Web Video / Fixing RWBY

Fixing RWBY is a video series by Celtic Phoenix Productions on YouTube. As the title suggests, the videos have him air his grievances with the animated web series RWBY, giving his thoughts on how he would have tackled the series if he could.

As such, the series is essentially a Fix Fic without the actual fanfic. Instead, the fixing is done in a brainstorming format, with the new version of RWBY's plot being discussed in the form of a broader story outline. With the only real rule being that the general framework of the original series must stay in place, each video consists of him detailing numerous changes he would make to the series lore, character arcs/backstories, and the execution of any major story beats he wishes to keep intact.

Fixing RWBY can be seen using this playlist.

Spoilers for RWBY are untagged below. Read at your own risk.

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Fixing RWBY provides examples of:

• Adaptational Angst Upgrade:
  • In Volume 1, Team RWBY has a much harder time getting along. It isn't until the season finale do they become a cohesive team. Also in Volume 6, the team has a lot more trouble picking up where they left off, not helped by Blake's guilt at running away being even pronounced and disruptive than in canon, and seeing Ruby work better as Team RNJR.
  • Nora has self-worth issues that manifest as jealousy towards Pyrrha, with her grief over the latter's death being amplified due to never getting to apologize for the things she said. These issues also boil over in Volume 6.
  • Arslan also has self-worth issues, constantly trying to prove her worth against Pyrrha to show that her own status is the result of hard work rather than nepotism, as Fixing makes her the niece of Leo Lionheart. Losing to Team JNPR causes Arslan to go through a total breakdown.
  • The Fall of Beacon in particular has a few:
    • Penny is infected with a virus that allows Cinder to control her. Not only is it made clear that Penny is fully aware that she is being controlled but can do nothing about it, but that it is unlikely she can be rebuilt due to the chip that contains her memories and personality was heavily damaged.
    • Ciel is present when Penny dies and, due to them explicitly having a closer bond in Fixing, is shown mourning over her.
    • Several characters are left disfigured, paralyzed, or even dead in the aftermath of the Fall: Fox is gravely injured by Adam, Cardin loses an eye, Velvet's ear is partially cut off, and Neptune is bound to a wheelchair from being impaled in the spine by a Paladin mech.
  • Roman Torchwick gets one by way of their backstory being that they are the Sole Survivor of the Apathy's attack on Brunswick Farms.
  • Vernal dies, with her death affecting several characters. Namely, Yang is hurt that she never got to know her other half-sister; Weiss is even more saddened upon realizing that Vernal earnestly viewed her as a friend; and Raven's grief and attempts to obscure Vernal's death end up alienating her from her tribe.
  • The Silver Eyes induce Laser-Guided Amnesia in the user when used too much, a dark revelation in its own right that causes the teamwork issues above to hit a boiling point.
• Adaptational Backstory Change:
  • Hazel's reasons for despising Ozpin and siding with Salem are quite different from his canon counterpart's. Instead of blaming Ozpin for his sister's death by Grimm in a huntress training accident and being broken by Salem into serving her, Hazel was traumatized by watching Ozma's soul possess and overtake his brother as one of his previous hosts before abandoning Hazel and a sick Oscar (implied to be another relative who Hazel held dear in this version).
• Adaptational Badass:
  • Changes to Volume 1 and 2 make the Creatures of Grimm a far more serious and dangerous threat, with Team RWBY often struggling to defeat what the show often portrayed as mere mooks.
  • Adam in particular is made far more dangerous than he was in canon, which is notable considering how scary he already was. From slaughtering experienced soldiers with ease to keeping up with Qrow, Cardin, and Russel at the same time, causing an avalanche with his Moonslice, and overpowering Team RWBY in Argus while injured. A Team RWBY out of sync from being separated for so long, with a Ruby who just healed from a broken leg but still.
• Adaptational Early Appearance:
  • Neo, Tukson, and the entirety of Team CFVY debut in Volume 1 instead of Volume 2.
  • Ciel debuts, and Scarlet and Sage are properly introduced, in Volume 2 instead of Volume 3.
  • Not so much a character but rather a battle. The Belladonna assassination attempt becomes the climax for Blake's arc in Volume 4 instead of 5.
• Adaptational Friendship:
  • Fixing Volume 2 alters the train tunnel episode so that several of the White Fang mooks who Team RWBY have to fight through personally remember Blake from when she'd been one of them, and they express their feelings about her defection.
