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rwbyrg · 2 months

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What Inspired the Fairytale: Warrior in the Woods as a Rosegarden Allusion

I've broken down Ruby as Little Red Riding Hood, and Oscar as the Little Prince, now I want to analyze the two of them within a canon fable. The very first story within RWBY: Fairytales of Remnant: The Warrior in the Woods.

For those who are unfamiliar with it, I will summarize, or you can read it in the official free preview of the book here. One disclaimer before I get started: I'm not speaking about the animated adaptation here. Something Oz mentions in his fore/afterward of the book is that fairytales often shift and change depending on who it is that's telling the story. The book itself seems to aim to tell the most objective version as possible, whereas in the episode of FToR, it's very clear Tai's experiences and biases greatly influences the way he tells the story. With that out of the way...

The story is about a boy who lives in a village surrounded by a forest that is said to protect its residents from Grimm. One day, the boy ventures into the wood further than anyone would think to look for him. There he is attacked by a monster, the first he has ever seen... Only to be saved at the last minute by a cloaked warrior carrying a curved weapon. He thanks her and asks for her name, but she tells him to leave and not return. He doesn't listen. Every year since the day of their first meeting, he ventures further into the wood hoping he will meet his saviour again. And every time, he is proven right when she shows up and saves him at the last minute. Each year, the boy grows older and wiser, training himself how to fight, bringing the woman gifts as thanks for protecting the village alone and without appreciation all these years. Until one day, the village is attacked by Grimm for the first time in ages. On their next planned meeting, the boy - now a man - fights his entire way through the forest to the hut where she lives, and finds it torn apart and empty. He returns home and tells the villagers her story having taken up the mantle of protecting his people in her place. When asked if he kept going back to see her just because she saved him, he replies (paraphrased): "For that reason, and many more. But I believe she knew the deepest reason of all. I fell in love with her the moment I saw her silver eyes."

Even the summary alone paints a picture very reminiscent of Ruby and Oscar's paired arc throughout the show thus far, but I want to break it down even further. First things first:

The Warrior

She is described as "a fair woman in a flowing (threadbare and tattered) black cape" with a "curved blade" she can spin so quickly it "blurs". Her hair is "almost as dark as the Grimm's, white (ones) standing out as brightly as bone", and in the boy's eyes the first time he sees her, remarks that she is "beautiful and fierce". We know by the end of the story, as well as one of the Grimm fights, that she has silver eyes as well and she tells the boy at one point that she fights alone because she is alone, since all the people like her were killed by other humans. This lines up well with how Silver Eyed Warriors have been hunted by Salem and her forces for generations.

When we compare this to Ruby when Oscar first meets her, it hits all the same marks. He is captivated by her silver eyes the moment he first meets her:

She is fair skinned with black hair (if you include the books illustrations, with a reddish tint), has silver eyes, and a torn and tattered cloak.

There is a point at which the woman also ties a red ribbon around her weapon's handle to hold it in place, which immediately acts as a tie in to Ruby's colour scheme.

Lastly, the boy meets the warrior for the first time in a "moonlit clearing". And we all know how much moon imagery Ruby has associated with her by now, that I really don't have to go over it again.

The Village Boy

There are no photos or descriptions of him within the text, just that he is a boy when we first meet him and is a man by the end of the story after visiting the woman annually 4-5 times. So he is roughly 14, aka the same age as Oscar, for both their first appearances.

What we do know about the boy, is shown in the objects he carries for himself and the gifts he imparts onto the woman in the woods.

The first is a parcel of clothing. It includes some blouses, leggings, a black skirt, some boots... and a new hooded green cloak. Ruby's cloak is red, but as we know both in show with ships like Bumbleby, and thanks to Eddy's bit of trivia in that Reddit AMA a while ago, that wearing the colours of people you care for is a common sign of affection within Remnant. Within this story, the woman dons a cloak in a green colour (something heavily associated with Oscar Pine), whereas within RWBY in V6, it is Oscar who dons Ruby's colour on his shoulders in his outfit upgrade.

The second is the sword the boy forges for himself before their third meeting. It is described as long and thin which immediately calls to mind The Long Memory.

From there, the next gift: a bag full of food.

"She opened the bag and pulled out parcel after parcel. There was honey cake, a strawberry tart, and sweet biscuits. When she unwrapped a stack of fresh-baked cookies, her expression lightened, and her happiness made him happy."

The first bolded example: strawberries are cited by Monty as Ruby's favourite food, and as we know by Ruby's first meeting with Ozpin (which is important given his connection to Oscar), she's a big fan of cookies too.

Now that all the aesthetics and symbolism are out of the way, I want to compare the structure of the two stories.

Separation and Reunions

The Warrior in the Woods, as well as Ruby and Oscar's arc throughout the show (as well as The Little Prince) are stories of absences.

The boy starts his tale without the woman in his live for many years before he meets her. When they do meet, it is for only a moment within a day until they must wait another full year before seeing each other again. When they do meet, at least the first 3 times, the warrior saves him from Grimm attacks. Then, at the 4th time, he runs into no obstacles and is able to sit and talk with her without incident, only for her to disappear shortly before their 5th visit, leaving him to take up her job of protecting the village.

Ruby spends the first 4 volumes of the show not knowing Oscar, but when they meet he, just like the village boy, is in awe of her silver eyes. From there, she saves him from Grimm twice (I imagine we are holding out on the third where she saves him with her silver eyes for a volume we haven't received yet)...

...and they are faced with constant separations and reunions thereafter.

Oscar goes missing in V6E8 only to be reunited with everyone in V6E9...

2. They are separated for much of V7 due to disagreements and other external circumstance, only to reunite and make up in V7E9...

3. They are then immediately split up again, one going down to Mantle and the other staying in Atlas, only to reunited at the beginning of V8E1 (suspiciously after Oscar stares into a fire much like the boy at the end of the story).

4. It is short lived before they split up on different teams AGAIN, which leads to another reunion in V8E10...

5. Only to - you guess it - be separated one more time when Ruby falls into a void, leaving Oscar to think that she died and take charge as the new leader carrying her responsibilities in her place.

Which follows the structure of the original fairytale - at least in numbers - down to the letter.

Beyond that structure, there is also the matter of what both relationships are built upon: the act of taking care of one another.

In the book, the woman explains that she protects the villagers "because she can, because no one else will, and because some people are good, like the village boy, and that gives her hope".

This heavy responsibility the warrior carries is very reminiscent of Ruby's character arc. A leader who feels she can't be a failure, who can't rely on her friends and teammates to share how much this all weighs on her, someone that lost all her silver eyed family and fears for her own fate because of a trait she had no control over. Even going so far as to try and push people away for fear they will end up hurt because of her. Someone that "remembers all the people she saved, and all the ones she didn't".

This is juxtaposed by a boy who was sheltered and safe, far from the dangers of the world, but set out and joined hers anyway. And when he did, he brought her new clothes, a new weapon, some food, and an ear she could tell her stories to. When he explains his motives, he says:

"You've spent all these years looking after us. I thought maybe it would be nice if someone looked after you for a change. Because that's what I can do. Because no one else will."

Which ties into Oscar's character exactly as well. After his conversation with Ruby in V5 about how scary all of this is, his first thought after saying she's amazing, is to acknowledge how hard this must be on her. And from then on out we see him looking after her to the best of his ability, despite his inexperience, time and time again. Protecting her when she's hurt, standing up for her when their friends fight, and baking her a casserole after she's had a tough day.

All of these things tie into what Ozpin cites as the main message of the fairytale in his notes at the end of its chapter:

It is often used as a cautionary tale, intended to discourage children from wandering too far from home on their own, or from relying too much on others to save them. But the most enduring, and I think the most inspiring, aspect of this story is one which many have taken to heart: If you can help others, it is your responsibility to do so. Whether that means fighting evil singlehandedly, or baking cookies (for kindness can be as rare as silver eyes) is up to the reader to decide for themselves. From each according to their own abilities.

Ruby and Oscar are two characters driven by their responsibilities to do something about all the bad in the world, in whatever ways they are able, before they run out of time. While Ruby's main allusion is Little Red and Oscar's is the Little Prince, I think it's really inspiring to see a canon fairytale within RWBY's own universe that relates to their story so well as this one.

#rwby #ruby rose #oscar pine #rosegarden #rwby rosegarden #rosepine #meta #analysis #rwby meta #rwby analysis #warrior in the woods #fairytales of remnant

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ficretus · 1 month

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Overanalyzing that one Knightfall one shot in JNPR manga anthology

*puts on double tinfoil*

While this is likely a pointless venture considering I don't think RWBY writing staff had anything to do with this one, so anything extrapolated from this should have no impact on the main story. But fuck it, I wanna have some fun while tinfoiling it.

All of it is related to the first page of the story. Cinder remarks that this is not only dream, but also destiny. Here are three instances of destiny present.

Pyrrha is defeated by Cinder and shot through torso. This destiny is fulfilled at the end of Volume 3 when Cinder defeats Pyrrha. The fact she even talks about destiny with Pyrrha in the first place could be reference to that.

Jaune defeated and prone on his back beneath Cinder. This destiny is fulfilled both in the Volume 5 as well as Volume 8.

3. Jaune's arrow wound. This is different kind of destiny. This could be a reference to the wound Joan of Arc received during the siege of Orleans. She was shot by an arrow between neck and shoulder, which matches Jaune's wound. I say this is destiny because that wound was foreseen by Joan. It's an event that is yet to happen.

So if all of it was indeed destiny, does that also mean...

#cinder fall #rwby cinder fall #jaune arc #rwby jaune arc #knightfall #rwby knightfall

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aspoonofsugar · 26 days

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Chemical Weddings: White Knight

Here it comes my second short meta on RWBY's chemical weddings. It is White Knight's turn! Feel free to skip the introduction, if you have already read it in my previous post (or if you already know what a chemical wedding is)

WHAT IS A CHEMICAL WEDDING?

A chemical wedding is a motif used in alchemical stories (aka stories, with symbols related to alchemy). It is a metaphorical union between characters and it represents two opposites coming together. Think of it as a motif that comments on a relationship and describes how it changes throughout a narrative. It shows how two characters' bond develops and how they integrate qualities of each other. Even if it is called "wedding", the union doesn't necessarily have to be romantic, but often it is. Like in RWBY's case.

RWBY uses chemical weddings to develop romantic relationships. How does the series do it? This meta by @hamliet explains it perfectly:

It uses some alchemical imagery (like plates from alchemical texts as reference)

It employs elemental motifs (water, fire, air and earth), which are keys to alchemy

It integrates other symbolism, like romantic subtext or fairy tale references

Both hamliet and I have already talked about RWBY ships and chemical weddings, so this short meta is just a quick review of White Knight’s ones, with some integrations.

Here are Whiteknight's posts, that I am going to reference:

Weiss and Jaune's foiling throughout the series

White Knight and Arkos (+ Whiterose)

White Knight's scenes in volume 9

White Knight's chemical wedding 2.0 by hamliet

Now, let's dig into White Knight's two (for now) weddings.

WHITE KNIGHT'S WEDDINGS

White Knight's weddings make use of this imagery:

There is a Mercurius (entity representative of change), who unites a man and a woman through impaling one of the two.

