Fanfic / Cards of Remnant

"Ruby Rose has wanted to be a Hunting Duelist all her life, to train her aura to manifest the monsters in her deck to fight the Grimm. So when she gets an invitation to join her sister at Beacon Duel Academy, she jumps at the chance. But old powers are stirring, and ancient summoning methods not seen in eons are about to clash, with the fate of Remnant in the balance."

Cards of Remnant is a crossover fanfic between RWBY and Yu-Gi-Oh! by TheMaster4444. On this Remnant, Duel Monster cards aren't just paper but are forged with dust and aura, with Hunting Duelists being trained to use their aura to provide bodies for the monster spirits within to be summoned and battle the Grimm. And when two duelists clash, then it's time to du-du-du-du-du-du-DUEL!

Tropes found in Cards of Remnant:

• Abusive Parents:
  • Jacques Schnee, as usual. However, since he is a capable Xyz Duelist in this story, he is debatably crueler, having had his Galaxy-Eyes Photon Dragon give Weiss her iconic scar when he forcibly trained her to learn how to Xyz Summon, seeing Synchro as on its way out.
  • Willow Schnee varies between this and Parental Neglect, which Weiss finds worse because she at least knows what to expect from her father. After performing a charity concert, the woman wastes no time brutally telling her daughter that very little of it will help the Faunus, and actually insults her for her naïveté.
  • Marcus Black seems to be even worse in this story to Mercury than canon, having had his monster brutally beat his son's legs off, traumatizing him to the point where he no longer understands how anyone can find dueling fun.
  • Like in canon, Nora's mother abandoned her before she met Ren in the ruins of Kuroyuri, and she's notably shaking when Weiss makes the mistake of thinking Nora's mother gave her one of the Aesir.
  • Based on the obvious fear the Malachite twins have whenever she so much as raises her voice, Lil' Miss was clearly not one to pull her punches in how she treated her daughters.
• The Ace:
  • Pyrrha, as per usual. Part of the reason she's called 'The Invincible Girl' is because almost no one has managed to get her life points below half.
  • Team CFVY are a team of these, having managed to deliver several Curb Stomp Battles to older teams in their first year and it was remarked that they stood a good chance of winning the Vytal Tournament had it been on that year. Several doubt that even Pyrrha is above them in terms of skill.
    • Coco's skill is such that she has at least six decks (one for each attribute) on hand at all times, and is equally proficient at wielding all of them. Ruby herself notes that even leaving out financial limitations for the number of cards needed, having multiple decks means learning multiple archetypes inside and out on top of keeping them straight in your head, something Coco manages with apparent ease.
    • After Blake wins her promotional duel, Professor Goodwitch reveals that Yatsuhashi could've won near the beginning of their duel if he hadn't held back on Synchro Summoning. And even with that handicap, he brought Blake down to 100 life points.
  • Penny is considered the strongest student in Atlas, to the point of being called 'The Second Coming of The Kaiserin', in reference to Winter's title as 'The Kaiserin'. While part of this is due to her nature as an Ignis, that doesn't detract from her creation of Link Monsters or her raw dueling skill. Tellingly, she has used all Extra Deck summoning methods apart from Pendulum and is the first duelist in the story to defeat Ruby.
• Achievements in Ignorance:
  • Ruby is able to forge two cards that have ties to her mother Summer Rose (Black Rose Dragon and Baronne de Fleur) without even knowing about the connection, something that makes Yang jealous, as she herself has tried and failed to do the same for years.
  • Downplayed given they were trying to help her anyway, but JNPR getting Pyrrha to attend the Beacon Dance solely to support Ren and Nora perfectly matches one of her dearest dreams, getting to help her friends while being just another face in the crowd.
• Actually Pretty Funny:
  • Despite spending much of Jaune's promotional duel mocking him, most of the audience members give a chuckle when he uses the infamous "what does it do" joke for Pot of Greed.
  • The typically closed off and abrasive Mercury gives a genuine laugh at Yang's impression of Yatsuhashi.
• Adaptational Badass:
  • While his canon counterpart is simply a businessman, here Jacques Schnee is a capable duelist, having taught Weiss how to Xyz summon.
  • Zwei is explicitly stated to have his Aura unlocked, and even has a healing Semblance to help with Taiyang's heart issues.
  • Lil' Miss Malachite in canon was the head of a powerful criminal gang and a very competent Information Broker, but didn't display much in the way of combat capabilities. Here, she is a Dark Signer experienced enough with both dueling and her magic to give Ruby one of her toughest matches so far through a possessed Junior, with a spare deck to boot, and it's made clear that she 's far out of the younger Signer's league. Her influence is also much more apparent, mentioning she has several councilmen in her pocket and an alliance with Raven that is working towards usurping Salem!
  • Implied with Silver Eyes. Ozpin states to Ruby that they are capable of channeling Creation Magic for results similar to those seen in canon. Salem later implies they can be used to channel several types of magic based on the wielders emotions.
• Adaptational Explanation:
  • In a flashback, Willow explains that the reason Jacques had such a high position in the Schnee Dust Company was that he and Nicholas balanced each other out when he was alive. Nicholas was quite charitable and kept the company's reputation, while Jacques ensured they had enough money to keep going, with his greed growing unchecked after Nicholas's death.
  • As a result of calming down after their duel, Blake gets a chance to explain to Weiss why she doubts the White Fang are behind the Dust robberies beyond morals; given the number of members they have, they'd need similarly large amounts to arm them all, which would be the primary aim of such an operation, hence why they typically target SDC transports. Dust shops provide too little to be practical, and they run the risk of getting caught each time they target them, making the whole thing a high-risk-low-reward situation.
  • Ozpin justifies his apparent lack of concern over an infiltrator reaching the CCT to Ironwood by pointing out he has software engineers examining the system for viruses, and short of bringing Pietro Polendina straight from Atlas, Ironwoods own men won't be that much more effective. He's also under the impression that the intruder was searching for leads on Amber, and was unsuccessful, capping it off by saying there's little more they can do.
  • How Ironwood lost his hand, gained his Semblance, and developed trust issues is explained via his Dark and Troubled Past. Fresh out of Atlas Academy and needing money for his sisters medical bills, he and his former teammates were called up to take a job by their former leader, him being lead to believe it was just defending a shipment for the Ebi family, and going along with it since his leader had been his anchor when he was a socially awkward student. It was actually a case of human trafficking regarding Faunus refugees brought about by the then recent Faunus Rights Revolution, all of his teammates knowing the truth but just not caring. Learning the truth caused "Mettle" to awaken, and gave him the resolve to oppose and subsequently kill his former teammates, his ex-leader managing to take his hand from him before dying. Said incident taught him to choose his friends more carefully and be more wary of trusting easily, which in turn led to developing friendships with Clover Ebi, Winter Schnee, and Akira Zaizen.
• Adaptational Jerkass:
  • Played with regarding Yang. Whereas she was much more relaxed, cheerful, and overall sweet in the canon Beacon Arc, her personality here falls more in line with that of her post-Beacon characterization, where she ended up developing more negatively following a Trauma Conga Line. Particularly her repressing her issues, being much more open to violence if it means getting what she wants, being more volatile in temperament, and overall acting much more like Raven in behavior. This reaches an apex in her duel with Banesaw, where she demonstrates a willingness to resort to Cold-Blooded Torture to get information out of him despite this horrifying Weiss, ended up hospitalizing several individuals in the audience due to her recklessness in their duel, and only expressing anger at Clear Wing rejecting her attempt at summoning them.
  • Downplayed regarding Ozpin and Qrow. Both are largely the same in terms of characterization, but there is one minor difference in Ozpin's methodology: his willingness to go to certain lengths even if he feels horrible about it, something he often fought with Ironwood over in canon. Ozpin is genuinely terrified over the threat the "Emperors" pose, to the point he is willing to engage in Dirty Business and have otherwise innocent people killed if it means stopping the Emperors, even if they were members of his inner circle like Rhodes once was. Qrow's Undying Loyalty towards Ozpin likewise leaves him all too willing to carry out orders regarding assassinating them, contrasted with Taiyang severing ties with both of them for being willing to kill innocents at all, and Ironwood seeing for himself just how far Ozpin was willing to go for "the greater good". Even outside of that, Ozpin's treatment of Team RWBY is explicitly compared to grooming them to be his replacements for Team STRQ, something that in canon was only suggested by Raven, and even then was mostly implied to be her bitterness and disdain for Ozpin doing the talking, leaving Ozpin a much more morally grey figure than in canon.
• Adaptational Nice Guy: Played with. Ironwood is shown to be a lot more personable and solely well intentioned here, but it's heavily implied that Ozpin's own behavior is what is informing Ironwood's change towards his canon extremism.
• Adaptation Relationship Overhaul:
  • In canon, Tukson was simply a member of the White Fang that didn't agree with their radicalization and wanted to flee to Vacuo, but was intercepted and killed by Emerald and Mercury, said moment serving as an Establishing Character Moment for the two of them. Here, he's explicitly a member of the "old guard", having been a founding member of the White Fang alongside Ghira, Kali, and Sienna, and was one of the first to sign on with Sienna's new direction after Ghira stepped down as leader. His death meanwhile serves more to highlight to Ilia how the Vale Chapter of the White Fang is straying away from Sienna's beliefs in favor of Adam's vendetta and decision to follow Cinder, while forcing her to see how she's Trapped in Villainy.