  • In stark contrast to Yang and Neo's canon portrayal where they remained enemies after the Fall of Beacon; starting in Fixing Volume 4, a post-Fall Yang and Neo end up bonding over a shared sense of loss, being cast adrift and having to find their own ways again without their previous emotional supports. In the next volume, Neo loyally accompanies Yang to Mistral.
• Adaptational Intelligence: Raven's plan for the Relic of Knowledge. Rather than being a short-sighted case of Didn't Think This Through as in canon, Raven has a more concrete objective beyond than protecting herself. She first attempts to destroy the Relic with her Maiden powers. When she finds out the Relic is Made of Indestructium, her Plan B was to relocate and bury the Relic hundreds of miles beneath the surface among ruins that ward away the Grimm, in the hopes of preventing Salem from ever finding it.
• Adaptational Jerkass:
  • Pretty much all of Team RWBY gets this in Volume 1. Whereas in canon they all got along and the only (brief) issues were caused by Weiss, in this show's version of Volume 1 they are at each other's throats the entire time, to the point that Ozpin has to assign Team CFVY to monitor them. They grow out of this eventually. In particular, though:
    • Weiss' initial Fantastic Racism is turned up to the point where she believes Faunus are naturally subservient and inferior to humans, with the rant where she expresses these views infuriating the entire team. She is also much more incensed over her place on the team at first: actively defying Ruby's orders out of spite for not being leader herself, always pushing the blame onto her teammates, refusing to interact with them unless she was required to, and even trying to transfer to another team.
  • While Nora she's still just as sweet and bubbly as her original counterpart, she harbors intense jealousy towards Pyrrha because her popularity completely overshadows the rest of the team, which plays on her own issues of self-worth. She straight-up tells Pyrrha that she must be addicted to the attention and thinks she's better than everyone, and lashes out at Jaune, saying that Pyrrha is the only reason why he's remotely as good as he is.
  • Team ABRN are more vindictive, with special mention going to Arslan, who doesn't believe Ren, Nora, or Pyrrha are "true Mistralians" because of their backgrounds being different ethnic groups that were absorbed in Mistral.
  • Leonardo Lionheart is far more bitter and resentful to Ozpin, hating the man for forcing him to bear the burden of being Mistral's headmaster.
• Adaptational Nice Guy:
  • Roman is shown not to be prejudiced towards Faunus and compliments his White Fang subordinates when they are committing a dust heist with him. He's also given a couple extra scenes in the Beacon-era volume rewrites before his Hazy-Feel Turn where he shows more reservations about hurting teenagers and participating in Cinder's terrorist plans.
  • Rather than being portrayed as a Dirty Coward who left his inner circle out of selfishness, Raven is shown to have become disillusioned with Ozpin after discovering that his conflict with Salem was a Forever War that only killed generations upon generations of good hunters and huntresses for a cause that they didn't know was pointless.
• Adaptational Origin Connection:
  • In canon, virtually nothing was known about the life of Ozpin's Beacon-era host before Ozma's soul fully merged with his. In this version, it's eventually revealed that Ozpin's headmaster host was Hazel's brother, and implicitly both were also related to Oscar (who isn't Ozpin's next host in this series) — Ozma's possession of the man played a primary role in Hazel siding with Salem against Ozpin.
  • Unlike in canon where there was no connection whatsoever between them, in this version, Roman's Start of Darkness is eventually revealed to be tied directly to the fall of Brunswick Farms (the Apathy-overrun village from Volume 6).
• Adaptational Personality Change: While Cordovin is still relatively the same personality-wise (she still boasts about the superiority of Atlas, isn't too fond of Faunus, and is very strict when it comes to following the rules), she isn't nearly as bombastic expressing her views as she was in canon, and is much more stern when addressing Team RWBY. She's also much more amoral and rotten to the core than her canon counterpart, callously leaving the entire city under her charge to die while she flees, instead of destroying the Leviathan Grimm that threatened it.
• Adaptational Sympathy:
  • Not that the canon version of his backstory was completely unsympathetic, but in this version, Roman's backstory, which is explored in-depth after the Fall of Beacon in the lead-up to his turn to the main heroes' side being revealed, is a sad and brutal thing to watch.
  • Whereas canon treated Adam like an unrepentant monster who got what he deserved, and it goes on to suggest that he might never have been a good person at all to begin with; in this version, Adam is still psychotic, despotic and bloodthirsty, but he's presented as a tragic and troubled figure who was made a monster as a result of the excessive institutional racism against Faunus that he endured, and his final defeat is more akin to putting down a rabid dog than standing up to an unrepentant Psycho Ex-Boyfriend.
