The RWBY G.U.N. Theory

What is the G.U.N. Theory?
The G.U.N. Theory is a method of further appreciating, understanding and even predicting the events of Rooster Teeth's hit animated web series RWBY as a confluence of dozens of familiar fantasy and fictional narratives and influences, thus providing an alternate interpretation of the entire series.

Why is it called that?
One of the most iconic features of the series RWBY are the weapons wielded by the characters within it: in their initial appearance they are already cool and impressive, but each of them has one or more additional hidden aspects, and at critical moments they undergo dramatic, spectacular transformations to reveal these other, essential components of what they are, showing themselves to be awesome mashups of wildly different things. It's with good reason that these complex combination weapons are one of RWBY's most beloved elements. But what if the weapons on the show aren't the only things that are crazy, mashup combinations with secret, hidden forms? What if the characters of RWBY themselves were all crazy combinations based on multiple inspirations, rather than the single allusions they appear to be, with hidden layers just waiting to be revealed at critical moments? What if the plot of the show itself is a crazy mashup of the plots of the stories of all of those inspirations, with hidden twists and turns derived from those stories that have been planted there from the beginning? What if RWBY itself, just like Crescent Rose, while appearing to already be an awesome thing at first appearance, has a hidden second nature that makes it so much more incredible?

I have a theory that there is a second, completely different interpretation of RWBY from the apparent and generally accepted one, and that in this interpretation RWBY is actually an unbelievably ambitious attempt to tell a story which comes as close as possible to somehow being a combination of all stories, and telling all those stories within it as it tells itself. The name I have given to this theory is the "Grand Unified Narrative", in reference to the concept of a "Grand Unified Theory" in physics; the Grand Unified Theory is the as-yet-unrealized goal of creating a single theory of physics which combines the theories of General Relativity and Quantum Mechanics, which are themselves theories that combined smaller theories explaining multiple phenomena- a single theory that combined them both would be able to explain all of reality as we know it.

Briefly summarized, the Grand Unified Narrative theory holds that RWBY contains many, many more allusions than the creators let on. The creators are intentionally hiding these allusions because the story of RWBY is actually quite closely following the plots of the stories it is inspired by, and the only thing that keeps the audience from being able to guess what's going to happen ahead of time is not being aware of which stories are being alluded to and consequently which plots are being followed. The way that these allusions are hidden is by layering them, so that something that alludes to one thing on the surface also alludes to something else on a level beneath that, resulting in the audience easily seeing the top-level allusion but missing the lower level allusion- or allusions- unless they are paying very very close attention.

Thus in this theory, Ruby Rose becomes not just Red Hood but also Jiminy Cricket; Weiss Schnee becomes not just Snow White but also Gerda; Blake Belladonna becomes not just Belle but also Xuanzang; and Yang Xiao Long becomes not just Goldilocks but also Billy the Kid.

All these additional layers of allusions are consciously chosen, and have an important symbolic meaning which helps convey the message of RWBY. The ultimate result of this layering and interweaving of allusions is that RWBY manages to seamlessly combine the plots of dozens of the most popular, influential, meaningful, and culturally significant stories ever told, written, and filmed, drawn from over 3000 years of human history. In combining all these stories into a single story that tells all of them, RWBY not only presents its own awesome spectacle of action and emotion, but also creates a Grand Unified Narrative: a story of stories, a single tale that tells all tales within it.

In short, RWBY isn't just a spectacular computer generated fantasy martial arts anime - it's also a G.U.N.

(original text by Karma Chimera)

Why a Wiki?
After much discussion on the official Discord server, it was decided that in order to sort out and formally present the lengthy analyses and all supplementary ideas, we needed somewhere to share these posts in a more organized manner. This is an ongoing project (obviously, as the series is still in progress) and while significant deductions have already been made there is ample room to explore further sources as potential incorporated narratives.

If you wish to join the conversation, you can check out the Discord server here.