  • While in canon he was an entirely unrelated character whose only significance was to Cinder's backstory, Rhodes is tied to Ozpin's group in this fic. Or at least, he was, as Taiyang laments that, were Ozpin, Glynda, or Qrow to learn Pyrrha forged an Over One Hundred Number card, they'd go after her for being an "Emperor", and she'd need to go into hiding like Rhodes did.
  • Ilia's backstory from when she was in school at Atlas is connected to several characters she has no connection to in canon. While she initially admired some of them, she considered them some of the people who suffered Bystander Syndrome regarding the plight of the Faunus, as while they never partook in Fantastic Racism, she never saw them doing anything to stop it.
    • May Marigold was a part of the "friend" group Ilia was in, not having transitioned yet and still occasionally referred to by her deadname "Martin", and being the only one to not laugh at the deaths of the Faunus or join the rioters upon learning Ilia was a Faunus. Ilia likewise became familiar with her brother Henry.
    • Vine Zeki was a professor and her personal mentor since she was 10. Her "friends" turning into a mob upon learning she's a Faunus, in turn prompting her to attack them and flee, is what prompted Vine to rejoin the Ace-Ops, stating he wanted to resolve the issue with Ilia himself, leading to Ironwood desegregating the military like Vine had wanted.
  • Whereas canon didn't see them start to distrust Ozpin until Volume 6, Teams RWBY and JNPR are much more wary of him here due to Pyrrha, Ren, Ilia, and Mercury all possessing Over Hundred Numbers and qualifying as "Emperors", something that Taiyang warns them Ozpin would have them killed over if he found out they had them.
  • Yang and Mercury's interactions in canon were rather limited, only really establishing a brief grudge after Mercury frames her for "crippling him" as part of Cinder's plot for the Vytal Festival, and a brief rematch at Haven Academy. Here, Yang takes notice of Mercury in the midst of a panic attack and starts feeling sympathy towards him, helped by her catching Cinder berating him for taking damage in his and Emerald's duel with Coco and Yatsuhashi. This causes Mercury both confusion and, unknown to even himself, relief over her trying to reach out, which he tries to reject as part of his attempt at coping with his Dark and Troubled Past, only for her to actually take his words to heart rather than brush it off like she would others seemingly insulting her. This ends up establishing a much more personal and somewhat more positive dynamic between the two compared to canon.
• Adaptational Sympathy: While he only really started being depicted in a sympathetic light starting with Volume 6 in canon, Mercury is treated a lot more sympathetically here from the outset, his Dark and Troubled Past factoring into his behavior more, and being treated just as much as someone stuck in the wrong crowd as Emerald is, helped by Yang trying to reach out to him.
• Admiring the Abomination: Blue-Eyes White Dragon is hardly an abomination, but it is one of the most legendarily powerful monsters on Remnant, being the well-known symbol of the Schnee Family. This does not stop Ruby, who wasn't on great terms with Weiss during Initiation, from flying her much smaller White Rose Dragon right up to the legendary creature of destruction and fawning over it.
• Almighty Janitor: Due to her flopping the written exam portion (in large part due to how it dealt with material she hadn't studied yet due to Ozpin admitting her early), Ruby is a Slifer Red but still the leader of her team. This is especially noteworthy after the rest of her team gets promoted to Obelisk Blues, while her attempt to get promoted all the way there at once fails due to Penny being her Man Of Krytonite.
• Armor-Piercing Response: Blake spends most of her duel with Weiss taunting and mocking her over her position as Schnee heiress, as well as not-so-subtle jabs about how they've mistreated the Faunus over the years. She's caught completely off-guard when Weiss agrees with her that the White Fang has a point in hating her family, angrily saying she's not blind to what her father's done.
• Badass Biker
  • Yang and Pyrrha face off in an exhibition Turbo Duel for the incoming Beacon students and it brings plenty of 'Card Games on Motorcycles' awesomeness to the story. Pyrrha even uses her semblance to subtly affect both their runners so that she can take the first corner and go first.
  • Sun and Blake both get to show off their skills during the first-years' training session in Forever Fall, driving their runners up into the tree and leaping from branch to branch. Blake even uses her runner to dive-bomb a Beowolf and kill it without even summoning a monster.
• Bad "Bad Acting": Astral's attempts to pretend to be Jaune, and denials when Ruby and Weiss figure out the truth, are far from convincing. It's only the fact that they'd barely interacted with Astral that kept them from figuring it out sooner.
• Berserk Button: Weiss becomes livid during her duel with Blake when the latter calls her Blue Eyes 'Daddy's Dragons', owing to his tarnishing of her grandfather's legacy.
• Beyond the Impossible:
  • Something happened long ago to have the Brother Gods change the "Master Rule" of Remnant, during a conflict with a "Great Invader", to cause there to be only one Extra Monster Zone per side in a duel. But then Penny/Atlas developed Link Monsters, which have arrows on them that let any Monster Zone which said arrows point at act as one, which is treated by shock whenever anyone hears it.
  • As far as anyone knows, the only Divine-Beast monsters are the three original Egyptian God Cards, all of which have since vanished from Remnant. So it's to everyone but Ren's surprise when Nora reveals that her ace card she tried summoning against Coco is a Divine-Beast, all but stated to specifically be Thor, Lord of the Aesir.^*In the official card game, the Egyptian God Cards and their combined form are the only cards with the "DIVINE" Attribute and "Divine-Beast" typing, with any other cards that had those traits in other media like the Aesir in the anime being changed to avert Uniqueness Decay. TheMaster4444 confirmed via Author's Note that restoring those traits is the one exception they'll be making to their "TCG/OCG Stats only" ruling, for the sake of making the various "Gods" stand out as befitting their nature
• Big Damn Heroes
  • At the end of Chapter 13, 'The Docks - Snowflake Sees The Blizzard', an exhausted Weiss is about to be killed by Neo and her Blue-Eyes Toon Dragon, who's stolen her Blue-Eyes. The following chapter opens with Yang and Hot Red Dragon Archfiend arriving just in the nick of time to save her and swipe back her card.
  • Sun makes a good show of it in the same chapter, arriving with his light clones to turn Blake's looming four-on-one duel against Ilia and three White Fang grunts into four one-on-ones.
• Blessed with Suck: Pyrrha's opinion on her talent, fame, and overall good fortune. Despite being The Ace and receiving constant support from those around her, she suffers from isolation from her peers and said support comes with the expectation that she will pay it forward, in both her entertainment and professional career. She herself bitterly lampshades it to Jaune when asking what she has to complain about compared to others who are faced with genuine misfortune.
• Blue-and-Orange Morality: Duel Spirits don't necessarily operate on the same moral framework as humans:
  • Red Eyes seem to value a duelists potential and dedication to living up to said potential more than their moral alignment, as seen by Rhodes' monsters willingness to work with Cinder after she killed him. They also refused to be summoned during her duel with him since he "betrayed his potential" by severing his connection to Number 104.
  • Starving Venom Fusion Dragon is very receptive to Ruby's desire to face many duelists and discover new cards, but refuses to help when she asks for his help saving someone.
• Brilliant, but Lazy: Mercury gives the impression of this to anyone he interacts with, being skilled enough to all but beat Yang in a card only match despite barely being invested, yet sees the game solely as a means to an end and rarely works up any enthusiasm for it.
• Brutal Honesty: In a flashback, Willow Schnee rather callously informs Weiss that the money she helped raise at a charity concert for the Faunus will mostly go into lining Jacques' pockets, and only a small percentage will actually reach those who need it.
• Call-Forward: May Marigold is shown to have been part of the "friend" group Ilia was in while in Atlas. Unlike the others like Giselle or Ellie, she was the only one to not demonstrate Fantastic Racism towards the Faunus, and the only one to show concern for Ilia when her skin color started changing compared to everyone else forming a mob. She was also shown to be referred to by her deadname "Martin Marigold", even by her brother Henry, and is referred to more as the child of the Marigold family than her own merits. All of this is a nod to how she ended up becoming a Defector from Decadence, developing an estranged relationship with her family for their behavior and treatment of her identity, and became a member of the Mantle group "The Happy Huntresses" under Robyn Hill, having a more progressive mindset and no issue working with Faunus like fellow member Fiona Thyme.
• Central Theme: Several arcs have one that runs through its chapters.
  • The exams arc carries the theme of "risk", and the various ways it can play out. Whether it be Ruby risking her promotion in exchange for moving straight to Obelisk Blue, Jaune and Nora trying to summon Extra Deck monsters for the first time, or Blake's indecision over using her fusion monsters.
  • The dance arc has the theme of rest and relaxation, and how they can be just as important to a persons growth as training, with several characters performance actually dropping due to too much of the latter.
