RWBY Chibi
RWBY Chibi is what happens when you take RWBY, throw out the plot, make the cast Super-Deformed, and just decide to revel in utter comedy. It premiered online in spring 2016, and effectively served as a Summer Replacement Series for RWBY, with weekly episodes scheduled all the way until the premiere of RWBY Volume 4 on October 22, 2016. And in January 2017, a second season was announced for the break between V4 and V5.
It's available from both the Rooster Teeth website and YouTube (delayed a week) as a series of video shorts, typically 3-4 minutes.
Tropes used in RWBY Chibi include:
- Aliens Steal Cattle: In episode 22, Nora hijacks Jaune's board game about making compost and turns it into one about defending and rescuing cattle from alien abductors.
- All CGI Cartoon
- Ambiguously Gay: Sun and Neptune.
- American Accents: Nora takes on an inexplicable Dixie accent in episode 22 while playing a farm-themed game.
- Arc Words/Running Gag: For some reason, "Now [this is/that's] a katana" keeps showing up in all kinds of contexts.
- Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: Some of the steps in Cinder et al.'s Evil Plan are along these lines.
- As Herself: Samantha Ireland is dual-billed as Nora and herself at the end of episode 23.
- Ash Face: Both Roman and Neo, in episode 20.
- Back from the Dead: Pyrrha in episode 6, to Ruby's complete bogglement.
- Big Eater: Nora.
- Big Friendly Dog: Zwei, though it's mostly the perspective change that make him look bigger, but Blake does not feel the same and goes to insane lengths to hide from him.
- Bad Liar: Blake's attempts to deny being a cat burglar would work better if she weren't stealing things as she makes her denials.
- Balloon Belly: Nora, in episode 8, after swallowing an entire cake whole.
- Beach Episode: Off-screen, by implication, in episode 14.
- Behind a Stick: Blake is very good at this.
- BFG: The "Kitten-Killer 9000" rocket launcher, which is thrown into the closet by Emerald during the "Cinder Stalls" segment.
- The Big Board: Cinder and her minions have their elaborate evil plan laid out in detail on a huge whiteboard in their dorm room.
- Black Comedy: A surprising moment in episode 6, when Ruby almost hangs herself with her cape.
- Bucket Booby Trap: Ruby and Weiss trade these in episode 7.
- Butler Corps: Apparently Weiss's family has dozens of specialized butlers. She mentions that they have four butlers just for serving cake.
- Butt Monkey: Almost everyone takes turns being this trope. Special cases of this go to:
- Blake, concerning how her cat-like nature tends work against her concerning Zwei.
- Weiss, whose love of quiet and cleanliness are doomed to be constantly destroyed by Ruby.
- Pyrrha, whose magnetic powers are more an albatross than a benefit.
- Cape Snag: Ruby suffers many of the downsides of wearing a cape in episode 6.
- Catch Phrase: As of episode 8, Pyrrha's dialogue mostly seems to consist of "Hello again!" and "I'm sorry!"
- Classy Cat Burglar: Blake, maybe...
- Comedic Sociopathy: Weiss seems to exhibit this at times.
- Comically Missing the Point: Yang actually does try to sincerely apologize for an earlier trolling of Blake by buying her a big box with a new tea set, hoping Blake likes the gift. She does, but only after taking out the tea set and curling up in the box instead. The punchline is that Blake did this after being annoyed with trolling concerning her cat like nature.
- Cross-Popping Veins: Yang in episode 4.
- Cute Little Fangs: Ruby, at times.
- Deadly Prank: Well, not exactly deadly, but Weiss' revenge for Ruby's Bucket Booby Trap certainly isn't harmless.
- Death Ray: Neo and Roman intend to use one on Ruby in episode 20.
- Dramatic Gun Cock: Somehow, Ruby manages to get one out of a pillow in episode 19.
- Dramatic Wind: Parodied during the mock "gunfight" between Weiss and Ruby in episode 5, with Zwei playing the part of a tumbleweed.
- Drill Sergeant Nasty: Nora in episode 13.
- Drop-In Character: Jaune plays this role in Episode 24.
- Epic Fail: Ruby's attempts to cook go so hilariously wrong in every way.
- Evil Plan: In Episode 18, Cinder and Emerald have an elaborate one on a large whiteboard in their room. According to it, there will be no hugs, lots and lots of Grimm, and probably no puppies.
