First ten pages of the "Which RWBY girl has the best music?" script (Patreon)

Which member of Team RWBY has the best music?

Salutations! Hello and welcome to my new video on which of the RWBY girls has the best music. I’m moukies and I want to say straight away that this list is entirely subjective and is just my opinion. I’m not saying this is the definitive, objective, canonical list that you absolutely have to abide by because it’s the only possible interpretation. That’s absurd. So again, to reiterate, this list is absolutely subjective and you’re 100% free to disagree. In fact, if you have different rankings, I’d love to hear about them! Maybe make your own video or down in the comments below or in a tweet. Let me know what you think and if our lists match up or if you think I’m way off the mark.

Now that that is out of the way, we have to lay down a few rules: the first hurdle is that we have to establish which songs belong to which girls. So we’re going to be going through the entire 7 soundtracks (as the Volume 8 soundtrack has not been released at the time of this script’s creation).

We also have to decide which of the songs don’t apply to any of them.

We will be taking into account the quantity of song for each girl, as well as the quality and subject matter in each song. So it is possible that someone with less song than another but with greater quality or more meaningful lyrics could rank higher than someone with more songs but not as impactful lyrics. Again, we’re playing fast and loose with this so it’s not a perfect nor impartial system, and largely is based on my own interpretation and how well I respond to the songs.

One song can belong to multiple people, and appear on both their setlists.

We will not be taking into account the scores, although they are lovely and you should go listen to them. This list is only about the songs that contain lyrical content.

And finally, I’ll be omitting a lot of the remixes unless I feel they add something new to the pot. The same is true for acoustic versions. This is so they don’t count as unfair additions that would up the quantity of a character’s setlist that they otherwise already have in the original version of the song. It’s redundant, and therefore excised.

That said, let’s go through the list and allot each member of Team RWBY their setlist.

Volume 1:

Now I am going to forewarn you that a few songs on my playlist are out of order, and that’s the order and way I’ve grown accustomed to listening them to, so if I hop from song to song and it doesn’t exactly follow the RWBY wiki’s or any streaming platform’s tracklist, don’t panic. All the songs that are on the soundtracks will be acknowledged, regardless of whether or not I choose to send them to the shadow realm for the purposes of this video.

First up is Red Like Roses, which honestly could go either way: either it can be interpreted as a Team RWBY song since the lyrics do reference all of them, or it can be attributed to Ruby alone as it debuted in her Red Trailer and starts with her line. I really do think of it as a Team RWBY song, but because it was in Ruby’s trailer and the video featured Ruby alone, and the other three girls got their own songs, I’m going to give this song to Ruby.

Second up is Mirror Mirror. This is an easy one, it’s a Weiss song. It was in her trailer, it only talks about her, and so on.

Third is From Shadows. While this can largely be applied to the White Fang as a whole, just like with how Red Like Roses can be seen as a Team RWBY song, I’m going to give this one to Blake for similar reasoning: it debuted in her trailer, it’s relevant to her, and is largely considered her theme song.

Fourth is I Burn. The club mix version that played in the Yellow Trailer could be seen as a Team RWBY song as it contains all the aforementioned songs, but the single I Burn is clearly a Yang song and is her theme.

Gold is a song about Ruby from the perspective of Yang. Since it’s told from Yang’s point of view, I’ll give it to Yang, even though she’s talking to Ruby.

I May Fall is a song that I don’t think strictly applies to any of them. It wasn’t even written with RWBY in mind, since it was inspired by Lord of the Rings, as mentioned by Jeff Williams at a panel. We’ll omit this, and it won’t go to any of the girls.

Red Like Roses Part II is out and out a Ruby song. I don’t think anyone will disagree on that.

I Burn (Remix) is a Yang song, but won’t be counted towards her total, because it is a remix of a song already accounted for in her setlist.

This Will Be The Day is a song for the RWBY show itself, and since it’s an opening, I don’t think it’s fair to assign it to any one character. Therefore, it is excised.

The second From Shadows is excised as well, due to it being largely being covered in the Black Trailer’s version. I’m honestly not even sure what the difference between the two songs are, so if anyone wants to give me the heads up on that, that would be lovely.