• Challenge Seeker: When Coco asks which of her decks Nora would like her to use for their promotional duel, the younger student explicitly asks her to use the strongest one given the circumstances, i.e., no Extra Deck summons.
• Cryptic Conversation: Subverted Trope; Ruby is Genre Savvy enough to recognize when this trope is in play, so when Lil' Miss tries to give her an Info Dump, Ruby points out that while she's sure the things Lil' Miss is saying are very meaningful, Ruby has absolutely no context for anything she's saying, so this is only wasting both their time.
• Commonality Connection: Ironwood finds himself quickly growing fond of Ruby owing to their shared lack of social grace and desire to focus solely on being Hunting Duellists. He also mentions having been reluctant to join he military when he was younger, and only took up the position of general because the other candidates (in his own words) "made Jacques Schnee look like Ghira Belladona", similar to her own uncertainty about being leader.
• Composite Character:
  • Ruby herself shares Jaden Yuki's love of dueling for the sake of dueling, being excited even as she faces down Weiss' Blue-Eyes White Dragon.
  • Jaune combines traits of his canon self with Yuma Tsukumo, being a below-average duelist, who partners with Astral and uses an Onomatoepeia deck, and wields Number 39: Utopia.
  • Taiyang's backstory has elements of Zane Truesdale's, having spent some time in underground duels and eventually developed heart troubles as a result.
  • Jaune's sister Sapphron has traits of Kazuma Tsukumo, being a famous figure in several circles, and is implied to be an Adventurer Archaeologist
• Cool, but Inefficient: Like his canon weapon, Mercury's duel disk is attached to his feet, and he draws by kicking the floor and launching his cards upwards. Jaune and Astral both note it's rather cumbersome in practice (especially for any deck searching), but the former admits that makes it seem cooler.
• Curb-Stomp Battle:
  • In a flashback, Tyrian delivered one to Adam, having won while only taking 500 points of damage.
  • During the promotional exams, Ren inflicted an offscreen one having managed to do so quick enough to come and watch most of Nora's match with Coco.
  • Ruby and Cinder's first duel ends in a crushing defeat for Ruby, much to her frustration.
• Curb Stomp Cushion:
  • Jaune's card-only duel with Pyrrha ends with him unable to land a single point of damage to her life points, but he manages to make several clever counter moves with his Onomatopoeia deck and even manages to destroy her ace card, something even she admits few duelists have accomplished.
  • Emerald and Mercury spend much of their duel trouncing Yatsuhashi and Coco, constantly turning the second year aces own moves against them. The CFVY members still manage to catch their opponents off guard multiple times with new cards and techniques, and with their last move manage to inflict a thousand points of damage, defying their opponents self imposed challenge to win without a single point of damage.
• Decomposite Character: Z-ARC and the wielders of the Four Dimension Dragons. In ARC-V, the wielders of the Four Dimension Dragons, Yuya Sakaki, Yuto, Yugo, and Yuri, had their dragons since birth, and were all fragments of Zarc, their dragons urging them to "unite" so Zarc could be reborn. Here, the wielders of the dragons were chosen by them after they forged their cards, rather than being fragments of Zarc. Dark Rebellion chose Weiss, Odd-Eyes chose Blake, and Starving Venom chose Ruby. According to Astral, their entering "Berserk Mode" had to do with their bodies being overflowed with Creation and Destruction magic from the Dragons rather than any innate power, and the three that chose their partners have to convince Clear Wing to choose Yang for the sake of convenience rather than being picky. Based on Salem's reaction, the four chosen do have the potential to create Supreme King Z-ARC's card though so they can summon back their "king", suggesting that is why the dragons chose their wielders, and that Zarc himself is still completely whole.
• Defector from Decadence: Yatsuhashi comes from a racist family who developed the Superheavy Samurai archetype as an offshoot of the Six Samurai archetype, which itself was created to neutralize Pendulum monsters, which in turn were originally created and primarily used by faunus. He proves how much he disagrees with his family's racist view when he reveals that he uses Pendulum monsters himself.
• Didn't See That Coming: Emerald and Mercury extensively researched CFVY's previous duels to ensure they knew every tactic their opponents could throw at them. They're blindsided when Coco and Yatsuhashi break out skills and cards they haven't used before like performing a Rank-Up Xyz Evolution and summoning a Superheavy Samurai Link monster respectively.
• Didn't Think This Through:
  • After 'Jaune' (really Astral possessing his body) suggests he duel Cardin with the condition that if he wins Team CRDL will keep quiet about him and Ruby sneaking into the school forge after hours, Cardin agrees, smugly adding that if Jaune loses, he does CRDL's homework for the rest of the semester. A confused Astral/Jaune pops his bubble by asking why he wants the worst-performing student in charge of his team's homework for the rest of the semester.
  • In the Patch arc, despite wanting to keep a low profile, Astral/"Jaune" decides to test the new cards he's forged by dueling Weiss and Ruby at the same time, failing to consider he's displaying a level of skill well beyond Jaune's capabilities and is acting incredibly unlike him to boot.
• Do Wrong, Right: Goodwitch all but states the teachers are perfectly aware of Team RWBY's intentions to go after the White Fang in their second semester, and uses this to chastise Blake for her reluctance to use her Fusion cards, noting that if she's going to put herself and her team in dangerous situations, she could at least have the decency to duel to her full capability.
• Drama-Preserving Handicap: To keep things fair in Promotion Tests, the proctoring students are limited by not letting them use their Extra Deck cards.
  • Yatsuhashi takes this even further than the others, as he was explicitly told to go all out against Blake. Instead, he held back on Synchro Summoning to make their duel more fair for her.
• The Dreaded:
  • Adam Taurus is this, as he's infamously known as 'the Blood Soaked Bull'.
  • Penny of all people becomes one to Torchwick after she dominates him and Perry with Link Monsters and Cyberse Clock Dragon.
  • Taiyang is this to the Valean criminal underworld, having single-handedly wrecked the Xiong family years ago.
  • One of the things Ozpin and Salem share a fear of are the "Emperors", those that have forged Over One Hundred Numbers. Ozpin considers them to have been "infected", likely referring to how they were created by Don Thousand to infect the would-be Barian Emperors with Chaos energy and make sure they ended up in Barian World when they died, both considering them too dangerous to live. Ozpin feeling Pyrrha and Ilia's Over One Hundred Numbers clashing nearly prompts him to tell Qrow to drop everything he's doing, including his hunt for who attacked Amber, so he can hunt down the two users, before deciding to do it himself, openly calling it Dirty Business, while Cinder noticing Hermos reacting to it causes her to hope Salem didn't notice, knowing that if she did, she'll force them to juggle both the Vale mission and exterminating the "Emperors". Taiyang likewise notes that Rhodes had been one of Ozpin's inner circle, but had been forced to go into hiding as a result of Ozpin, Glynda, and Qrow after he obtained his own Over One Hundred Number, demonstrating that prior personal ties wouldn't stop Ozpin from wanting an "Emperor" dead.
• Dumbass Has a Point: While Jaune and Ruby express complete disbelief at Mercury having not even heard of the Onomatopoeia Gang, Weiss points out to Pyrrha that given he attended Haven Academy in Mistral, it is weird that he isn't familiar with one of the Kingdoms most popular shows. She even remarks that she herself was at least aware of it in spite of her isolated upbringing in Atlas.
• Endearingly Dorky: Pyrrha certainly thinks so about Jaune with how excited he gets whenever he talks about the lore behind the Onomatopoeia Gang cards.
• Everyone Can See It: Nora's feelings for Ren are so obvious that Jaune comments that Astral's observation of the fact isn't very noteworthy. When discussing potential dates for the dance, Ruby quickly retracts Ren from the list of their friends that fit Weiss' preference, noting her kneecaps wouldn't survive Nora.
• Evil Cannot Comprehend Good:
  • Emerald attempts to manipulate Yang by exploiting her dislike of Mercury and desire to see him earnestly try in a duel. She is surprised when the girl shows genuine concern at the supposed punishment Cinder has planned for him for failing to do so.
  • Mercury is typically very perceptive, casually pulling a Sherlock Scan on Yang while mainly focused on his meal, yet is unable to identify the emotion on her face when she sees him having a panic attack, and internally expresses confusion at enjoying her company later.
• Failed Attempt at Drama:
  • Perry's attempts to intimidate Ruby and Penny and revel in the power of his Fusion monster keep falling flat, due to the former gushing over it and the latter managing to explain its effects before he can. He grumbles that they're ruining this for him.
  • Ruby laments she gets how Perry felt when her talking up a badass expert on magic is undermined by Yang flatly saying she's talking about their dad.
  • A heartwarming example when Pyrrha regretfully informs her teammates that after graduation, she plans to head to the frontiers of Mistral for most of her career and won't be able to stay in contact... only for Jaune and Nora to casually state they'll obviously be going with her, the latter even mentioning she and Ren were already planning to go there after graduating.