  • Lionheart in canon is treated as a reluctant Dirty Coward who simply didn't have it in him to face Salem. Here, his turn to Salem is more clearly the result of a Despair Event Horizon; as a Faunus, half of the kingdom hated him, while the other half looked to him as some kind of savior or symbol, and learning the truth about Salem only added to the intense pressure he felt in his role as headmaster of the school.
• Adaptational Ugliness: Salem, who already looked pretty eerie and inhuman in the show but was still somewhat beautiful, is implied to be significantly more horrific-looking in this version with the scant glimpses we've gotten of her so far.
• Adaptational Villainy:
  • In the canon series, the God of Darkness only destroyed humanity because they attacked him first with intent to kill while the God of Light did not directly help in the extinction. In Fixing RWBY, the brothers both destroyed humanity out of outrage that their creations stopped worshiping them and took to worshiping Salem instead.
  • Caroline Cordovin started off as an obstacle preventing Ruby and her friends from getting to Atlas, only to change her mind and let them leave when they stayed to stop the Grimm. Here, she goes back on that promise and cares not one whit for the city of Argus as she is willing to let the Grimm destroy it while she and her forces high-tail it back to Atlas.
• Adaptational Wimp: Everyone has their abilities toned down. In general, Huntsmen-in-training can no longer easily take down Grimm as they do in canon. For example, Coco in the original is able to mow down two Nevermores in seconds during the Breach, while in Fixing RWBY, she can only keep them at bay.
• Adaptation Distillation:
  • While the character still exists, Yang takes up Sun's role in Volume 1, finding and assisting Blake against the White Fang at the end of the season.
  • Roman Torchwick ends up being Ozpin's Reincarnation instead of Oscar, with that character being removed from the story entirely, although he does appear briefly in a flashback of Ozpin's past where he is seen with Hazel and Ozpin's then host Magnus.
  • Melanie Malachite ends up taking the place of Neo Politan in canon as the revenge driven woman who hunts down the protagonists. Where Neo wanted to kill Cinder and then later Ruby to avenge Roman, Melanie wants to kill Roman to avenge her twin Miltia.
• Adaptation Dye-Job: Lil' Miss Malachite is blonde in RWBY, but in Fixing RWBY she has black hair with turquoise highlights.
• Adaptation Name Change:
  • Though the spelling of SSSN remains the same, it's now pronounced "season" rather than "sun".
  • In Volume 5, in order to downplay the Punny Name, "Shay D. Mann" is changed to "Shiloh Mann".
  • In the same Volume, Vernal's real name is actually "Lily".
  • The Colossus is renamed the Crusader to fit the Theme Naming of Atlas technology.
• Adaptation Relationship Overhaul:
  • In canon, both Shay D. Mann and Vernal were just Raven's subordinates. In Fixing RWBY, Vernal (real name Lily) is Raven's biological daughter, with Shay (now named Shiloh) as her father and Raven's current lover.
  • Ozpin is more directly related to the death of Hazel's sibling, a brother named Magnus in this continuity, with said sibling being one of his previous hosts rather than just a student of his who was killed.
• Adaptation Species Change: Faunus are not considered a single species, rather a blanket category for many different species.
• Adapted Out:
  • As noted in the post-story commentary for Volume 4, Oscar was excised from the plot due to Celtic seeing no real use in keeping him around, especially when he found a different host for Ozpin. Though he makes a cameo in Jinn’s vision of Ozpin’s origin with Hazel when he was Magnus’s host.
  • The Huntsmen Dee and Dudley are cut out of the story, replaced by Cardin and Russel.
  • The Leviathan Grimm is removed from Volume 6, replaced by an army of lesser Grimm called Sirens.
• Age Lift: Cinder is more clearly established as being older than most other characters, and so instead of being disguised as a student when she infiltrates Beacon, she's disguised as a teacher.
• Alternate Universe Fic: Fixing RWBY rewrites the source material from the ground up, with only the basics kept intact.
• Angsty Surviving Twin: The first episode of Volume 5 reveals that Melanie Malachite has become this, having gone mad when Miltia died in the Fall of Beacon. She hallucinates that Miltia is with her at all times now, addressing herself in the Royal "We", and seeks to kill Roman in revenge for his part in causing the Fall.
