melee weapon in the series, with it being easier to list the weapons that don't have alternate modes. Most weapons can transform between a melee function and a ranged function, and while most of those transform into a gun, such as Ruby's Crescent Rose (scythe-like polearm to sniper rifle), Blake's Gambol Shroud (paired swords, one of which can turn into a pistol, along with an extendable ribbon-like attachment for throwing and grappling), or and Yang's Ember Celica (armored gauntlets that deploy into shotguns), some of the weapons use more exotic elements, such as Weiss' Myrtenaster (rapier with a revolver function that loads different types of Dust ammunition, enabling her to create various elemental bursts). A few characters subvert this, with their weapon transforming into variants on the same type, i.e. Jaune's Crocea Mors after being upgraded (sword and shield in it's base form, and combining the two to make a greatsword), or Raven's katana (which can exchange a number of different Dust blades in a rotating scabbard). Others avert it by having paired weapons, with one melee and one ranged, like Adam's Wilt and Blush (one being a traditional katana, and the other being a rifle that can also serve as a scabbard to shoot the former out at extreme speeds).
• Sword Drag: In "Heroes and Monsters", Neo drags the pointy end of her closed parasol on the ground as she approaches a helpless Ruby.

• Sword Plant: Ruby and Jaune pin the Nuckelavee's arms to the ground by planting their weapons on them.
• Swordfish Sabre: Weiss uses a swordfish during the Food Fight as a replacement for her rapier.
• Suspiciously Apropos Music: In the first episode when Ruby kicks the mook out the window, her detached headphones blaring out the theme music of "This Will Be the Day." The ensuing fight sequence is what propels her goal to enroll in Beacon later that night. Not to mention the first few lines are "They see you as small and helpless, they see you as just a child. Surprise when they find out that a warrior will soon run wild."

Tropes T

• Tactical Withdrawal:
  • Teams RWBY and JNPR agree to retreat from the Deathstalker and the Nevermore after completing their objective in the Emerald Woods. Subverted when they are pursued relentlessly, forcing them to take the Grimm down.
  • Most of Torchwick's appearances lead to him retreating. Even though he is a competent fighter, he (wisely) decides to cut his losses when faced with several Hunstmen and just escape with his original goal in tow.
  • After a Raven flees and Vernal, Lionheart and Cinder are taken out, Hazel and Mercury begin to pull back as they're already tired and have no chance of beating the heroes now that they're outnumbered nine-to-three. Emerald has a breakdown over Cinder's apparent death and refuses to move before inflicting a massive hallucination on the heroes and passing out, allowing her teammates to grab her and flee the scene.
• Taken for Granite: This is ostensibly the effect that the Silver-Eyes power has on large species of Grimm that are unfortunate enough to meet a Silver-Eye Warrior's gaze. Whereas smaller Grimm species like the Beowolves and the Apathy get completely vaporized by a strong enough burst of light, hulking behemoths like the Wyvern and the Leviathan are at most encased in stone and unable to move, with the possibility that they can break out of the mold. It's also noted that the Silver-Eyes power is dependent on the user's emotions and experience; a novice like Ruby needs to buy time to find the correct state of mind to summon forth the light, which may or may not be strong enough to fully petrify the Grimm threat, whereas a skilled warrior like the Grimm Reaper can instantly call forth the light to quickly petrify a Giant Nevermore in mid-flight, leaving it to crash and shatter into dust.
• Talk to the Fist: Adam's response to "Intruder! Identify yourself!"
• Talking Is a Free Action:
  • In "Players and Pieces", after Weiss saves Ruby from the Death Stalker, she continually lectures Ruby and no action is done by the Death Stalker in front of them or the Nevermore circling above them.
  • Parodied in "New Challengers..." when team JNPR get into an argument about their team moves. Team BRNZ stand around awkwardly at first and eventually try to remind JNPR that they were in a fight.