• Foil:
  • Yang notes that Pyrrha and Ruby are rather similar, being Hunting Duelist prodigies that greatly enjoy the game for its own sake, having a red colour scheme, and poor luck in social matters. However by the time they entered Beacon, Pyrrha has become jaded from being in the spotlight and never experiencing a proper challenge, only reigniting her passion after her duel with Yang, whereas Ruby is brimming with excitement at all the new opponents and cards she can face at her new school. Pyrrha's deck focuses on maintaining offensive pressure while guarding her monsters whereas Ruby's specializes in disrupting her opponents strategies and alternating between Burn damage and attacks from relatively weaker monsters. Pyrrha's lack of friends comes from a case of Attractiveness Isolation, and she desperately wishes to have more people she can bond with while Ruby's arise from a fixation on dueling and lacking social grace, being relatively indifferent to the idea of making more friends.
  • The duel between Jaune and Mercury highlights the many contrasts between the two students. Whereas Jaune is at the bottom of the rung in terms of skills, struggles with self-confidence issues despite loving the game and desperately wants to improve for both his team and his own sake, Mercury is already a highly skilled duelist, yet has a level of interest that borders between apathy and loathing, and only puts in as little effort as he does on Cinder's orders. Jaune comes from a loving family with lots of siblings that nevertheless discouraged his dream and unintentionally undermined his confidence while Mercury is an only child that was brutally trained against his will by his asshole father that led to his current Lack of Empathy despite his confidence in his abilities.
  • The story also plays up the contrast between Pyrrha and Ilia, with Word of God noting their canon selves have several parallels as well. Mainly in that both were forced to wear a mask and play a role that others wanted from them, Pyrrha the Invincible Girl and Ilia a hardened terrorist, and their respective fates ended in tragedy and redemption owing to their decision to keep or discard the burdens such roles gave them. In the story itself, both are highly skilled duelists who favour offensive oriented decks, and act as the heavy hitters for their respective groups. Ilia initially tried to pass herself off as a human girl before deciding she couldn't stand by and joined the White Fang despite her distaste for many of the morally questionable things they've begun to do, and growing more aggressive as a result. Pyrrha entered the story jaded and wanting to be normal to escape the isolation her prowess brought her, and starts to open up with her new friends at Beacon. Pyrrha is a pro at Xyz Summoning, having several powerful monsters and support combos while Ilia capable of multiple Extra Deck methods like Pendulum, Xyz and Fusion. Even the way they approach dueling is in contrast, with Pyrrha viewing it like a sport that she has started to enjoy again, where Ilia treats it as a means to an end, unable to see how someone can enjoy going all out on an opponent without outright bullying them.
• Foreshadowing:
  • Yang mentions she tried to create a duplicate of Summers Stardust Dragon, having the same ATK and DEF, type, and attribute. On top of Weiss wielding Dark Rebellion Xyz Dragon and Blake having Odd Eyes Pendulum Dragon, many readers guessed what this means. Confirmed when it crystallizes to form Clear Wing Synchro Dragon.
  • Certain situations occur where it seems that Ren might have heard Astral just like Pyrrha, indicating a connection to the over 100 Numbers. Likewise, after Nora's promotional duel she mentions he has a certain card he's kept secret for a while, further reinforcing the idea.
  • Mercury wields the Battlin' Boxer archetype and after his promotional duel with Jaune, it is revealed he could see Astral the entire time (albeit he passed it off as a prank by Emerald), indicating he is another over 100 Number wielder.
• Freudian Excuse: Mercury sees Duel Monsters as a means to an end and barely puts in any enthusiasm when he plays. This is in large part due to being taught by his alcoholic and abusive father, and his main example of people who 'enjoy' the game being Tyrian and other members of Salem's faction.
• Graceful Loser:
  • Nora takes their loss in their promotional duel quite well, content that they gave as good as they could and coming very close to winning. It helps that their opponent was a good sport about the whole thing.
  • Likewise, Ruby isn't at all upset about losing their promotional duel, given the sheer amount of interesting cards their opponent played, and content that they gave it their all.
  • Zigzagged by Ruby after Cinder utterly trounces her in their duel. While she's far from happy about the loss, especially since it dredges up bad memories from Signal, she still congratulates Cinder on the win.
• Green-Eyed Monster: Downplayed. Yang is secretly envious of the fact that Ruby is able to forge cards that show her connection to their mother Summer, even if neither of them realized the connection at the time, something Yang has tried and failed to do for years.
• Handicapped Badass: Taiyang is able to use Light Magic to manifest a duel disk and use Double Tuning to Synchro Summon Red Nova Dragon to utterly obliterate Adam while simultaneously having a heart attack.
• Has a Type: If Weiss's comment to Ruby about potentially meeting someone at the dance is any indication, she prefers handsome and mature men.
• Head-Turning Beauty: Ruby, traditionally considered to be adorable, becomes this while wearing an expensive custom suit bought for her by Weiss to the Beacon Dance. According to Yang, this is a genetic trait of Xiao Longs when they wear suits, and can potentially be hazardous to those who become Distracted by the Sexy. Weiss is initially dismissive, but then Neptune nearly walks off a balcony and Penny glitches bad when they see Ruby...

  Penny: A critical error has occurred. This program will now shutdown. Would you like to send a report?

• Hidden Depths: Despite being The Bully and a Jerk Jock, Cardin is A Father to His Men, comforting Russel after Ruby insults him and clearly has the admiration of his whole team. His flashbacks also reveal that like Jaune, he struggles to live up to the expectations of his father.
• Hope Spot: Taiyang spends most of his duel with Adam trying to convince him to leave in peace and do something better with his life, and near the end actually manages to get him to hesitate... before his opponent spots the signs of Taiyang's heart problems acting up, and decides that he can simply defeat him then and there.
• Hourglass Plot:
  • Like in canon, Blake and Weiss get into a bitter argument over defending and insulting the White Fang and their actions respectively. The two do make up, but by the end of the Investigation Arc, they have another serious disagreement, this time because Weiss realizing how much they have actually suffered (at her family's hands no less) leads her to believe she doesn't have a right to stop them, while Blake insists that their reasons don't excuse their actions.
  • Jaune initially has trouble opening up to his friends and admitting he needs help to improve, requiring constant coaching from Pyrrha and Astral to work through it. Coming up to the dance arc, he has since accepted whatever aid he can and is making great strides in terms of his skills and Character Development. Meanwhile, Pyrrha has relapsed regarding her isolation issues after her duel with Ilia, and now believes she has to keep pushing herself to truly help people, cutting herself off from her worried friends in the process.
• I Just Want to Be Normal:
  • Like canon, applies to Pyrrha who admits to being tired of being put on a pedestal and wishes people would treat her as just another Hunting Duelist. Tragically, she feels she can't simply stop, especially when her stepping up is usually one of the most effective means of helping her friends.
  • Ruby, in a way. Initially, she seems to be over her early worries about everyone thinking she doesn't have 'normal knees' even faster than she did in canon, because after seeing Yang and Pyrrha's exhibition Turbo Duel, she thinks that everyone at Beacon is 'the bee's knees' and she won't stand out even if she is too. But after she starts accumulating status and power she didn't want or seek out (being team leader, being a Silver-Eyed Warrior, being a Signer and Starving Venom's user), she begins to feel the weight of its responsibility. Especially when her usual methods of 'Solve things by dueling and having fun!' start proving insufficient to solve problems she feels are her responsibility to fix, like figuring out how to summon Starving Venom, using her Silver Eyes, and helping Weiss and Blake with their issues during the Dance Arc, making her feel like a failure.
  • Ironwood, surprisingly. In this version of his backstory, he never had any intention of joining the military when he first went to Atlas Academy, only joining due to needing health insurance for his ill little sister. He only stayed afterward and became general because the other candidates were all, as he describes, worse than Jacques. The shared situation leads to him and Ruby bonding during the Dance Arc, with him attempting to advise her on her own worries.
• I Just Want to Be Special: Although she's ashamed about it, Yang is jealous of Ruby's Black Rose Dragon. She'd spent years trying to recreate Summer Rose's Stardust Dragon card and Taiyang's Red Dragon Archfiend, only to fail because those are unique cards, and the Duel Spirits were unwilling to bond with her. Ruby, however, managed to bond with a Signer Dragon without even realizing it was a Signer Dragon, and Yang isn't entirely happy with that rejection.
  • She feels this way again after she sees Ruby summon Baronne de Fleur, as their mother owned a very similar monster: Chevalier de Fleur.
• Improbable Weapon User: Gearfried the Swordmaster's effect means any card being equipped to it lets it destroy an opponent's card. He outright wields Jaune's Rainbow Kuriboh and Mercury's Dark Pendant as he would swords to devastating effect.
• Innocently Insensitive:
  • Part of Jaune's self-confidence issues stem from the fact that while he comes from a loving family who did their best to support him, they basically treated it as a given that he wouldn't be able to cut it as a Huntsman.
  • Jaune himself accidentally hits a sore spot for Pyrrha when he teases her about the flood of admirers she'll have to fend off for the dance, triggering a rant her about her distance from her peers.
• Instant Expert:
  • Justified. Pyrrha recalls that she was able to easily summon Number 101: Silent Honour Ark even before she mastered Xyz Summoning, likely due to the mystical nature of the card.
