50 Fun Facts About RWBY

Ruby, the scythe-wielding leader of Team RWBY, alludes to the heroine of which classic fairy tale?

Little Red Riding Hood explains the red cloak Ruby wears, modelled on her mother's white one. Her three teammates each nod to a different storybook character.

In RWBY, what are people born with animal traits such as tails, horns or claws called?

Faunus face open prejudice in Remnant, and one Beacon bully torments a classmate with rabbit traits simply for being one.

In RWBY, what is the name of Ruby's scythe, which doubles as a high-caliber sniper rifle?

Crescent Rose is the weapon Ruby learned to wield from her uncle Qrow, whose own giant sword can turn into a scythe as well.

What is the name of Ruby and Yang's pet corgi, sent to them through the mail in RWBY's Volume 2?

Zwei is named as a play on Ein, the corgi from Cowboy Bebop. Ruby later sneaks him along on a mission, where he helps the team in a fight.

Which Rooster Teeth animator created RWBY and voiced Lie Ren before his death in 2015?

Monty Oum gave his character designer a single rule for the series: "everyone must be badass."

Which immortal villain of RWBY became part Grimm after throwing herself into a pool of darkness?

Salem was cursed to live forever after trying to trick the gods into reviving her dead lover. She leapt into the pool hoping to die, and now commands the Grimm instead.

In RWBY, what does Blake keep hidden beneath her bow until Sun sees through the disguise?

Cat ears run in the family: Blake's mother Kali has them too, while her father Ghira has retractable panther claws at his fingertips.

In RWBY, which element sold by the Schnee family company set off an industrial revolution?

Dust is loaded into weapons across Remnant, and the fortune built on it made the Schnee family a target for the White Fang.

Which part of her body does Yang lose while protecting Blake during RWBY's Fall of Beacon?

Her right arm is later replaced by a bionic one, which has a shotgun mechanism built into the wrist.

According to RWBY's creator, every character's name in the series is tied to a specific what?

Color even names the teams: the initials of each four-student squad spell a word such as "cardinal" or "indigo".

Which cane-carrying professor is the headmaster of Beacon Academy when Ruby enrolls in RWBY?

Ozpin calls his cane The Long Memory, and it stores kinetic energy he has built up across many past lifetimes.

Which orange-haired crime lord does Ruby fight in the very first episode of RWBY?

Roman Torchwick fights with the Melodic Cudgel, a cane that doubles as a firearm, and his outfit was inspired by Alex from A Clockwork Orange.

Which android friend of Ruby in RWBY hiccups every time she tells a lie, a nod to Pinocchio?

Penny Polendina fights with the Floating Array, a small backpack holding an array of gun-bladed weapons on wires.

Which celebrated Beacon fighter in RWBY moves metal objects with her Semblance, Polarity?

Pyrrha Nikos was given her first name for her red hair, and her full name is a reference to a Pyrrhic victory.

The full name of RWBY's heiress Weiss Schnee is German for which two words?

White Snow flips the name of the fairy-tale princess Weiss is modelled on. Her designer called her the favorite of the four heroines to draw.

Team JNPR, the squad that trains beside Team RWBY at Beacon, pronounces its name like which word?

Juniper turned into "junior" after the team lost one of its four members and shortened its name to JNR.

In RWBY's lore, what did the God of Darkness shatter as he and his brother left Remnant?

The moon was broken on the day the two gods abandoned Remnant, leaving behind four Relics that could one day summon them back.

Nora Valkyrie, the talkative orange-haired member of RWBY's Team JNPR, alludes to which Norse god?

Thor suits her war hammer, Magnhild, and her Semblance, which channels electricity into her muscles for superhuman strength.

Team RWBY meets which famous superhero team in a two-part direct-to-video animated crossover film?

Justice League heroes are turned into teenagers and trapped in a digital simulation of Remnant, where Batman finds he has taken on bat traits.

RWBY's first trailer debuted after the credits of which Rooster Teeth series' season 10 finale?

Red vs. Blue made RWBY possible: RWBY's creator was told he could do whatever he wanted once he finished animating that tenth season.

Trivia Vanille is the birth name of which mute RWBY villain with an illusion-casting Semblance?

Neopolitan took the name from an imaginary childhood friend, and she fights with Hush, a parasol that hides a blade in its handle.

Which red-haired villain was Blake's mentor and boyfriend before becoming her archenemy in RWBY?

Adam Taurus is based on the Beast from Beauty and the Beast, with elements of Gaston from the 1991 film.

Which devoted servant of RWBY's main villain attacks with a scorpion's stinger?

Tyrian Callows is named after a shade of purple, and he alludes to the fable of the Scorpion and the Frog.

Which RWBY villain grew up as a mistreated servant at the Glass Unicorn hotel in Atlas?

Cinder Fall is an allusion to Cinderella, down to the cruel stepmother and stepsisters who made her childhood a misery.

Which hidden feature does RWBY's Mercury Black have because of injuries inflicted by his father?

Mechanical legs suit his weapons, Talaria, which are a pair of greaves that also work as guns.

RWBY's hulking villain Hazel and the sister whose death he avenges are named after which fairy tale?

