Fanfic / AZRE

"There's no such thing as pure evil, Adam. There's a story to every person, on what made them who they are, and even in the most despicable being, there's always that little good. Good that has to fight with a monster."

"How are you going to undo the crimes you've done? The blood that stains your hands? Adam had made many mistakes. Over his short life, he had taken lives, destroyed livelihoods, attacked indiscriminately. Yet he felt justified in it. Freedom for the Faunus was worth as many lives as it costed them. But one fated train heist costed him more than he was willing to give, and after leaving the White Fang behind, he would have to decide what his purpose in the world really was. Perhaps Beacon held the answer. Where he would find allies and new friends, he would also have to face the evil that secretly infected the world, and the evil that had infected him. The question he couldn't answer is: Does he have the strength to do it?. "

— Archive of Our Own summary.

In this RWBY story by BehindTheCorner , AZRE follows Adam Taurus joining Beacon Academy and forming the title team with three other students, Zanthus Nemeós, Ruri Kashima and Eirian Esna, after leaving the White Fang. However, leaving the White Fang is not an easy thing to do, both physically and mentally, with Adam growing and learning from his time spent with people who've not only been hurt like he had, but were hurt by the people who promised to fight for the Faunus' freedom.

As mentioned by the author, AZRE has around seven volumes of content planned out, and at the latest has been split into two volumes:

• Volume One - The First Year Arc (Chapters 1 - 27)

In the White Fang, Adam and Blake had been tasked with high jacking a train running near the town of Knossos that has valuable Dust for the organisation. After fighting their way through robots, Adam went ahead and blew the train up on his leader's orders, Kaanchana. As he did, Blake was horrified and abandoned not only Adam, but the White Fang entirely, disappearing without a trace. Ridden with guilt, Adam left as well and was advised by a Huntsmen in Knossos to join Beacon and atone for what he had done. Though once he got there, Adam found that his views from his time in the White Fang were challenged by his new teammates, and that maybe what the White Fang wanted was not equality for all.

• Volume Two - The Second Year Arc (Chapters 28 - 55)

The second year of their time in Beacon arrived, and after finding that Blake was killed by the White Fang, Adam and his team arrived to Isidis City in Vacuo for their second Vytal Tournament. There, they met many new faces, including the popular team CRMN. With the help of their new friends, team AZRE worked to try and locate Zanthus' mother, Sable, while slowly digging more and more into secrets that hardly anyone in Remnant knew about.

• Volume Three - The Third Year Arc (Chapters 56 - 80)

The third year of Beacon has came about, with new lessons and new faces. Team AZRE have left the dorms, having moved to the independant accomodations in the city itself, but that wasn't the biggest shock they would find. As Team RWBY and others comes to Beacon, Adam finds that Blake isn't dead after all, and has actually come to Beacon just like him to become a Huntress. Together, these three teams start digging into increased White Fang activity and the appearance of known criminals in their midst.

• Volume Four - The Nightmare Arc (Chapters 81 - Current)

After losing Torchwick at the docks, AZRE and RWBY are hot on his trail. Bringing down bad guys and delivering justice isn't the only thing on their mind, with distrust, lost paths and longheld bitterness threatening long friendships. Soon enough, they'll find that even their dreams aren't safe.

WARNING: SPOILERS INBOUND

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AZRE contains examples of:

A - G

• Abusive Parents: While both Zanthus and Adam suffered from abuse and abandonment, Zanthus really got the short end of the stick as his father was an alcoholic deadbeat that not only physically abused him and his younger sister, but forced their mother to change her name and abandon her Vacuan culture because it annoyed him. His mother wasn't exactly an angel either, as she was emotionally neglectful and did nothing to protect her children from their father.
• Accidental Misnaming: Eirian doesn't seem to get Steven Rosewater's name quite right, even after knowing him for over a year.
• Accidental Murder: Before he came to Beacon, Zanthus spent much of his teen years in an underground fighting ring in Mistral. His last match ended with him activating his semblance and killing his opponent, kickstarting his extreme pacifism.
• Action Dad: Icheku Zulu, Eirian's father, who kept his job as a Huntsman despite being a single father.
• Action Mom: Plenty of mothers in AZRE are either leaders, military specialists or Huntresses, with special mention going to Clementine Iomharach, Eliana Kokkinos, and Winter Schnee.
• A-Cup Angst: Only brief, but Chapter 8 has Ruri feeling somewhat downtrodden when noticing a half dressed Eirian's bust size. After a short pick me up, she quickly moves on from the issue.
• Adaptational Diversity: Many of the canon characters are redesigned with more ethnic features and a more diverse range of skin tones.
• Adaptational Heroism: Adam is given one. Rather than being a racist and abusive antagonist like in RWBY, Adam is the main character of AZRE, with the story following his journey to redemption and working past his negative outlook on Remnant and the human race.
• Adaptational Nationality: Nora is from Solitas rather than Mistral, though she's not from the settled kingdom of Atlas given that she specifically mentions Solitas itself.
• Adaptation Dye-Job: Most of the characters canon to RWBY have been redesigned by the author.
• Adaptation Name Change:
  • Kali's name was changed to Hajimu in AZRE, connecting her to her Japanese style clothing and to avoid the issues of Kali being a Hindu racial slur for black people.
  • Blake is still called Blake by everyone, but Chapter 20 reveals that her original name was Yaeka, loosely translating to "Beautiful Night Flower" in Japanese.
  • Some places in Remnant had been renamed. Kuo Kuana in Menagerie has been renamed to Asilé.
• Adaptation Relationship Overhaul: While Blake and Adam were in a romantic relationship in RWBY, they are adopted siblings in AZRE, with Adam having been adopted by Ghira and Hajimu when he first came to the White Fang.
• Aerith and Bob: Just like RWBY, Remnant is a world made up of different cultures, and everyone has a name to reflect that as such. While some have more western names like Adam and Eirian, others have either eastern names (Ruri, Kaanchana, Sun) and some have completely made up names (Banesaw, Ozpin).
• Affectionate Nickname:
  • Icheku calls Eirian "Sweet Pea", though she doesn't like anyone else calling her that.
  • Chase is fond of nicknaming people. Adam is "Firecracker", Zanthus is "Caramelo" (an affectionate Mexican term referring to sweets), Ruri is "Princess", Eirian is "Sunshine", Roxanne is "Roxxie", Mauve is "Val" (A reference to her last name Chevalier) and Niccolo is "Nicci".
• Alien Blood: The Grimm have black blood, but the Stitched take it further with their blood resembling more like tar than actual blood.
• All Girls Want Bad Boys: Even though she later moves past it, Eirian does admit that Chase is attractive, despite being a destructive rulebreaker.
• Alliterative Title: Some of the chapter titles:
  • "Fight Fire with Fire"
  • "Beyond the Borders"
• Alternate Continuity: AZRE has been confirmed to heavily diverge from RWBY canon, even changing much of the world and its lore to fit into the universe.
• An Arm and a Leg:
  • Iya was born without any legs, instead wearing prosthetic that have clawed talons, befitting to her bird theme.
  • Ankhsenamun is also missing her entire left arm from a Grimm attack.
• Armor-Piercing Question:
  • While on the search for Blake, Iya asks Banesaw about his opinion on Adam blowing up the train. When he says he believes that it was necessary, she asks him "So was it necessary because you believed it was or because Kaa said it was?"
  • During the debate about the treatment of Huntsmen in Vacuo vs Vale, Roxanne responds to Eirian insisting that Huntsmen in Vale are idolised with the question "Do you even know what happens to Huntsmen who retire, or are crippled so badly that they can't continue their duties?"
  • When Blake and Adam reunite in Vale, they talk about Adam's attack on the train. Blake eventually asks him "So why did you do it, Adam?". Something he couldn't answer.
• Asskicking Leads to Leadership: Eliana Kokkinos was once just another Vacuan woman who lived near the Kokkinos Oasis. When she came to Shade and found it barely functioning, she brought all the nearby tribes together with shows of power and leadership, creating the capital of Isidis where she was named leader of it, and defacto leader of Vacuo.
• At Least I Admit It: One of the unnamed traffickers in Volume 2 has this attitude compared to Atlas. Yes, they're kidnapping people for money, giving them to a doctor who's doing unknown, if unpleasant, things to them, but they're not trying to make themselves out to be doing it for any greater good. Atlas, on the other hand, are trying to project an image of moral righteousness while engaging in Faunus slavery, child labour, unethical experimentation on minorities, and usurping the native Solitas people from their homeland.
• The Atoner: The whole story is this for Adam, who is trying to atone for not only his abusive behaviour to Blake and the destruction of the SDC train at his hands, but later trying to become better with Blake's death.
• Author Appeal: Mainly seen in Vacuo, but the kingdom takes heavy Jewish inspiration due to the author being Jewish himself.
• Ax-Crazy: Iya Dhawan.
• Babies Make Everything Better:
  • Averted. Knowing that Winter is pregnant and he is soon to be a father, Qrow's fears and self hatred drives him to further isolate himself, throwing himself more into work as Ozpin's spy so that his Semblance can't hurt Winter and their unborn daughter like it hurt Summer. From his talks with Ironwood, it is shown that he really does care about Winter and Winijay.
  • Played Straight with James and Clover, who both have an incredibly strong relationship even with the birth of their son; Riley.
• Badass Bookworm: Ruri and Eirian. Both are incredibly smart in their respective fields, though Ruri has better overall grades due to Eirian's miserable grades in Law, and both are capable fighters in their team.
• Badass in Distress: All of Team AZRE find themselves in dangerous situations throughout the story.
• Badass Teacher: While all the teachers of Beacon can be counted as such, even the non combative ones like Professor Cas Melina, Glynda Goodwitch is the most powerful of them all. So much so that Ozpin trusts her to watch Beacon, and the Relic, alone while he has to attend Vytal Tournaments outside his kingdom.
• Bad Powers, Bad People: Along with Bad Powers, Good People, it's a topic regarding one's Semblance. While Adam is more withdrawn about his own Semblance, Zanthus straight up despises his Semblance because he is not only unable to control himself, but believes that it's simply within his nature to be a wild animal that hurts everyone he meets.
• Benevolent Conspiracy: All four headmasters in charge of the Huntsmen Academies, and the few allies they bring in, are working together to stop an ancient evil that threatens to break free of Ozpin's barrier and take over Remnant, all without the rest of the world remaining unaware. Only one of the students know about this group and their goals; Roxanne Marrón.
• Berserk Button: Befitting his short temper, Adam doesn't need to be pushed much to get a reaction, but he gets especially heated when faced with racism, irregardless of how big or little a deal it is to someone else. Surprisingly, Eirian has one too, as she gets especially short when her friends or family are insulted.
• Better to Die than Be Killed: Blake in Chapter 17. After being cornered in Samson's Valley, the mountain range between Vacuo and Vale, she decides to throw herself off the cliff edge to her supposed death rather than give Banesaw and Iya the chance to kill her. Given that one of them is Iya, she likely knew death by her hands wouldn't have been pleasant.
• Big Brother Instinct: What Zanthus has towards Eirian. Due to his orientation, all the love he feels towards her is purely familial, and he is always protecting her from threats no matter who it comes from.
• Big Brother Mentor: What Adam was to Blake, since she was still young when they left their parents for the White Fang.
• Big Damn Heroes: Multiple times in the story:
  • Chapter 1: Blake saves Adam from the Spider Droid when it shoots him out of the carriage with its beams.
  • Chapter 5: Zanthus saves Adam from Ursa in the Emerald Forest.
  • Chapter 6: Eirian nearly falls into the ravine with the Nevermore after crippling it, only saved by the timely intervention of Adam.
  • Chapter 8: Eirian and Zanthus help Adam during Glynda's exam when the latter is trapped under a fallen log.
  • Chapter 15: Eirian's bomb saves Adam from Iya, blowing up in her face to temporarily incapacitate her.
  • Chapter 16: Adam returns the favour and saves Eirian from Banesaw, though both need to be saved quickly by Icheku, Zanthus and Bomvu.
  • Chapter 34: Zanthus saves Adam from an unknown Grimm, and is later saved by Chase in the same fight. The whole group are saved by Qrow at the end.
  • Chapter 37: Icheku saves the group from the same Grimm that attacked them before.
  • Chapter 38: Qrow saves Roxanne from being killed by Carmine in their fight.
  • Chapter 39: Eirian ends up saving Chase and Adam from the mutated Grimm after saving herself.
• Big Fancy House: Given her family's wealth, Ruri apparently has these in every kingdom except Menagerie, though none have actually been seen yet.
• Bilingual Bonus:
  • Some of the dialogue of Vacuo's citizens have their native language in them, which is actually Hebrew to match the clearly Jewish influence some of Vacuo has.
  • One of the servants in the Kashima household addresses Seigyoku with the honorific "Seigyoku-sama", which is an honorific given to those of high status in Japanese society.