  • Downplayed and justified with Ruby's use of Link Summoning, having had several weeks of lessons frmo Penny on how to do so, and she points out it is designed to be easy to perform.
• Internal Reveal:
  • Magic and Mysteries has Ruby and Weiss learn about the existence of Astral from their duel with him in Jaune's body.
  • Burning the Candle has Yang reveal to Blake that Raven Branwen is her biological mother.
• Irony:
  • Despite being a member of the White Fang and ostensibly fighting against the discrimination that Faunus are forced to endure, Adam Taurus uses a deck that he took from an employee of the SDC that is specially geared towards countering decks commonly used by Faunus.
  • During his promotional exam, Astral advises Jaune to try Xyz Summoning Gagaga Cowboy to gain an advantage, despite him not having managed to successfully do so before, while Jaune wants to play it safe and avoid using Extra Deck cards, a role reversal to their usual outlooks. Turns out, Jaune was right to worry, since his attempt quite literally blows up in his face, knocking him out and almost making him fail because he listened to the advice of his more knowledgeable partner.
• Jerkass Has a Point: Downplayed since it's more a case of Brutal Honesty combined with No Social Skills, but when Jaune is worrying about the prospect of failing his promotional exam, Astral points out the exam is merely testing if he is ready to move to a higher course. Failing simply means he could benefit from continuing on the Slifer Red track.
• Know When to Fold 'Em: Cardin initially scoffs at Jaune's nervous suggestion to call their unsanctioned duel a draw, but after he proves unable to control his Battleguard General's rage and only Pyrrha's intervention keeps Dove and Sky from getting seriously hurt, The Bully agrees to end the match to protect his team. In turn, Jaune, who had a way to win the duel next turn but had no way of ensuring he could control it and protect the duel's spectators, also decides that the ego trip of beating his bully wasn't worth risking the watching Ruby and Pyrrha's lives.
• Lack of Empathy: Mercury has very little regard for others' wellbeing, best showcased in his POV segment during his duel with Jaune where he has to resist the urge to start reading his comic after the latter is knocked unconscious by a failed Xyz summon.
• Laser-Guided Karma: Played for Laughs. After spending much of her duel with Torchwick and Perry (unintentionally) undermining the latter's attempts at being dramatic, Ruby has her own dramatic description of a mentor RWBY can consult about their four dragon cards deflated by Yang casually saying she's talking about their father.
• Lost Technology: Ozpin has done his best to suppress knowledge of Fusion Summoning from Remnant, as Salem has a special interest in it as part of her plans, heavily implied to be the resurrection of Supreme King Z-ARC. The White Fang only have it because every generation or two she gives the ability to a criminal group in the hopes that they'll make breakthroughs for her.
• Made of Magic: Cards are quite literally forged from a combination of dust and aura put through a special machine. When a hunting duelist plays a card, they use their aura to create a body to manifest the spirits in the cards, giving them a presence in the real world, though more traditional Yu-Gi-Oh! holograms do exist for training purposes.
  • Interestingly, completely unique cards, like the Signer Dragons and Numbers, can't be recreated, as their spirits are one-of-a-kind and choose their wielders. Yang's attempted for years to recreate her parents' Signer Dragons and only achieved an "imperfect" copy in Hot Red Dragon Archfiend.
• Magical Incantation: Duelists often say summoning chants when summoning some of their stronger monsters. Said chants often use chants from Yu-Gi-Oh! mixed with song lyrics from RWBY.
• Man of Kryptonite: Chapter 24 reveals that Penny is this for Ruby, as the latter's preferred strategy of manipulating the battle position of monsters on the field is useless due to the former using Link Monsters, who aren't able to change into defense position at all.
• Massive Multiplayer Crossover: Sort of. It's only a crossover between Yu-Gi-Oh! and RWBY, but the story includes elements from seemingly every Yu-Gi-Oh! series, even ones that were never directly connected in canon. Some Arc Welding is done to make them all fit together and fit within Remnant.
  • From Duel Monsters: The Three Legendary Dragons exist on Remnant, with Ozpin possessing Timaeus, Amber having possessed Hermos before Cinder stole it, and Critias being in Salem's possession. Various creation myths likewise revolve around the Egyptian Gods.
  • From GX: The Academies use the same student ranking system as Duel Academia, and the Signer Dragons are heavily implied to be related to the Light of Destruction. Yubel is namedropped by Lil' Miss as well, albeit in a way that suggests it's a title or Legacy Character rather than an individual Duel Spirit.
  • From 5D's: The Signers and their associated Dragons exist here, with several members of Team STRQ being Signers, and Ruby herself possessing Aki's mark and Black Rose Dragon. Turbo Duels likewise exist, with both Yang and Pyrrha having D-Wheels, Yang's of course being Bumblebee. Nora's mother meanwhile possessed a Rune-Eye, with Nora now in possession of Thor, Lord of the Aesir.
  • From ZEXAL: The Number cards exist in Remnant, with Pyrrha possessing Number 86 and forging Number 101. Jaune meanwhile is a fan of the "Onomatopoeia Gang", based on Yuma's monsters, and takes on Yuma's role by partnering with Astral.
  • From ARC-V: Pendulum monsters are highly favored by Faunus duelists, the White Fang even possessing a member known as the "Odd-Eyes Bandit" due to their usage of a Performapal deck said duelist being Blake. The Four Dimensional Dragons also choose the members of Team RWBY to forge their cards, with Salem all but said to be desiring to revive Z-ARC.
  • From VRAINS: Atlas has pioneered Link Summoning, with Penny using Yusaku's deck, including Decode Talker and Cyberse Clock Dragon as her aces. Penny is also explicitly an Ignis here, the "Lost Incident" having occurred, one victim being Miyu Sugisaki, just with Dr. Watts being the perpetrator rather than Dr. Kogami.
• Master of All: Penny in a nutshell. In addition to creating Link Monsters, she is the first character shown to use every Extra Deck Summoning Method thus far, giving her absurd versatility and firepower in a duel.
• Mons as Characterization: A lot of characters' decks and playstyles reflect their personality and fighting style from canon.
  • Yang's deck takes cue from her father's, using her Hot Red Dragon Archfiend and having various Synchros and support Tuners to press the attack and protect her from her opponent. This reflects her straightforward and determined nature, as well as how she shares her father Burning Soul philosophy, which means always giving it your all.
  • Ruby's deck has a lot of lower-level effect monsters as well as spells and traps that disrupt her opponents' plays, reflecting her intelligence and love of the game itself rather than simply overpowering everything.
  • Weiss wields her family's Blue Eyes White Dragon as a symbol of her pride and power and has plenty of support for it to allow her to easily overwhelm her opponents' defenses. This fits well with the fact that she has impressive skills and is very intelligent, but is (initially) rather inflexible.
  • Jaune's Onomatopoeia deck is comprised of many childish-looking cards that nevertheless have a variety of useful effects for both defense and Xyz summoning (albeit he can't do the latter on his own initially). This reflects that despite his bumbling personality, he clearly has potential and can be a surprisingly effective strategist when he's given a chance to think.
  • Surprisingly, Blake's Performapal deck fits her usual fighting style like a glove, relying on Pendulum Summoning to swarm the field, recover destroyed cards, and various effects to give her the advantage. All of which mesh well with a former White Fang member whose Semblance acts to avoid attacks, has to be considerate with her resources, and prefers outmaneuvering her opponents rather than overpowering them.
    • The implication that it was originally her mother's deck, someone who crusaded for Faunus rights peacefully through showmanship, fits even better.
  • Adam's Six Samurai deck works to lock down his opponents' use of spells and traps, reflecting his controlling nature hidden behind the veneer of an honorable warrior. In-Universe, it's mentioned that such a deck was designed to counter the Pendulum monsters favored by Faunus, underscoring how despite claiming he's fighting for them, he has no problems oppressing his own people in the name of what he believes he deserves.
  • Cinder seems to have Red Eyes Black Dragon, and her lending Mercury her Gearfried suggests a deck similar to Joey Wheeler. Per Word of God, this represents how she has plenty of potential, albeit in a darker light than usual instances of this.
  • Pyrrha's "Number 86: Heroic Champion - Rhongomyniad" has numerous effects that make it stronger depending on how many Overlay Units is has, but it loses one at the end of each of her opponent's turns, reflecting how her own reputation as "The Invincible Girl" gradually wore down her spirit. Her use of a spell to prevent it from losing any further Overlay Units (essentially making it borderline invincible) reflects her difficulty in putting down said mantle as well.
• More Insulting than Intended: Inverted. Mercury's final words to Yang during their talk at the dance were intended to insult her strength being nowhere near as large in the grand scheme of things as she thinks, but end up coming across as a warning instead.
• Mundane Luxury: Jaune occasionally lets Astral possess him to give his friend a chance to experience food.
• Mundane Utility: Emerald occasionally uses her Semblance to discretely communicate with Cinder and Mercury.
• Mythology Gag:
  • Professor Port's class uses a Duelist Kingdom-era duel arena to train their strategies with training holograms without the stress of live aura bodies.
  • When talking to Ruby about her promotional exam, Ozpin references an old show called "Grimm Reaper Academy GX".