This is what happens to Weiss and Jaune twice:

In Mistral Cinder impales Weiss and in the Ever After the Curious Cat impales Jaune. Not only that, but both Cinder and the Cat make sure Weiss and Jaune indirectly hurt each other.

Cinder takes Jaune's heroic remarks and uses them as an excuse to mortally wound Weiss:

The Cat tricks Weiss into physically hitting Jaune:

These parallelisms lead us to two considerations:

The two weddings are inversions: this isn't any news because in RWBY the second wedding is always an inversion of the first. Still, when it comes to White Knight, this inversion is particularly through and it ties with an important motif of theirs. Weiss and Jaune are strong mirrors of each other.

Cinder and the Cat (our two antagonistic Mercurius) force Jaune and Weiss into specific gender roles. Both mock Jaune (the knight) and use Weiss (the damsel). This isn't by accident and it ties with the archetype explored by White Knight, aka that of the Anima/Animus.

MIRROR MIRROR = ANIMA + ANIMUS

Weiss and Jaune's weddings mirror each other in multiple ways. Let's see how.

Weiss and Jaune's first wedding starts with Cinder impaling Weiss and leaving her to die. Jaune rushes by her side and activates his semblance to save her. The whole scene ties in their respective fairy tale symbolism. As a matter of fact Jaune performs a miracle as Jeanne. Weiss instead gets resurrected by the Prince and crowns herself Queen Snowhite through the Queen Lancer.

Weiss and Jaune's second wedding starts at the end of volume 8, when Cinder defeats them both and reiterates their trauma. She forces Jaune to kill a maiden and targets Weiss to hurt Winter. She is also the reason why Weiss and Jaune end up together in the Ever After, where their wedding reaches its climax. In this magical world, Weiss guides Jaune towards self-realization and metaphorically has him fall, so that he can integrate Alyx and resurrect. Their interaction in volume 9 references another alchemical text, knowns as the Splendor Solis. Specifically, it alludes to this plate:

This plate has:

2 miners excavating a hill (a metaphor for making the stone from the prima materia). It is important that the two characters wear respectively a golden and a silver robe, which call back to the Sun and Moon

The Sun and Moon mirroring each other. The Sun is in the sky (air) and the Moon is in the river (water). They are opposites balancing each other

Eshter's story pictured in the frame of the pedestal. Eshter is a biblical character and the second wife of King Ahasuerus, who is determined to kill the Jews. Still, Eshter (a Jews herself) steps in, touches the King's staff and convinces him to let her people live

The plate's theme is the beginning (prima materia) of a union (sun and moon) through communication (Eshter's parable).

It is referenced here:

The Genial Gems create a giant white hill, which clearly alludes to the philosopher stone. Jaune and Weiss play the Solar King and the Lunar Queen:

Jaune is linked to the sun and masculine (gold), while Weiss to the moon and feminine (silver). They grow closer thanks to empathy.

In particular, their interaction is an inversion of King Ahasuerus and Eshter's. In the biblical episode, the King wants to kill the Jews and Eshter stops him. In RWBY, Jaune doesn't want to let the Paper Pleasers ascend and Weiss tries to get through to him (together with BY):

Weiss: Then why do you care so much about this village?! Jaune: Because I can actually PROTECT these people!!

Just like Esther touches the King's staff, Weiss grabs Jaune's sword:

Eshter's gesture is a symbol of intimacy and connection. Similarly, using another person's weapon in RWBY shows closeness.

In short, both weddings are rich of symbolism, but the first focuses on the fairy tale allusion, whereas the second explores alchemical imagery. This isn't the only difference, though, as the two situations are perfect parallels/inversions of each other:

In Mistral, Cinder kills Weiss to hurt Jaune, whereas in Atlas, she forces Jaune to kill Penny. Moreover, both times she negates Weiss's agency and uses her as a pawn to hurt someone else (Jaune and Winter).

In Mistral, Jaune and Weiss go through a crisis together, but they emerge victorious. In Atlas/Ever After, Jaune and Weiss lose, but grow closer as they come to terms with this defeat.

In Mistral, Jaune hurts Weiss because of his psychological issues, but saves her physically. In the Ever After, Weiss saves Jaune psychologically, but hurts him physically. Both are responsible for the death and resurrection of the other.

In Mistral Jaune unlocks his semblance (changes spiritually), whereas in the Ever After he becomes young again (changes physically). Both in Mistral and in the Ever After Weiss ends the wedding by unlocking a new summon. She conjures the Queen Lancer in Mistral and the Nevermore in the Ever After.

In Mistral, Jaune is led by Pyrrha towards his ideal-self, whereas in the Ever After, he is led by Weiss towards his real-self. Symbolically, he goes through two stages of the anima integration. From Pyrrha/Mary (devotion and idealism) to Weiss/Sophia (understanding and reality).

In Mistral, the resurrected Weiss unlocks her Queen Lancer, which is key to fighting Hazel. In the Ever After, Jaune integrates Alyx and is reborn after a trial of fire. Once he comes back, he is key in defeating Neo and the Cat with his plan to separate them. Both do not "win" the conflict, but are instrumental to its solution (Weiss through heart and Jaune through mind).

In general, both times Jaune and Weiss make important steps to integrate their anima/animus, which their bond represents. The anima/animus is the feminine (anima) and the masculine (animus).

In Mistral:

Weiss integrates her animus and summons a Queen Lancer, an entity which is both queen (feminine) and knight (masculine)

Jaune integrates his anima (feminine) by discovering himself a healer (traditionally feminine quality)

In the Ever After:

Weiss integrates her animus by acting as Jaune's Knight. She summons her Knight while fighting side by side with him. Moreover, throughout the whole volume Weiss looks for someone who can guide her home. It turns out in the climax she herself is the guide, the knight, who leads Jaune and the others to the tree. As a matter of fact she is the one who teaches the others the theme of "acceptance".

Jaune integrates his anima by accepting he is no hero (no Knight) and by realizing Alyx is a part of himself. He faces her and integrates her spiritually (her vision in the smoke) and physically (her knife):

In volume 9, both Weiss and Jaune regress and go back to their stereotypical selves. Weiss is stuck as the damsel and Jaune rusts as the knight. However, they move on thanks to each other. They are reborn.

WHITE KNIGHT= REBIRTH

The focus of White Knight is rebirth (coagula). In Mistral they get a victory and in Atlas they get a loss. Still, both weddings climaxes in resurrections. Weiss is reborn in volume 5 and Jaune is reborn in volume 9. Not only that, but after White Knight's Ever After wedding Ruby herself is reborn:

This renewal of the self is celebrated by a full Nevermore:

This marks White Knight's second wedding as their nevermore wedding, which has them overcome grief through love.

NEVERMORE

Weiss summons her full Nevermore in the finale. This Grimm is tied to both Ruby and Jaune.

It is symbolic of Ruby's rebirth, as it is the first Grimm team RWBY killed together and Ruby landed the final blow. Weiss is able to manifest it because by the end her team is whole again and Ruby is back.

It celebrates Jaune and Weiss's wedding, as our Lunar Queen conjures it after her interaction with Jaune. Their exchange is the pivotal moment for Weiss in volume 9, as she helps herself by helping Jaune. She teaches Jaune to forgive himself and learns to forgive herself at the same time. As a result, she unlocks this summoning, which is symbolic of the self:

Its glyph is in fact a mix of all the other ones, as Weiss is a sum of all her avatars.

Jaune too makes a decisive step towards the self:

Alyx: Maybe it’s time for a change, to be the kind of man you always wanted to be.

He accepts Alyx and gets a second chance to grow up as a result:

His new self has a white streak of hair to show he has successfully integrated with Weiss (white) and has obtained wisdom.

FROM UNCONSCIOUS TO CONSCIOUS

There is one final difference between White Knight's two weddings. The first has Weiss and Jaune's metaphorical union happen unconsciously. The second instead has this process become conscious. Let's consider this:

In Mistral Jaune instinctively activates his semblance and Weiss unconsciously unlocks her summon. Their actions happen because of internal and unconscious changes that are not elaborated on. They are quick transformations and the wedding itself is quick.

In the Ever After Weiss consciously encourages Jaune. By doing so both characters find a catharsis for their unconscious feelings. They make them conscious. Similarly, Jaune can consciously face Alyx and integrate with her. Weiss's own summoning is not quick and raw, but it is the result of a process that starts in volume 8 (when she fails to materialize the Grimm), goes on in the chess fight (she has the wings appear) and is finally complete at the end of volume 9 (the full Nevermore manifests itself). The wedding is also very slow and distributed throughout two volumes.

This choice makes sense, as Weiss and Jaune's dynamic is about them slowly realize who they are and who the other is. They have been each other's mirrors since the beginning and as they better understand themselves, they can better relate to the other and accept them.

#rwby #rwby chemical weddings #chemical weddings #white knight #weiss schnee #jaune arc #rwby meta #rwby alchemy

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c-jay-s-text-posts-only · 1 year

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A Special Mission

Written with permission from @juanarc-thethird

With further inspiration from @riku-izanami

Late one evening, team RWBY were hiding in the bushes. They were waiting for Jaune, Nora, Ren, and Oscar to return from the Schnee Family’s estate; their goal - to cut a long introduction short - was to extort money from Weiss’ Father. He’d cut her allowance off again; as usual, without good reason, and was content not to restore it.

He’d cut Winter off as well - which everyone involved thought was strange, so the two sisters consulted together, and hatched a plan.

Time passed, and Weiss was getting more and more worried.

As far as she was concerned, they were taking too long.

“Do you really think they’re okay?” She asked for the umpteenth time,

“I’m sure they’re fine.” Ruby patted her shoulder, “I’ve been travelling with them for-like-ever now, they know what they’re doing.”

“I hope you’re right . . .” Weiss conceded, but she still felt uncomfortable,

“I’m more concerned about how this was all your idea.” Remarked Blake, “I know you don’t like your father, but I never thought you’d go so far as to blackmail him to fund our adventures.”

“Yeah, I’m with Blake on this one.” Put-in Yang, “We know how screwed up your family is, but this is pretty sick!”

“Yes . . . we’re a messy house.” Weiss agreed with a sigh, “But if he’s going to say that I’m not a member of the Schnee Family anymore, then he’ll get what’s coming to him.”

Just then, they all heard the sound of an approaching vehicle, and they poked their heads out to see.

A large, double-wide military van cruised along the road towards them; Ruby whipped Crescent Rose and peered through the scope. She could see Ren and Oscar in the front, while Nora, who popped her head out of the moonroof, turned around to wave at them.

Ren brought the van to a stop when he saw Ruby go out into the middle of the road.

“We’re back!” Shouted Nora, “Did we miss anything?!”

“Nope!” Yang popped the ‘p’, “Thing’s’re movin’ a mile-a-minute around here.”

“Sweet, ‘cuz have we got a lot to tell you all!” Nora vaulted herself from the roof of the van, and executed a perfect mid-air tumble.

She landed easily in front of them. Ren and Oscar just opened their doors and stepped out.

Ruby was excited.

“So how’d it go?” She asked, “Did you get the money?”

Nora’s winning smile faltered.

“Y- . . . yeah . . . about that . . .” She began, “We- uh . . . we didn’t . . . we didn’t get anything . . .”

“What?!” Weiss couldn’t believe it, “What was the point of this mission then? What happened?!”