• April Fools' Day: For April Fools 2024, he did a video where he rewrites Justice League XRWBY Superheroes And Huntsmen only for it to go Off the Rails, such as Doctor Strange being behind it all, Cyborg secretly being a vampire, Batman actually The Grimm-mace, and so much more.
• Ascended Extra: Lots of them, directly addressing one of the most widely-held complaints against the canon show that side characters and settings aren't given decent exploration.
  • Yang's friends from the second episode of Volume 1 now have character designs and plot relevance.
  • Team CVFY is introduced in Volume 1 and act as mentors to Team RWBY.
  • Neo is a reoccurring villain from Volume 1 onward, and gets substantial screen time during the Mistral saga up to pulling a Heel–Face Turn and joining the heroes.
  • Tukson makes an appearance in Volume 1 and works as part of an underground railroad system for anyone trying to leave the White Fang.
  • Cardin's role is increased in both of the first two volumes, and he also features more heavily during and after the Fall of Beacon.
  • The White Fang Lieutenant serves as The Heavy for Adam Taurus in Volume 2.
  • Ciel becomes a reoccurring character in Volume 2.
  • Roman Torchwick gets a little more screen time, especially in his flashbacks and reveal, before graduating to being a full-blown member of the main supporting cast in Volume 5.
  • Melanie Malachite ends up more involved in the plot by taking Neo's original role as the post-Fall of Beacon revenge-driven woman who is recruited by Cinder in her hunt of Team RWBY.
  • Shiloh, as Shay D. Man is renamed, gets a lot more prominence among the Branwen tribe as the father of Raven's younger daughter, Vernal.
  • Vernal herself is a much more highlighted and plot-relevant character due to her Related in the Adaptation, and due to her odd friendship with Weiss in this version. Her death has a huge impact on the rest of the Branwens, and it's also felt by Yang and especially by Weiss.
• Author Tract: The author frequently stops in the middle of talking to state how he considers what he's written to be superior to the main show.
• Bait the Dog: At first this version of Cordovin presents herself as more tough but fair authority figure compared to what we saw in the show. It’s revealed that she is an opportunistic, smug, nationalistic hypocrite who breaks her deal with Team RWBY. After arresting Adam she breaks the deal to get Team RWBY to Atlas, justifying her decision by accusing Team RWBY of cowardice when they retreated from Adam, when in reality she just using them for free labor and was looking for an excuse when they were no longer needed.
• Beach Episode: Ruby tries to have one in Argus, unfortunately, she didn’t take into account the colder temperature and nearly gets hypothermia.
• Big Damn Heroes: After seeing the truth from Jinn, the wounded, exhausted, and emotionally volatile heroes are set upon by a new wave of Grimm, only for a lone figure to appear and rip through the new horde in a single attack, revealing herself to be the veteran Huntress Maria Calavera.
• Big "WHAT?!": Weiss shrieks out a "What?!" that can be heard across the entire Bandit Camp when she learns Raven is using Myrtenaster as a rotisserie spit.
• Blackmail:
  • Instead of threatening Junior with a Groin Attack as in canon, Yang blackmails him with a picture of him talking with Roman that she's more than happy to let slip to the police and media.
  • Like in canon, Cardin blackmails Jaune into doing stuff for him in exchange for not telling that Jaune faked his way into the school. Unlike in canon, Jaune blackmails him back with Blake's help.
• Bound and Gagged: This happens to Cordovin after her soldiers hear her conversation with Ruby, disgusted with how she doesn't care about the fate of Argus, Dee and Dudley take command and return to help fight off the Grimm horde and give Team RWBY safe passage to Atlas.
• Bully Brutality: Cardin's bullying goes as far to cause Velvet physical harm, which prompts Blake to defend her against Cardin.
• Child by Rape: It’s heavily implied that Adam is a product of this between his Faunus mother and abusive human landlord.
• Character Exaggeration: Most of the main protagonists' early quirks are emphasized far beyond their existence in canon, to the point that they can feel like completely different characters with the same name slapped on.
• Composite Character:
  • Melanie Malachite takes up Neopolitan's role from the canon as the villain pursuing one of the main cast to avenge a fallen life-partner after the Fall of Beacon.
  • The Nubucks who serve under Caroline Cordovin are named Dee and Dudley, after the two Huntsmen who were Adapted Out.