  • In "Battle of Beacon", Weiss and Blake talked about the current situation, called Yang to check up on her status, and contemplate their next move in the fairgrounds...while the Grimm are all over trashing the place, not ever paying attention to the two huntresses. Hilariously averted in the next episode, however, when in the middle of a rant to Ruby, Roman is devoured by a Grimm Griffon he never saw coming.
  • In "A Perfect Storm", Blake uses an ice substitution to immobilize Corsac and Fennec. She then converses with her father and Sun, who tell her they can finish them off alone, while standing a few feet away from them. Corsac and Fennec don't break out for thirty seconds.
• Taking the Bullet: During the food fight, Ruby takes a hit from Nora meant for Weiss. Played for Laughs since it isn't fatal and is just food.
• The Team: Students are arranged into teams of four, consisting of two pairs of curriculum-long partners. In addition to working together on the field, they also share a dorm room at the academy. Based on the known teams (RWBY, JNPR, CRDL and CFVY), each team name is an acronym of each teammate's initials combined into a larger word (such as "JNPR = Juniper" and "CRDL = Cardinal").
• This Is a Drill: The left hand of the Colossus can retract to expose a massive drill for use in close quarters. It is never revealed during Cordovin's battle with the protagonists but she activates it to defeat the Leviathan once Ruby's partially petrified it with her silver eyes.
• Team Mercy vs. Team Murder: A major conflict across the seventh and eighth volumes is the conflicting ideals of the heroes versus those of Ironwood and the Ace-Ops. Both sides want to defeat Salem and rescue many innocent lives as possible. Ironwood believes sacrificing Mantle is the only way to save the city of Atlas and keep her from obtaining two of the four divine Relics she needs to achieve her end-game. The heroes, on the other hand, refuse to sacrifice anyone, regardless of the greater risk this brings to everyone. This divides the former allies as the heroes view Ironwood as being too willing to sacrifice others in pursuit of his goals while Ironwood believes the heroes' naïvety will get everyone killed. This eventually comes to a head when Ironwood threatens to destroy Mantle unless the heroes give him the Winter Maiden, who is the one person who can save Atlas, which leads the heroes to develop a risky plan to use the power of Atlas' Relic to magically evacuate the kingdom to safety. Thus, everyone pays a high price.
• Team Pet: Ruby and Yang's corgi Zwei.
• Team Title: The title refers to the protagonists' team, Team RWBY.
• Technician Versus Performer:
  • Weiss appears to be the Technician to Ruby's Performer. In their first fight together, Weiss mentally goes through a checklist on her stance and form. When she finally attacks, Ruby comes out of nowhere, having given no forethought to her attack. Weiss has to redirect her own attack to avoid hitting Ruby, and accidentally starts a forest fire.
  • Another pair that seems to exhibit this: Ren (Technician) and Nora (Performer). All of Ren's attacks (especially his fight against the King Taijitu) seem to be practised martial arts strikes, while Nora simply does what's most effective given her current momentum. Bonus points since Nora is almost never seen without a smile, and Ren tends to be more stoic.
• Temporal Theme Naming: All females with seasonal names are very plot significant, whether connected to the Four Maidens or for another reason. An ancient fairy tale details four sisters whose compassion helped a callous old hermit. In gratitude, the old man blessed the sisters with great mystical power to help and guide humanity, which would be inherited across many generations of young women called "Maidens". These Maidens are known as the "Seasons": Winter, Spring, Summer and Fall (sometimes coded as Autumn). The old man is Ozpin.
  • Autumn is introduced in Volume 3 as the code name for Amber, the Fall Maiden who is attacked by Cinder Fall to steal her power. In Volume 5, Raven correctly guesses that Cinder gave herself the name "Fall" to show off the fact that she is the Fall Maiden.
  • Winter is the older sister and mentor of Weiss. She has mastered the Schnee family's unique inherited Glyph-based Semblance, is General Ironwood's Number Two, and someone he has groomed for a specific destiny. She is the dying Winter Maiden's caretaker, for the purpose of inheriting the power when Fria passes. She fails to receive the power at the end of Volume 7, but does receive it at the end of Volume 8.