“Look, it’s not our fault!” Nora insisted defensively, “He’s a horrible person! Now I get why you wanted to blackmail him so bad!”

“Well that makes three of us now.” Muttered Blake,

“Okay, tell us what happened from the start-” Yang tried,

“No, seriously, I can’t believe he’d be so ruthless!” But Nora wasn’t finished, “Like, everything he did to his own employees and family?! It’s terrifying! People like your father are the ones you have to stay away from!

“Nora!” Yang interrupted, “Just tell us what happened already!”

“Okay-okay-okay!” And Nora took a breath to calm down, “We just went there, and then we gave him the run-down, y’know, like: ‘pay us this much, and we’ll keep our mouths shut’, blah-blah-blah.”

“Uh-huh . . .” Nodded Ruby,

“Sounds about right.” Yang nodded as well,

“But then he kinda, sorta got angry . . .” Continued Nora, “so then I got cheesed . . .”

“. . . Okay . . .?” Weiss was growing concerned.

Nora raised her eyebrows and glanced away.

“And then . . . things kinda just . . . went from there . . .”

Team RWBY exchanged worried looks.

“You-” Weiss tried, “You didn’t threaten to break his legs, did you?”

Nora gasped dramatically.

“I am oh-ffended!” She exclaimed, putting a hand on her chest, “Of course, you know I totally did . . .”

“Alright, then did you actually break his legs?” Asked Blake,

“Of course I didn’t!” Nora looked even more offended, “What kind of violent woman do you take me for?!”

No one had an answer; secretly, Weiss was relieved to know Nora hadn’t gone that far.

“Well, thank the Gods for that.” She murmured,

“But we did kidnap his wife~!” Nora’s eyes lit up,

“You what?!” Weiss exclaimed,

“You did what?!” Yang's eyes popped open.

Nora giggled excitedly and meandered over to the back of the van. With a click, the doors opened, revealing a fine rump firmly straddling a well-known waist - the boots and pants stuck out from underneath her. A wet, sucking noise cut through the air from behind the seats.

Weiss was horrified.

“Mother!?” She shrieked,

“Oh shit!” Yang’s jaw hit the ground,

“Woah . . .” Blake was surprised,

“Yo . . . I didn’t know he could work it like that . . .” Ruby whispered.

Willow sat up and turned around when she realised someone had called her; now everyone could see how she looked.

Her hair was let down and dishevelled, flowing freely past her shoulders. She had taken off her blue jacket, and her blouse was open, but not enough to expose anything indecent, just the impossibly deep valley of her chest - which Weiss would only very quietly admit to being jealous of.

“Oh!” Willow brushed a few strands of hair away, “Hello Daughter. I didn’t realise we’d gotten here so soon, no one told me . . .”

“Too soon . . .” A familiar voice from near Willow cracked and sighed dreamily.

“Yeah sorry, Ma’am." Nora apologised, thoroughly unabashed, “Didn’t wanna interrupt the uh- y’know . . .”

She wiggled her eyebrows suggestively, but Willow just gave her a warm smile.

“Please, sweetheart.” She said, “Call me by my name. It’s really the least I can let you do, considering everything you’ve all done for me.”

“Please, don’t stop on our account.” Blake thought this was very funny.

Weiss found her voice again and addressed her issue calmly.

“Mother, why are you kissing . . . him?” It was very difficult for Weiss to ask without wanting to throw up in her own mouth.

Willow gave Weiss a perplexed look.

“I had to pass the time somehow, didn’t I?” She told her, as if it was the most obvious thing, “Besides, he’s actually quite charming. I’d have been a fool to stay back at the Manor and let this gorgeous, young man walk away.”

The familiar voice gasped like he’d just seen something amazing, and he sat up a little, just enough for the others to see the expression on his face. Jaune's lips seemed brighter in the low light, and his cheeks and chin were smeared with pink lipstick; a lonely mark stood proudly out on his forehead.

“You really think I'm gorgeous?” His smile looked hopeful.

Willow turned back to him, returning an all too tender smile, and gently stroked the underside of his cheek; her eyes twinkled in a sweet and unbridled way.

“Of course, Love.” Willow nodded.

Jaune flopped back down and giggled in such a giddy fashion, even kicking his feet like a little girl. Willow tittered along with him; it was so cute to her. Yang thought it was almost adorable.

‘Man, if only I didn't already know why he's so happy.’ She mused, ‘. . . It's really sad now that I think about it.’

“Oh come on, Mother!” Interrupted Weiss, “Jaune of all people?!”

Willow looked a little surprised and switched her gaze between Jaune and her daughter.

“Jaune?” She asked, “This the annoying boy you wrote to us about?”

“Yes, that's him!” Weiss nodded fervently.

Jaune looked embarrassed; he hated remembering how foolish he’d been back in those days. But Willow just cupped Jaune’s face, eyeing him analytically.

“Hmmm . . . well, he’s more handsome than you'd let on.” She appraised, “And he’s hardly scraggly. He's quite well-built and kept. He’s also been nothing short of the perfect gentleman since he and his friends helped me escape.”

“What?” Weiss felt her world begin to crumble,

“Oh- and his hands have only ever been right where they needed to be.” Willow smirked coyly, "He's also very huggable and warm, it's just what I needed after all this time."

“Um-” Ruby raised a finger,

“Around my shoulders or on my back.” Willow clarified, “He asked permission before touching anything else.”

“Oh-” Ruby lowered her finger, “Wooowwwww . . .”

“Excuse me!” Weiss tried to argue, “Are we forgetting who this is?! He was scraggly when we met!”

“Well, he’s clearly not anymore.” Willow furrowed her brow, then broke into a teasing smile, “Weiss you're looking at-”

She stopped for a moment and turned to Nora.

“Um, what is it you young people call it?” She asked, “A beef tart- no, pie, was it?"

“Uh- Beef cake.” Nora corrected her, “Close enough.”

“Ooh yes, that’s it!” Willow snapped her fingers, “He’s a proper Beef cake. Not over-muscled, but not too frail either. And he’s the perfect height too!”

The others couldn't see it, but Jaune’s face had turned as red as Ruby’s cloak. He felt so loved.

“D’oh, stop it!” He crooned, “You’ll make me blush!”

“You dunce, you'd blush for just about anything, wouldn't you?!” Snapped Weiss,

“Weiss,” Her mother warned, “He’s not a dunce, he’s a dear. But if he’s to wear the dunce cap for anyone, it will be for me.”

Willow turned back to Jaune, tickling his chin.

“Now, darling, be a good boy, and bring those wonderful lips back to Mommy.” She licked her own,

“Woof!” Jaune’s voice cracked a little.

Just as their lips were about to touch.

“Mother, stop it!” Weiss was ready to rip her hair out.

Willow, exasperated, rolled her eyes and sighed.

“Oh relax, will you, Dear.” She chided, still stroking Jaune’s face, “It’s not as if you two are together.”

“That’s as may be!” Admitted Weiss blushing, “But he’s still my friend!”

“A friend you regularly spurned if my memory serves correctly.” Willow's reminder was firm, “Who was it complaining about his every advance in her letters? Not me, certainly. I wasn’t there, but if I had been, I’d have urged you to say yes. Or I'd have taken him out myself, perhaps.”

“YOOOOOOOOOO-!!” Yang, Nora, and Ruby shrilled, none of them could believe their ears.

Willow Schnee thought Jaune Arc was attractive?

A billionaire woman liked - for lack of a better word - a bumpkin?

What had happened to the world since team RNJR started their adventures together?

And not only that!

In spite of her constant drinking, Willow had read the letters Weiss wrote home. She had been paying attention to her after all.

Now that really topped it off!

Weiss shrunk back a little.

Deep down, she knew her mother was right. Although she had apologised to Jaune for being so rude in the early days, she had a very sinking feeling that he hadn’t accepted it.

Now she worried Jaune was doing this just to spite her.

Weiss would admit she knew next to nothing about boys outside of what Winter, Klein, and her father had told her, and what she had seen in Whitley.

Most of it had been not promising - Klein notwithstanding of course, because he was always so wonderful - and it led her to believe all boys had a sordid, icky endgame, one which only they would benefit from. So, Weiss had opted to stay away from them.

Despite of the forewarning, she had briefly dropped her guard and pursued Neptune back at Beacon, but that was ancient history now. There were bigger fish to fry, and romance was not among the cards as far as she was concerned.

While Weiss stewed in her thoughts, Oscar and Ren gave their friends a proper run-down of what had happened.

It was just as Nora said.

They went to the Manor and were invited inside. They spoke to Jacques and laid out their proposal, but as it turned out, he was already prepared for the blackmail they had, and he threatened to call the police after having them escorted out.

So, the team had to fall back and rethink their strategy. But as they made their daring getaway, they came across Willow; she had seen and heard everything and was desperate to get away as well.

She even promised to help with blackmailing Jacques further, which everyone thought was hilarious, and immediately invited her along. When they jumped into the van, Nora noticed how Willow was acting, and - in her infinite wisdom - offered Jaune to her, mostly so she could let out her frustrations. She knew Jaune was good for venting.

Ren was too, but he was her man.

So it was arranged.

Jaune and Willow took the seats in the very back of the van, while Ren drove with Oscar in the passenger seat.

Nora stayed between both parties and decided to watch their six, occasionally poking her head out and very suspiciously eyeing Schnee Manor while they drove away, as if the whole mansion, grounds and all, might get up and chase after them.

Jaune stayed huddled with Willow, keeping her company. He'd done this sort of thing before; comforting people came easily to him.

Now because Nora was too busy keeping a lookout from the moonroof, and Ren and Oscar kept their eyes on the road, none of them had seen what was going on between Jaune and Willow; until Nora came back down and heard a noise, a very distinct smooching noise, so she peered over the seat to look.

As soon as she saw it, Nora wanted to whoop and cheer for Jaune; seeing him lock lips with Willow Schnee of all people was equally as amazing as it was funny - his luck really seemed to hold out as far as mothers were concerned, and Weiss’ was definitely no exception.

But what really made Nora happy was the look on Jaune’s face after they shared their first kiss.

They had all been through so much since The Fall; everyone knew Jaune blamed himself for damn-near all of it - both she and Ren knew this was mostly because he felt guilty about Pyrrha.

And when she saw Jaune open his eyes again, Nora saw a spark in them.

One she was sure had been snuffed out some time ago.

Nora was so happy she nearly couldn’t contain herself, but she knew they had to be quiet, so telling the others about it would have to wait, at least until they were far enough away. But by the time they were, they had arrived back to their friends.

Weiss began feeling very light-headed.

“I don’t like to be that person.” Oscar called to Willow and Jaune, “But it's time we left. They’ll have caught on to us by now.”

Willow let out a disappointed whine, and accidentally wiggled her hips on Jaune as she adjusted herself.

“Oh, please, just five more minutes?” She begged, “We’ve finally come to a-”

Willow stopped when she felt something poke up behind her.

Something big. And thick.

“Oh~,” She purred,

“Sorry . . .” Jaune looked most embarrassed.

But Willow didn’t mind at all.

“Make it ten.” She bit her lip, “I doubt any road will be smooth enough for what I want to do next~.”

“Ew.” Weiss’ frown was so broad, Blake thought her mouth might fall off.