- Exploding Closet: Run in reverse -- or perhaps being set up for future use -- as Cinder's minions frantically stuff all evidence of their evil intent into the closet of their room in the "Cinder Stalls" segment.
- Eyelid-Pull Taunt: Weiss gives one to Yang when Yang runs out of Dust rounds during a sparring session.
- Face Fault: Blake on occasion.
- Fall of the House of Cards: Poor Ruby.
- Flanderization: Played for Laughs with every character.
- Freak-Out: Ruby does this to Blake after having read her favorite trashy novel, calling it "filth". Not that she plans to give it back anytime soon or stop reading it.
- Funny Background Event: Zwei dragging a comatose Blake past the girls' dorm room door in episode 4.
- Good Cop, Bad Cop: Neptune and Sun have a little trouble with the roles in episode 14.
- Gravity Is a Harsh Mistress: Afflicts Ruby frequently during her attempts at cooking.
- Green-Eyed Monster: Ruby is more than a little jealous of Weiss and Blake's ice sculpting abilities.
- Hachimaki: Both Ren and Ruby wear one in episode 9, as Ren trains to be worthy of being chosen "it" in a game of Tag.
- Hard Work Montage: A very brief one, of course, in episode 8, as Yang vigorously exercises.
- Harmless Freezing: Don't invite Weiss to swim with you.
- Hawaiian-Shirted Tourist: Zwei, in episode 14.
- He-Man Woman Hater: Strongly implied by the presence of an elevator button labeled "Fort Port - No Girls Allowed" in episode 8.
- Hollywood Giftwrap: Several times -- every time a present is given.
- Homage: To the classic Road Runner cartoons in episode 20.
- I Am Not Left-Handed: Weiss believes herself the victor in a fight because Yang ran out of ammo for her weapon.....and forgets Yang can simply punch her.
- Incendiary Exponent: Yang sets herself on fire when she gets angry.
- Large Ham: Roman Torchwick.
- Laugh Track: The "live Studio Audience" in episode 24 is really just this.
- Law of Inverse Recoil: Watch those gravity rounds, Ruby.
- Living Shadow: The V1 black silhouette background characters are invoked, examined and lampshaded in one sketch.
- The entire Studio Audience in episode 24 is made up of them.
- Loophole Abuse: Why Weiss and Blake have better ice sculpting abilities than Ruby.
- Magnetic Girlfriend: Literally. Don't try to use a compass around Pyrrha.
- Mundane Utility: Blake's weapon makes a nice jump rope.
- And the flames Yang emits when angry are great for roasting marshmallows.
- My Instincts Are Showing: Subverted. Blake doesn't even get to finish telling off Yang for getting her a ball of yarn as a joke gift before Ruby is rolling on the ground playing with it. Played straight as a Brick Joke when Yang gives her a serious gift, and Blake leaps into the box after emptying it.
- Neat Freak: Weiss, to the point of delighting in her compulsive cleaning.
- Negative Continuity: Ruby is boggled by Pyrrha's appearance in episode 6, and alludes to her death in V3E12 of the main series. However, Nora insists it never happened. And at the same time Yang still has both her arms.
- In episode 18, Weiss shows complete incomprehension of the very concept of cleaning, despite all the cleaning she does in earlier episodes.
- Roman Torchwick is incinerated by a lava floor in episode 22, and returns to rob a shop in episode 23.
- Let's just say that this show is Ruled By Funny and doesn't care to make sense if it'll spoil the fun.
- Never Say "Die": Insisted upon by Nora in regards to Pyrrha:
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Ruby: How are you even here? |
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- No Fourth Wall: When Ren asks if the cast wants to keep doing comedy segments after an unexpectedly serious moment passes in episode 6.
- Nora winks at the camera at the end of Episode 10. In Episode 23, she presses her face up against the screen during one of the bumpers between sketches.
- In episode 20 Roman Torchwick swears his revenge on Ruby for moving on to a comedy spin-off without him.
- Ruby explicitly addresses the "Studio Audience" several times in episode 24.
- Non-Fatal Explosions: Zwei causes one in episode 20.
- Not the Way It Is Meant to Be Played: What happens with the "Compost King" game in episode 22.
- Oh Crap: Ruby's response to Yang's reaction upon discovering her game controller has "disappeared" in episode 4.
- Orbital Shot: Around Ren as he realizes the implications of being "It" in episode 9.
