My *PERSONAL* RWBY Volume Tier List - With Reasonings
S Tier - RWBY Volume 4, Volume 6, Volume 3
Volume 4 : It's my favorite volume of the entire show, and I know that's kinda a controversial opinion nowadays but this volume does so many things right imo.
The Introduction of Team RNJR, Ren's backstory, The Introduction of New Potential Weapon Upgrades for the cast, The Introduction of Oscar and the Oz reincarnation cycle, The *Real* introduction of Salem and her group. The Nukavlee, Blake and Sun having their best moments during this arc, the introduction to Blake's parents, Seeing Weiss's family life and Whitely for the first time.
Qrow becoming a permanent cast member and also the new introduction to the new art style and first major 3- Volume design switch up.
Volume 6 : I think this volume is so underrated in 2026, this volume does so much for the story of RWBY that I don't think it gets appreciated because of the admittedly pretty mediocre final act. It's the first true Reunion arc for Team RWBY since they were split in volume 4, it also is a massive lore season as it's the introduction of Salem and Oz's backstory, the brother gods, magic AND the Grimm. We see who is actually in the lamp as well this volume. The Apathy is legitimately one of the coolest Grimm types in the show that actually are a threat that you can't just punch through.
It also is an introduction of Maria who is imo a pretty cool character in her own right and some really cool representation of both the disabled community/Latino disapra. *The Grimm Reaper also being in RWBY is awesome*
Volume 6 isn't without flaws tho and I admit that the final arc with Adam and Cordovin isn't the best but even then it's still pretty entertaining for the most part. I would say the weakest of Volume 6 still dwarfs half of the show. I love seeing the beginning of Cinder and Neo's partnership one of the best dynamics in the show.
It's Volume 3 - you know Volume 3 is good, it's what many people believe is the peak of the show. The Biggest Stakes within the plot, major character deaths and impacts that literally effect the rest of the show moving forward. It's the peak of many characters and the ending of the beacon arc in general. This is the pay off for some many characters with incredible fights as well. You can really feel how much weight this volume has.
Obvious S tier is Obvious
I didn't really know where to put these 2 arcs I'm gonna be honest
Volume 7 is a good arc, I love Ironwood in this season, I do love how Tryian and Watts unravel the season's plot bit by bit. I love seeing Penny again and this is the first arc of the entire show that the kids are actually huntsmen now.
I like seeing how other major kingdoms react to what happened in beacon and I love the suspense of what to do about the truth they uncovered in volume 6. I like the new weapon upgrades even if they are mostly kinda pointless. I love how different this arc was from the past few and I especially love how Ruby herself is characterized through this arc.
Volume 9 is weirdier, it's kinda filler? I don't really like that term and especially since it's one of the most experimental plotlines within the show especially since the main character fuckin dies in it lol. I love the Rusted Knight, I think it's one of the coolest ideas that is hated because of who it's about. I think the idea of Jaune being trapped in the ever after and slowly growing into this bitter mental unwell man who has to accept every failure no matter what because no one is there for him is very fucking cool.
I love Ruby in this arc going through it and I love seeing her managed to reach the other side even if it's hard for her.
I admittedly don't like how useless WBY are at times in the overall story tho. I think Ruby and Jaune are at their best in the plotline tho. Neo's end is both tragic and self filling. I think the Curious Cat is really cool villain that doesn't get talked enough about.
Volume 1/2 are admittedly very interchangeable for me, unlike the later volumes volumes 1 and 2 kinda suffer the problem of feeling very samey? Volumes 1 and 2 both are really good arcs that introduced us to the world of RWBY with the Grimm, the weapons, the aura. I like these arcs especially for what it was back then. I love the characters it introduced like Penny, Sun, Neptune, Team RWBY, Team JNPR, Coco and Ozpin but imo these arcs have clearly shown their age.
There is a reason why icequeendom was able to skip over half of Volume 1...it's not paced the best.
Volume 8 isn't as bad as people say imo but....this volume is the only volume I have ever seen to actually make me stop watching the show for a long while. Like so long that I didn't realize that their was volume 9 long. I liked certain aspects of the story, I liked the Cinder plotline especially the backstory even if it does piss me off at times.
I love Jaune, Yang and Ren actually a goated trio that we need more of. I like Nora a lot in Atlas actually even though I missed talking about that in Volume 7. I like the ideas what they were doing with Ironwood. I think Salem is at her best in this arc and volume 7 with her pure menace alone. I like the idea of Emerald switching sides finally after teasing this idea since 3 of her not being as evil as the others. The actual fall of Atlas itself is pretty neat as an idea. The Hound is fucking awesome, I love Oscar's internal resistance of Oz and them eventually reconciling
I do think killing off Penny again was kinda cheap and I'm not a fan of Ironwood dying off screen. Nor a Fan of Mettle as a semblance. I'm not crazy about the fights most of the time either. Volume 8 kinda feels like a worse retread of Volume 3 at times imo.
Volume 5 fucking sucks ass, this is the cold take and a cold take for a reason. The Faunus Sub Plot is pretty bad during this arc and not the most memorable. Illia is my least favorite faunus character in this show and that's saying something because Lionheart is also in this arc. Sienna shows up for 5 seconds and dies...one of the coolest characters both in lore and design gets fucking wasted.
Team RNJR basically gets erased this volume which kinda sucks. Weiss and Yang regrouping with the main group is sweet and seeing them meet each other was a actual nice moment. Raven is a nunaced and cool character even though she does suck as a person.
Taiyang being completely irrelevant this arc actually hurts it more imo especially since Raven is so important. Raven vs Cinder is amazing and *ALMOST* redeems the battle of Haven being so dogshit. Hazel's motive is almost non-senseical and is annoying because he does raise a good point of Ozpin sending children to war.
Lionheart is such a bitch that it almost doesn't feel that great when he dies. First time team RWBY even sees Salem also.
What have they done to you Merc... 😭.