“Make it fifteen!” Ruby piped up, “I want in!”

“What?!” Demanded Weiss,

“The fuck!?” Yang’s eyes popped open.

To everyone's shock, Willow looked excited.

“Oh my, yes!” Undaunted, she pushed the back seat down, allowing for more space in the van, “The more, the merrier.”

“YES!” Ruby pumped her fist, then stuck her finger up Yang's nose, "IN! YO! FACE!"

And with a flourish, she used her semblance to close the gap; dashing inside and slamming the door behind her before Yang could do anything. The van rocked and creaked as the three of them started going at it. Weiss and Yang were speechless.

“This might just about the funniest thing I’ve ever seen.” Nora was happy for Jaune,

“I think this is the quietest it’s even been between these two.” Blake pointed to Yang and Weiss,

“WWWHHHHYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY?!” Wailed Yang,

“And there it goes . . .” Blake sighed,

“Why do these things keep happening to me?!” Weiss couldn’t believe it, “I go to Beacon, I don't get to lead! I see a nice boy, but he's a dirty flirt! And then Beacon is destroyed, I'm forced to come back here, help save the world-”

Weiss was so upset, she couldn't stop thinking about everything she'd seen go wrong.

“Be strong, Weiss,” Yang wrapped her weakly into a hug, “We’ll get through this together!”

“Shut up, don’t touch me!” Weiss hugged her back,

“I don’t want to be the one who jinxes it,” Ventured Ren, “But things could’ve been worse . . .”

“Oh, worse, how?!” Demanded Yang,

“Could’ve been?!” Weiss was indignant, “I fail to see-!? ”

“Winter and Raven.” Blake figured.

Weiss gagged, and Yang snarled; both girls tightened their grip on each other.

“Well . . .” Nora rocked back and forth on her toes, “I can’t speak for Raven, but . . .”

“But what?!” Snapped Weiss, “Out with it!”

“I mean-” Nora pretended to think carefully about what to say next, “How do you think we got the van?”

Weiss turned as white as her hair.

“Dear God . . .” Muttered Blake,

“There’s more . . .” Added Oscar,

“Nooo . . .” Groaned Yang, “No mo-ho-ho-ho-ore . . . It was enough to know that this guy fucks! And that my baby sister wants to too!”

A symphony of sweet moans rang out from the van.

“AAOOHH GODS, SHUT THEM UP!” Yang couldn’t take it anymore,

“Yeah, Winter’s arranged to see him soon.” Oscar said quickly, “Either after we escape Atlas, or when we meet her later. We have to keep the van somehow-”

“NNNOOOOO!” With that final sob, Weiss passed out in Yang’s arms.

“YES~!” Willow trilled from inside the van,

“And-now THIS is a katana~!” Hollered Ruby.

‐---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A very awkward thirty minutes later, Weiss woke up, and the teams were on their way to a safe haven, far away from Schnee Manor. The ride was quiet, aside from the tires humming on the road beneath them.

Both Weiss and Yang were upset - Weiss more so than Yang, but that still didn’t mean it was something to sneeze at.

Jaune could feel Weiss’ angry eyes boring holes into him.

“Um-” He tried,

“Not!” Weiss interrupted, “A word out of you.”

The message received, Jaune shrank into himself, and shut his mouth. Strangely, Blake stepped up to defend him.

“You can’t be mad at him, Weiss.” She said, “He didn’t do anything wrong really.”

“Oh, can’t I?” Snorted Weiss, “Nothing wrong, indeed!”

“You heard what Ren and Nora said,” Blake reminded her, “He was only doing what he could to cheer her up.”

“He didn’t even try to stop kissing my mother.” Weiss was not having it, “But he did it for her, because it made her happy, so I can’t be mad at him for that now can I?!”

Jaune wanted to say something.

“I-” He tried again,

“Shut up!” Weiss interrupted again.

Once more, Jaune deflated. This time, Ren defended him.

“I think this has more to do with being repressed than anything else.” He reasoned from the driver’s seat, “Your mother went years without the touch of a loved one or a true lover. Jaune is willing to fill that role for her.”

Yang spotted the chance for a dirty joke, but didn't dare take it.

“And Jaune’s always thinking about what’s best for us.” Oscar put-in from the passenger seat,

“Annd he still has to bang your sister for the van in a while.” Nora added, almost too chipperly,

“Not helping, Nora, but thank you.” Ren called,

“Look, can we not talk about banging each other’s sisters for a sec?” Yang was feeling enormously uncomfortable.

Weiss was still upset.

“Well, he might’ve held better control over himself!” She said huffily, “And that- um, other sword of his . . .”

Jaune shifted awkwardly in his seat, but relaxed a little when Willow’s arms snaked discreetly over his shoulders. Thankfully, no one else seemed to notice.

“Alright, I hate to be on Vee-Bee’s side,” Yang admitted, “But I can’t really judge him either.”

At that moment, Ruby popped her head up from behind the seat next to Jaune; she was most eager to hear this.

Weiss was taken aback.

“Excuse me!” She put a hand on her chest,

“Weissy, have you seen your mother lately?” Yang asked, “Like, actually looked at her from head to toe?”

“What has that got to do with-” Weiss tried to brush it off,

“Weiss, your mom is hot.” Yang said bluntly, “There’s no easy way for me to say this.”

Weiss was appalled and speechless. Because she didn’t say anything, Yang took that as her cue to continue.

“I mean, look at her,” She insisted, “like, really look at her! She’s pretty, she has boobs as big as mine, a slim waist, and butt so fine, Blake almost looks a little small next to it-”

The words were out of Yang’s mouth before she could stop herself. Blake raised her eyebrows in a challenging way.

“Careful . . .” She warned,

“Sorry,” And Yang continued, “But I seriously can’t blame Jaune, looking at this objectively anyway. If I was a man with a working pair of eyes, your mom would give me a hard-on too. Hell, I like girls too, and she's doing me favours just being here with us!”

Willow blushed and smirked proudly behind Jaune’s head, she felt very flattered. Until now, she and Ruby had been quietly recovering out of the others’ sight.

“Um . . . thank you?” Jaune shrugged, unsure of what was going on just then.

Yang gave him a very pointed look.

“You’re still not off the hook with me, dude.” She said, shaking her head.

Once more, Jaune recoiled and sighed.

“Anyways, the point is there’s nothing we can do about this now.” Blake explained, “What’s done is done, and we should be focused on the real issue. How are we going to get money for our adventure?”

“Ideas, anyone?” Oscar asked, turning around to face his friends,

“Become professional jewel thieves?” Suggested Yang,

“Stage a series of bank robberies?” Weiss considered,

“Become prostitutes!” Declared Nora,

“WHAT?!” All the other girls were disgusted,

“What?” Nora shrugged, “It’s legal in Mantle.”

“. . . Seconded, I guess . . .” Ren muttered loud enough for everyone to hear.

Jaune knew this was only so he could keep an eye on Nora - if push came to shove. It had been her idea, after all.

Ruby shook her head.

“Okay, let’s try this again,” Ruby piped up for the first time in a while, “do we have any legal ideas?”

Willow, who hadn’t said anything either, poked her head out and calmly intervened.

“My dear, if you needed money, you should have just asked me.” She said, addressing Weiss specifically.

Everyone stopped fussing for a moment, and flipped their gaze between Weiss and her mother. Collectively, they all ignored where Willow’s hands were resting.

“I . . . I could have?” Weiss seemed surprised,

“Of course!” Willow assured her, “Whatever made you think you couldn’t?”

Weiss looked down and mumbled; she looked a little hurt.

“I . . . I didn’t think you’d answer if I did the asking . . .” She said quietly.

Willow smiled kindly.

“Weiss, you’re my daughter.” She said, “My sweet, darling girl. I know you may not think I would, but I’d do anything for you if you asked. I’m not your father, but like you and everyone else, I’ve been hurt by him too.”

‘. . . Oh . . .’

Jaune looked a little to the left and reached up, gently clutching her hand, he brushed his thumb over her own; Willow accepted the gesture, and their fingers twined.

Once again, Weiss was speechless. She didn’t know what to think. For so long, Willow had made herself an invalid, in Weiss’ eyes, and now to see her coming back to life in such a profound way . . .

To see her coming back into her life . . .

It was moving . . .

“Thank you . . .” Weiss nearly wanted to cry.

At last, they arrived at Atlas’ Edge. This was like a border crossing for the Kingdoms of Atlas and Mantle; some of the airships travelling between the two kingdoms were big enough to carry small vehicles, like cars and pick-up trucks.

Now, the general public had their own fleet of airships for basic travel, but authorised personnel, such as Atlas Specialists and certain huntsmen still affiliated with the military, were transported using different ones. These were twice the size of the others, big enough in fact to carry military equipment like weapons, dust shipments, and, of course, the double-wide vans.

Willow directed Ren towards the authorised airships, and he gently cruised the van to a stop. Everyone got out and stretched their legs, and after a few minutes, they saw Winter come out from the shadows. Weiss was relieved to see her big sister.

“Winter!” She called.

Winter wasted no time and gave her sister a hug.

“I’m glad to see you made it out safely.” She said, hugging Weiss back, “All of you. We’ll be taking you to Doctor Polendina’s Pharmacy, you can lay low there until this situation blows over.”

“Thank you, Winter.” Weiss was grateful,

“Phew!” Remarked Nora, “That’ll be great. Your dad sucks, bee-tee-dubz.”

“What?” Winter blinked, “Oh yes, um, you’re right, he does.”

“Hold on, who’s we?” Asked Blake.

Before Winter could answer, an airship drew smoothly into the dock, and the ramp lowered.

“I can fly an airship.” She explained, “But I knew I should wait out here to make sure you arrived on time. Specialist Amin is in the cockpit now. Speaking of which, by the way, you’re late.”

Weiss gulped. Although she knew the teams were in a hurry, she hadn’t known how close they’d cut it.

“Five minutes behind schedule, what kept you?” Winter demanded.

“Five minutes isn't too bad though, is it?” Asked Ruby.

At that moment, Winter spotted her and Willow limping into view.

“What happened to them?” She was concerned,

“We- uh, heh-heh . . . we kinda had a little fun on the way?” Ruby chuckled, abashed,

“Fun?” Winter raised an eyebrow, “You two? Together?”

“Well yes, my dear,” Willow smiled, “Jaune was quite good to us both.”

Winter’s forehead wrinkled somewhat, she looked stern.

“But mother~,” She almost whined in a petulant way, “I thought we agreed I’d be the first to do it!”

Weiss’ eyes nearly fell out of her head.

‘Nora hadn’t lied?!’ She realised.

“I’m sorry, Winter.” Willow apologised earnestly, “But we both know he’s just what we need.”

Winter pouted uncharacteristically.

“. . . Fine.” She sighed, then turned to Jaune, “In that case, I have a favour to ask.”

“Uhh . . . yes, Ma’am?” He looked a little nervous,

“I’ll be needing you, your friend in green, and Specialist Amin.” Winter said firmly, “In the van after we load it up.”

“Oh.” Blake was stunned,

“. . . Uuuuhhhh . . .” Yang had no words,

“All three-?!” If Weiss’ jaw hadn’t dropped before, it’d have fallen from the cliff when she heard Winter say that.