Wings doesn’t belong to any one member of Team RWBY. I know it references the whole 12 hours thing (which is supposedly how long Blake was missing for, despite Sun saying it was two days he spent with her), but I don’t feel that’s enough to give it to her. Therefore, it is omitted.

So let’s tally up the setlist for each character so far.

2 Ruby songs:

a) Red Like Roses

b) Red Like Roses Part II

1 Weiss songs:

a) Mirror Mirror

1 Blake songs:

b) From Shadows

2 Yang songs:

c) I Burn

d) Gold

Volume 2:

Time to Say Goodbye is an opening song, and therefore is awarded to none of the girls.

Although Die started when Yang caught Torchwick’s Atlesian Paladin fist, I don’t think it’s specifically about her. It feels too generic, in terms of lacking anything that ties the song to any one girl. Therefore it is cut.

Dream Come True is a Pyrrha Nikos song, so no girl on Team RWBY gets it.

Shine is another Pyrrha Nikos song, so again, no dice.

Caffeine is about Team CFVY and is their theme song, so yet again, no one gets it.

All Our Days is similar to Gold in that it is another song from the perspective of Yang and is about Ruby, so I’ll award the song to Yang as it’s told from her point of view.

Boop is a Nora Valkyrie song, so no one gets it.

Sacrifice is either about Cinder Fall (the way I thought it was for years and the viewpoint I default to) or it’s about Raven Branwen (which also makes a lot of sense, since it appeared at the end of Volume 2, when Raven made her debut). Either way, it has nothing to do with Team RWBY, so it’s cut.

This Will Be The Day (Acoustic) is already nixed on two counts: it’s an opening song for Volume 1, and it’s an acoustic version and therefore can’t count towards the total. It’s nixed.

Time to Say Goodbye (James Landino’s Beach Bae Remix)is a remix and therefore chopped.

This Will Be The Day (James Landino’s Magical Girl Remix) is excised for the same reasons that This Will Be The Day (Acoustic) was.

Interestingly enough, this is so far the soundtrack with the least amount of songs that can be attributed to a member of Team RWBY. Only Yang received a song this time around. Here’s the updated count:

2 Ruby songs:

c) Red Like Roses

d) Red Like Roses Part II

1 Weiss songs:

e) Mirror Mirror

1 Blake songs:

f) From Shadows

3 Yang songs:

g) I Burn

h) Gold

i) All Our Days

Volume 3:

When It Falls is an opening song that I heavily associate with Cinder Fall and it fucking slaps, but because it’s an opening, it is therefore disqualified.

I’m The One is about Mercury and Emerald, and therefore doesn’t count.

It’s My Turn is a song about Weiss confronting her father and coming into her own.

Not Fall In Love With You is a song about Sun’s feelings for Blake, although I for a long time thought it was about Jaune’s feelings for Pyrrha. Either way, it doesn’t count.

Neon, despite being one of my favourite songs, is sadly ineligible for this ranking.

Mirror Mirror (Part II) is blatantly a Weiss song and a follow-up to her original theme from Volume 1, Mirror Mirror (obviously).

Divide may be a villain song that fucking slaps and the best theme song for a villain I have ever heard, but it isn’t about any of the four girls so it can’t compete.

Cold is in-universe about Pyrrha and out of universe about Monty, so it cannot count towards any of the RWBY girls.

Time To Say Goodbye (Acoustic) is disqualified for being an opening and also an acoustic cover of the original.

It’s My Turn (James Landino Remix) is a remix of It’s My Turn (le duh) so it’s ineligible. Sorry Weiss. Something tells me you won’t need this one too much anyways.

Here’s the track listings so far:

2 Ruby songs:

e) Red Like Roses

f) Red Like Roses Part II

3 Weiss songs:

j) Mirror Mirror

k) It’s My Turn

l) Mirror Mirror (Part II)

1 Blake songs:

m) From Shadows

3 Yang songs:

n) I Burn

o) Gold

p) All Our Days

Volume 4:

Let’s Just Live is a really good song, but it’s an opening and therefore cannot be in the running.

