History Fanfic / TournamentArcRWBY

* BreakTheHaughty: What Weiss' character arc consists of. In the beginning she has a tendency to look down on people she perceives as inferior and a refusal to accept any change in the status quo. She gives Jaune no respect and no acknowledgement of his growing fighting prowess to the point of stating she wouldn't care if he killed himself, until his words of defiance during the second preliminary round start haunting her and mess with her focus on her training with Winter. By the month between the third preliminary and the KO rounds she has to watch everyone reap the fruits of their training while she's left behind because of her mental block. [[spoiler:Then, just when she's begun to overcome it, Jaune [[DidYouThinkICantFeel lays the verbal smackdown on her]] after snapping and [[JerkassHasAPoint she has her own hypocrisy rubbed on her face by Pyrrha herself]]. This shakes her so much, [[HeroicBSOD she goes straight into a BSoD]] after finding out Ruby is her opponent in the round of 16 due to the parallels with Jaune and Pyrrha's situation. She ends up losing despite managing to snap out of it and almost turning the fight around with her Shield Knight summon. The fact that Shield Knight happens to be ''a copy of Jaune'' becomes a constant reminder of her mistakes and in the end, after realizing she came this close to becoming a second Pyrrha, [[TheAtoner she resolves to become a better person and Huntress than she was before]].]]

* DareToBeBadass: [[RefusalOfTheCall Jaune refuses to enter the Vytal Tournament in the beginning]] despite Pyrrha's pleas because he finds no point in trying if he knows he is going to lose, no matter how many times he gets up. It takes a talk with ''Roman Torchwick'' of all people about how he'd stay in the same miserable place he is in at that moment if he doesn't even put a sincere attempt to convince him to not only enter the tournament, but to win it.

* DefeatMeansRespect: [[AvertedTrope Averted]] in the beginning, and it's also the main point of conflict in this story. Jaune winning the Obstacle Course is received with negative backlash by some, with Weiss, Yang, Arslan and even Pyrrha being miffed that the weakest student in Beacon managed to beat them in the race. Played straight for the rest of the characters, as someone like Jaune [[{{Determinator}} continuously showing the tenacity and willpower to want to win no matter the odds]] [[spoiler: and managing to defeat Yang, someone incredibly above his level, by the skin of his teeth]] makes everyone eventually want to fight him in the tournament.

* EasilyForgiven: Played with regarding Yang. When she and Jaune have their conversation after the third round and she apologizes for what she said and thought of him beforehand, she expects him to hate her and give her the cold shoulder. Jaune instead makes her [[TheAtoner earn her forgiveness by helping train him in close combat for the next round]]. [[spoiler:After Pyrrha's BreakingSpeech she's on the receiving end of Jaune's [[TheReasonYouSuckSpeech verbal lashing]], even though by that point she was the one who deserved it the least. [[DiscussedTrope Discussed]] when both make amends after the round of 16 and conclude that he forgave her too quickly and he should have been more honest both wih her and himself.]]

* FanOfUnderdog: Jaune gets one in Ethan, a boy from Vale who became his fan after watching him in the first two preliminary rounds. [[spoiler:When Jaune is at his lowest point and thought to have quit the tournament, Ethan and his mom are unknowingly part of the people who help him get back on his feet.]]

* {{Foil}}: Jaune and Pyrrha, obviously. Jaune is the runt of the litter, Pyrrha is a BornWinner prodigy. Jaune continuously [[ScrewDestiny defies everyone's set expectations]], Pyrrha believes in a destined path in life. [[spoiler:Jaune wears his heart on his sleeve, Pyrrha hides her true manipulative self behind a mask. Their personalities are even reflected in their Semblances; while Jaune amplifies and pushes everyone forward, Pyrrha has a two-fold magnetic personality, attracting everyone to her, and pushing them away after showing her true colors]].

* RunningGag: Coco's "episodes". They also involve her drinking a lot of liquid.

* TookALevelInBadass: Jaune takes multiple levels through the entire story, first by learning some hand to hand combat and mastering the Aura coat technique (knowledge considered to be basic amongst Hunstmen in training), [[spoiler:and later by figuring out how his Semblance works and using three forms of Aura Amplification, one for speed, defense and attack each. Unfortunately, switching forms too many times in a day [[HeroicRROD causes intense strain]].]]

Jaune was tired of losing - tired of giving up whenever he felt he wasn't good enough. It was time to prove to himself, and everyone else, that he belonged at Beacon, and that he has what it took to be a Huntsman. The Vytal Tournament was coming up, but he wasn't just going to compete. He was going to win.

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* SenpaiKohai: Velvet is a second year while Jaune is a first year. Velvet decides to help Jaune upon seeing how earnest he is and Jaune shows to greatly value her opinions and respects her.

** Velvet is mainly his mentor, friend and confident, but she can alternate between a strict snarky master and something as an overzealous girlfriend at a drop of a hat. She's who suffer the most seeing Jaune's fights and is the closest to him in the story.

* MirrrorCharacter:

* SempaiKohai: Velvet is a second year while Jaune is a first year. Velvet decides to help Jaune upon seeing how earnest he is and Jaune shows to greatly value her opinions and respects her.

** Every main character is one, but the focus goes to Jaune. What makes this special is that his grit, tenacity and determination to succeed are so big that they start infecting everyone around him to also pushing themselves to the limit in their training and fighting. [[spoiler:This is taken UpToEleven in the final where, despite being against unsurmontable odds, Jaune powers through to his last legs, ''destroys Superbia's twelve sub-spears with his bare hands'' and gives Pyrrha the pummeling she so thoroughly deserved. This trait scares Pyrrha so much ''she forfeits the match''.]]