Ruby had jumped back into the van to help Marrow and Nora load it up, so she hadn’t heard anything. Neither Yang nor Blake nor Oscar could believe it themselves, there was so much going on!

Since when was Jaune so good with cold women?

Jaune had nothing to say himself, he just gulped; once again, he could feel Weiss’ angry eyes boring holes into him. Ren was nervous too, the look in Winter’s eyes was a hungry one, and he didn’t know what to make of it.

“Altogether, they’ll suit my purposes.” Winter stated, matter-of-factly, “We still have approximately thirty minutes before our scheduled departure time.”

“Um, I- I don’t think my girlfriend would-” Ren tried, blushing brighter than anyone thought was possible,

“How much are you willing to offer?” Nora had bounded over before anyone noticed, she had heard everything.

Both Willow and Winter smirked.

“How ever much you’d like.” They said together.

Nora’s eyes lit up and sparkled like fireworks.

“YOU GOTTA DEAL!” And with both hands, she shook Winter and Willow’s, and then she turned to her teammates, “ALRIGHTY BWOIS, GET IN THERE!”

And reeling her hands back, she slapped their backsides harder than intended. Jaune and Ren yelped and stared in utter disbelief as Nora, unabashed as ever, ran back to the hull of the airship.

“HEY, BISCUIT-BREATH!” She hollered at Marrow, “GET YOUR TAIL DOWN HERE, MISS WINTER’S ASKED FOR YOUR HELP!”

How could it have gone so far?

“Jaune?” Ren gulped, “I’m both scared and aroused . . . what do I do?”

Jaune just shook his head.

“I’unno, dude.” He sighed, “Let’s just get it going . . .”

And cracking his neck, Jaune made his way over to the hull. Ren quietly followed him. Winter kept on smirking and led them on, swaying her hips as she went.

Willow gazed proudly at them all.

“That’s my eldest.” She smiled, then she had a thought, “Do you know? I think I’ll go watch them.”

And with that, Willow headed for the airship as well.

Everyone who remained outside couldn’t help staring as Marrow dropped down from a higher level and clambered excitedly into the van.

Yang ventured over to where Weiss was standing.

“Uhh . . . Weissy?” She asked carefully, “Are you okay?”

Weiss didn’t answer.

“Weiss?” Yang tried again.

Still nothing happened.

“I think we need to give her some time.” Blake patted her shoulder, “I don’t know how I’d take it if my mother wanted to have um, relations, with Jaune of all people.”

Yang agreed. It would be a very jarring moment.

Although Yang would also admit, she knew she would be very angry if she found out Raven wanted to spend time with Jaune like that. And Gods forbid if Summer were still around!

She wouldn't excuse it, no matter how much he looked like her father.

“We should get on board.” Said Oscar, “We’re still escaping.”

Yang and Blake nodded at each other, and scooping up Weiss, they scrambled up the ramp and entered the airship. As they did, Oscar thought of something.

“Hey, where’d Ruby go?” He asked.

Yang and Blake looked around. Sure enough, Ruby was nowhere to be seen. Then Blake remembered.

“Wasn’t she helping load the van?” She pointed out,

“Yeah!” Yang snapped her fingers, “So she has to be in the-”

She stopped short.

“I remember seeing her get in the van, but I don’t remember seeing her get out . . .” Blake pointed out.

Yang stood stock-still for a moment.

“FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK!!!” She shrieked at last.

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bestworstcase · 4 months

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You've said before that RWBY's writing can be non-formulaic other than the 3 Act structure that it follows. What is it then that makes RWBY's story and writing so different (especially from more typical pop culture writing) in that regard?

to be completely honest i think a significant factor is that rwby is written by people who care about telling a story and have a very clear vision of what story they want to tell that they are resolutely sticking to no matter what. rwby is pretty remarkable in its sheer indifference to 1. what the fandom wants and 2. mass market appeal. paraphrasing but isn't one of the writers on record saying that they keep an eye on the fandom and if they see a lot of people not getting something they try to make it more obvious in the text? <- i think about this all the time.

bc like. before V9 i tried really hard to manage my expectations because i didn't feel sure, at all, that i wasn't just reading around a bad case of protagonist-centered morality—like i could count on one hand the number of people besides me whose writing on salem aligned with my interpretation and what i thought was going to happen thematically in V9 was so DRASTICALLY different than what the fandom largely seemed to expect and when you're that far off the common thinking then it's kind of like, is it really everyone else who's wrong or is it just you?

and then it turned out i was right. i was in fact so right that i underestimated how hard V9 would go on delivering what was set up in the first eight volumes.

which is fucking mind-boggling to imagine from the writers' perspective. the fucking guts it take to have a finger on the pulse of this fandom and not budge an inch on what this story is about!

<- being formulaic is safe. it is easy. it's palatable. for all that everyone loves to complain about unoriginality, there are a lot of people who just want to be entertained by something familiar. rwby doesn't give a damn whether you like it or not, it's going to keep being the story that it is, you know?

so they're very willing to take creative risks. that's really the heart of it. but there are a few specific like, technical aspects of the narrative that make rwby what it is:

#1, the narrative status quo gets turned on its head not just once, but repeatedly. the fall of beacon, the lost fable, the fall of atlas, the ever after. and by my count there are at least two more key changes before the story ends. it's not all that common for stories to upend the narrative status quo once, let alone multiple times, but rwby is a story about change and the structure of the narrative reflects that. (this also synergizes quite well with the three-act structure.)

#2, the characters are wrong about all kinds of things in all kinds of ways, constantly. some of them lie. some of them make very confident, very wrong assumptions. all of them are working with incomplete information. the ancient immortal character who's spent millions of years alone is cryptic and awkward. half the cast belongs to the keeping secrets cult. the goddamned avatar of knowledge is an unreliable narrator because ruby asked specifically for ozpin's side of the story. the narrative blithely informs the audience in V5 that "truth is hard to come by" is an important enough theme to say it out loud and then throws the lost fable down like a gauntlet. good luck.

#3, related to the above, in most stories the heroic characters know (or learn) and believe the story's themes and the villainous characters reject the theme and embody the anti-themes. in rwby, theme/anti-theme is decoupled from narrative role: ozpin is on the heroic side, but he represents many of the story's anti-themes (fear, distrust, lack of faith in humanity, blind obedience of authority); salem is the main villain and notional big bad, but she believes the theme—so much so that the fandom regularly quotes her soliloquy to express the core theme: "even the smallest spark of hope is enough to ignite change," and "there will be no victory in strength." this opens the door to a lot of really interesting character complexity and is critical for making "salem wins by negotiation" narratively possible at all.

#4, the story takes fairytales seriously. what sets rwby apart from a lot of "deconstructed fairytale" stories is that the point of taking the fairytale logic apart is not to be clever or edgy or grimdark or hyperrealist or cynical about it; the conceit is a tragic, broken fairytale that keeps going forever until it's mended because fairytales are not real but they are true. rwby rejects the moral and emotional simplicity of fairytales in order to weave a fairytale about lifelike characters rather than archetypes. that's a lot rarer than darker and edgier retellings or irreverent parodies by a wide margin.

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invested-in-your-future · 6 months

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With how bunch of freshmen like team RWBY have been cleaning up the house you'd think Remnant would be free of grimm by now.

Honestly?

I think that's one of the issues where the showrunners wrote themselves into the corner.

On one hand, Remnant is supposed to be this scary world with huntsmen barely holding back literal manifestations of evil. Villages disappear off the map, towns get overrun, the terrifying Goliaths roam the lands and a single mistake can mess up an entire Kingdom.

On the other hand, though, the "good guys" have to have progress and have cool fights (even if there's nobody to animate them anymore) where they win in cool effortless ways (effortless because they miss the point on why people praised stuff like Nevermore fight), get to one-shot the very same unbeatable Goliaths without really having improved in strength all while also cleaning up fodder everywhere.

Yet the viewers also would assume that teenagers who barely spent a year at Beacon would be nowhere near as powerful as actual full-fledged huntsmen, right? The show even tries to highlight that at first with the professors and the like having an absurd level of power.

At the same time, there's an absolute fear of doing anything in terms of human conflict. Can't showcase the more grim aspect of being a huntsman too much either because can't have the good guys' side look even remotely morally ambiguous either. So you just have four kingdoms sort of sitting there filled with overpowered people(and more and more get trained every day).

Just think back to all the good Grimm designs that were built up as ultra-powerful and get deleted in seconds by four kids who haven't even finished their training.

And at the same time the show shies away from any specifics about Grimm or how the threat even works (because, honestly, likely even the showrunners have no idea). They are this basic non-human redshirt enemy mook option that just shows up when the showrunners need to use Ruby as a flashbang.

No wonder half the audience doesn't get why something like Atlas wanting to take the Grimm threat seriously would be a "valid point". Despite what the show tries to tell the audience, super-sci-fi contemporary weaponry, and the like doesn't even seem to be needed. An average literal dog can likely clean out a few square kilometers of land a day.

Honestly, I think that's one of the reasons why they tried adding relics nonsense (beyond it giving them just a very simple plot structure without needing to think why people are where they are) - to invent another reason to make "The Bad Guys" scary. One that the good guys can't simply shoot their way out of. It's why they are attempting to give Salem an immediate goal that she'd be doing (despite her just sitting around for hundreds of years) that would lead to very bad things happening.

It is also why they make ridiculous attempts at over-playing the importance of Salem's immortality (when, if thinking logically, even the nature of the threat of the Grimm is already something that SHOULD be taken as something that can't be eradicated with how the civilization works in RWBY - another unkillable threat shouldn't matter in the face of endless waves of Grimm).

The showrunners, in the crudest way possible, are trying to point at Salem and go - "Look, guys, you should fear her and treat her as an actual real threat to characters you care about. She's not like all the Grimm that plot eyes one-shot after all the build-up. She's the real deal. Look - the threat of Biblical Apocalypse!"

But at the same time, she still...just sits off-screen making vague remarks and not really managing to do anything of note, while her lackeys end up jobbing to kids or, in case of Cinder, undergoing character regression as they throw around temper tantrums.

When all of those factors get put together it's easy to even forget that this setting is supposed to be about civilization barely hanging on against unending waves of eldritch monstrosities. Or that they just had a world war less than hundred years ago and the Kingdoms still don't really like each other that much ("Hey its all fine, guys, we just dropped the entirety of Atlas population into the middle of impoverished Kingdom they tried to literally eradicate eighty years ago, while also creating ultra-scarcity of the resource the entire world runs on - so everyone's friends now").

They could have deleted the Two Gods nonsense in the planning phases and instead used the team separation to expand upon the world and how the threats to it work but alas, Miles Luna wouldn't be able to incorporate a random dream he had into the story then.

#rwby #rwde

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iamafanofcartoons · 8 months

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CRWBY literally can't even make a silly 3 minute long video without toxic people trying to hate on the series. That piece of garbage named double a is shitting on the new episode of RWBY Vtubing. And the episode is only 3 minutes long.

Your frustration is valid, believe me. That man literally made a video rating RWBY Women by their chest sizes. While on Twitter he made misogynistic remarks on Winter Schnee.

Its horrible, but let me explain the sad thing. Just as there are good people, There are bad people like Critter, Vexed, hero hei, adel aka, and RWDE.

You can't stop RWDE from being rude and just plain deplorable. But what you CAN do? Is try to educate people about RWBY, Anon.