Like Morning Follows Night is a Blake and Sun song, so Blake gets this in her repertoire.

Bad Luck Charm is a fucking amazing song for when I’m depressed and just wanna bum out, but given that Qrow Branwen is not on Team RWBY, it has to sit this one out. Maybe next time.

This Life Is Mine is a Mariah Carey song. Well, okay, fine. It’s a Weiss song. And one of her fucking best, if I do say so my fucking self.

Home is a tricky one. It debuted when Ruby was writing her letter, and really does strike me as being from her perspective for some reason. The lyrics don’t necessarily suggest it, but it just feels like a Ruby song to me, so I’m going to award it to her.

Armed and Ready is a Yang song through and through. It’s also a really good song for depressed people wanting to feel hope again.

Bmblb is a song about both Blake and Yang, and feels to me like it’s from Yang’s perspective for some reason, but I’ll give it to both of them.

Lusus Naturae is a song about Doctor Merlot from the RWBY: Grimm Eclipse game. Ergo, it’s a no go.

Sacrifice (Harry Lodes Remix) is about none of them, and is a remix as well. Snip-snip.

Boop (Acoustic) commits the cardinal sin of being neither about Team RWBY and being an acoustic cover of an already established song. Therefore, it is ineligible.

I May Fall (Harry Lodes Remix) is omitted for the exact same reasons.

Here’s where we stand so far:

3 Ruby songs:

g) Red Like Roses

h) Red Like Roses Part II

i) Home

4 Weiss songs:

q) Mirror Mirror

r) It’s My Turn

s) Mirror Mirror (Part II)

t) This Life Is Mine

3 Blake songs:

u) From Shadows

v) Like Morning Follows Night

w) Bmblb

5 Yang songs:

x) I Burn

y) Gold

z) All Our Days

aa) Armed and Ready

bb) Bmblb

Volume 5:

The Triumph is an opening song. No one gets it.

Ignite is a bitchin’ Yang song, and excellent at hyping me up and making me feel like I’m the shit.

Path to Isolation is a sombre and exciting Weiss song.

Smile, despite being one of my favourite songs, is ineligible since it doesn’t correlate with any of the four members of Team RWBY, due to it being Ilia Amitola’s excellent theme song.

All Things Must Die is apparently based on Cinder’s leitmotif, but I also consider it a Raven song (since it featured during their fight). Regardless, it doesn’t go to anyone on Team RWBY.

This Time (subtitled From Shadows Part II) is about The White Fang’s redemption, and sung from what seems like Blake and her father Ghira’s perspective. Blake gets this song.

All That Matters is a song about Blake from the perspective of Yang. Both of them get it.

Gold (Acoustic) is nixed because the original Gold has already been accounted for.

Armed and Ready (Falk Remix) is nixed for the same reasons.

As is Let’s Just Live (Harry Lodes Remix).

I want to acknowledge a caveat: I’ve been allowing songs that are from the perspective of one character about another character onto the setlists of both characters, particularly with respect to Yang and Blake. Since that’s been the case for a few songs now, I feel it’s only fair to allow Goldand All Our Days to be considered part of Ruby’s setlist, since it’s about her from Yang’s perspective. It didn’t seem fair to keep that from her while letting Blake and Yang’s songs go either way.

With that in mind, here’s updated totals:

5 Ruby songs:

j) Red Like Roses

k) Red Like Roses Part II

l) Gold

m) All Our D ays

n) Home

5 Weiss songs:

cc) Mirror Mirror

dd) It’s My Turn

ee) Mirror Mirror (Part II)

ff) This Life Is Mine

gg) Path to Isolation

5 Blake songs:

hh) From Shadows

ii) Like Morning Follows Night

jj) Bmblb

kk) This Time

ll) All That Matters

7 Yang songs:

mm) I Burn

nn) Gold

oo) All Our Days

pp) Armed and Ready

qq) Bmblb

rr) Ignite

ss) All That Matters

Volume 6:

Rising is an opening, and therefore no one gets it.