In December 2021 and after the cancellation of [[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13633838/1/Redemption-Arc-Sequel-to-Tournament-Arc Redemption Arc]], another sequel, titled [[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/14004477/1/The-Second-Year The Second Year]], was made available.

A sequel, titled [[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13633838/1/Redemption-Arc-Sequel-to-Tournament-Arc Redemption Arc]], has now been made available.

** Also played with regarding Arslan. When the former approached Jaune with the intent of trying to make amends for how she behaved, he responded as one would expect in the same situation. Yet later, both of them being NotSoDifferent has them striking a healthier rivalry bordering on OddFriendship.

* NotSoDifferent: Jaune and Arslan. Both of them started combat school without even basic notions of Aura control and combat proficiency and also both of them were associated with Pyrrha, being her closest friend in Beacon and Sanctum respectively. [[spoiler:Both of them were also betrayed by her when they started becoming better at combat because Pyrrha had such an inflated ego and sense of determinism she started feeling threatened by them.]]
** Pyrrha, to [[spoiler:Cinder]]. During her quarterfinal match she starts showing traits similar to [[spoiler:Cinder from the canon series, such as presenting herself to the audience with a fake smile, unnecessarily toying with her opponent before going for the kill, being able to transform her weapon into smaller metal particles and reshaping it at will in a similar way to Cinder's canon Semblance and spiting Velvet, who is watching in the audience, by transforming Superbia into a scythe while looking at her directly. There's also her deterministic belief in Destiny and the lot of everyone in life being handed down to them and unchangeable.]]

* RealityEnsues:
** [[spoiler:How do you think a natural fighting talent would behave if they were pandered, coddled and revered since childhood by everyone, teachers and students alike?]]

** [[spoiler: Yang]] is played straight ([[BiTheWay ironically, considering the canon]]). It becomes a point of her character make peaces with what are her feelings for Jaune. [[spoiler: She also mentions there's two girls crushing on Jaune, one being Yang herself. Whether she's talking about Pyrrha or Velvet or someone else is anyone's guess]].

* UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom: Cinder, in a different way from canon. She encounters Pyrrha in a coffee shop after the second preliminary round and [[TheReasonYouSuckSpeech calls her out on her lack of spirit while also undermining her determinism]] [[{{Determinator}} and pointing out how those who have nothing to lose will let nothing deter them]]. [[spoiler:This is what makes her start seeing Jaune as a threat and neglect herself and her teammates in her pursuit of victory. In a way, someone can say that Cinder figuratively "killed" Pyrrha here too.]]

* UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom: Cinder, in a different way from canon. She encounters Pyrrha in a coffee shop after the second preliminary round and [[TheReasonYouSuckSpeech calls her out on her lack of spirit while also undermining her determinism]] [[{{Determinator}} and pointing out how those who have nothing to lose will let nothing deter them]]. [[spoiler:This is what makes her start seeing Jaune as a threat and neglect herself and her teammates in her pursuit of victory.]]

** Also played with regarding Arslan. When the former approached Jaune with the intent of trying to make amends for how she behaved, [[RealityEnsues he responded as one would expect in the same situation]]. Yet later, both of them being NotSoDifferent has them striking a healthier rivalry bordering on OddFriendship.

* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: It's implied Pyrrha's {{Breaking Speech}} to Jaune wasn't only to break his spirit. [[spoiler:She ''purposely'' revealed what did their partnership initially mean to her, so she could rid off any more distraction and give full focus to the tournament. Right after that and days after the tournament, Pyrrha rests destroyed that she pushed away the person she mostly cares and she doesn't know if she can even have Jaune back, after all she did]].

** Jaune and Pyrrha: [[spoiler:They're very close by the begining of the story, but their relationship slowly degradates when Jaune wins the first preliminary and ask Velvet to train him seriously. From there, a mix between jealous, envy, possessiveness and superiority/inferiority complex throw Pyrrha into a spiral that culminates with them becoming bitter rivals. Despite all the strain, Pyrrha admits to herself she really loves him and it's at least implied it's mutuous, but both are still too hurt to even take a step. The possibility of relink their bond is left open]]

* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: It's implied Pyrrha's [[BreakingSpeech]] to Jaune wasn't only to break his spirit. [[spoiler:She ''purposely'' revealed what did their partnership initially mean to her, so she could rid off any more distraction and give full focus to the tournament. Right after that and days after the tournament, Pyrrha rests destroyed that she pushed away the person she mostly cares and she doesn't know if she can even have Jaune back, after all she did]].

* CasanovaWannabe: Oh, boy, Jaune. He mostly doesn't expect it work or uses it to fool around with his friends or fool female oponents. Unknown to him, [[ChickMagnet it actually works]].

* OppositesAttract: Jaune and Pyrrha. [[spoiler: Jaune is meek and panicky, but generally kind and has an approachable aura that makes most people like him. Pyrrha is manipulative and prideful and her popularity is tied to her capabilities as a fighter instead of her personality. Jaune is considered a loser, while Pyrrha is a born prodigy. Jaune shows a variety of interests and expansions of personality that progressively draws people to him, while Pyrrha's 'true' personality pushes people away. But they both share personal secrets with each other that they don't with others and often spend time alone together.]]

* WomanScorned: The reason Pyrrha hates Velvet is that she feels Velvet stole Jaune from her.

** Jaune and Pyrrha: [[spoiler:They're very close by the begining of the story, but their relationship slowly degradates when Jaune wins the first preliminary to ask Velvet to train him seriously. From there, a mix between jealous, envy, possessiveness and superiority/inferiority complex throw Pyrrha into a spiral that culminates with them becoming bitter rivals. Despite all the strain, Pyrrha admits to herself she really loves him and it's at least implied it's mutuous, but both are still too hurt to even take a step. The possibility of relink their bond is left open]]