Show them that RWBY is not as bad as critics brainwash them into thinking. Show them that RWBY is a show worth watching. Combat that negativity with positivity.

There will be people who say no, who embrace willful ignorance. And the sad thing is you can't stop them.

But? There will always be people willing to listen. And they will listen to you.

Be better than the haters, and become the change you wish to see online. And others will do it alongside you. You're not alone, Anon. I believe in you...Good luck!

#rwby #rwby fandom #rwby positivity #rwby is enjoyable #rwby is worth watching #please give rwby a chance #rwby fndm #rwby discussion #rwby asks #rwby ask

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supersaiyanjedi14 · 11 months

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RWBY COMBAT ANALYSIS: JAUNE ARC (VOLUMES 1-8)

“You're right, Ren. I… I did cheat my way into Beacon. And I'm glad that I had people around me to help me see that I was bigger than that mistake. You've got people around you too. You don't have to force yourself to be strong. The more you hide from what you're feeling, the more alone you're going to feel. Trust me.”

As I mentioned in my previous Versus Series match, this analysis of Jaune Arc's combative abilities will be focused on his appearances until RWBY Volume 8, prior to falling into the Ever After and being displaced in time. The strengths and limitations of Jaune before he became the Rusted Knight are simply more interesting to discuss, and, similarly to Maria Calavera, the significant gap in time between his being sent back and Volume 9 makes equating the two inappropriate. While Rusted Knight Jaune did display just enough in Volume 9 for me to have a good gauge of where he stands, this analysis is already stupidly long (over 6000 words and 11 pages) so pulling a joint profile like I did with Maria will likely bore you out. Although, If you want me to do a breakdown for Rusted Knight Jaune, let me know!

With all that out of the way, let's begin.

PHYSICAL

Jaune Arc is a human male, nineteen years of age when he fell into the Ever After two years after the Fall of Beacon. Born into a family with a history of distinguished Huntsmen and military service, Jaune grew up on stories of heroism and glory, seeking to emulate of his forebearers and dreams of becoming a great legendary hero. Despite this ambition, though the exact reasons are currently unconfirmed, Jaune Arc never attended a combat school, living a wholly civilian life alongside his parents and seven sisters. However, Jaune was determined to achieve his dream to the point of cheating, forging transcripts to gain admission to Beacon Huntsman Academy in Vale. Unsurprisingly, his nonexistent training left him severely out of his depth compared to his classmates, while his misguided belief in his need to excel on his own merits led to him rejecting offers for aid from his teammates. Fortunately, a short conflict with class bully Cardin Winchester led to Jaune eating some much-needed humble pie, and he submitted himself to private tutoring from his partner, the Mistrali prodigy Pyrrha Nikos. Pyrrha’s training greatly picked up the slack and helped Jaune truly develop his skills as a fighter and leader, making genuine contributions to the defense of Vale and Team JNPR’s Vytal Festival battles. Sadly, the Fall of Beacon and Pyrrha’s subsequent death cut his training short, and he found himself thrust headfirst into the war with Salem, his subsequent development coming from direct experience in the field and his being forced to cope with the mounting pressure of his traumatic experiences.

While Jaune Arc’s lack of combat training left him woefully underprepared for academy life and the Huntsman profession, he was ironically well-suited to the physical rigors he was bound to encounter. As the Arc family was known for regular camping trips in Mistral, Jaune was clearly able to develop a high degree of physical fitness and maintained a healthy lifestyle, standing as a surprisingly talented natural athlete. His past as an outdoorsman left him prepared with the harsh conditions of the battlefield, and his formal training ironed out his athleticism to leverage his body for fighting. Easily identified by the blonde hair and blue eyes shared by his family, Jaune stood at a robust 6’1”and sported an athletic, muscular build. In terms of physical performance, his primary attributes were strength and agility, expressed through his joint use of powerful stalwart stances and dynamic full-body maneuvers. Even before his training truly began, Jaune proved himself to be remarkably strong, deflecting aside a Deathstalker’s pincer during his initiation and holding back an Ursa Major’s mauling swipe in the Forever Fall forest. After proper training and combat experience, Jaune grew into a true physical heavyweight, his might, while not matching juggernauts like James Ironwood and Hazel Rainart, being easily comparable to heavy hitters like Yang Xiao Long and Nora Valkyrie. He has sent an Ursa flying with a shield bash, launched grown humans several yards into the air, briefly held back the crushing weight of the Nuckelavee’s hooves, and supported the weight of a Sabyr and Tyrian Callows when they held onto his shield, in addition to various displays of strength-based swordsmanship. In the realm of agility, Jaune may not have been a talented gymnast, but he more than made up for it in grounded speed and parkour even in heavy armor, traversing the battlefield with powerful jumps and running charges while avoiding injury with combat rolls and sidestep evasions. He has kept pace with most of his teammates without too much strain, dodged boulders thrown by a Petra Gigas, blindsided the Nuckelavee by rushing in while it was distracted, and even moved fast enough to intercept Neopolitan’s lunge at Atlas Academy. Though tripped up in sparring with Vine Zeki, he was able to effectively freerun with the aid of his shield through the treacherous landscape of the Solitas tundra while perusing the Hound. Jaune’s reflexes and dexterity were easily his least developed attribute due to his lack of training, though he was by no means slow or crude. Though he favored simple hack and stab bladework, his attacks were still executed with great precision when needed, aiming for one-hit kills. Defensively, he had no difficulty responding to projectiles or other incoming attacks, notably raising his shield in time to block most of the obsidian shards Cinder Fall threw through one of the Evacuation Central Location portals despite being right next to the portal at the time.

While Jaune’s high degree of physical performance was extremely impressive even compared to other Huntsmen, easily his most valuable physical characteristic was his incredible resiliency, stamina, and tolerance for pain and injury. Evan accounting for his large Aura reserves and the properties of his Semblance, the hits that Jaune has worked through are extremely impressive feats. In his initiation, Jaune, despite having no active Aura to protect him, endured the impact of being pinned to a tree after being launched into the woods, and showed no sign of injury until he got scratched by a tree branch a few minutes later. In Forever Fall, he suffered a serious beating from Cardin Winchester that left him with a bruised face, yet he was able to engage the Ursa Major almost immediately afterwards, soaking up more hits and ultimately decapitating the creature. During Team RNJR’s journey to Haven, Jaune worked through a flying rock to the face, physical combat strikes from Tyrian Callows, and numerous mule kicks and blows from the Nuckelavee, yet his Aura never broke or even flickered. In fact, the first time Jaune’s Aura was ever seen breaking in serious combat was when he expanded it to help shield Nora from a punch Caroline Cordovin’s Colossus mech suit (which I’d like to remind you was a giant robot designed to fight kaiju-sized Grimm), overtaxing his Aura and slamming him into a boulder. His stamina displayed itself during the Fall of Beacon, the Battle of Haven, and the Battle of Mantle, all of which were long term conflicts that he fought all through yet remained vital and fresh by the end. In Atlas, Jaune was slammed into a wall by Salem after he burned through his Aura amping Ren, yet was completely uninjured and stayed vital during their escape from the Monstra. It wasn’t until he was forced into close proximity to Cinder Fall’s explosion in the Evacuation Central Location that his Aura broke again, and yet he still had enough fight left in him to regain his feet and attempt to escape. Quite simply, Jaune has spent the bulk of his career as a human punching bag, yet he’s still going strong, wars of attrition being his bread and butter. Jaune was unfortunately saddled with his share of mental hang-ups, his early hubris leading to him making reckless calls before wising up while his traumatic experiences, especially Pyrrha’s death, left him with an inferiority complex that led to him overextending in a misguided idea of sacrificing for his friends. Fortunately, the influence of those same friends helped Jaune learn from his experiences and maintain his composure, trading away the macho badass for an incredibly strong-willed vanguard. Even after being forced to kill Penny Polendina following Cinder Fall’s mortal wound, Jaune Arc never faltered, holding his ground against the Fall Maiden’s savage onslaught despite the grief-stricken tears in his eyes.

Reflecting the irony of being physically prepared for Huntsman life despite having no training, Jaune Arc consistently supplemented his well-honed physique with heavy combat armor, providing him from a degree of protection from the dangers of the world of Remnant. He initially wore only a simple breastplate and shoulder pads, though like the rest of his skill set, his kit evolved and expanded over time. During his time as an Atlesian Huntsman, he wore a full-plated gold-trimmed cuirass, pauldrons, and gauntlets over a black high collared shirt, while his lower body was garbed in blue jeans and rugged calf-high boots. His earlier armor upgrade from an unnamed Mistral blacksmith was specifically noted to provide superior protection from Grimm claws, so the updated plating provided by Pietro Polendina was certainly just as durable, and very likely greater. Though he had no protection below the belt (seriously dude, Adrian needs cousins. get a cup! 😊), the lack of heavy plating still allowed full freedom of movement, maintaining Jaune’s agility. Easily the most sentimental wardrobe component was Pyrrha Nikos’s red sash adorning his belt, a final reminder of his lost love.

RANKING: Tier 2, Peak Human Fitness

Despite a severe lack of training at the start of his career, Jaune Arc still started out as a prime human specimen, and his numerous ordeals have propelled him to the Huntsman physical apex. He is a solidly built athlete with powerful performance levels in all areas that can match or even exceed many of his peers, and supplements this with both an extraordinary level of endurance and some of the best armor we’ve seen in the setting so far. While unassuming at first glance, Jaune’s physique serves as the vehicle for a one-man war of attrition, winning by leveraging his capabilities to stay alive and wait for the perfect opportunity to strike. But much like his friend Ruby Rose, Jaune’s greatest asset as a physical combatant is his resolve, maintaining his composure even in the face of staunch resistance. He won’t give up, he won’t break, no matter what.

MARTIAL

Jaune Arc’s primary weapon was Crocea Mors, a collapsible heater shield paired with an arming sword which was originally carried by his great-great grandfather during the Great War, eighty years before the Fall of Beacon. Despite being an antique compared to what his classmates carried, the weapon remained in excellent condition when Jaune took it with him to Beacon, and it has been further modified and upgraded as he continues his adventures. The sword was an approximately two and a half foot long double-edged blade outfitted with a golden crossguard and a lengthened handgrip wrapped in blue leather. The shield, when fully extended, had a rough area of 2.5 square feet and featured an opening at the top to house the sword, its primary feature being to convert into the blade’s scabbard when not in use. Following modifications from an unnamed Anima blacksmith, the sheath was upgraded to include retractable sharpened edges that could extend upward, transforming it into a stout zweihänder with a heavier blade, enabling far more powerful strikes in combat. The most recent additions to the shield came from Pietro Polendina in Atlas, who outfitted it with hard-light and gravity Dust generators. The former extended barriers to either edge to improve Jaune’s protective zone, while the latter functioned as a combat repulsor. Appropriate given its original owner was a soldier rather than a Huntsman, Jaune’s weapon remains one of the simplest and most utilitarian in the setting, form reflecting function even with its various upgrades. While perfectly capable of slaying Grimm, Crocea Mors was built for war.