Hansel and Gretel fits the grudge that drives Hazel: he blames Beacon's headmaster for his sister Gretchen dying on a training mission.

Which film gives the character Abra Stone a room with RWBY posters and an Emerald Sustrai statue?

Doctor Sleep added the nods at the suggestion of Kyliegh Curran, the RWBY fan who played Abra, and her character even wears Emerald's hair in a dream.

The surname of Maria Calavera, the old Huntress who mentors Ruby in RWBY, means what in Spanish?

Skull suits a fighter once known as the Grimm Reaper, whose twin kamas inspired the design of Qrow's own weapon.

Which Rooster Teeth co-founder voices Taiyang Xiao Long, father of Ruby and Yang, in RWBY?

Burnie Burns first plays the part in Volume 3, after two volumes in which the girls' father was only ever mentioned.

Which voice actress plays Ruby, the title heroine of RWBY, in the original English version?

Lindsay Jones recalled showing RWBY to Japanese colleagues, who promptly started arguing about whether it counted as anime.

Which farm boy in RWBY's Volume 4 finds the soul of Beacon's headmaster sharing his mind?

Oscar Pine was living with his aunt when the headmaster's soul chose him as its next host, and he later joins Ruby's group on the road.

In RWBY's Volume 4, Ruby sets out with three friends for which academy in the kingdom of Mistral?

Haven turns out to be compromised: its headmaster, Leonardo Lionheart, has secretly sided with the enemy out of fear.

After RWBY's Fall of Beacon, Blake returns home to which territory, where her father is chieftain?

Menagerie is led by her father Ghira, who founded the White Fang as a peaceful protest group before it turned to violence under later leaders.

Which Schnee family butler helps Weiss escape her father's manor late in RWBY's Volume 4?

Klein Sieben lost his job for it. He only came back to the manor in Volume 8, at the request of Weiss's brother, to nurse an injured Nora.

Starting with Volume 4, RWBY's animators switched from Smith Micro's Poser to which software?

Maya had already been used to build the show's assets, and the full switch came as extra modelling and animation went to a studio in Monterrey.

Which village, destroyed by Grimm when he was a boy, was the childhood home of RWBY's Lie Ren?

Kuroyuri is also where Ren met Nora, who was living on its streets as a child until he saved her during the attack.

Which song accompanied the "White" trailer, the RWBY short that introduced the heiress Weiss?

Mirror Mirror is one of four trailer songs near the top of the Volume 1 soundtrack, each written for a different heroine.

Which singer, the daughter of RWBY's composer, performs most of the show's songs?

Casey Lee Williams has sung on the soundtracks since she was 13, and she took over from her father Jeff as lead composer for Volume 9.

Which rare trait, inherited from her mother Summer, lets Ruby petrify or vaporize Grimm in RWBY?

Silver eyes are a gift from the God of Light, and an elderly warrior who once had the same power later teaches Ruby to control it.

Qrow Branwen fights alone in RWBY because his always-active Semblance brings what to people nearby?

Bad luck is all his Semblance, Misfortune, does, and unlike other fighters he can never switch it off.

Raven Branwen, Yang's mother in RWBY, secretly holds the power of which seasonal Maiden?

Spring was the title everyone pinned on her lieutenant Vernal, a decoy who was killed for a power she never had.

Who lives inside RWBY's Relic of Knowledge and can answer three questions every hundred years?

Jinn freezes time while she answers, and one reply breaks the heroes' trust in their mentor by showing that their enemy cannot be killed.

Lie Ren, the quiet gunman of RWBY's Team JNPR, alludes to which legendary Chinese hero?

Hua Mulan fits the idea behind the whole team, whose members are inspired by figures who took on the appearance of the opposite gender.

The flamethrower carried by RWBY's fast-talking teacher Bartholomew Oobleck is disguised as what?

A thermos named Antiquity's Roast does the job, and he sips coffee from it between lessons delivered at breakneck speed.

Each member of RWBY's elite Atlas military team led by Clover Ebi alludes to a tale by which storyteller?

Aesop also gives the team its name, the Ace-Ops, a pun on his own, and their leader Clover has a Semblance of good fortune.

Which Japanese studio produced the anime spin-off RWBY: Ice Queendom, set between Volumes 1 and 2?

Shaft worked from an animation concept by Gen Urobuchi, and the Japanese dub cast of the original series came back to play their roles.

At which convention was RWBY's first episode screened, almost two weeks before its online release?

RTX is Rooster Teeth's own convention, and the first episode premiered at its RWBY panel on July 5, 2013, before going online on July 18.

In RWBY, Team SSSN's goggle-wearing Neptune Vasilias has an intense fear of what?

Water terrifies him, despite his sea-god name, because of a childhood accident with his own Semblance in which he nearly drowned himself and his older brother.

Which RWBY video game started as a fan project before becoming Rooster Teeth's first in-house game?

Grimm Eclipse was first built by a fan, Jordan Scott, over about five months before the studio took it on as an official release.

In RWBY's Volume 4, Ruby and three Team JNPR members form Team RNJR, pronounced like which word?

Ranger was only ever an informal name, adopted while Ruby travelled with the group and led it in place of her own scattered team.