  • During his duel with Mercury, Jaune references the infamous "what does it do" meme when using Pot of Greed.
  • Before her promotional duel, Ruby sings part of the dub theme for Yu-Gi-Oh! GX.
  • Likewise, while staking out the White Fang rally for Blake, she hums part of the one of the dub openings from Yu-Gi-Oh! 5Ds.
  • Cinder once again delivers the line "It's not about overpowering the enemy, it's about taking away what power they have." In this context, however, she's talking about her dueling style, which involves locking down her opponents and negating their ability to do anything.
• Noble Demon: Something that sets Ilia apart from Adam is that she keeps her grudge with Blake between them only and doesn't want Blake involved with the White Fang's activities. When she has Sun at sword point after beating him, Blake continues to face her men to try and save him. When Blake is set to perform a move that could cause damage to everything around her though, she trusts Ilia to keep Sun safe, Ilia herself declaring Sun only dies if Blake loses, not before, which she makes good on when Performapal Gatling Ghoul proceeds to start attacking everything at random due to Blakes inability to control it, Ilia even giving Sun back after having her own monster destroy Gatling Ghoul.
• Not So Above It All:
  • Despite presenting herself as the most mature member of her team, Weiss gets more excited watching The Onomatopoeia Gang during marathon nights than anyone on RWBY or JNPR, which is mentioned to be targeted at young children.
  • Later on, she more or less admits that she spent most of the night before Ruby's promotional duel teaching her how to properly pronounce the name of her new monster.
  • Blake is usually one of the most stoic members of Team RWBY but upon seeing Ilia riding her old duel runner becomes more incensed at her old friend taking her bike than the fact that she is being chased by several White Fang members.
• "Not So Different" Remark: When fighting Adam, who is trying to capture Blake, Taiyang points out that like Adam, he also knows what it's like to be abandoned by someone who loved him and fought alongside him (Raven), in an attempt to reason with him.
• Not So Omniscient After All: Glynda is shocked when Ozpin reveals that he has no idea what actually happened regarding both the results of the clash between Blake's Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon and Weiss' Dark Rebellion Xyz Dragon.
• Oblivious to Love: Jaune has absolutely no idea that Pyrrha is interested in him and thinks she only sees him as a good friend. When Yang learns of this, she's tempted to just tell him the truth before concluding that Pyrrha should be the one to do so.
  Yang stared at him, struggling to come up with a way to compliment him on thinking of his partner first and wring his neck for not noticing the flashing neon sign that was her crush on him. But, either way would require telling him about said crush, and that was Pyrrha's secret to tell. So she'd have to play wingwoman subtly, while also setting up some other bits of her gameplan for helping Blake.
• Oh, Crap!:
  • When Weiss and Blake duel in Chapter 9, Blake has this reaction when she realizes she's dueling with her Performapal deck instead of her X-Saber deck meant to help her keep a low profile.
  • Nora's teammates reactions when hearing her duel proctor is Coco Adel.
  • Junior, Miltia, and Melanie all turn stark white with shock when they learn that Taiyang is a Signer. This is because Lil' Miss, Junior's boss and the twins' mother, is a Dark Signer.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business:
  • Jaune is concerned at how subdued Ruby is during Blake and Weiss' duel, even as the former breaks out her Pendulum monsters, noting she typically gushes at seeing new cards even if they're being used against her. This is because Ruby quickly realized from Blake's use of the Performapal archetype that she's likely the infamous 'Odd-Eyes Bandit'.
  • The other members of JNPR and RWBY freak when they find out that Nora has a God Card.
• Out-of-Character Alert: More than once Astral tries to seem like he's Jaune but can't act like him well enough. In Chapter 17, both his summoning skill and the formal way that he addresses Weiss, among other signs, tips Weiss and Ruby off to the fact that he's not Jaune.
• Overshadowed by Awesome: After seeing Ren in action, Yang remarks that if he were on a team with anyone other than Pyrrha, he'd be their heavy hitter for sure.
• Papa Wolf: Taiyang manages to prevent one of Adam's monsters from seriously hurting Yang and Blake, and says he was saving their assailant. After all, if he had hurt the girls, he wouldn't have been breathing afterwards.
• Pet the Dog: Team CRDL are among the few audience members who don't mock Jaune in his promotional duel and even join Ruby and Pyrrha in encouraging him to get up after his failed Xyz summon knocks him unconscious.
• Pop-Cultural Osmosis Failure:
  • When assuring Ruby that her request for a "special case" with her promotional exam won't result in her expulsion if she fails, Ozpin says this isn't Grimm Reaper Academy GX, to her confusion. He's also slightly disappointed that Ironwood doesn't recognise it either, remarking that Qrow loved the old show when he showed it to him.
  • During Jaune's promotional duel, he and Ruby are flabbergasted when Mercury says he has never heard of The Onomatopoeia Gang, despite the show's popularity in Mistral, where he's supposedly from, making that rather implausible.
• Power Copying: Turns out, Neo's duel disk is modified to analyze the Dust formula of any card she places on it, letting her replicate any card she steals (even temporarily) down the line, which she plans to do with Weiss' Blue Eyes White Dragon.
• Rank Up: The purpose of the promotional exam, which allows Slifer Reds and Ra Yellows to try and enter the higher level courses.
• Red Baron:
  • Pyrrha retains her title of "The Invincible Girl" from canon, which here refers to the fact that before Beacon, no opponent has been able to get her life points below the halfway mark.
  • From her time in the White Fang, Blake earned the nickname "Odd-Eyes Bandit".
  • Adam is known as "The Blood Soaked Bull".
  • Weiss' sister Winter apparently had the nickname of "Kaiserin" during her time at Atlas Academy.
  • Taiyang is called "The Sun Dragon of Hell" from when he single-handedly took on the biggest crime family in the Valean underworld.
  • Played for Laughs with Penny, who Weiss dubs "The Goddess of Note Taking". And played straighter later on where Sun reveals she is dubbed "the second coming of the Kaiserin", i.e., Winter.
• Right for the Wrong Reasons: Jaune is certain that Pyrrha would say yes if he asked her to the dance. However, he thinks it's because she's a Nice Girl who treasures their friendship and wouldn't be able to say no instead of thinking that she'd genuinely want to go with him.
• The Rival: Cardin sees Jaune as his after their late night match, and is specifically training so they can have a rematch in the Vytal Festival.
• Sarcastic Confession: Considered and defied by Mercury when Yang asks why he decided to become a Hunting Duelist, noting that giving information to someone actively investigating the people he's working with can easily backfire if she puts the pieces together.
• The Scapegoat: Blake views Fusion cards as inherently evil and corruptive in large part due to Adam's morals and motives taking a nosedive since he obtained them, unwilling to acknowledge that he was always on the verge of falling into He Who Fights Monsters.
• Secret-Keeper: Pyrrha is initially the only one who knows about Astral and Jaune. Ruby and Weiss find out later.
• Seen It All: An unusual case where this actually hinders the person in question. Ozpin's lived so long and seen so many strange things that he tends to compare new things to prior experiences, leading him to incorrectly attribute Penny's literal Heroic BSoD to stress from assisting Oobleck in class rather than suspect her true nature as an Ignis. Lampshaded by Ironwood.
• Self-Fulfilling Prophecy: Blake's belief that Fusion cards are inherently evil results in her being incredibly hesitant to use them, and nervous whenever she is forced to do so. This in turn makes her Fusions much more willing to rebel against her, causing excessive destruction and furthering her beliefs in a vicious cycle.
• She Is Not My Girlfriend: Yang has a tendency of teasing Ruby by acting like anyone she gets close to is in a romantic relationship with the younger sister, like Penny when they're working on teaching Ruby how to use Link Monsters, much to the Red Reaper's annoyance.
• Ship Sinking: Blake politely turns down Sun's offer for a dance, explaining that she just got out of a toxic relationship and is far from ready for another. For his part, he takes it on the chin.
• Ship Tease: Weiss of all people blushes when Astral lists her admirable traits developed in spite of her upbringing, and later expresses fondness for his manner of speaking. What's more, Ruby previously noted he actually fits her description of her type of guy.
• Shoot the Dog: Ozpin is so terrified of the "Emperors", he is perfectly willing to have anyone in possession of an Over Hundred Number killed, even if they were once one of his inner circle like Rhodes. Ironwood, of all people, laments the lengths Ozpin is willing to go, as it's all but said that Miyu Sugisaki, a survivor of the "Lost Incident" and someone Penny considered a friend, was killed by Qrow at Ozpin's behest when it was discovered she was an "Emperor", said act being the last straw for Taiyang and causing him to denounce Ozpin's group.
• Shout-Out:
  • At the end of his duel with Mercury, Jaune does a finger gun and says "Bang" before falling unconscious. Bonus points for doing so after winning with Gagaga Cowboy.
  • From the same chapter, after finding out her opponent for the promotional duel will be Coco Adel, Nora utters the infamous "Finally, a worthy opponent. Our battle shall be legendary".