  • The grimoire that Ilia finds in Chapter 53 is roughly translated from Norwegian, meaning old memories.
• Blessed with Suck: It's heavily implied that Qrow still has his canon Semblance, meaning that he can inflict bad luck on his enemies but can't control it, resulting in his crippling low self-esteem and attempts to push everyone away just to protect them, including his nieces, teammates and Winter.
• Body Horror:
  • The Stitched are able to grow new limbs, wings, form together into a bulbous matter, and are disturbed everyone who comes into contact with them.
  • A more minor example is some Semblances. While most have little effect on the body, Niccolo's allows him to use his own bones in combat. Problem is, the bones have to get out of his body somehow.
• Both Sides Have a Point:
  • A major point in the story with the White Fang. While many understand why the White Fang had turned to violence since Ghira's peaceful methods barely worked, many also point out, including many Faunus, that not only is the terrorist actions validating the humans' hatred of them, but that the White Fang aren't actually fighting for equality since they refuse to acknowledge mixed people as one of them; including Eirian.
  • Shown heavily in two arguments; Adam against Zanthus, and James against Eliana. While Adam is right in pointing out that Faunus discrimination far outweighs the discrimination humans face as backlash, Zanthus is also right in admonishing him for using the sins of the past to lash out at everyone around him, regardless of whether they've actually done anything wrong in the first place.
  • With the tense history of colonisation that Vacuo suffered at Atlas' hand, Eliana is justified in her anger and distrust of James and his insistence on relying on the machines that were only possible because his kingdom stole them from others. James however, is genuinely using the resources for good, and that for all the yelling and finger pointing Vacuo has done to Atlas, they still use the machines that the other kingdom created without any gratitude.
• Breakout Character: From the comments and the feedback on their blog, Roxanne Marrón and Seigyoku Kashima both seem to be popular characters.
• Brick Joke:
  • Everyone on Team AZRE referring to Doctor Oobleck as Professor, despite his repeated corrections.
  • Eirian can't seem to get Steven's name right even after years at Beacon.
• Broken Pedestal:
  • Blake to Adam. While their relationship at the start was unhealthy and borderline abusive, Adam and Blake were close siblings beforehand and Blake did look up to Adam, but his decision to blow up the train and kill everyone on board destroyed any lingering affection she had for him.
  • Heavily implied, but Adam to Ghira. While their relationship isn't explicitly shown yet, unlike Adam's relationship with Hajimu, Adam's anger towards Ghira is mostly from guilt and sorrow over being abandoned and Ghira admonishing him for killing the human that almost killed his father.
    Adam: Even when they shot at us, when they shot him. He still didn't fight back. He almost died that day, and when I saved him... he looked at me like I was a monster...
  • Zanthus to Qrow. Revealed to have been the Huntsman who saved Zanthus as a child, Qrow's gruff nature and alcoholism completely destroyed any nostalgia that Zanthus had for his savior and inspiration to become a Huntsman, even basing his own cape off of Qrow's.
• Bystander Syndrome: Ozpin drops a not very subtle warning over the dangers of remaining passive in the face of discrimination.
  Ozpin: But, I did explain to them the effect of being a bystander to one's misdeeds. I hope that they learn from this incident, and realise what doing nothing can lead to in these kinds of situations.
• Cassandra Truth: Much to Adam's dismay, his relation to the White Fang is revealed to his team, teachers and the entire school. Despite him being honest in pointing out that he isn't with the White Fang anymore, the fact that he was and the actions of both Iya and Banesaw in Beacon means that absolutely no one believes him.
• Cast Full of Gay: Most of the characters are confirmed either in the story or by the author to be LGBT.
• Cat Ninja:
  • Ruri, the resident ninja of the team, isn't one but her sister is. While Ruri inherited the fish Faunus genes from their father, Seigyoku inherited their mother's cat Faunus genes, having cat features as well as being the master of the fighting style that Ruri was taught in.
  • Blake is also one by the time she comes to Beacon. She fights in a fast, sneaky way while wielding a hachiwari attached to a ribbon, having lost her katana-kurisagama weapon when fighting Iya.
• Chainsaw Good: Banesaw is gifted a chainsaw by Kaanchana after his assassination of Blake.
• Chekhov's Gun: A small one, but the amulet Zanthus gave to Adam ended up being the thing to snap Zanthus out of his Semblance-powered insanity.
• Chekhov's Skill: Cas Melina has a truth Semblance, being able to get answers from people if they ask the right questions. After using it on Eirian to find out what Adam was doing, the team later uses the known truth about Cas' Semblance to scare Gustave into confessing that he spread the rumors about Adam's connection to the White Fang and called Eirian racial slurs.
• The City Narrows: Vale City is shown mostly as the prosperous capital that people from every part of Remnant comes together to live. However, Adam and Zanthus sees the more downtrodden parts in their separate visits, seeing bordered up homes, the abandoned Sasnak Docks, and many homeless or downtrodden people who can't afford to live anywhere else.
• Collapsible Helmet: Iya's Atlesian Pilot Helmet had been modified to fit her bird theme, and sits on her head most of the time. When she needs to see further or use it during combat, the front collapses in front of her face in the form of a beak.
• Color-Coded Characters:
  • After The Great War, known as the Colour War by some according to Eirian, everyone named their children names that allude to colours. Because of this, every character is or alludes to a colour, with the exception of those that lived during the Great War itself; such as Chavi and those who came from the first humanity like Ozpin and Salem.
  • Team AZRE is associated with red, gold, blue and silver. Adam is red themed with red hair, a red sword, and primarily red clothing. Zanthus has golden blonde hair, wearing gold and bronze plated armour, and his weapons are gold coloured. Ruri has blue hair, has blue scales and fins, and wears primarily blue and green clothing for an aquatic aesthetic. Eirian is the only one who's hair doesn't match her assigned colour, having black hair rather than silver, but wears plenty of white and silver jewellery such as her arm cuffs and horns on her headband.
  • Team CRMN is associated with brown, red, purple and green. Chase wears plenty of brown with his brown signature cowboy hat, being offset with red to connect to his twin. Likewise, Roxanne wears plenty of red with brown accents to match Chase. Mauve has purple hair, and is dressed primarily in purple. Niccolo wears many different shades of green, and his non-scarred eye is green in colour.
  • Team RWBY is associated with red, white, black and yellow. Ruby wears her signature red cape with red tinted hair. Weiss has long white hair, and predominately wears white in her dress and accents in her blue jacket. Blake covers her black hair with a black headscarf, wearing black jacket, tights and boots with purple accents, and covers her arms with black ribbons. Yang has bright yellow hair, wears a light yellow dress jacket with her black jacket and boots accented with gold.
• Combat Stilettos: Unlike RWBY, most of the girls in AZRE wear flat shoes both in and out of their combat outfits. The few that don't are Glynda, who wears formal high heels for teaching and fighting, Seigyoku, who wears heeled boots, Weiss, who wears high wedged boots, and Pyrrha, who wears fashionable heels.
• Cool Big Sis: Seigyoku Kashima, Ruri's older sister. She's considered one of the strongest Huntresses to come out of Haven Academy, the youngest to attain the position of Royal Palace Guard despite being a Faunus, and winner of three Vytal Tournaments as a student. Despite her achievements, she's patient and kind, acting as a mentor for Ruri as well as a mediator between her and their parents.
• Cooldown Hug: Adam gives Eirian one when she starts having an emotional breakdown in Chapter 40.
• Cool Ship: The Kashima's private ship. Anyone who sees it is awestruck by it.
• Costume Evolution:
  • The main characters often get different outfits when they hit a new arc in the story, such as more loose fitting outfits for the deserts of Vacuo. They also have two casual outfits each, one for cold weather and one for warm weather.
  • Blake changes her look by the time she reaches Beacon. She no longer wears her hood, replacing it with a Leib Tribe headscarf, and wears more form fitting clothes that references her mother's clothes, implying Blake missing Hajimu.
• "Could Have Avoided This!" Plot: Adam's entire search for Blake could've gone smoother if he trusted Ozpin and Glynda enough to be honest with them, sparing Junior and his daughters from the White Fang and complicating Iya's plans. Thankfully, they learned by the time they started looking for Sable, making sure that Eliana and their teachers are aware so that they can help.
• Crapsack World: Remnant can be considered this outside the safety of the kingdoms. Filled with Grimm and dangerous wildlife, unfortunate people who aren't Huntsmen find little safety from them, even in their own homes. On top of that, other people prove to be just as dangerous with bandits, traffickers and criminals everywhere, or a Civil rights movement turned terrorists that show no mercy to humans unfortunate enough to come across them. Even Huntsmen, considered the best of the best, die very young because of how dangerous their careers are.
• Crossing the Desert: Team AZRE and CRMN are tasked with travelling across the Vacuan desert to reach Samson's Valley on the other side of the kingdom, though take a ship to avoid travelling such a vast distance. However, after the ship hit a sandstorm and was attacked by a Grimm, the students have to bail and travel the rest of the way to the town of Gaza, just before the Scarlet Fields.