• Continuity Snarl: Discussed by Phoenix himself in the remaster of Fixing Volume 1. The Ursa Major is still attracted to the sweet sap of the episode, which is the only time a creature of Grimm has ever been interested in food when it was later established in the original work that Grimm only kill and eat people and are attracted to negative emotion. Phoenix admits that he had overlooked the odd bit of writing the first time around when he was remaking the series and doesn't know how to reconcile it to better fit with later established canon, so the Sweet Tooth remains as an outlier among the Grimm.
• The Coup: Adam not only preforms one to take over the White Fang but also plans to start one for the Kingdom of Mistral known as Operation Fenrir. Initially thought to be a pipe dream due to the other kingdom’s intervention, it would become possible due to Vale recovering from the Fall of Beacon and Atlas calling back all their forces.
• *Crack!* "Oh, My Back!": Maria Calavera's Big Damn Heroes moment is undercut by the fact that she threw her back out during it. As soon as the Grimm are dead, she yells at the heroes to help her with her intense back pain.
• Cyborg: Neptune suffers a spinal injury in the Fall of Beacon that leaves him paraplegic. He's given an Atleasian implant to repair the damage and let him walk again after months of physical therapy.
• Death by Adaptation:
  • Saber Rodentia is killed in the Belladonna assassination attempt.
  • Miltiades Malachite is revealed to have died in the Fall of Beacon.
  • Arslan Altan is killed by Cinder in Volume 6.
• Devoured by the Horde: The Lieutenant is only stopped when the heroes knock him directly into the horde of Grimm at the Breach. While he fights to the last, he's eventually overrun by the Grimm and meets his end.
• Disney Villain Death: Rightfully suspecting the Grimm attacking Jaune to be an Ursa Major, Ruby forces Weiss to follow her plan to knock it off a cliff. Ruby knows that none of the Huntsmen-in-training could actually injure a Major, and even suspects it survived the fall to denote how Made of Iron it is.
• Dude Looks Like a Lady: Roman is shocked to find out that Ren is a guy when they get into the hot spring, to Ren's bafflement. They spend the next scene arguing about it, with Ren listing off all the clues that he is a guy and Roman defending his assumption with examples of women with those same traits.
• Early-Bird Cameo: A sick in bed Neo appears as a cameo in the third episode.
• "Eureka!" Moment: As the Lieutenant keeps fighting during the Breach, he bellows out that humanity will fall against the White Fang. This inspires Ruby to call for the team attack "Forever Fall" to launch the Lieutenant over the blockades and into a horde of Grimm that finishes him off.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: After the Fall of Beacon, Junior is genuinely bereaved by the death of Miltia, as is Melanie. Melanie goes completely insane from her twin sister's death, while Junior tries to take care of Melanie as best he can, and he solemnly looks at a picture of the twins.
• Evolutionary Levels: If an Apathy Grimm feeds enough over its life, it can mutate into a Mimic, giving it new ways to hunt.
• Explain, Explain... Oh, Crap!: When Kali interrogates Ilia about "Operation Fenrir", Ilia initially dismisses it, since it was pipe dream by the previous White Fang leader before Sienna Khan. When explaining just why it was a pipe dream, Ilia breaks down that it was supposed to be a full-scale coup in Mistral, but it would have been impossible to occupy all the critical territory before Atlas or Vale could get involved... only to realize that with Atlas having closed its borders and Vale still recovering from the Fall of Beacon, this is the perfect time to try enacting the plan.
• False Flag Operation: Roman gets the idea to use the White Fang as a scapegoat for his own crimes, hiring Faunus to help in his latest heist and providing them fake uniforms to pass them off as White Fang members. This lands him in hot water when the real White Fang contact him after Volume 1.
• Fantastic Racism:
  • Pyrrha, Nora, and Ren suffer from discrimination by Mistralians because they're not "pure" Mistralian. They're descended from ethnic groups that were dissolved into Mistral.
  • Caroline Cordovin shows herself to be an even bigger one than in Canon. Outwrite calling Adam an animal and Blake Ruby's pet, looking down on the people of other nations such as her apathy towards Mistral, and bragging about the superiority of Atlas.
• Fantastic Slurs:
  • Some slurs cited are "fur-licker" for cat faunus, "lizard brain" for reptilian faunus, and "furball" for mammalian faunus. "Faunus" itself can be a slur (and it originally was a slur) depending on how it's used.
  • According to the commenter TheIntratec9 (who suggested the idea in the first place), "Critter" is a derogatory term used against all faunus and sounds similar to a real-life derogatory term used against African-Americans.
  • "Jockey" is a term used against Faunus sympathizers.