- Oven Logic: In episode 18, Ruby makes the mistake of leaving Weiss to watch over a baking cake. Weiss gets curious about the controls and five minutes later, Ruby walks back in on a kitchen on fire and the cake already bunt to a crisp.
- Parasol Parachute: Neo, in episode 20.
- Parody Commercial: A couple, in episode 24.
- The Peeping Tom: Both Yang and Weiss try to see into the boys' showers with binoculars in episode 24.
- Perp Sweating: Neptune and Sun try to do this to Nora in episode 14, but it doesn't quite go as planned.
- Pillow Fight: Team RWBY has one in their own inimitable style in episode 19. Later, when Ruby spies Son, Neptune and Ren engaged in a more traditional pillow fight, she dismisses them as "amateurs".
- Pillow Spam/Pillow Hell: Yang's tactic during the pillow fight in episode 19.
- Porn Stash: What Blake's favorite book effectively is, all by itself.
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Ruby: Now that's a katana. |
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- Rattling Off Legal: An announcer at the end of Roman and Neo's ice cream commercial in episode 24.
- Rule of Funny: Pretty much excuses everything in this show.
- Rule of Pool
- Slasher Smile: Nora, as she "explains" at the end of episode 6.
- Share Phrase: Everybody shares everybody else's Catch Phrases, especially in episode 24.
- Shout-Out: The Elevator Gag is a blatant Final Fantasy VIII reference. And the room they find even looks like an exact mockup of Master NORG's chamber from the same.
- In Episode 20, Roman says, "It's time to destroy those meddling kids once and for all. And their stupid dog, too."
- At the start of Episode 24, the show's theme is played on a bass, apparently in reference to Seinfeld.
- Showdown At High Noon: Parodied in episode 5 with a fight between Weiss and Ruby, complete with Spaghetti Western music and Zwei bouncing by like a tumbleweed.
- Sit Com: Episode 24 is structured as a classic sitcom, complete with a "live" Studio Audience and fake commercials.
- Spin-Off: Of RWBY. Duh.
- Spin the Bottle: RWBY and JNPR play it (briefly) in episode 13.
- Sticky Fingers: Demonstrated by Blake even as she protests being suspected of being a cat burglar.
- Stop Poking Me: Yang doesn't say it, but she does burst into flame...
- Studio Audience: Episode 24 has one.
- Summer Replacement Series: For RWBY during Summer 2016, and probably for the foreseeable future as well.
- Super-Deformed
- Suspiciously Similar Song: An arrangement of Yang's Image Song "I Burn" made to sound like "Eye of the Tiger" in episode 8.
- Suspiciously Specific Denial: Torchwick's claim in a fake commercial in episode 24 that "Neo's Neo" brand ice cream is definitely not poisoned. The announcer Rattling Off Legal at the end of the commercial begs to differ.
- Sweet Tooth: Ruby, to the point that she may well run out of ingredients for chocolate chip cookies before she can finish mixing them.
- Talking with Signs: Neo in episodes 20 and 24.
- Tempting Fate: Weiss asking "How can this day get worse?" in Episode 24.
- The One With...: Episode 24, explicitly entitled "The One With a Laugh Track".
- Training from Hell: Ren puts himself through this upon becoming "it" in a game of Tag.
- In episode 13, Nora puts Yang, Blake and Ruby through her own version of it.
- Ultra Super Death Gore Fest Chainsawer 3000: In episode 11, Ruby declares that her favorite video game is Kung Fu Ninja Slayer Ultimate Death Battle 2.
- Unstoppable Rage: From Jaune, of all people, after his attempts to call Weiss for a date suffer apparent Epic Fail.
- He's not too happy about tripping over Blake's candlestick, either.
- When You Snatch the Pebble: How Ruby knows Ren is ready to be "it" in Tag.
- Wingding Eyes/Blank White Eyes: Blake, after various mishaps.
- Weiss on occasion, too.
- Yang, after witnessing Nora swallow an entire cake whole.
- Ruby, after sheer boredom causes her to belly-flop on top of Weiss' study materials.
- Wimp Fight Weiss and Ruby decide to settle their differences in Episode 5 with a bunch of hand slaps.
- Wire Dilemma: Zwei helps Ren defuse a bomb by choosing the right wire in episode 19.
- You're Just Jealous: Jaune's interpretation of Team RWBY's reactions when they come upon him trying all their weapons.