• Cross-Referenced Titles: Chapter 38 "The Needs of the Many" and 39 "The Needs of the Few" referenced the well known saying; The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, showing Team AZECRMN's struggle to balance rescuing a kidnapped Ruri and protecting a vulnerable Gaza.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: Banesaw and Iya's assault on Junior's club. While Melanie and Miltia last a little longer than the goons, they too are quickly dispatched by the senior fighters.
• Cursed with Awesome: Zanthus sees his Semblance as this. While he is incredibly strong, fast and durable, he has no control over his sense of person and attacks anyone unfortunate enough to be near him, irregardless of whether they're friend or foe.
• Cute Mute: Ruri is mute, and awkwardly endearing given her isolated childhood in Tsubaki.
• Cycle of Revenge: A theme of the story. Adam had lived a terrible life under the hands of humans, and so when he escaped, he joined the White Fang and threw all his anger and hate back at the human race. Only after he went too far and pushed his last family member away did he stop to look at what he was doing, with his arc in AZRE being letting the past go.
• Dark and Troubled Past: Nearly everyone has a dark past to them:
  • Adam was born to a single mother with his father nowhere to be seen, having to work in the SDC mines for as long as he could remember. After his tenth birthday, his mother passed away, and Adam was branded shortly after due to his increasingly rebellious behaviour angering the superiors. When he left and joined the White Fang, his few years of peace with the Belladonnas was shattered when Ghira was cast out from the White Fang and left, Adam staying with the White Fang with Blake. Since then, he was emotionally and mentally abused by Kaanchana, repeating the behaviour onto Blake when he saw his only family left growing second thoughts.
  • Zanthus never had a secure home. Born on the road, he travelled all of Remnant with his alcoholic father and emotionally neglectful mother, having to steal to make sure the family was fed. At thirteen, he finally had enough and ran away, only to be picked up by ring leaders who brought him to underground fighting rings to earn money. There, he witnessed countless deaths and discrimination, leaving after he accidentally killed someone.
  • While Ruri lived in luxury unlike her modest father, she was born deaf and mute. Because of their misplaced fear and desire to protect their disabled child, her parents refused to let Ruri leave their home in Tsubaki, even for the city's local festivals. Her only comfort was in her older sister, Seigyoku, but that didn't last forever as her sister left for Haven Academy when Ruri was nine.
  • As a mixed race child, Eirian lived a life of complete isolation and bigotry in Menagerie alongside her mother, unable to make friends for most of her life. After her mother died when she was a child, she lived through her teen years with just her father for company, who was struggling to work and take care of a child. At sixteen, she was severely injured trying to rescue Faunus children that had wandered into the desert and were attacked by Grimm, only for her efforts to be brushed off by the Faunus when she returned to her village with them.
  • Even Team CRMN had issues. Chase and Roxanne had to raise their younger sister throughout their teen years after their parents were killed, and have to live in constant fear of being hunted by Salem for their Silver Eyes. Mauve had a happy enough childhood as a wealthy human in Argus, but still has to watch her father waste away from an unspecified wasting disease, and Niccolo's vague past showed that humans attacked him and a religious woman who cared for him because she refused to throw a young Niccolo out. The end result was Niccolo getting a severe burn scar down the left side of his face.
• Darker and Edgier: While RWBY moved onto more serious topics in their later volumes, they never really showed just how bad things are, especially for the Faunus. AZRE doesn't tend to shy away from these serious issues, showing racism, cult mentality, colonisation and human experimentation with Atlas' treatment of the Faunus.
• Dark Is Evil: The Grimm are creatures described as beings of smoke and shadows, with the Stitched taking it further with their blood being described as black tar. They're both monsters that hunt down anything without discrimination, driven to destroy and posing such a threat to humanity that it's extremely dangerous to live outside the established kingdoms.
• Dark Is Not Evil:
  • Adam is dressed primarily in black and red, once wearing a mask sculpted after the Grimm itself during his time in the White Fang. However, despite his temper and questionable morals, he has compassion for some people and does just want equality for his people.
  • Banesaw is an imposing man dressed in black and white, wears the Grimm mask of the White Fang, and is associated with saws and poisonous flowers. However, he's actually the Token Good Teammate of the White Fang, prefering to avoid unnecessary conflict and violence, and openly derides himself for taking part in the organisation's darker activities, such as killing Blake.
• Dark Secret: Adam keeps his affiliation to the White Fang a secret from everyone, but most importantly his blowing up a SDC train, killing everyone on board.
• A Day in the Limelight: While the story primarily focuses on the titular team, a few chapters are given to other characters.
  • Chapter 17 is told from Banesaw's perspective, as he and Iya travel down the continent to Samson's Valley to chase after Blake.
  • Chapter 30 is primarily told in the eyes of Ozpin, while he and the other headmasters discuss what to do about his incoming death from overuse of his magic, and Salem breaking free of Evernight.
  • A few chapters in the Vacuo arc goes to Roxanne, showing not only that she knows about Salem and Ozpin's secret group, but that she has been chosen to become the Summer Maiden.
  • A mini-arc at the end of Volume 2 is told between Banesaw and Ilia, showing how they and the White Fang are roped into helping Cinder infiltrate Beacon Academy.
  • Chapter 59 follows Blake on her first night at Beacon, and starting her initiation.
• Dead Guy Junior: Although not related, Chapter 20 reveals that Blake's name is actually the name of a close friend of hers in the White Fang that was recently killed.
• Deadpan Snarker: After growing closer to his team, Adam has more sardonic retorts to things happening around them, especially if it's from Eirian.
  Adam: Of course Vacuo would have somewhere called Dead Man's Pass.
• Death by Origin Story:
  • Clementine and Cerise, as they're both dead years before AZRE starts and their deaths are major turning points in both Eirian and Adam's lives.
  • Kougyoku can be considered this, but it's Seigyoku who mentions her rather than Ruri, who only has vague memories of her aunt since she died before Ruri was old enough to really remember her.
• Deconstructed Character Archetype: Many of the characters in AZRE deconstruct the archetype they take from, so much that it has it's own page.
• Defrosting Ice Queen / Defrosting Ice King: Both Adam and Ruri. The former eventually learned to move on from his aggressive and violent stance because of his friendships with his team, while the latter, despite not being as an extreme case, was still a stoic and withdrawn girl who eventually warmed up to her friends after growing to accept help from them.
• De-power: Many Huntsmen have had their semblances stolen, either by the infamous assassin Marcus Black, or by Merlot's experimentation where he takes the aura and Semblance. Ruri loses hers, but was rescued fast enough that she still has her Aura.
• Depraved Bisexual: Iya. In Chapter 11, she admits that she's sexually attracted to Banesaw, Sienna, Kaanchana, even Ironwood, while being unrepentantly vicious and sexually depraved to everyone around her.
• Determinator: Eirian. Despite all the hate and problems thrown at her, she refuses to give up on her friends and risks everything to make sure they're safe and sound. Given her past, it's likely so she never ends up alone again.
• Disappeared Dad: Both Zanthus and Adam no longer have fathers in their lives.
• The Dragon: While Iya and Banesaw work together as partners, Banesaw technically outranks Iya as Kaanchana's right hand man, which is shown more in his bossy attitude towards her.
• The Dreaded: While Sienna and Kaanchana are feared due to their high status and fighting skills, Iya is considered the true Dreaded in the White Fang, so much so that those who have to work with her draw straws with other members.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Despite Kaanchana's lack of empathy or connection to anyone around her, she does truly love Sienna and Adam, and even admits to caring about Ghira, Hajimu and Blake before they betrayed her by leaving.
• Even Evil Has Standards: In a terrorist organisation run by people who aren't afraid to use violence and allow people like Iya to join, Banesaw is one of the few that are shown to still hold the old ways dear. While he easily goes into violent fights and isn't afraid to kill, he won't use violence when it isn't necessary and admonishes Iya for being too cruel to their targets. It's to the point where he will even spare humans and let them leave, on top of not wanting to kill Blake but going through with it due to his loyalty to Kaanchana and the White Fang.
• Expressive Ears: Zanthus has these, given that his ears are always described as doing something in relation to his mood.
• Eye Motifs: Just like RWBY, eyes are an important character design in AZRE.
  • Semblances can affect the person's eye colour when activated, such as Zanthus' eyes inverting when his is triggered and Chase adopting a dark rim around his eyes.
  • Some Faunus' traits can change their eye colour. Ilia's eyes are usually a mix of rainbow colours, but can change along with her scales when she exeriences intense emotion, like blue for sorrow or grey when stressed.
  • Losing some of your soul, known in-universe as a Soul Fissure, can cause the victim to lose the pigmentation in their eyes. Ruri originally had purple eyes, but after losing her Semblance to Doctor Merlot, her eyes slowly started to lose their pigmentation and are now a dull grey.
  • Magic also can affect someone's eye colour. Ozpin is shown to have deep golden eyes that shine brighter when he sparingly uses his magic, and Maidens have a ring of fire that matches the colour of their Aura when using their power.