• Faux Affably Evil: Cinder initially behaves like this, being capable of acting casual around Mercury and Emerald when she's in the mood. It isn't until she's horribly scarred by Ruby that she drops this veneer drops entirely, acting more like her canon counterpart going forward.
• Fix Fic: To the point where he has two hours worth of videos tackling the revised mythology and history of the new story alone, before even getting to Volume 1.
• Foreshadowing:
  • Cardin telling Jaune that he can't protect his friends forever in Volume 1 is intended as foreshadowing Pyrrha's death in Volume 3.
  • One of the stories Ruby and Pyrrha discuss while researching their history paper foreshadows the climaxes of Volumes 2 and 3.
  • Arslan's obsession with beating the "invincible" Pyrrha in early Volume 3 foreshadows Pyrrha's death several episodes later.
• Founder of the Kingdom: Instead of having a king, Mantle once had a position known as the Architect who was the national leader chosen by the populace.
• Gender Flip: As opposed to a sister named Gretchen in the main continuity, Hazel here had a brother named Magnus, who was one of Ozpin's previous hosts.
• Good Is Not Soft: Ozpin considers this the difference between himself and Ruby. He truly wants to protect mankind and its future, but he's willing to do any Necessarily Evil action to safeguard the world. It's why he feels he has more in common with his new host Roman than with Ruby.
• Hard-Drinking Party Girl: One change is that Yang's Hard Drinking Party Girl image isn't completely for show. For example, after she gets formally initiated into Beacon she gets drunk and ends up hangover the next day. It borderlines on alcoholism and Yang drinks to deal with her abandonment issues. Coco calls her out on this when Yang decides to drink rather than try and help with the problems Team RWBY are currently facing.
• Hate Sink: Caroline Cordovin is far more unpleasant than she was in the show. Not only does she go back on her word, hypocritically calling out Ruby on how she handled Adam, she can be best described as a representation of the the worst of Atlas.
• Hazy-Feel Turn: As Ozpin's newest host, Roman ends up having to align himself with the heroes, though it has yet to be seen if Roman will turn over a new leaf of his own volition.
• Heel–Face Turn:
  • Cardin, unlike his canon counterpart, grows to respect the Faunus after being chewed out for his bullying numerous times. During the Fall of Beacon, he goes to look for Velvet on the basis that he feels indebted to her, and protects her and Fox from Adam.
  • Neopolitan, finding herself unable to assassinate Yang like she intended, spends time with and even befriends her as they both undergo physical therapy. When they both fully recover, Neo joins her in traveling to Anima and becomes a full member of the heroes' team.
• Hot Springs Episode: A Breather Episode in Volume 5 is set in "Onsen Onsen Onsen", a Mistrali bathhouse, where the heroes all relax in hot springs heated by fire dust. Weiss, Yang, and Ruby have their conversations about Blake as in canon, while in the men's bath Roman is surprised to discover Ren's actually a man and the two argue about it.
• Hypocrite: Cordovin accuses Team RWBY of cowardice for retreating from Adam's vicious assault on Argus. When the Grimm attack the city as well, her first instinct is to abandon her post and flee with her army.
• Imaginary Friend: Melanie hallucinates seeing and hearing her twin sister with her at all times, despite Miltia having died in the Fall of Beacon.
• Internal Reveal: Blake being a cat Faunus is changed into one of these. She doesn't have her bow in this version of the Black trailer, so viewers know she's a Faunus passing as a human from the get-go.
• In Name Only: Many of the canon characters' characterizations are changed to the point that they're either unrecognizable from their original selves (Vernal), or go down completely different paths (Neopolitan). Most of Team RWBY's quirks from the early Volumes are heavily extended beyond the point where their canon portrayals lost them. Neopolitan, in canon utterly defined by her desire for revenge, quickly pulls a Heel–Face Turn to work with the protagonists. Torchwick, a racist villain and Dirty Coward, is turned into the host of Ozpin, which would mean he would have to be "like-minded" to Ozpin, something which he most emphatically is not. Admittedly, this is partially due to limited information at the time the series was written.
• Know When to Fold 'Em: When Bolin realizes most of his team were knocked out of the ring and JNPR outnumbers him, he quietly drops his staff and surrenders.
• Lame Pun Reaction: In Fixing RWBY, it's Yang who notices Pyrrha's Polarity semblance. Pyrrha loses her smile when Yang calls her semblance "really attractive" and is even less impressed after asking for secrecy when Yang says "[her] lips are sealed. Magnetically."