• Show Within a Show:
  • "The Onomatopoeia Gang" is a popular show that uses the Gagaga, Gogogo, Zubaba, and Dadada archetypes and seems to be aimed at young children (though many of the main characters enjoy it).
  • Ozpin references another one called "Grimm Reaper Academia GX" when talking to Ruby about her promotional exam, and mentions that Qrow greatly enjoyed it.
• Shrouded in Myth: Taiyang is known as the urban legend the Sun Dragon of Hell, a mysterious duelist who can perform Double Tuning and wiped out an entire crime family by himself.
• Shut Up, Hannibal!: As he's trying to talk down Adam, every other word out of Taiyang's mouth is to undercut his grand proclamations and poke holes in the logic he uses to justify what he 'deserves'. One standout example is his response to his opponent deriding people willing to "live under someone else's bootheel", pointing out that he willingly did exactly that by accepting Salem's gift of Fusion Cards.
• Signature Mon: A fair few duelists so far have shown off at least one card to be their Ace Monster or otherwise signature card.
  • Ruby has Black Rose Dragon, her go-to ace monster even before she learns that it's her Signer Dragon. Her battle position manipulating spells and traps like Zero Gravity, No Entry, and Book of Moon have also been called out as her signature cards by Pyrrha and others, which gets her in trouble when she duels Penny, who uses Link Monsters that aren't affected by such cards.
  • Weiss has two representing the two parts of herself: Blue-Eyes White Dragon, the ancestral signature monster of the Schnee Family, and Dark Rebellion Xyz Dragon, the first monster she ever forged that symbolizes her rebellion against her father.
  • Blake has Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon, which is well-known to the public as the definitive ace of her White Fang alias 'The Odd-Eyed Bandit'. While she can use her other Performapals and not blow her cover, it is noted by many that summoning Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon will let anyone who sees it know who she is.
  • Yang has Hot Red Dragon Archfiend, the closest she ever got to replicating Taiyang's signature monster Red Dragon Archfiend.
  • The public acknowledges Pyrrha's ace monster to be Heroic Champion - Excalibur, to the point that Yang specifically prepared a strategy to deal with it before their duel.
• Sore Loser: Roman remarks that Neo is a very nasty example of this, having done things to people who got the best of her in any capacity that even he considers excessive.
• Spotting the Thread:
  • In Chapter 17, Weiss realizes that the person she and Ruby are dueling isn't Jaune when "he" performs a Chaos Xyz Evolution.
  • In Burning the Candle Astral notices when Ren reacts to the things said on his side of the conversation between the spirit and Jaune, despite him being undetectable to most people.
• Stating the Simple Solution: When Blake talks to Yatsuhashi about her regret over mistreating her Fusion Monsters and that she is unsure of how to fix the issue, he advises her to simply apologise. While he agrees that it won't be enough to fix things, it will at least be a start and she can work on making amends from there, sharing his own experience with how failing to do so led to unnecessary drama between him and Velvet.
• Simple Solution Won't Work: When Weiss discusses her dilemma about her inability to help the rest of Team RWBY at Mountain Glenn, Astral points out she can pass the information they gathered on to Ozpin, putting it in the hands of much more capable Huntsmen with greater resources, and removing her team from potential danger entirely. She retorts that anyone else going after the White Fang would discover Ilia and her over 100 Number, and by extension Pyrrha's own and Astrals presence given the Faunus is aware of both. Given Taiyang warned them against telling Ozpin about Pyrrha's card, doing so will likely have unfortunate consequences for several of their friends.
• Stealth Sequel: It's implied the events of the fic take place after some variant of Yu-Gi-Oh! ZEXAL, as while Astral's arrival does cause him to lose him memories like when he first met Yuma, he is shown to already feel a connection to the Over Hundred Numbers, both Ragnazero and Silent Honor Ark showing deference to Astral when he meets them again, with Astral expressing familiarity with them despite his lack of memories, a nod to how he considered their canon wielders, Nasch/Shark and Merag/Rio of the Barian Emperors, his friends.
• Superpower Lottery: Magic isn't nearly as rare as in RWBY canon, but any use of it is still treated as a very big feal by those in the know.
  • Number Cards are implied to have some innate Chaos or Order magic to them based on Ozpin and Lil' Miss Malachite's comments.
  • Signer's wield Light Magic through their crests and the unique dragon monsters they forge, which we first see through Taiyang's ability to manifest a duel disk and a barrier in his duel with Adam.
  • Dark Signers appear to have many of the same capabilities as Light, with Lil' Miss Malachite using Dark Magic to summon monsters while controlling Junior's body without even needing Aura.
  • Silver Eyed Warriors apparently wield Creation Magic, one of the two that is unique to Remnant.
  • Wielders of over 100 Numbers are titled 'Emperors' by Ozpin and Salem, and are so feared that both sides make hunting down any that emerge an immediate priority, regardless of personal connections.
  • Team RWBY all appear to have some unknown form of magic through their signature Dragons in a similar vein to Arc-V; Blake's Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon, Weiss' Dark Rebellion Xyz Dragon, and Yang and Ruby's as of yet unused Clear Wing Synchro Dragon and Starving Venom Fusion Dragon respectively.
  • Out of all the characters introduced thus far, Ruby is probably the biggest winner, having Silver Eyes, a Signer Mark, and the unknown magic that comes with being the bearer of Starving Venom Fusion Dragon.
• Talking the Monster to Death: Taiyang spends most of his duel with Adam politely talking to the guy and breaking down his reasons for attacking Blake and Yang in a non-condescending manner. He actually seems to get through to him at one point before his opponent notices the strain from his heart problems.
• Teen Genius: Quite a few of the main cast. Extra Deck Summoning methods are noted to be incredibly difficult, usually only learned once someone enters one of the four Hunting Duelist Academies. Naturally, Torchwick is flabbergasted when Ruby Synchro Summons Black Rose Dragon to turn the tide of their duel. One of Ozpin's stated reasons for moving her up two years is that with Yang leaving Signal and no one else there able to challenge her, she might run into a Normal Fish in a Tiny Pond situation.
  • Ruby regards Yang as this due to her sis mastering Synchro Summoning in her final year at Signal, something Yang proves to be well-earned when she summons Hot Red Dragon Archfiend against Pyrrha and matches the Mistral Champion move for move. It's hinted that Tai is even teaching her how to Double Tune.
  • Pyrrha is, naturally, one of these herself, being a master of Xyz Summoning and titled 'The Invincible Girl' because none of her tournament opponents had ever even been able to get her life points below half. And even when Yang does accomplish that feat in their Turbo Duel, the Mistral champion still pulls out the win by summoning Number 86: Rhongomyniad.
  • Weiss is the only one of Teams RWBY or JNPR (at least until Blake reveals that she can use Pendulum and Fusion Summoning) to arrive at Beacon capable of two Extra Deck summoning methods: Synchro and Xyz. Though, the way Jacques taught her to Xyz Summon left her unwilling to use it until after her duel with Ruby.
• Took a Level in Badass: Several characters upgrade their decks and skills as the story progresses.
  • Ruby forges several new cards in preparation for her promotional duel and afterward manages to add Link Monsters to her deck courtesy of Penny.
  • Jaune gradually improves his skills as the story progresses, eventually managing to Xyz Summon, something even some of his fellow first years can't manage.
  • Cardin has apparently been making strides offscreen, going from a botched Xyz Summon of his own, to a level of proficiency that earns him praise from Goodwitch. A discussion with Oobleck in Burning the Candle indicates he's reached the point where he's attempting to summon a Number, which the Doctor indicates is even more difficult than a standard Xyz Summon.
• The Unchosen One:
  • Contrasted with her fellow Dimension Dragons, Clear Wing did not willingly choose to partner with Yang, rather she was convinced into picking them by the other three for the sake of convenience than anything else, the other three saying Clear Wing was being too "picky". So when Yang does try to summon Clear Wing during her duel with Banesaw, Clear Wing rejects Yang completely, causing a backlash that induces a lot of pain and undoes the summon attempt. Even after Yang manages to forge a connection with her, it's made repeatedly their connection is ragged, and that Yang is not a worthy choice for Clear Wing, Salem being all too happy to sever their connection in favor of someone more suited to Clear Wing.
  • Downplayed with Starving Venom and Ruby. Unlike Clear Wing, Starving Venom did willingly choose their partner, but has not yet judged them to be worthy of their power yet since they have yet to properly summon him, and as such waiting for that to happen before he'll willingly lend his aid to them. So while he'll show respect towards her convictions like when confronted with Lil' Miss Malachite, when Ruby tried getting him to assist her in saving Junior, he refused and instead asked her "Why?", having no incentive to save Junior himself and Ruby not yet having commanded his respect. This causes Ruby to resolve to find a way to summon him so they can get on the same page.
  • Jaune later learns he was never supposed to receive Astral's Key from Sapphron, it originally was meant for Oobleck (for research purposes) and was mixed up with the package for his birthday present. While it causes his confidence issues to flare up slightly and he considers giving to the Doctor, Astral quickly vetoes that idea and firmly states Jaune is their first choice as a partner.
• Training from Hell:
  • Jacques put Weiss through this to get her to learn how to Xyz Summon, even having his Galaxy-Eyes Photon Dragon scar her in a duel.