Miracle doesn’t strike me as any one in particular’s song, so it also is cut.

One Thing is about Neo’s revenge, so it doesn’t count.

Big Metal Shoe goes towards no one, as it’s Caroline Cordovin’s theme song.

Nevermore is absolutely a Bumblebee song, and about their confrontation with Adam, so both Blake and Yang get it.

Lionize is a fucking bop and also Adam Taurus’ theme song, so no one gets it.

Forever Fall is from Pyrrha’s perspective and is about her love and respect for Jaune.

Indomitable debuted during the scene of Ruby learning to control her silver eyes against the Leviathan, so I think it’s safe to say it’s a Ruby song (although it’s also a meta song about Monty and his impact and influence and legacy).

The Triumph (Kairi Remix) is both an opening and a remix. Disqualified.

The Path to Isolation (Heavenview Remix) is a remix of Weiss’ theme from the last volume’s soundtrack, so it is omitted.

Surprisingly, there was almost no songs allotted to the members of Team RWBY this time around on this soundtrack, and was only saved by Ruby’s winning of Indomitable. I’m somewhat surprised by that.

Note: when originally writing this script, I somehow overlooked Nevermore and only realized when it came time to decide on the Peter Jones remix of Nevermore in the next soundtrack, so I didn’t take that into account when saying the previous few lines. Turns out instead of just having only a Ruby song, Volume 6’s soundtrack had everyone but Weiss.

Updated totals:

6 Ruby songs:

o) Red Like Roses

p) Red Like Roses Part II

q) Gold

r) All Our Days

s) Home

t) Indomitable

5 Weiss songs:

tt) Mirror Mirror

uu) It’s My Turn

vv) Mirror Mirror (Part II)

ww) This Life Is Mine

xx) Path to Isolation

6 Blake songs:

yy) From Shadows

zz) Like Morning Follows Night

aaa) Bmblb

bbb) This Time

ccc)  All That Matters

ddd) Nevermore

8 Yang songs:

eee) I Burn

fff) Gold

ggg) All Our Days

hhh) Armed and Ready

iii) Bmblb

jjj) Ignite

kkk) All That Matters

lll) Nevermore

Volume 7:

Trust Love is the best opening in all of RWBY, fucking fight me on that. But it’s also just that: an opening. Therefore, with great sadness, I must excise it from the running.

Touch the Sky is definitely a Team RWBY song, and I’m kind of tempted to allow it for all of them. But then it’d seem redundant. But oh who cares, just this once I’m overriding my own rule. Everyone gets this one, because I love it so much.

Hero is General James Ironwood’s theme song, and therefore is ineligible for the running.

Brand New Day could be another Team RWBY song, but really feels more like a Qrow song, at least the Jeff Williams parts. I’ll leave it out of the setlist for any of them.

Let’s Get Real is a Nora song about Ren (and it’s kind of disappointing that up until this point, her only two songs were about her love for Ren; I’m very happy that this got rectified in Volume 8’s soundtrack with the song Be Strong and Hit Stuff, which also seems to be an Emerald song as well). But that’s neither here nor there. It doesn’t make the cut.

War is a Team RWBY song, and honestly, I think I’ll allow all of them to have it. This was during a huge fight between Team RWBY and the Ace Ops and made enough of an impression that I think it should be allowed into the pool of eligible songs. Everyone gets this.

Celebrate is Robyn Hill’s would-be political victory bash song, so I don’t think it works for any of them.

Until the End seems to be a Summer Rose song and is about Ruby, so I’ll grant it to Ms. Rose.

Fear is the ending song for Volume 7, and I’ve also heard that it’s also Oscar Pine’s theme song? Can someone confirm that? I can kinda see it. Still, it’s no Team RWBY, so no dice.

I May Fall (Acoustic) is an acoustic version of a song that doesn’t apply to Team RWBY, so it doesn’t count.

Nevermore (Peter Jones Remix) already is acknowledged in the original, so this one also doesn’t make the cut.

