"Tomorrow, your initiation begins. Be ready."
Clockwise from bottom: Ruby Rose, Blake Belladonna, Yang Xiao Long, and Weiss Schnee.
"You have travelled here today in search of knowledge, to hone your craft and acquire new skills. And, when you have finished, you plan to dedicate your life to the protection of the people. But I look amongst you and all I see is wasted energy in need of purpose, direction. You assume knowledge will free you of this, but your time at this school will prove that knowledge can only carry you so far. It is up to you to take the first step."
— Professor Ozpin, "The Shining Beacon"
RWBY
(pronounced "Ruby") is an Animesque CGI animated series created by Monty Oum and produced by Rooster Teeth. It is also Rooster Teeth's first original IP and has since expanded into a multi-media franchise.
Once Upon a Time, in a world known as Remnant, mankind became the target of the Creatures of Grimm: an endless horde of malevolent monsters that are attracted to the negative emotions of humanity. To fight back, mankind has trained warriors called Huntsmen to battle the Grimm using unique weapons, soul-fueled force fields known as Aura, an elemental mineral known as Dust, and Semblances, Aura-fueled superpowers distinct to every user.
In the present day, an idealistic girl named Ruby Rose (Lindsay Jones) joins the Huntsman school known as Beacon Academy, headed by the mysterious Professor Ozpin (Shannon McCormick). She is placed into a team with three other students: Yang Xiao Long (Barbara Dunkelman), her boisterous half-sister; Weiss Schnee (Kara Eberle), the proud heiress of the Schnee Dust Company; and the secretive and aloof Blake Belladonna (Arryn Zech). Though initial tensions are high, Team RWBY comes together to fight against Grimm and criminal gangs equipped with Dust. However, the forces of darkness are returning and the four girls must become not just Huntresses, but heroes, in order to save their world. In the process, they are forced to question everything they know as they discover that the headmasters of the Huntsman Academies have their own secrets as well.
The four main characters were individually introduced in four trailers — Red (Ruby Rose), White (Weiss Schnee), Black (Blake Belladonna), and Yellow (Yang Xiao Long) — to much anticipation and speculation. The series premiered on Rooster Teeth's official website on July 18, 2013.
During seasons (referred to as "volumes"), new episodes are released weekly on Rooster Teeth's website (Saturdays for Rooster Teeth First members and a week later for normal account users), with episodes of a miniseries called World of Remnant dedicated to giving more information about Remnant sometimes being published in between episodes. The series is also being simulcasted on Crunchyroll, and the first episode is available on YouTube. Home video releases are also available from Rooster Teeth's United States, and Australia/New Zealand online stores. A Japanese dub was additionally produced by Warner Bros.
After Monty Oum tragically died during Volume 3's production in February 2015, the series' creative team announced they had the required information to carry on. True to their word, on October 15 of that year, Rooster Teeth released the intro animation of the volume, which premiered a week later. The series currently consists of nine completed volumes, with the most recent volume premiering on Crunchyroll in April 2023 before being released on Rooster Teeth's website in April 2024 after a one-year period of exclusivity. A tenth volume was in production limbo due to financial concerns at Rooster Teeth, with scripts being written in case of a renewal; however, with the closure of Rooster Teeth in 2024 and Warner Bros. looking into selling the IP, the fate of the series is up in the air.
A mini-series, RWBY Beyond, aired in April 2024, with four mini-episodes covering some of the events concurrently happening alongside and before Volume 9.
Previews: Volume 1 Trailer, Volume 2 Trailer, Volume 3 Trailer, Volume 4 Trailer, Volume 5 Trailer, Volume 6 Trailer, Volume 7 Trailer, Volume 8 Trailer, Volume 9 Trailer
Note that the vast majority of these pages have no spoiler tags. Please read at your own risk.
Due to length, the trope examples list has been split into sub-pages:
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- A to B
- C to D
- E to G
- Fairytale Motifs
- Foreshadowing
- H to K
- L to N
- Mythical Motifs
- O to R
- S to T
- Shout-Out
- U to Z
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"But perhaps victory is in the simpler things that you've long forgotten... things that require a smaller, more honest soul."