  • Silver eyes are incredibly important in Remnant. Extremely rare, they are unique to the owner having a silver eye colour that brightens when used, summoning blinding light that destroys any Grimm in their vicinity. They're so powerful and useful that Salem had spent centuries wiping them out, and they've become so rare that Roxanne and her siblings are the only ones shown to have them, the others being their deceased father, Steven Rosewater and Summer Rose, who died years before.
• Eye Scream:
  • Adam has an SDC branded over his left eye, blinding him completely and forcing him to hide it under a bandage to stop everyone from knowing about his abusive past as a child slave in the SDC.
  • Niccolo has a burn scar over the entire left side of his face, blinding him in that eye. While the exact cause is unknown, it happened when racist humans tried to get him exiled from their community, and the religious Mother who was caring for him refused.
  • On the villain's side, Doctor Merlot had completely replaced the left side of his face with cybernetics, adopting a red, glowing eye with the skin around the metal heavily scarred and mutilated.
• Fairytale Motifs: Every character in AZRE is based on a fairytale, myth or popular media. Here's the dedicated page for it.
• Fanservice: Both male and female characters are given this treatment. With the designs posted by the artist, Zanthus and Eirian are more scantily clad than Adam and Ruri, with their Vacuo designs showing even more skin.
• Fantastic Racism: Like in RWBY, the Faunus are heavily discriminated against, though it's brought more to the forefront in AZRE.
  • Not even just the humans against the Faunus. Humans that live in Faunus-majority cities are treated poorly, and those of mixed heritage like Eirian find that they have nowhere to be safe. Either in Menagerie or in the rest of Remnant.
  • The Vacuo arc shows that just being from a different kingdom can cause issues with the wrong people. Mauve innocently sees nothing wrong with how Atlas had treated Vacuo, on top of believing the people to have been civilised by her kingdom. On the other end, Vacuans seem to not only hate Atlesians, for justified reasons, but also seem to look down on Valerians, with Roxanne's comments about Beacon being too placid and lazy applying to the kingdom as a whole.
• Fantastic Slur: Plenty. The Faunus have been called "savage, idiotic anarchists", "animals", Cerise and Adam's father were called a heifer and a bull, and "half breed" for mixed people like Eirian.
• Fantasy Counterpart Culture: Remnant has a more clear influence in AZRE.
  • Northern Mistral, namely the Kingdom, has a Eastern Asian influence, with Mongolian and Tibet for the mountain range between them and the Greek inspired settlements between Mistral and Atlas.
  • Vale has more of a Ancient Rome/Greece and Italian inspiration.
  • Vacuo is a mixture of Middle East, Africa and South America depending on where it is.
  • Atlas is inspired by the French and British, while Mantle is Northern England/Ireland/Scotland.
  • Although Menagerie has no set influence from the real world, each village is influenced by what part of Remnant the citizens came from, such as Asilé being the capital and heavily influenced by Atlas.
• Fiery Redhead: Adam is noticeably more hotheaded and argumentative compared to the others, and has bright red hair.
• Fire-Forged Friends:
  • The titular team started the story hating each other. Zanthus and Adam disagreed on everything, Adam despised Eirian for being human, Eirian eventually learned to stay away from him. It was only after the attack on Sasnak Docks that the team learns to come together, slowly working to becoming close friends and now a found family.
  • Team RWBY also struggled with each other, namely Weiss with the rest of her team due to her poor attitude and racism. While Ruby and Weiss grow to be friends, same with Blake and Ruby/Yang, Blake and Yang are still wary of her even though they're willing to see her change.
• Flashback: While there are minor flashbacks throughout the story, Chapter 17 is an entire flashback showing how Iya and Banesaw found Blake in Samson's Valley.
• Flash Step:
  • Some Semblances allow this to happen. Ruby and Neon have speed Semblances, along with Ruby using Crescent Rose' recoil, while Blake uses her shadow clones. Iya also does this with her Semblance, though only when she's not on the ground.
  • Oobleck also does this while teaching, likely a side effect from all the coffee he drinks.
• Flight:
  • Only Maidens are capable of true flight outside of certain Faunus, with Cinder showing this ability when arguing with Banesaw.
  • Faunus born with wings are capable of flying. It appears to be rare, however, as Iya is the only winged Faunus in the large cast shown, and so is highly valuable for the White Fang.
  • Some Semblances can achieve this, though it's not true flight. Ruby can propel herself up into the air with her Semblance, while both Blake and Weiss use theirs as platforms to move in the air. The one with the most control is Eirian, as her bird statues allow her to fly without restriction.
• Foul Fox: Teumessian, a fox Faunus that works with Merlot to kidnap people to use in his experiments into Grimmification, though she's the one to be the most vocal about disliking it.
• Fragile Speedster: Ruri is faster than any of her teammates, but she's also considerably delicate.
• Freudian Excuse: Adam's dark past changed him into an angry, hateful young man who uses violence in his misguided attempt to help his people at the start of AZRE. However, this doesn't get pass Zanthus, who calls Adam out for using the sins of the past to justify his hateful behaviour towards Eirian.
• Friendless Background: All of Team AZRE suffers from some form of this, Eirian is hit the worst with it.
• The Friend Nobody Likes: For some time in their first year, Adam was considered this. Zanthus' opinion of him quickly soured when he saw his volatile temper and discriminating attitude towards Eirian, who wanted to be Adam's friend but accepted Zanthus' suggestion to stay away for her own welfare, and no on in Beacon seemed willing to get past Adam's angry demeanor to try and talk to him. Only Ruri seemed to at least respect him, and in turn was the only one Adam actually liked being near him.
• Friends with Benefits: Chase and Ankhsenamun. They're clearly close friends, but Chase openly chases after other people as well as her, and Ankhsenamun doesn't seem to mind one bit.
• From Nobody to Nightmare: The White Fang Trio are considered this. Kaanchana and Banesaw came from villages in Mistral that weren't even labelled on any map, and Iya was a child servant to an Atlesian nobleman. However, they grew to be powerful fighters and attain some of the highest ranking members in the White Fang, even getting as far as being on the police's watchlist for years.
• Fun with Acronyms: Every Huntsman team is named after a colour that's made up of the four members' initials.
  • Beacon Teams:
    • Team AZRE stands for Adam, Zanthus, Ruri and Eirian. Azure is a shade of blue.
    • Team RWBY stands for Ruby, Weiss, Blake and Yang. Ruby is a shade of red, and is the only team actively named after a member; Ruby.
    • Team SPRN stands for Sun, Pyrrha, Ren and Nora. Spring is a shade of green.
    • Team STRQ stands for Summer, Taiyang, Raven and Qrow, an alrleady graduated team made of Ruby and Yang's relatives. Stark is a shade of white.
  • Shade Teams:
    • Team 'CRMN stands for Chase, Roxanne, Mauve and Niccolo. Carmine is a shade of red.
  • Atlas Teams:
    • Team FNKI stands for Flynt, Neon, Kobalt and Ivori. Funky isn't specifically a colour, but rather refers to bright colours and wild fashion designs.
• Gender-Blender Name: Blake and Eirian are both gender neutral names while both are women.
• Ghost Town: Chapter 40 reveals that Vacuo once had massive roadways connected underground to avoid the deadly desert heat and much of the wildlife/Grimm, connected to many cities. However, eventually new subterrain Grimm appeared and burrowed through the cities' natural defenses, killing everyone inside.
  Icheku: "Cities fall. Eventually, the Grimm burrowed their way through the natural defenses, and sure enough... the cities became giant tombs."
• Gilded Cage: How Ruri sees her old home. It was very luxurious, especially compared to her team's far more modest beginnings, but she was never actually allowed to leave it, souring her memories of it.
• Good Is Not Nice: Roxanne is the most visible one, having much of Vacuo's combat orientated views and looking down at Beacon students for being too passive in the security of their kingdom. On top of that, she is willing to leave people behind if it means she can complete her mission, though she at least admits that she doesn't want to.
• Good Parents:
  • Cerise Taurus is Adam's deceased mother, and while poor and basically indentured to the SDC, she tried to protect Adam and clearly loved him until her death. So much so that her memories are the only completely good ones left with Adam years later.
  • Icheku Zulu for Eirian, as he had raised her by himself after his wife's death, and is protective and loving to not only his daughter, but to her team and friends. Even when he's angry with her, it's from a fear of losing her and is quick to apologise to her when he feels he gone too far.
• Good Scars, Evil Scars: Averted. Both the protagonists and antagonists have their fair share of scars, with Adam and Eirian having ruggard scarring and burn marks.
• Good vs. Good: The conflict in Volume 3 onwards is Adam and Blake versus Ozpin regarding the White Fang, as they don't trust him to actually deal with the situation while Ozpin stands in their way over fear of them getting hurt. Neither is demonised in this struggle with both sides being justified in their reactions.
• Great Offscreen War: Like in RWBY, the Great War happened nearly eighty years before the beginning of AZRE, but the Faunus Rights Revolution only happened around thirty years prior.
• Green-Eyed Monster: Eirian, surprisingly. She admits to feeling jealous that Ruri and Adam are good friends while he had nothing but contempt for her.
• Guilt Complex: Despite his behaviour, Adam suffers from low self-esteem and tends to blame himself for things going wrong, his inner thoughts implying that years under Kaanchana had wreaked havoc on his mental stability.