As he had never attended a formal combat school nor had grown up with real-world dangers to address, Jaune Arc was woefully unprepared for his early education at Beacon Academy, enrolling on the back of forged transcripts and having amateurish understanding of the field’s basics. Despite this, Jaune was fortunate enough to survive his initiation, and his ability to coordinate Pyrrha Nikos, Lie Ren, and Nora Valkyrie in their takedown of a Deathstalker earned him leadership of Team JNPR. While his early blunders were quite obvious, falling behind in his studies and regularly getting stomped in sparring, Ozpin’s early assessments of the boy’s potential were eventually proven to have merit following his conflict with Cardin Winchester. After a peptalk with Ruby Rose and his successful killing of an Ursa Major in Forever Fall fed him some crow, Jaune accepted Pyrrha’s offer of private tutoring and began to properly develop as a fighter. Under her tutelage, Jaune slowly grew into a capable swordsman and began taking his responsibilities as leader more seriously, eventually qualifying for the Vytal Festival and leading his team to victory against Team BRNZ. While the Fall of Beacon and Pyrrha’s subsequent death cut his formal training short, Jaune continued to train rigorously with her prerecorded lectures during Team RNJR’s journey to Haven Academy and maintained his skill by sparring with his comrades. But more than anything else, Jaune’s greatest growth came through the trial by fire that was the war with Salem, the threats he encountered forcing him to learn quickly and build his skill set through experience. Appropriately for a beginner warrior growing through trial and error in the field, Jaune Arc’s fighting technique was an exceedingly simple and direct sword-and-board method, emphasizing the baseline reliability of the practical benefits of his weapon set. He primarily relied on his shield as the foundation of his technique, using it to intercept or deflect incoming attacks. He alternated between stalwart stonewall stances and active pushback deflections, holding his ground against everything from gunfire to pouncing Grimm while disrupting their own attacks with sweeps and bashes. When he did choose to take the offensive initiative, his bladework consisted of a simple yet powerful array of slashes, cleaves, and thrusts, aiming for one-hit kills. Together, the two weapons enabled a defense-and-counter fighting style, following up his solid blocking sequences with quick sword attacks to quickly disable or kill the target. Though friendly and kind, Jaune never settled for half-measure, always decapitating, dismembering, amputating, impaling, or otherwise seriously injuring his target. When utilizing Crocea Mors in its greatsword form, Jaune’s bladework became less refined yet far more powerful, using hacking chops to deal brutal damage, though at the cost of his defensive stance. Despite lacking variation as a swordsman, Jaune’s simple and loose style was extremely adaptable, allowing him to accommodate to virtually any situation or opponent. This technique was reinforced by his fluid use of his special abilities, most notably his Dust loadout and Semblance to augment his maneuvers. However, Jaune has displayed little in terms of alternative disciplines. Despite possessing a strong physical component in his style, he has never been seen employing hand-to-hand combat in any capacity, and his knowledge of firearms began and ended with blocking bullets. That being said, he has engaged opponents who do use these methods and survived, most notably Tyrian Callows and James Ironwood, so he clearly knows how to combat them even if he lacked proficiency in using them himself. Furthermore, he proved to be a competent mounted fighter, delivering strikes from Pietro Polendina’s hoverbike very effectively in Mantle.

For all the strides he made in his training and advancement in spite of his inexperience, what truly put Jaune Arc in step with his peers was his surprising natural talent as a tactician and strategist. Humbled by his first semester’s failings, Jaune recognized his limitations as one of the least developed fighters of his class, and instead focused on pouring his energies into learning to circumvent them with the aid of his teammates and friends. While his lack of book smarts would make the tactical display out of his element, his ingenuity and ability to recognize the strengths and weaknesses of both his troops and his enemy’s, even under dangerous high-stress situations, more than made up for it. Jaune Arc was not a grand strategizing general; he was a boots-on-the-ground frontline commander, and in his tactics, he heavily emphasized adapting to and subverting the opponent while holding out for the long term. He would open defensively to give him time to assess the threat and give his allies the opportunity to probe for weaknesses. Once an opening was discovered, he would order a swift and decisive response to exploit it, often by disabling the opponents’ defenses and weapons and forcing them to expose the Achilles Heel. Against the Deathstalker, Jaune worked with Pyrrha to defend against its claws while Ren weakened the stinger, and upon seeing this had Pyrrha sever it with her shield before propelling Nora into the air to drive it in. Team RNJR’s battles with the Petra Gigas and Nuckelavee played out similarly, with the beasts ultimately being killed by keeping their limps tied up while leaving its main body vulnerable to Nora’s blows. The Nuckelavee battle demonstrated Jaune’s ability to apply this thinking to wars of attrition as well, as he and Ruby were able to land several critical strikes on the legs while the head was distracted, wearing it down as they cooked up a decisive finishing strategy. As far as more intelligent opponents went, Jaune demonstrated his talents during the Vytal Festival match against Team BRNZ, ordering a retreat following the initial exchange before quickly reengaging, working with Ren and Pyrrha to fend off the bulk of the team and flush out May Zedong’s sniper nest so that Nora could blow her to Kingdom Come. While battlefield situations were Jaune’s specialty, he was still capable of contributing to larger strategic operations, and more importantly, demonstrated an ability to reevaluate and adapt if his plans were derailed. The best example of this was the confrontation with Caroline Cordovin in Argus. The plan was to commandeer an Atlas airship by having Weiss Schnee pretend to return home alone before she and Maria Calavera overpowered the pilots and picked up the others, hiding their return by sending Blake Belladonna to disable the relay tower. However, their hand was tipped when Blake was ambushed by Adam Taurus before she could complete her sabotage, and Cordovin responded by unleashing the gigantic Colossus mech suit. Despite this colossal setback (pun completely intended), Jaune quickly put together a plan of engagement, exploiting the mech’s bulk by having Weiss, Ren, Qrow Branwen and Calavera harass Cordo and chip away at her defenses while nullifying her firepower by evading her attacks. Though the final blow was delivered through Ruby’s initiative rather than Jaune’s his overall game plan and trust in his teammates still enabled them to survive and disable the weapon despite the shock of their original strategy failing.

However, while Jaune was a fantastic field leader and achieved several impressive victories, most of these were done through the strengths and abilities of his allies rather than his own. Jaune’s inexperience and underdeveloped technique left him at a disadvantage whenever he was confronted by a skilled opponent in single combat, his success predicated on his versatility and tactical supremacy rather than his ability to fight. His first true victory against the Ursa Major demonstrated his tenacity and the raw talent he did have, but he nearly lost his entire Aura during the scuffle and survived only due to Pyrrha’s interference. Despite pulling his own weight in the Vytal Festival and against Tyrian Callows, his personal performance mostly amounted to soaking up punishment while everyone else tried to make headway. While Jaune had improved significantly by the time of the Battle of Haven, the psychological strain of his experiences combined with Cinder Fall’s posturing triggered an outburst from the still-grieving Jaune, who recklessly charged the Fall Maiden with his greatsword. The only reason Jaune lasted as long as he did was because Cinder drew out the fight to play with her food, the closest thing he made to headway being when he scored a superficial graze on her face mask after she was stunned by Ruby’s Silver Eyes. Fortunately, Jaune managed to get into a much healthier headspace following his time in Atlas and learned from his experiences. In addition to improving his calm under fire, he managed to apply a solid measure of his tactical sensibilities to personable combat. This was where his heavy defensive focus truly started to express itself, shifting his focus to protecting himself, his allies, and his charges and only attacking when the blow could efficiently end the immediate threat. While his core technique was underdone, his tandem use of his alternative abilities allowed him to adjust to different situations even if he couldn’t win himself.

In Mantle, Jaune slew numerous Grimm in the streets by intercepting their attacks before immediately striking back, notably impaling a Sabyr after it jumped onto his shield and later throwing a hard-light Dust grenade into a pack of Sabyrs for them to faceplant into. While unsuccessful at evading Vine Zeki while sparring in Atlas, he achieved greater success when he fended off Flynt Coal’s Killer Quartet, enduring the assault before closing in and overpowering him. Against Neopolitan in the Atlas Academy dorms, Jaune managed to intercept her running charge and blew her backward with his gravity Dust repulsor, though he and the rest of his team were ultimately outmaneuvered by the assassin and forced to flee with the arrival of the Atlas security forces. When confronting James Ironwood two days later, Jaune immediately followed up Emerald Sustrai’s disarmament and kick with a slashing sequence, and though the general was able to stop him and counter, Jaune immediately turned it around with his repulsor, giving Oscar Pine and opportunity to run in and attack himself. In these various encounters, Jaune demonstrated great skill and fending off direct aggressors and using their energies against them, even when fighting opponents far above his own level like Ironwood. Rather than just enduring an attack, he brought it to a halt by disrupting their forward advance and landing devastating counters. Conversely, Jaune was less successful against more subversive opponents who could outmaneuver and undercut him, which is what he faced against Neo and ran into against Tyrian Callows in Oniyuri. Furthermore, his success was predicated on his ability to strike at the moment of greatest vulnerability, and if unable to get the drop on his target, he could get into trouble very quickly. Putting these strengths and limits on display was his second confrontation with Cinder Fall during the exodus to Vacuo. Despite seeing his old nemesis again and witnessing Yang Xiao Long’s apparent death, Jaune remained composed and focused on ensuring the civilians could escape, only engaging himself when the last were gone. He opened by flying in and blowing Cinder back with his shield and standing with Weiss and Penny Polendina, prepared to coordinate against their more powerful adversary. Unfortunately, Cinder divided her assailants and mortally wounded Penny, forcing Jaune to tend to her while Weiss was on her own. After Penny had Jaune reluctantly kill her to keep the Winter Maiden powers out of Cinder’s hands, an enraged Fall lashed out, but Jaune, despite his extreme emotional stress, stood his ground and repelled her. However, Cinder recovered too quickly for Jaune to properly retaliate, and he was quickly overwhelmed when the Fall Maiden destroyed his weapon.

RANKING: Tier 5, Standard Application

Jaune Arc’s inexperience and limited performance in single combat make it clear that he is not a master, but he still possesses a well-rounded and comprehensive skill set that covers his bases and improves his overall viability. His greatest asset is his intelligent tactical analysis on the battlefield, enabling him to adapt to situations and exploit weaknesses, even if someone else lands the killing blow instead of him. In single combat, he can contend with superior martial artists by leveraging his techniques to nullify their offensives and hit them where they don’t expect, though his battles with Cinder and Neo prove that this has its limits. Appropriately, Jaune Arc wears Pyrrha Nikos’s influence on his sleeve, both being talented albeit thinly spread fighters who compensate for their lack of development by using all of their skills together. The difference is that where Pyrrha built a special weapon to enable all of her attack options in her technique, Jaune supported his basic technique with strong support gadgets and good armor to provide a margin for error. Jaune’s feats make him seem better than he actually is, but unlike Volume 1’s macho dofus, Jaune is now aware of this, and has built his tactics accordingly.