  • Spring is the codename for the Spring Maiden, who is called Vernal (which means "Spring"). As Raven Branwen's right-hand woman, she is a dangerous bandit who becomes the key to both Salem and Ozpin's sides ability to access the Relic of Knowledge. It is eventually revealed she deliberately took the name to evoke a reference to the Spring Maiden because she is the decoy for the real Spring Maiden, something that fools both Salem and Ozpin's sides.
  • Summer is Ruby's Missing Mom, a Huntress who never returned home from a mission. She is a driving influence in Ruby's desire to become a Huntress to make the world a better place and is the person she inherited her mystical Grimm-slaying silver eyes from. Her fate is a plot mystery, heavily implied to have an important connection to Ozpin and Salem's war until the Atlas Arc begins to lift the veil on how she's connected to Salem.
• Tempting Fate:
  • In "Field Trip", Ruby says they've never backed out of a mission before, and that they'll be with a true huntsman, so they should be okay. Then they find out who said huntsman is, Doctor Oobleck, who doesn't seem like quite the ideal huntsman they envisioned.
  • In "Search and Destroy", Oobleck starts to ask Ruby why her backpack is so important that it can't be left behind, he gets cut off when Ruby's corgi Zwei pops out.
  • Subverted in "Family". As Team RNJR head towards the next town, still upset about the destruction of Shion, Jaune notes that their situation could be a lot worse, and Ruby agrees that their luck might be improving. As per the trope, the camera pans to a Grimm standing on a clifftop, ready to pounce on them... only for Qrow to impale it before it can do so.
• Terminally Dependent Society:
  • All of the world's technology runs off a single type of Applied Phlebotinum: Dust, magic-like elemental crystals that do everything from power everyday machines to enhancing ammunition. The World of Remnant video on the subject notes that it's becoming harder to find new Dust deposits, and no one has bothered to research any alternative energy sources because Dust is just so incredibly convenient; even a medieval society can quickly make good use of it. In the show proper, however, references to this are minimal, only mentioning that Dust prices have been going up.
  • The City of Atlas remains floating above the slums of Mantle entirely due to the Staff of Creation. It has a stock of Gravity Dust that will keep it temporarily in the air before that's used up and begins to fall. There's no discussion about whether the city can be landed safely. However, in a situation where everything has gone wrong, allies have turned against each other and one side obtains the Staff while the other side controls the city, it's impossible for the city to stay in the air. In that kind of scenario, it will crash into the city below it, annihilating both. In Volume 8, the heroes steal the Staff from Ironwood to save Penny, evacuate both cities to Vacuo by magical means, and to keep the Relic out of both Ironwood and Salem's hands. There's just enough time to evacuate everyone before Atlas crashes into Mantle. The impact breaches an inland sea to the north of the kingdom, which floods the region, hiding the ruins of both cities beneath the waves.
• Terrible Pick-Up Lines: Jaune Arc is often commented at whenever he uses terrible pick-up lines, usually on Weiss.
• That's Gotta Hurt: In "Lighting the Fire", Jaune and Nora briefly take on Audience Surrogate duties as Ruby and Oscar are sparring, audibly wincing and cringing when someone gets a brutal hit.
• Theme Naming: Characters named after The Wonderful Wizard of Oz characters seem to be connected to the secret history of Remnant, and the mysterious conflict between Ozpin and Salem. Ozpin's name comes from the acronym of the Wizard's real name (O.Z.P.I.N.H.E.A.D.); Glynda Goodwitch is named after the Good Witch of the South, Glinda; General Ironwood's name comes from the English translation of a Russian version of the Tin Man; Qrow is associated with the Scarecrow. Oscar Pine, who shares Ozpin's soul, Aura and consciousness, is introduced as a farm boy digging the earth; the Wizard of Oz's real name is Oscar Diggs, and the name Oscar Pine name contracts to Oz Pin(e).
• This Is No Time to Panic: When the Grimm start attacking Vale at the end of "PvP", an overhead voice message asks for everyone to evacuate and seek shelter in a calm and orderly manner... while everyone is screaming and running through the exit tunnels in general chaos. Ironwood then tries repeating the message on the announcers' mic right as a giant Nevermore lands on the forcefield over the arena.