Here is the final tally:

9 Ruby songs:

u) Red Like Roses

v) Red Like Roses Part II

w) Gold

x) All Our Days

y) Home

z) Indomitable

aa) Touch the Sky

bb) Until the End

cc) War

7 Weiss songs:

mmm) Mirror Mirror

nnn) It’s My Turn

ooo) Mirror Mirror (Part II)

ppp) This Life Is Mine

qqq) Path to Isolation

rrr) Touch the Sky

sss) War

8 Blake songs:

ttt) From Shadows

uuu) Like Morning Follows Night

vvv) Bmblb

www) This Time

xxx)  All That Matters

yyy) Nevermore

zzz) Touch the Sky

aaaa) War

10 Yang songs:

bbbb) I Burn

cccc) Gold

dddd) All Our Days

eeee) Armed and Ready

ffff) Bmblb

gggg) Ignite

hhhh) All That Matters

iiii) Nevermore

jjjj) Touch the Sky

kkkk) War

Wow. I did not expect the final count to end up like that. Going into this, I was certain that Weiss had the most songs because of how consistently they develop her the most out of all the members of Team RWBY, but she actually has the least. I did not see that coming.

Likewise, I thought Ruby would have the least amount of songs, because I usually only ever think of Red Like Roses, Red Like Roses Part II, maybe Home, and that’s it. Now that I’ve sat down and tallied them, it turns out she just edges out Blake, who has the second most amount of songs, with nine tracks to Blake’s eight, and that leaves Yang to have the most songs in the seven fully-released soundtracks with a whopping ten. That definitely came as a surprise.

Just for fun, let’s pretend to include Volume 8’s soundtrack, at least the songs we know appeared in the volume because of the volume’s end credits. Keep in mind this is incomplete, and we’re not going to actually include them in the final count. The aforementioned list is the one we’ll be using for the purposes of this video.

Volume 8:

For Every Life is the opening for Volume 8, and therefore disqualified since no one gets the opening songs.

Friend is Penny Polendina’s incredibly upbeat and categorically depressing theme song, and I fucking love it, but she’s not on Team RWBY, so it isn’t eligible for this list.

Awake by Ok Goodnight doesn’t strike me as belonging to any one in particular, so it is out of the running.

Treasure is a tricky one. It started playing when Team RWBY reunited with Yang, and Ruby and Yang hugged. I really want to believe it’s a song about Ruby and Yang, but I have to acknowledge that it was also playing when Yang and Blake shared their tender moment. Still, I would really prefer to have it be about Ruby and Yang because we’ve gotten plenty of Bumblebee songs in recent years in the previous soundtracks, but the last time we’ve had a song about Yang and Ruby was All Our Days, back in the volume 2 soundtrack. Comparatively, the last song about Blake and Yang was Nevermore in the Volume 6 soundtrack. On top of that, the narrative rarely acknowledges that Ruby and Yang are sisters but has plenty of focus on Bumblebee (which isn’t inherently a bad thing, mind you). Therefore, I want this song to be about the Rose-Xiao Long sisters, since Volume 8 is the first time in a long time they’ve really interacted and acknowledged their sisterhood. However, since it’s not clear cut who it’s about, I’ll leave it out. (I mean, it was always gonna be out like the entirety of volume 8’s soundtrack, but I digress.)

Be Strong and Hit Stuff is absolutely about Nora, but seems to also be about Emerald, neither of which are on Team RWBY, so none of them would have gotten it.

The Sky is Falling played during the chase scene of the Hound who took Oscar from Yang, Ren and Jaune. I mean, technically Yang was involved in this song, but I don’t think it’s about her or from her perspective, so no one gets it.

The Truth is about Cinder and her abuse at the hands of her step-mother and step-sisters. It does not qualify for this ranking video.

So even if we took into account Volume 8 and added it to our tabulated results of the soundtracks from Volumes 1 – 7, nothing would have changed. It was fun to find out anyways!

So there we have it. Ruby has 9 songs, Weiss has 7 songs, Blake has 8 songs, and Yang has 10 songs. Still a bit perplexed at that being the case, in how this turned out in terms of quantity, but here we are.

Now comes the part where I talk about my thoughts on the quality of these songs and start ranking them.