H - W

• Had to Be Sharp: Those that don't live in the safety of the kingdoms have to know how to fight to survive the constant assault of Grimm. Therefore, it's very common to find people who lived outside the four kingdoms to have some previous training, especially since they were just children.
• Handicapped Badass: Adam and Ruri. The former is blind in one eye because of his brand, and the latter is deaf and mute, but neither seems to dampen on their fighting abilities.
• Happily Married: Shinju and Hisui, for all their flaws, genuinely love each other and have a mutually respectful marriage. Also counts for Clementine and Icheku, before the former’s death.
• Hated by All: Although he was the creator of the White Fang and originally accepted by his people, Adam sees Ghira’s current reception amongst the organization to be this, stating that a big reason he left was that no one wanted to follow him. Not even Blake could disagree with him.
• Heroic BSoD: Adam hits this for months after the attack on Sasnak Docks, due to being told of Blake's death. It took the efforts of his friends helping him through issues with Gustave and coming to terms with his past that he tries to move on, but he's still currently mourning his sister.
• Heroes Love Dogs: All of team RWBY love Zwei, Ruby's service dog and family pet. Blake is wary of him because of past experiences regarding strays, but even she is receptive to him.
• Hot Teacher: Eirian considers Cas to be this.
• How We Got Here: Circles has Yang and Eirian coming across Roman and Blake in Ainrofilac Docks. Shades of Grey shows Blake and Sun's story earlier that day and how they got to the docks to stop Torchwick.
• Humans Are Bastards: Adam's beliefs pre-development. Even after maturing past just hatred for every human, he still holds contempt for humans from Atlas; like Mauve.
• Hunter of Monsters: Like in RWBY, Huntsmen are warriors trained to hunt down and destroy Grimm; monsters that plague Remnant and destroy any human settlement they come across.
• Hypocrite: Zanthus calls Adam out for complaining about the discrimination that the Faunus have gone through when he is already discriminating against Eirian for being a human. This was long before Eirian was revealed to be mixed race.
• I Hate Past Me: Adam clearly feels shame over how he acted earlier in the story, especially his behaviour towards his team.
• I Just Want My Beloved to Be Happy: Zanthus is willing to let his feelings for Adam go when he thought that the other student was starting to develop feelings for Chase. Thankfully, that wasn't the case.
• Innocently Insensitive:
  • Many people are this towards Eirian, including her own team. Most tend to point out that she doesn't look like a Faunus, unknowingly parroting what Faunus derided her for all her life, but Mauve is the worst with straight up calling Eirian a half breed to her face. After being told off, she confesses that since it was a name that people openly called Faunus/Human mixed people back in Argus and Atlas, she never thought it was a derogatory term.
  • More minor but in Chapter 4, the elderly lady, who runs the motel that new students stay in before being enrolled into Beacon, compared Zanthus, a lion Faunus, to her pet cat, clearly not noticing how uncomfortable it makes the student feel with being compared to an animal.
• It Amused Me: A lot of Iya's actions are explained with this. She takes pleasure in doing whatever she wants, even if it means hurting people, and doesn’t take kindly to being told what to do.
• It Can Think: The new mutated Grimm have shown to use teamwork, aid in helping others, and are smart enough to retreat when the battle turns against them. Because these behaviours have never been seen before in Grimm, the heroes are immediately supicious on what's happening, unwilling to chalk it up to simple natural evolution. In Chapter 42, it's revealed that they are people that had been experimented on.
• It's All About Me: Despite all the pain she caused Adam, Kaanchana doesn't recognise it and instead focuses on how much Adam leaving hurted her, going into a rant to Banesaw about being the only one to truly understand him because they both have scars inflicted by the worst of humanity, while ignoring that she ordered a hit on his sister.
  • Weiss' attitude veers into this, as she struggles with a inferiority complex and was raised to be the best of the best, and as such has grown a very large ego about herself. Whenever something threatens to deconstruct that image, she reacts very badly and focuses entirely on her struggles. Her worst moment of this was crying over her issues coming to Beacon on the search for Blake; the girl she pushed away for being a Faunus and an ex White Fang member.
• Jerkass:
  • Gustave Rouge, an arrogant student who is openly racist towards Adam and other Faunus, while being grossly sexual towards the former's deceased mother. Thankfully, he was expelled by Ozpin in Chapter 21.
  • Iya has nearly zero positive traits and shows no empathy for all the damage she causes to those around her, even those who are supposed to be on her side.
• Jerkass Has a Point:
  • While the way he phrased it was certainly not right, Adam isn't wrong in pointing out that, for all of Blake's talking about how the Faunus have suffered but shouldn't force more suffering on the humans, she actually hadn't suffered at all due to living in a mansion in what's basically an ethnostate, albeit an overcrowded one. Blake doesn't deny it, but retorts that she gave it all up to help her people.
  • Iya has a few over the story. She's right in pointing out that Kaanchana is being a full blown Hypocrite for ordering Blake's death for simply leaving the White Fang while letting Adam run off, and narrows it down to Kaanchana simply caring more about Adam. She's also right in saying that they need a plan while in Beacon since, while she and Banesaw are formidable fighters, they're no match for Ozpin and the whole school of Huntsmen if discovered. On top of that, she leaves Banesaw speechless by pointing out that he's only believing that the current terrorist acts the White Fang are doing are necessary because Kaanchana told him they were, not because he actually believes in it.
• Law of Chromatic Superiority: Like in RWBY, silver eyes are considered an extremely rare and powerful trait, giving the owner the ability to summon light that disintegrates all Grimm around them. All three of the Marrón twins have it, getting it from their father, and Summer Rose before her death.
• Life Meter: Aura. It's a protective field that Huntsmen use to protect themselves from damage, and appears as a gauge on equipment designed to monitor it. In a fight, a broken Aura is shown as light breaking like glass over the person's body.
• Light Is Good: Aura, like in RWBY, is shown as a light of the indiviudal's colour, and is the projection of their soul that protects the person from harm. This is directly opposite to Grimm, which cannot have Aura and as such are described as beings of pure shadows and darkness.
• Light Is Not Good:
  • The Schnee family is a white themed family that created the SDC, Remnant's biggest Dust distributing company. They are led by their patriarch, Jacques Schnee, who is a cruel and abusive man that pays his Faunus employees poorly, raised Weiss and her siblings up in an unloving environment, and looks down on everyone who isn't a Schnee. Weiss replicates many of his poor behaviours, but she has a heart underneath that comes out from time to time.
• Locked Out of the Loop: Both Team AZRE and the headmasters are victims of this.
  • Ozpin and Beacon were kept in the dark around Adam's involvement with the White Fang and his search for Blake specifically, resulting in them being unable to help when Adam and his team were caught by the White Fang until after Iya and Banesaw cripple two of the students. Glynda calls Adam out for his choices.
  • During the Vacuo arc, it's revealed that Team AZRE and all of Remnant, save a hand chosen few, are kept in the dark about Salem's existence and the Maidens. Only one of the students knows; Roxanne Marrón, who is hand chosen by Ozpin and her mother to be the next Summer Maiden.
• Logical Weakness: Semblances have been rewritten somewhat to have more of a personalised weakness to each one.
  • Adam's Semblance is kinetic redirection, but he needs his sword in order to use it. So, separating him from his sword severs him from his Semblance.
  • Zanthus' Semblance is an unspecified strength Semblance, but had been mutated so that it's permanently blocked unless a trigger is pressed, implied to be Zanthus being strangled, and even then he is basically a wild animal. Given that he was almost killed that way when he unlocked his Semblance, it's likely the traumatic awakening morphed it to have that limitation.
  • Ruri's Semblance is shockwaves, but the force she exerts reflects back onto her body, meaning that she needs to move unless she grounds herself beforehand. On top of that, she doesn't seem to have much control of how much power she can exert, making it dangerous to any allies around her.
  • Eirian's Semblance is reanimation, but she can only reanimate statues that are made of clay so far. If she wants to make them into living bombs, she has to work the Dust in beforehand, on top of needing to give orders since the statues don't seem to have high enough cognitive abilities to do things of their own accord.
  • Chase's has finally been revealed to be a speed Semblance, giving him Bullet Time abilities that slow the world around him and speeds him up. However, it taxes his stamina and Aura greatly, and seems to leave him with lowered reaction time once used.
  • Roxanne's is Aura Siphon, but requires physical touch to take any Aura and cannot exceed her natural limit.
  • Niccolo's is Bone Manipulation, but his bones have to come out of his skin and is a painful process for him.
  • Ruby's Petal Burst has a weight limit, so the more she carries, the more it exhausts her.
  • Mentioned with Cas' truth Semblance, they have to ask questions that the person knows the answer to. If the person doesn't know something, they obviously can't answer the question, but in the case with Eirian, she didn't tell the full situation with Adam because she didn't know the full situation, as she and Ruri were kept in the dark by Adam and Zanthus.