• Little Bit Beastly: Faunus evolved from a common ancestor of humans and are still closely related enough to interbreed. Most faunus are mammalian Faunus. Faunus have quirks that differentiate them from humans, such as improved senses and estrus cycles. The concept of "Faunus" is a relatively recent creation as historically it was deemed a slur. Faunus traditionally saw each other as different species so they rejected the term.
• Made of Indestructium: The Relics, created by the God of Light, cannot be destroyed or even damaged by mortal means. Even the full might of a Maiden doesn't so much as scuff the Relic of Knowledge.
• Meaningful Name: Remus's name refers to Romulus's brother and co-founder of Rome. It makes sense then how it becomes a Meaningful Rename to Roman Torchwick, as in torching his past as a Brunswick.
• Meaningful Rename: Melanie Malachite exclusively goes by her last name after season three because she's gone insane and believes she is both Melanie and her dead sister Miltia sharing a body.
• The Mentor: Professor Ozpin assigns Team CVFY to mentor Team RWBY after realizing how dysfunctional the team is. Coco is especially keen on mentoring Ruby as they're both responsible as team leaders.
• Mix-and-Match Critter: Dangerous squirrel/monkey (or squirrel/ape) hybrids are mentioned in the third episode, with these creatures going on to attack the characters.
• Mundane Utility: Raven uses a sword as a spit to cook her dinner. Weiss is outraged because it's her sword and family heirloom Myrtenaster.
• Never My Fault: In one of the tales detailing Salem and Ozpin's past, Salem encouraged Ozpin to travel to distant lands to conquer them. While he was away, assassins stole into their tower and killed their children. When Ozpin returned, Salem was heartbroken and blamed Ozpin for their deaths since he wasn't home to defend them, ignoring that he only left at her insistence.
• No Body Left Behind: Averted. Unlike in canon, the Grimm leave behind skeletons when they die, though the flesh still dissolves off of their bones. Scientists study the remains to try and learn about the Grimm and Huntsmen use the bones to prove the worth of the creatures they killed for bounty payments.
• No MacGuffin, No Winner: Raven attempted to invoke this by destroying or burying the Relic of Knowledge, hoping to keep it out of Salem's hands forever. Unfortunately, the Relic is Made of Indestructium and Team RWBY come to take the Relic away from her before she can accomplish the latter.
• No-Sell: Sun gets knocked to the ground and kicked repeatedly by some human crewmembers of the airship he stowed away on. But because they are normal people while Sun has Hunstman training, his aura's so powerful that their kicks do absolutely no damage, so he cheekily keeps up his casual banter while they futilely try to hurt him.
• Nothing Is Scarier:
  • Invoked. Rather than a lengthy Breaking Speech after Penny's death to incite chaos and attract the Grimm, Cinder instead plays a garbled message as if she were being hunted for trying to reveal some dark truth, leaving the terror to people's imaginations.
  • Unlike canon, where Salem and her castle appear regularly, her first "appearance" here is Emerald's frantic hallucination at the end of Volume 5. This can result in some detatchment from her, though.
• Patriotic Fervor: Cordovin is somehow an even bigger one than in canon, boasting about the greatness of Atlas and it’s superiority towards other kingdoms. Shows apathy towards the people of Argus who were casualties of Adams rampage and abandoning them when the city was being invaded by a horde of Grimm, claiming that the population could use some thinning out. When Ruby calls her out on how she made an oath to protect Argus, she justifies her actions by claiming her oath was to Atlas and the legacy of the Architect.
• Profane Last Words: At the end of their climactic battle, Weiss sincerely apologizes to Adam for everything he's suffered because of her family. He only spits out, "Fuck you, Schnee." before trying to kill her. He's shot in the chest by Ruby, finally putting him down.
• Related in the Adaptation:
  • Whereas the canon Vernal has no known biological relations, the Fixing RWBY version is Raven Branwen's daughter by Shiloh (the renamed version of Shay D. Mann), which also makes her Yang's biological maternal half-sister and Qrow's biological niece.
  • It's also revealed unlike in canon that Ozpin's Beacon-era host was Hazel's brother, and in this version, Ozpin's possession of him and assimilation of his soul is the chief reason why Hazel aligned himself with Salem against Ozpin. The Volume 6 rewrite furthermore implies that Oscar in this version was another relative to them.
• Retired Badass: Volume 5 reveals that Kali Beladonna was the captain of the Menagerie Militia twenty years ago, but stepped down over matters of the heart.