• This Is the Part Where...: In "Of Runaways and Stowaways", Blake ends up catching a falling Sun, he responds by saying, "My hero!" When Sun returns the favor to Blake later in the episode he tells her "This is the part where you say it."
• Three-Point Landing:
  • In the Black Trailer, Adam and Blake charge down a cliff-side slope towards a speed train before somersaulting onto a carriage roof, unsheathing their swords in mid-air to act as a brake when they land. As a result, they land with feet and right hands on the roof, their swords ripping up some of the metal to anchor them into position, and their left hands holding their sheaths diagonally away from their bodies.
  • When Ozpin launches the first years off the cliff on their first day at Beacon, Ruby's landing strategy consists of slowing her fall down with the recoil from her rifle and using the scythe to somersault her around trees. She lands hard on her right knee, left foot and right hand, with her left hand held away from her body, then snaps her head up and propelling herself into a run just like a sprinter coming out of the starting blocks.
  • Pyrrha's favourite landing position appears to be landing on her right knee and left foot, with her right hand on the ground and left away from her body. She does it when Team JNPR defeat their first Death Stalker, and again when Team JNPR leap out of a helicopter to join Team RWBY on the ground to protect Vale from the first Grimm breach.
  • In "Tipping Point", after instigating a fight with Team RNJR, Tyrian ends up crashing into a building and holding himself up by his legs. When Jaune and Ren try talking to him, he frontflips forward and lands on his right knee, left foot, and right hand.
• Threshold Guardian: In the White Trailer, Weiss is shown fighting and defeating an Arma Gigas, earning a permanent scar to her eye in the process. The Arma Gigas is a creation of her father's, and is a test of her resolve and ability: if she wins, she is allowed to attend Beacon Academy and train to become a Huntress; if she fails, she has to submit to her father's control and give up her dream. Thanks to her Semblance, the growth she experienced as a result of defeating the Arma Gigas means that she can now freely summon an ice avatar of it to fight on her behalf in battle.
• Tournament Arc: After two volumes of build up the Vytal Festival Tournament takes place during Volume 3. Team RWBY and Team JNPR participate in the tournament for Beacon Academy. RWBY is disqualified when Yang is accused of breaking Mercury Black's leg unprovoked, in a fit of unsportsmanlike conduct (she was actually made to hallucinate that she was being attacked). Then the entire thing is pretty much cancelled when Pyrrha accidentally kills Penny’s body with her magnetism semblance, with the massive amount of negative energy caused by such an event happening on live TV allowing for an all-out invasion by the White Fang and Grimm resulting in the deaths of Penny, Professor Ozpin and Pyrrha, the destruction of Beacon Academy and the Heroes being scattered throughout all of Remnant.
• Training from Hell: Chapter 4 has the students launched into the monster forest at high speed (told specifically to expect lethal force from the Grimm and to respond with the same) unsupervised, with the instruction to gain an "artifact" from the temple and return. And that is the initiation rite. Later chapters show them sparring with actual weapons and a field trip to a destroyed city infested with more Grimm. Clearly, Huntsmen are not in a business that is taken lightly.
• Trailers Always Spoil:
  • The preview trailer for Volume 3, episode 4 spoils nearly everything to do with the fight between Coco/Yatsuhashi and Emerald/Mercury.
  • The Japanese trailer for Volume 3 spoils the volume.
• Train Job: The setting for the "Black" trailer. Turns out to be both part of the reason Blake left the White Fang, and one of the reasons Weiss mentions for why she hates them, as the train contained one of her family's large Dust shipments.
• Transformation Discretion Shot: Qrow and Raven's transformations to and from bird forms are often done by having an object in the foreground obscure them in the amount of time needed to transform seamlessly without needing to animate their models changing.
• Tranquil Fury:
  • Glynda when she walks in on the mass Food Fight in Vol.2 Episode 1. Although her tone-of-voice exhibits enough self-restraint for her behavior to be called tranquil, the expression on her face betrays her severe irritation with the students' youthful antics.