SPECIAL

Jaune Arc was a late bloomer when it came to his Semblance, unaware of his abilities even after a year of formal training and thus making him an anomaly among his peers. It was not until the Battle of Haven that Jaune finally properly manifested his powers. Named Aura Amp, Jaune’s Semblance allowed him to amplify and enhance the Auras of both himself and others, bolstering the affect of the manifested soul power. All Auras bless their users with moderate protection from direct injury, mitigating minor wounds, and the ability to utilize their own Semblances. When amplified by Jaune, these abilities became far more pronounced, strengthening Aura shields far beyond their limits, enhancing the magnitude of a Semblance, and turning the mild regeneration into active healing, this last part easily being the most pronounced of Jaune’s powers. The first time his Semblance unconsciously activated in the Forever Fall forest, Jaune was able to recover from the beating he took from Cardin Winchester fast enough to immediately engage the Ursa Major. This went even further when he properly unlocked his Semblance at Haven. After Cinder Fall impaled Weiss Schnee in order to spitefully torment him, Jaune’s emotional distress over another friend being severely injured on his watch, coupled with his need to save Weiss’s life finally caused his powers to properly manifest. Despite the fact that she had clearly gone into shock and was suffering from serious blood loss, Weiss was able to regain consciousness after mere minutes of treatment, and after a few more had regained enough of her energies to Summon a Queen Lancer and fight through the remainder of the battle. Making this even more impressive was that Jaune was able to accomplish this instinctively and with little to no effect on his stamina. Jaune refined his abilities for active use in the following weeks, to the point where he could casually heal the Huntsman Dudley’s broken arm on the Argus Limited, and later treated the battered Oscar Pine after rescuing him from the Monstra. Beyond healing, Jaune’s ability to amplify Auras allowed him to empower the barriers of others to help them endure incoming attacks. In Argus, he bolstered himself and Nora Valkyrie to brace against the Colossus’s punch, and thought disabled by the hit, Jaune’s power still saved their lives. On a smaller though no less impressive scale, Jaune’s amplification proved instrumental in allowing Penny Polendina to resist the effects of Arthur Watts’ computer virus, allowing her human soul to overpower her circuitry. Most impressive by far was Jaune’s ability to enhance others’ Semblances by adding his strength to their own. Lie Ren was his most common partner in this, empowering Tranquility to the point where Ren could mask the entire Argus Limited train and whole mobs of civilians in Mantle, as well as conceal at least ten trained Huntsmen from detection by whole armies of Grimm. When Penny nearly succumbed to Watts’ virus, Jaune’s enhancement of Weiss’s Glyphs allowed them to restrain her long enough to offer aid. However, Jaune’s Semblance was not without its limits. Prolonged use could drain his own Aura quickly, and even his own substantial Aura reserves were not limitless. Furthermore, his healing powers could not mend all injuries, as Nora’s electric scars and the severity of Penny’s mortal wound from Cinder were beyond his ability to heal.

In addition to his Semblance, Jaune added to his arsenal with Dust gadgets during his time in Atlas, specifically the hard-light panels and gravity repulsor built into Crocea Mors’ shield. Pioneered by Atlas and therefore costly to obtain outside of it, hard-light Dust is most commonly used in the creation of advanced defensive technology, generating tangible panels of energy strong enough to withstand severe kinetic impacts. The projectors installed in the edges of Jaune’s shield could create barriers approximately a foot and a quarter wide and running down the full length, effectively doubling his range of protection, improving his ability to function as a defensive wall for himself and his allies. While the strength limits of these projections has never been tested, I do feel they are at least comparable in strength to the shields created by figures such as Weiss Schnee and Arthur Watts, who were able to hold back the White Fan Lieutenant’s brutish chainsaw blows and block high-caliber gunfire from Due Process respectively. More contemporary but no less potent, gravity Dust affected forces of push and pull in ways meant to facilitate adhesion, propulsion, and levitation, traits that made it an extremely common fuel in vehicles. When applied combatively, gravity Dust used these same properties to function as limited telekinetic attacks, usually through the guided manipulation of thrown weapons, enhancing the tactile striking power of manual weapons, or, in the case of Jaune, powerful offensive shockwaves. Outfitted in the center of the shield, Jaune’s repulsor enabled him to project bursts of power that pushed out in all directions, strong enough to repel charging enemies and deflect attacks though not enough to actively damage his environment. Though unable to injure Neo, Ironwood and Cinder directly, the repulsor was still strong enough to stagger them, potentially setting up for a follow up strike. This weapon in particular became Jaune’s most readily utilized combative tool, his favorite tactic being to activate it just as the opponent came within striking distance, essentially delivering shield bashes with a touch of a button. Despite only recently taking these gadgets up, Jaune quickly became highly profieient in their use, smoothly integrating these abilities into his overall fighting method and together with one another. In addition to combining the functions to turn his shield into a makeshift hang glider, Jaune could project the gravity waves to push back obstacles while activating the hard-light panels to cover his flanks, using this very method to clear away a pack of Centinels while infiltrating the SDC mine. This combination tactic further demonstrated Jaune’s approach of utilizing all his abilities together as part of a greater fighting method, getting around his lack of power and skill through versatility and logistics. At the same time however, Jaune’s Dust abilities had their own individual limits. The hard-light panels were a very specialized tool, and Ironwood’s ability to penetrate Watt’s barriers proves that even special Atlas Dust can’t take a beating forever. While the gravity repulsor gave Jaune an offensive option, the kinetic output wasn’t sufficient to injure or kill, forcing Jaune to rely on other means to decisively defeat his adversary.

Regarding Jaune’s use of his special abilities in live combat, he clearly emphasized versatility over lethality, sacrificing offensive might for tactical supremacy. While his Semblance’s properties have been most impressively demonstrated on external subjects, Jaune can and has used the power on himself to potentially decisive effect. While training in Atlas, Oscar Pine observed that Jaune’s Aura was recovering at a significantly faster rate than usual, which leads me to believe that, similarly to Hazel Rainart’s Numbing Agent, Aura Amp functions as a minor healing factor to help Jaune replenish his energies. Unlike Rainart, however, Jaune’s active use of his Semblance can allow him to do this on command and more quickly, which, combined with Aura Amp’s healing properties, makes him one of the only characters with the ability to mitigate his own injuries in the field. Both of his Dust gadgets follow similar patterns of improving Jaune’s survivability, the hard-light shields artificially bolstering his martial defense while the gravity repulsor adds a layer of counteroffensive. The latter has proven effective and giving Jaune a punch against opponents above his own level, successfully repelling Neopolitan, James Ironwood, and even Cinder Fall TWICE. However, much like his martial skills, Jaune’s effectiveness as an ethereal combatant is predicated on his breadth of tools rather than their magnitude of his native proficiency. His Semblance is almost entirely a tactical support power, and its various powers still have their limitations that make its efficacy in single combat suspect. While a number of factors were at play when Jaune was forced to euthanize Penny, the narrative framing makes it clear that the severity of her injuries would have been beyond his ability to repair even if he had time and shelter. As far as his Dust abilities are concerned, Jaune may make creative integrations of his powers into his fighting style, but neither his shields nor repulsor have the means to decisively end the battle on his terms. The effectiveness of the gravity repulsor is based around its ability to stagger the opponent and set up for a counterattack, meaning its effectiveness is significantly reduced if the opponent recovers quickly enough to exploit Jaune’s lack of skill as a martial artist. Against Neopolitan, the attack was able to disrupt her forward charge and launch her down the hall, prompting her to retreat. Against Ironwood, Jaune had the support of his allies, with Oscar rushing in to attack immediately after the Dust activated, while Weiss and Penny were clearly preparing to do the same against Cinder. Jaune wasn’t so lucky when he was forced to fight Cinder on his own, their final bout taking place when Weiss was already disabled and Penny was dead. With only his native abilities as support, Jaune’s final push against Cinder merely provoked her, and her quick recovery allowed the Fall Maiden to rally and shatter his weapon, Jaune’s survival owing entirely to the timely arrival of Winter Schnee.

RANKING: Tier 5, Limited Combat

Much like his fighting abilities, Jaune Arc’s special powers are comprehensive and versatile, but they lack the development to reliably set the battle on his terms. His Semblance offers various supportive abilities that improve his survivability in the field, while the traits of his Dust loadout add layers to his fighting style, all coming together to cover all of his bases for just about any combat situation. At the same time, he lacks the developed skill with these powers to properly control the engagement, getting by through the breath of his skill set and his intelligent use of all of his skills. Rather than mastery of his abilities, Jaune Arc relies on clever gadgets to artificially elevate his fighting style into something greater than the sum of its parts, and his baseline reliability hinges on circumstantial factors. However, Jaune ‘s limitations do not make him any less of a threat, and his cunning use of the various tricks in his bag means that he can still comfortably engage any situation even if he can’t always win.

OVERALL RANKING: TIER 5, STANDARD HUNTSMAN

Compared to the true masters of his era, Jaune Arc is not a particularly exceptional combatant, but he is still significantly above the rank-and-file. On the back of his martial skills and special abilities, Jaune stands as the archetypical example of a Tier 5 combatant in the RWBY setting. His foundation stands on his rock-solid physical attributes, his exceptional athletic performance levels giving him parity with better trained opponents and his inhuman resiliency giving him the ability to work through the hits he needs to take, further supplemented by top tier combat armor. With his versatile weapon set, solid general purpose fighting technique, potent empowering Semblance, and flexible set of Dust tools, Jaune possesses an extremely comprehensive skill set that leaves him prepared for just about any combat situation, but his lack of developed skill means that none of these attributes are elevated to a degree that can decisively tip the scales of the battle in his favor, leaving him spread thin and vulnerable against more skilled adversaries. However, being a jack of all trades/master of none does not make one an inept combatant, as Jaune’s attributes still give him a degree of adaptability and grit that many more specialized fighters tend to lack. Jaune’s saving grace is his tactical mindset, allowing him to circumvent his limitations by using all of his assets, be they his own or those of his allies, together as a layered combative tool to stay alive and win in the long term. Furthermore, despite his lack of formal training, Jaune has spent almost his entire career either on the battlefield or contending against opponents far above his own level, and he has still survived.

Jaune Arc’s ranking shows that he is not yet a true master combatant and still has a long way to go before truly matching his peers, but his track record also makes it very clear that he is growing very quickly and will undoubtably match or exceed them. He is a rising star, only held back by a series of roadblocks that continue to temper him. Jaune entered Beacon feeling that to be a Huntsman and a hero was to be a mighty warrior standing on his own laurels, though the harsh realities have not only shattered this narrow worldview but also brought out Jaune’s true route to greatness. Similarly, Pyrrha’s death led him to believe that self-sacrifice was all he was good for if it meant giving his friends a chance to survive, but those very friends made it clear that throwing his life away would only hurt them more. Instead of laying waste to armies of enemies as a one man badass, he has grown into a stalwart defender dedicated to surviving to protect those that cannot do so themselves. Rather than the lethal blade of his sword, it is the impenetrable shield in his off hand that has come to define the kind of hero that Jaune Arc is. He will stand firm against evil for the sake of others, holding out as long as he must while searching for ways to end the threat with as little lives lost as possible. The strength of this shield need only be gauged by what it and its wielder has endured. The Breach, the Fall of Beacon, the Battle of Haven, the Atlas Crisis; Jaune Arc survived all this and more, and he has emerged all the stronger and wiser for it. Pyrrha Nikos saw more in Jaune than the rest of them did, and I think it’s safe to say that she could not have been prouder of who he has become; as a Huntsman, as a leader, as a warrior, and more than anything else, as a man.

*originally posted on RoosterTeeth Community page on 06-8-22*

* images taken from RWBY Wiki*

RWBY Combat Analysis

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