• Royal "We": In her madness, Malachite believes she is both Melanie and Miltia at once, referring to herself in the plural at all times.
• Running Gag: A recurring point of humor is that when Roman and Neo directly interact, no-one can pin down what precisely the nature of their eccentric and extremely close relationship is: are they lovers, surrogate father and daughter, surrogate siblings, or something else that's even harder to comprehend?
• Sanity Slippage: Adam's mental health erodes further and further throughout season 6 as he continues to hunt Team RWBY. The stress of his hunt and his lack of medication get to him to the point of vivid visual hallucinations.
• The Scapegoat: In Volume 4, Sienna Khan has only recently become the new High Leader of the White Fang; her predecessor, Kin Onyurio, was deposed and handed over to the authorities for the White Fang's involvement in the Fall of Beacon.
• Shapeshifter Guilt Trip: A new breed of Grimm is introduced in Brunswick Farms, the Mimic, who can shapeshift into those closest to their would-be victims. The Grimm takes the appearance of a loved one to lure people into a hug, where their arms, lined with serrated teeth, would dig in and begin devouring the victim.
• Shout-Out:
  • In the original cut of Fixing Volume 1, Yang's friends outside of the established characters are Joker, Ryuji, and Makoto.
  • In the Remaster of Fixing Volume 1, one of the students seen when Ruby is gushing over weapons looks a lot like Pomni.
• Smug Snake: When Caroline Cordovin reveals her true nature she shows nothing but smugness towards an imprisoned Adam who she only capture because he was already weakened and fighting against Team RWBY.
• Spanner in the Works: Zwei ends up literally derailing the White Fang's plans with the train by unintentionally speeding up the train, causing it to crash into the battering ram engine in front of it and sending everything careening out of the subway into Vale proper, further from the heart of the city as they intended.
• Spared by the Adaptation: Roman Torchwick ends up surviving, albeit with Ozpin hitching a ride in his head.
• The Speechless: Like in canon, Neo is mute, though the show hadn't yet established this at the time.
• The Stations of the Canon: While many elements of the source material are changed, Celtic Phoenix limits himself from diverging too far way from the original plot by having the most important plot beats from each season occur, albeit with different circumstances and/or characters.
• Still Wearing the Old Colors: Kali Beladonna is retired from the militia but still wears the service uniform after having it modified for day-to-day use.
• Street Smart: Yang is portrayed as street-wise, which Phoenix sees as being implied in canon but not receiving much emphasis.
• Sue Donym: Cinder Fall's pen name "Ash Autumn" when she's pretending to be a journalist to spread more division.
• Take That!: By the time you've gotten five minutes in, Celtic has probably made around a dozen to the original show.
• Take That, Audience!: True to the RWBY invokedBroken Base's standards, Celtic Phoenix, as someone whose views firmly put him in the canon-criticizing "RWDE" camp of the base, clearly does not have a high opinion of the pro-canon other side; often making sarcastic jokes at their expense. He also often takes potshots at those who have voiced complaints with the series.
• Voice Changeling: Malachite's semblance is to be able to perfectly mimic the voice of anyone she hears speak.
• We Used to Be Friends: It's more concretely established here that Blake and Adam were once legitimately close friends before Adam became radicalized. There's enough memories of happier times for Blake to take Adam's sword as a memento after he dies.
• Wham Line: Throughout Volume 4, we focus on Remus Brunswick. At first, this seemed like a story that would set up the Apathy arc in Volume 6 until we see him running away from home and beating up a group of teens. When he's asked who he is, he answers:
  "My name is Roman. Roman Torchwick."
• Wham Shot: The stinger for Volume 4's rewrite reveals just who Ozpin's new host is: It's Roman Torchwick.
• Wrecked Weapon:
  • In the rewrite for Volume 4, we see why Jaune had his sword and shield reforged by a blacksmith, as both were heavily damaged in a battle with a group of Beringel Grimm at a train station.
  • The first episode of Volume 5 reveals that Roman's cane was destroyed during his escape.
  • In the final battle of Volume 6, Gambol Shroud is destroyed by Adam as in RWBY, but this time Yang also loses her metal arm from blocking several attacks and finally gives up the ghost from the strain of her last Megaton Punch.
• You Kill It, You Bought It: Blake takes Wilt and Blush with her after Adam's death, both because her own weapon was destroyed and as a last memento of the man who was once her friend.

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