  • Ozpin sinks deeper and deeper into this as he watches Cinder and the White Fang launch a Grimm invasion on Vale and Beacon. His tone of voice speaking to Ironwood sounds like he's just barely holding back pure fury.
    Ozpin: You brought your army to my Kingdom, James. Use it!
  • Pretty much every line Adam delivers in "Heroes and Monsters". He's completely calm and in control, but there is no denying the sheer amount of hate and fury he's bottling up regarding Blake's defection from the White Fang.
  • In "As Above, So Below", Ironwood becomes increasingly angry as he pieces together the full extent of Jacques' treasonous actions and Watts' plan against Atlas, but he never raises his voice above its usual tone. The only outward sign of his rage is him slamming his hands against a chair.
• Transparent Tech: Everyone has collapsible, smartphone-like devices called "scrolls" which have transparent screens. In addition to typical smartphone functions, during combat scrolls also display the strength of the user's aura, as well as those of their teammates. They can be used to call one's weapon locker, and on one occasion are even seen serving as game controllers.
• Trapped in Another World: Volume 8 ends with the implication that certain characters get trapped in another world. Team RWBY, Jaune and Neo fall into the Void Between the Worlds, ending up trapped in the Ever After from the In-Universe fairy tale "The Girl Who Fell Through the World". During Volume 9, they use the story to help them understand the world and travel to the large tree in it's middle in order to find their way back to Remnant.
• Triumphant Reprise:
  • Mirror Mirror gets one at the end of "Lessons Learned" after Weiss is uplifted by Winter.
  • A badass orchestral reprise of "Time to Say Goodbye" plays in "Battle of Beacon" as the Nevermore that had been attacking the stadium is finally downed by Teams JNPR, ABRN, SSSN, CFVY, and FNKI.
  • A soft string version of "Boop" plays in "Kuroyuri" when Young Ren finds Young Nora underneath a building when the town gets attacked.
• Trojan Ambulance: After Mercury Black fakes an injury to frame his opponent Yang Xiao Long, ambulance workers retrieve him and load him onto an ambulance airship to take him to a hospital and then to his family. However, it is then revealed that the ambulance was actually a getaway vehicle, and that the paramedics that retrieved him were his cohorts Cinder Fall and Neopolitan in disguise.
• Troperiffic: Unsurprising given the creative minds's penchant for adrenaline-inducing action, this series plays with a lot of tropes usually seen in anime, martial arts and video games.
• Trophy Child: Nicholas Schnee single-handedly created a powerful legacy as the world's leading supplier of good-quality Dust, a mined substance that forms the basis of all technology and combat capability humanity possesses. He passed this inheritance on to his son-in-law, Jacques, who only married Nick's daughter to obtain control of the Schnee Dust Company and the prestige of the Schnee name. He isn't interested in being a husband to his wife or a father to his three children, as they exist solely to service his public relations. When the Kingdom of Atlas is framed as an instigator of the invasion of the Kingdom of Vale, Jacques has her daughter return to Atlas to engage in a PR stunt in order to protect the SDC's profit margins: he forces Weiss to sing at a benefit concert to raise aid money for Vale just to remind Remnant that a Schnee fought on the front lines in Vale's defence. However, when she loses control of her Semblance in public, he disinherits her in order to protect his company's reputation. Weiss escapes her home and flees from Atlas as a result, attempting unsuccessfully to find her oldest sister, Winter, who escaped Jacques years ago by joining the Atlasian military. Weiss's brother, Whitley, strongly implies to her that the only way to deal with their father is to allow him to mould them into exactly the same kind of monster he is.
• Two Scenes, One Dialogue:
  • "The Badge and the Burden, Part 2" had an interchanging pair of scenes with Weiss and Ruby questioning Professors Port and Ozpin (respectively) about Ruby's role as team captain.
  • One scene in "Burning the Candle" has Yang luring Blake to her, saying "We need to talk", and immediately whisking her away. The scene is immediately re-enacted with Jaune whisking away Ren.

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