• Love Triangle: Averted. Chase shows sexual interest in Adam and Zanthus, but doesn't pursue any romantic relationship due to his desires of keeping things casual. Zanthus and Adam get together shortly after being introduced to Team CRMN.
• Made of Explodium: Dust is an extremely volatile substance. Adam, who used to be a child slave in the SDC mines, understands better than anyone how dangerous it is.
• Magic Fire: Maidens that tap into their power subconciously have flames appear around their eyes, matching their eye colour. Cinder, as a half Maiden with gold eyes, has gold flames around her eyes.
• Magic Is Feminine: Subverted. Maidens, people who are femme aligned, are the only ones with true magic, as Semblances are considered non magic in the modern Remnant society despite evolving from First Humanity magic. However, Ozpin, a man, also wields magic due to being one of two survivors of the first humanity, along with Salem.
• Manipulative Bastard: Kaanchana to a T. Not only does she manipulate teens like Adam and Blake, but is even able to give grown adults like Banesaw and Sienna second thoughts by playing with their loyalty and insecurities, or their deep friendship.
• Man Made Of Kryptonite: Silver Eyed Warriors are considered this to Grimm. Their silver eyes are powerful only against Grimm, able to vaporise them with just a look, even at the cost of their deteriorating eyesight. The only characters that have these eyes are Ruby, her mother Summer, Chase, Roxanne and Aurora.
• May–December Romance: Chase purposely goes for this, since he's described as preferring partners with more "experience", as seen in his instant attraction to Qrow and Ironwood. While Ironwood declines due to being Happily Married, it's unknown how Qrow responded to Chase's advances since he left for drinks with the student.
• Mid-Season Twist:
  • Around the halfway point of Volume 1, Adam is caught at Sasnak Docks by Iya and Banesaw with Eirian, only for the White Fang members to tell him that they came to find him only to share the news: they found and killed Blake.
  • Volume 2: The new Grimm are people that were experimented on, and Sable was working as a spy for Eliana after killing Zanthus' father, Xanthe.
  • Volume 3: Blake is alive and came to Beacon to become a Huntress.
• Minidress of Power: A few characters wear these; including Zanthus in his Vacuo outfit, Ruby, Nora and Weiss. Pyrrha and Yang have their skirts from canon swapped for shorts instead.
• Missing Mom: Many suffer from this:
  • Adam's biological mother died and his adopted one left when she and Ghira left the White Fang.
  • Zanthus' disappeared when he ran away and willingly left again when they reunited in Vacuo.
  • Eirian's died when she was a child.
  • Chase, Roxanne and Aurora lost theirs when they were twelve/four, as they were separated in a sand storm and both their mother and father died.
  • Niccolo grew up without a mother or a father, and his maternal figure in Salerno was killed in the same fire that scarred him.
  • Ruby and Yang's mother, Summer, disappeared on a mission years ago.
  • Yang's biological mother also abandoned her at birth.
  • Weiss' mother died when she was a young child.
  • Sun's biological parents gave him to Eliana when he was an infant.
  • Ren and Nora's parents are dead.
• Mix-and-Match Weapon: Given that it's RWBY, everyone has weapons like this:
  • Adam wields Blush & Wilt from canon; a chokuto style blade with a built in shotgun sheath.
  • Zanthus has gauntlets that have retractable claws and built in guns.
  • Ruri wields two tanto knives that can shift into hooks and have long chains wrapped into the handles.
  • Eirian wields a khopesh sword that can transform into a hunting rifle with the blade flipping downwards.
• Motive Rant: Kaanchana has one in Chapter 23, ranting to Banesaw over why she's so focused on bringing Adam back to the White Fang when she had other defectors killed.
  Kaanchana: I saw a little boy and for the first time in my life, I felt like someone understood. I felt love. I could've been a mother that I never had, someone strong who could turn him into the person he needed to be. But Hajimu took him from me. I let her play mother, but she couldn't give him what he needed. I could. I protected him and Blake when so many abandoned them, I gave them everything. [...] That is why I wouldn't let Iya kill him. That is why I let him go. That is why I have to believe he'll come back to me! Because I looked at what humanity did to his face and I saw myself!
• Mr. Fanservice:
  • Zanthus Nemeós, who like Eirian, is fond of wearing outfits that show off much of his muscular body, even when in more casual clothes as he sleeps completely shirtless.
  • Chase Marrón. Befitting his flirtatious nature, he wears a sleeveless shirt that's purposely unbuttoned down to expose his chest.
• Ms. Fanservice:
  • Eirian Esna. Her outfits often show off her abs with shorts to highlight her long legs, with her Vacuo outfit exposing even more of her stomach.
  • Yang Xiaolong. Her primary Huntsman outfit is her Hunter outfit from RWBY, with her shorts and garters showing off her legs, and her jacket with tube top creating a boob window.
  • Cinder Fall, as her outfit is mainly a minidress and shorts that show off her long and slender legs. The straps of her dress also form a diamond shape boob window.
• Multinational Team: Hunstmen Academies accept students from all places in Remnant, with Beacon and Vale being considered the multicultural mixing pot of the kingdoms. The four teams that are followed by the story are:
  • Adam Taurus, who was born in Mantle and raised in the Faunus kingdom of Menagerie. Zanthus Nemeós, who was born in Mistral and travelled everywhere in Remnant. Ruri Kashima, who's from Tsubaki, Mistral, and Eirian Esna, who's from Vikela in Menagerie.
  • Chase and Roxanne Marrón, twins that are native to Vacuo. Niccolo Olivero de Vale, who's from Vale, and Mauve Chevalier, who's from Argus, an Atlesian settlement in Northern Mistral.
  • Ruby Rose and Yang Xiaolong, who are from Patch, an island north of Vale. Weiss Schnee, who's from Atlas, and Blake Belladonna, who's from Asíle, the capital of Menagerie.
  • Sun Wukong, who's from Isidis City in Vacuo. Pyrrha Nikos, who's from Argus like Mauve. Lie Ren, who comes from Mistral, and Nora Valkyrie, who's from the Ankou, a tribe native to Solitas outside of Atlas borders.
• Mundane Utility: Eirian has the ability to make sentient statues that can double as powerful bombs, but uses it to make a pet bird for the team; Nabk.
• My Greatest Failure: Adam believes his to be failing to save Blake, carrying that guilt with him for an entire year and likely will for the rest of his life.
• Never Found the Body: Summer Rose' fate. She left on a mission years ago when Yang and Ruby were still young, but never returned. Qrow apparently saw her death, which caused his massive mental slip, but he couldn't recover her body and as such Summer's fate is ultimately left unknown.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Adam's insistence in keeping everyone at arms' distance and refusing to share his secrets meant that no one was prepared for when Iya and Banesaw attacked him, resulting in not only Junior and his daughters being hospitalised, but Eirian and Adam being permanently disabled with the latter having difficulty walking even a whole year after the incident.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Iya's decision to go to Vale City for no other reason than to rub Blake's death in Adam's face resulted in not only Banesaw being critically injured, but more heat from Vale and the other kingdoms on top of the White Fang. Kaanchana was quick to chastise her rash decisions when they returned.
• No Body Left Behind: Grimm that are slain leave nothing behind, vanishing into dust. The Stiched, people that are subjected to grimmification by Merlot, take this further by melting away into puddles of tar, which is the fate of the Alpha Stitched, Yishaq.
• Noodle Incident: Eirian's stories about her father's time as a student are these, especially since none of them have an ending and even start halfway through when the others join in.
• Oblivious to Love: Played For Drama. Not only is it difficult for Adam to recognise signs that someone is interested in him, since everyone but him knew about Zanthus' attraction to him, but it's shown that he suffers from such low esteem that he can't understand why someone would love him.
• An Offer You Can't Refuse: Cinder and Kaanchana originally offered alliances willingly, something that Banesaw disliked but went along with either way. However, when Banesaw refuses to endanger his men by sending them to Mount Glenn, Cinder makes it very clear that he has no choice in the matter if he wishes to live.
• Official Couple:
  • Adam and Zanthus get together in Chapter 32.
  • Clover and Ironwood are revealed to be a couple during the headmasters' meeting, having left Clover and the Ace Ops in Atlas to watch over the kingdom and their son.
  • Winter and Qrow are revealed to have at least slept together, but their relationship is far more turbulent with Qrow all but abandoning a pregnant Winter because of his own troubles, needing Ironwood to call him out.
• Original Character: Most of the cast is made up of OCs, with some even replacing canon characters; Theo differs completely from his appearance in the book, Kali is renamed as Hajimu, Jin completely replaces Lionheart.
• Overprotective Mom: Shinju is counted. She feared so much for Ruri's safety that she kept her in their estate all her childhood, and constantly infantilizes her daughter even when she's grown into adulthood. Clementine is a more minor case due to having no appearance with her early death, but she kept Eirian in their home on the outskirts of Vikela because she would’ve been safe from the bigoted Faunus that lived further in the settlement.
• Papa Wolf: Icheku in spades. His usually cheerful demeanor vanishes the moment Eirian is in danger.
• Parasol of Pain: Neo uses an umbrella as a weapon, with a long blade hidden in the top for suprise attacks.
• Parental Neglect:
  • Sable to Zanthus and Argenta.
  • Clementine is also a more complex case, as while Eirian remembers her fondly as a mother, she also acknowledges that she was constantly away on missions and that deep down, she used her job to get away from Menagerie since the constant stress of living there was becoming too much. As Eirian got older, she acknowledged that her mother was a human being and had flaws, but was still inspired by her memory enough to become a Huntress too.
  • While he isn't Aurora's father, Chase practically raised his younger sister with Roxanne when they were just 12. However, as he got older, he desired his own freedom and became somewhat distant, making promises he never intended to keep to the point that Aurora doesn't even believe him anymore. After talking to Adam, he tries to be a better paternal figure.
• Personality Powers: Semblances. Most consider Semblances as an embodiment of the individual, due to being powered by their Aura, which is the projection of their soul. This gets brought up in regards to Zanthus, who despises his Semblance and worries that it reflects him as a person; someone who's dangerous and uncontrollable when pushed to violence.
• Police Are Useless: Subverted. While the police don't have much of an appearance in AZRE, it's later revealed in Chapters 22 and 23 that the police are actively overworked because of students in Beacon Academy taking matters into their own hand and the disasters that happen after, as shown with Team AZRE's insistence in handling the White Fang themselves.
• The Power of Glass: Cinder uses her Semblance, the ability to control dust and dirt, in combination with her Maiden powers to create glass that she can control.
• Precious Puppy: Zwei, the Xiaolong family corgi and Ruby's service dog. Both Ruby and Weiss fawn over how cute he is.
• Punched Across the Room: Played For Laughs. After Eirian wakes Ruri up in an overexcited manner, the poor girl was startled to the point that she instinctively kicked out, sending Eirian across the room. Given the intense power of Ruri's Semblance, she ended up nearly kicking Eirian through the dorm wall.
• Really Gets Around: Fitting his flirtatious nature, Chase has been described as someone who's slept with half the kingdom already.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: All the headmasters are portrayed as this. Despite their flaws and miscommunications, they handle any problem that their students have with good advice and comforting words, even if the student doesn't attend their school as Ironwood accepted Ozpin's request to help with Ruri due to both having common ground as disabled Huntsmen.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Adam gives one to Banesaw in Chapter 16, regarding the latter's involvement in Blake's murder.
  Adam: She was just a kid. An innocent kid who just wanted to help the Faunus, and you killed her. Now you just stand there like it was nothing! You always go on about protecting Faunus' lives, but what about her's?! Did she not matter?!
  Banesaw: Don't assume I took pleasure in killing a child.
  Adam: But you still did it! Your feelings on it don't mean shit to me when you killed my little sister!
• The Reveal:
  • Eirian is a mixed race person. Her mother was Human and her father is a Faunus.
  • Blake was killed by Iya and Banesaw.
  • Roxanne has been chosen by Eliana and Ozpin to be the next Summer Maiden, as they want to mix the Maiden's powers with Silver Eyes.
  • Ozpin has magic, and is slowly dying from them with an estimated two years left to live.
• The Revolution Will Not Be Civilized: Many people in the White Fang believe this. After Ghira and his peaceful methods were disposed, Sienna took over and moved the organisation towards more extreme methods. Kaanchana wants to take it a step further, believing that war is inevitable and wants to make sure her people have the means to fight it.
  Kaanchana: You're looking for morality in a war, Adam. That is the last place you'll find it.
• Sadist: Iya. She's as violent as she is crude, and has no guilt or empathy for anyone hurting around her.
• Secret-Keeper: Team AZRE to Adam's secrets. They're the only ones who know about his brand, being sworn to secrecy.
• Shipper on Deck: Eirian hides no joy in seeing her friends find romantic love around them. She is the first to pick up on Ruri's crush on Roxanne, and happily watches Adam and Zanthus enjoy their first dance together.
• Slave Brand: The SDC brand on Adam's face, which was inflicted on him when he was just ten years old.
• Stronger Sibling: Seigyoku is this to Ruri. While Ruri is the strongest member of Team AZRE and is mentioned to be one of the top ranking students of her year, Seigyoku went further by graduating top of her year, winning three Vytal Tournaments in a row, and was able to earn a promotion as a Royal Palace Guard despite her young age and race. It says a lot when Seigyoku is well known to people outside of her kingdom.
• Super-Senses: All Faunus have night vision, and then an enhanced sense depending on their animal heritage. Zanthus has far more acute hearing thanks to his ears, similar to Blake, Ruri is able to sense vibrations through her skin, Iya is able to fly. Adam doesn't have any additional abilities, and Eirian admits that she can't see in the dark, despite being half Faunus herself.
• Tall, Dark, and Handsome: Chase is shown to be this. As the tallest student at 6'6, he's noticeably dark skinned and described as handsome, with Eirian even quoting the trope when asking Adam about him.
• Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: Early days for Team AZRE was this. With Adam's aggressive behaviour towards Eirian driving a wedge between him and Zanthus, the team were barely able to get through a training mission without Adam and Zanthus arguing with each other. Thankfully, they start to grow closer when Adam admits his faults and Zanthus tries to be more understanding.
  • Team RWBY also, mostly due to Weiss. No one else likes her on their team, especially Blake, with the two constantly battling whenever they're together. It comes to a head in Chapter 68 with Blake and Weiss arguing over the White Fang, resulting in Blake outing herself and then running away to prove the White Fang's innocence. They don't start moving past it until Chapter 77.
• Timeskip: Many in the story, but the biggest one is between Ruri's disability arc in Chapter 27 and 28, skipping over half a year to AZRE's second Vytal Tournament.
• Took a Level in Kindness: Albeit still rough around the edges, Adam is far more sociable than he was when he first joined Beacon, even able to at least work with Mauve despite his known hatred of Atlesians.
• Trademark Favourite Food: Eirian's the only one to have a specific food that she loves; papayas. Funnily enough, Ozpin hopes that she didn’t put any in the punch when she planned the dance, as he's allergic.
• Undying Loyalty: A virtue shared by both Eirian and Banesaw. They're both fiercely loyal to their respective leaders, and won't back down even when they are threatened.
• War Is Hell: A mentality shared by those who have seen their fair share. Despite the Great War ending long before anyone barring Chavi had seen it, there had been plenty of smaller wars over the decades especially with Atlas against the natives of Solitas. While he's the only soldier shown as far, Ironwood is clearly traumatised by his time serving the military, including the incident that cost him half his body.
• "Well Done, Son" Guy: While Adam and Ruri want their parents' approval despite conflicting emotions towards them, Chase has it the worst. Despite being the eldest sibling of the four, he finds that Eliana is especially hard on him and his mistakes, while giving leeway to the more mischievous Sun. He desperately wants his mother to approve of him, but finds their personalities just too different for any common ground to be found. Roxanne faces the same critical attitude from her mother, but their similar personalities and maturity make it so Eliana and Roxanne get along far better.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: Out of all of them, Banesaw is written the most complex out of the White Fang. Despite believing that violence is the only way, he only joined the White Fang because he wanted a world for his family that was equal, showing a more compassionate side to people who aren't his enemies, especially children.
• What Beautiful Eyes!: Eirian's reaction to Roxanne and Chase's eyes in Chapter 36, finding them mesmerizing. However, Roxanne's quick dismissal suggests that she had to deny anything special about her Silver Eyes before, likely due to knowing that Salem was hunting anyone who had them down to exterminate them.
• What Measure Is a Mook?: Phoibos makes Adam realise that the people working on the train he had just blown up very likely had no say in how the company was run, and that his actions impacted everyone around him in more ways than he thought of.
  Phoibos: Do you see any SDC members suffering? Do you see Jacques Schnee boarding up his windows because he doesn't have the ammo needed to defend his family? Or how about his guards having to be let go because Atlas can't afford all the bullets and Dust needed?
• Worldbuilding: Plenty of moments are given to build up the world of Remnant, either through dialogue between characters or the class lectures that the students go through, or by Eirian.
  Eirian: I love the City of Beacon. Did you know this has been Vale's capital since the kingdom's creation under King Aueulius? The natural cliff sides known in this part of Vale gave the capital a strong defense against the Grimm and the elements, and the Valerian Empire grew exponentially with Aueulius building his castle right where Beacon Academy stands? Or that before Atlas came about, it was actually Beacon that pioneered in technology and weaponry? Imagine what it could've been like if Atlas didn't have access to such vast amounts of Dust in its kingdom!
  Adam: Do you ever shut up?
• Worthy Opponent: Banesaw considers Eirian this in Chapter 16.
• Wrecked Weapon: Blake's weapon, Gambol Shroud, was shattered when Banesaw hit it full force during their fight in Chapter 17. It was later taken by Iya to give to Adam to prove their kill, and is currently still in his possession, but Blake returns with a new version of her weapon.

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