  • Played for Laughs when Ruby mentions that she was hopeless at Synchro Summoning until Qrow took away her cookies. She got the summoning method down in a week after that.
  • Mercury's recollection of his time under his father was even worse than Weiss', apparently having deprived his son of meals if he failed to perform well enough. It ultimately culminated in the loss of his son's legs.
• Trapped in Villainy: Ilia may be a member of the White Fang and fighting for the equality of the Faunus, but she balks at the lengths that Adam is willing to go to, nor was she blind to how abusive he was to Blake before Blake defected, even admitting to secretly being happy Blake was away from him. So when she sees Blake at the docks in the midst of a White Fang operation, she demonstrates disgust at how far Blake has fallen, not because she's no longer with the White Fang, but because of how much she's crippling herself with her disdain for her own monsters, and is content telling Blake to stay out of their way rather than continue fighting her. Once she learns though that Tukson was killed by Cinder's forces for betraying the Fang, and sees that Adam doesn't care about what Cinder orders them to do so long as he can get the power he needs to make everyone who hurt him pay (to the point he'd continue following them even after Taiyang heavily injured him) Ilia begins lamenting how she's stuck in this mess, and she can only hope that Blake won't get involved again so as to be spared from Adam's rampage.
• Unusually Uninteresting Sight: While Ironwood panics at Ozpin seeing Penny's literal Heroic BSoD (worrying he might suspect her nature as an Ignis), the Beacon Headmaster laments another victim of "post-Bartholomew paperwork stress disorder" without missing a beat. Justified as Ironwood gratefully notes that thousands of years of experience and encountering every form of weird imaginable means Ozpin's ability to take odd things in stride typically works by attributing them to a previous example.
• Villain Has a Point:
  • When Yang calls out Ilia and the White Fang grunts for forcing Blake into a three-on-one duel, the chameleon Faunus asks if she really expected terrorists to fight fair.
  • Ilia forcing Blake to duel three opponents at once, holding Sun hostage as insurance, is an incredibly low move, but a large part of her own disgust for her old friend is the very valid criticism that she's handicapping herself by treating her Fusion cards as inherently evil and refusing to use them at all, something she's apparently trying to force her to move past. Ruby unknowingly agrees with her on that particular point.
  • Ilia scornfully denies Pyrrha's offer to come to Beacon and become a Huntress, calling the profession ineffective in helping those who really need it. As she accurately notes, they need plenty of income to maintain their equipment, limiting them to working within Kingdoms or areas the Councils deem 'valuable', and leaving many frontier villages greatly lacking in required protection, especially in Mistral.
  • While Junior trying to kill Yang is reprehensible, he makes the valid argument to Weiss that the last time she was here she basically trashed his club and injured most of his men just because they couldn't give her the information she wanted and she didn't like them. The fact that she came back demanding answers again (with the threat of a repeat) means he can't be sure she won't do repeatedly with flimsy reasoning, and even Weiss admits from his perspective he's just looking out for his employees.
  • In the same scene as the above, he also mentions that despite them being criminals, the Xiong crime family did nothing to Taiyang to warrant his subsequent Roaring Rampage of Revenge, and despite not knowing the context, accurately notes the man took out a completely unrelated grudge on them.
  • Lil' Miss criticises Ruby's sheer selflessness, noting that while such a trait is good in theory, in practice too much of it can lead to putting herself in greater danger than she can handle, ultimately leaving other people she could have helped defenseless. Astral states a similar sentiment in the aftermath, noting Ruby's determination to save Junior with her magic that she barely understands could have had serious consequences for her, and left her friends and team devastated.
• Villain Respect:
  • After their duel, Adam expresses begrudging respect for Taiyang and his skills, even being inspired by his Double Tuning to try and achieve Contact Fusion, which thus far had been impossible.
  • Lil' Miss Malachite sincerely compliments Ruby on her skills and resourcefulness during their duel, and notes the young girls potential is impressive.
• Wake-Up Call Boss:
  • Weiss' duel with one of the White Fang Mook's on the docks is this on multiple levels. Due to a combination of assuming it would be an easy win and the organization's use of Fusion cards catching her off guard, she ends up coming very close to losing, even having Dark Rebellion Xyz Dragon destroyed, showing that even the grunts need to be taken seriously with Fusion at their disposal. She also realizes that the man she's dueling is the same one who lost his son in Blake's memories, showing that these are people that have been driven to these extremes, not just faceless terrorists.
  • A rare heroic example, but Taiyang serves as this to Adam, showing him that even with Fusion Summoning at his disposal, he can't rest on his laurels if he wants to take on ace Huntsmen.
• Weak, but Skilled: Emerald's deck runs Fortune Lady's, full of low level monsters with minimal attack points, yet they have a variety of useful effects, defensively and offensively. When combined with her arsenal of spell and traps, she managed to not only dispatch some of Coco's strongest monsters, but even turned her attempts at burn damage against her.
• We Can Rule Together: Lil' Miss tries to convince Ruby that together they could overthrow Salem (note at this point Ruby doesn't even know who that is, but knows enough to recognize its the Man Behind the Man to everything that's happening) and reshape the world together. Ruby doesn't bite, knowing enough about Lil' Miss and the Spiders gang to know they wouldn't be much better with that kind of power.
• Wham Episode: Blake and Weiss's duel starts with a bit of a shock at Blake's new archetype, Performapal. But the real shocker is Dark Rebellion Xyz Dragon vs Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon. Adding to the fact that Ruby has Starving Venom Fusion Dragon and Yang has a Synchro deck that can easily slip in Clear Wing Synchro Dragon, Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V fans already know what this implies. More concerning though is that Salem could sense the clash between Blake and Weiss, and, while which monster is unknown, spoke to one in her deck about hoping one of them can create the card of their king. Salem wants to bring Z-ARC back.
• Wham Line:
  • In "Keys And Fools" Cardin seems to have Jaune on the ropes, and then...
    Jaune/Astral possessing him: With order and chaos bound to your shining wings of valor, rise like the dawn to banish light and darkness! Messenger of Hope! Xyz Summon! Number 39: Utopia.
  • In "Gleam Like A Blade" Yang is telling Pyrrha what she knows of the origins of the Signer Dragons:
    Yang: According to my dad, the Singer Dragons were 'Running from the light that fueled them, for it had turned to destruction'.
    Pyrrha: What does that mean?
    Yang: Heck if I know.
  • "Exams - Take A Chance" has Mercury confronting Emerald over using her Semblance to prank him during his promotional duel with Jaune, which sets up all sorts of implications.
    Mercury: You were using your semblance on me the whole match. Making me see that blue ghosty guy floating around Arc, making me see and hear Arc talking to it.
  • In "I Burn - Part 2" Ruby encounters Lil' Miss Malachite for the first time, who lets slip this:
    Lil' Miss: I'm what you might call... a Dark Signer.
  • In "Dark Threads - Part 2", we learn what Lil' Miss Malachite's ultimate goal is.
    All her underground dealings, all the souls she'd fed to Uru, all to imprison the immortal queen and take her rightful place as ruler of Remnant. Her associates knew better than to jeopardize that goal for their selfish whims.
  • In "Mountain Glenn - Part 1", Team RWBY's unexpected encounter with Salem ends with a surprising line that indicates a BIG shift from canon.
    Salem: Disappointing. I know I would have stopped at nothing to save my sibling if it had been possible.
• What the Hell, Hero?:
  • During their duel for the position of team leader, Ruby calls out Weiss for not being willing to use Xyz summoning despite the clear advantage it would give her. She specifically notes it's hypocritical to claim to want to push their team to be the best, despite not being willing to put her own best effort forward.
  • Pyrrha and Astral call out Jaune for his insistence on not using his 'childish' Onomatopoeia deck, despite being much more proficient with it, and dismissing both its (and by extension, his) strengths.
• Willfully Weak:
  • Due to the above Training from Hell from her father, Weiss doesn't even consider Xyz summoning in her duel with Ruby, failing to summon Dark Rebellion Xyz Dragon even when it would have made victory much easier. Ruby calls her out on this, noting it's not only an insult to her cards but to her prospective teammates for not being willing to give it her all in a duel.
  • Played With for Jaune, who insists on using his family's Noble Knights deck despite having his Onomatopoeia cards for longer and being much more proficient with them. This stems less from a desire to hold back, and more out of insecurity for using a 'childish' deck.
  • A straighter example is Blake, who uses an X-Saber deck, despite being unable to Synchro Summon (the archetype's main gimmick) to avoid drawing attention to herself. Her actual deck of Performapals plays much more to her strengths, and lets her use the incredibly rare Pendulum mechanic, putting Weiss on the back foot early on in their duel.
  • To make things fairer, the students who are proctors in Promotion Tests are discouraged from bringing out their Extra Deck monsters.
• Worthy Opponent:
  • Pyrrha regards Yang as one for pushing her so far in their exhibition duel and making her feel genuine excitement for the first time in a while.
  • After their late-night duel, Cardin regards Jaune as one, even encouraging him to keep fighting during his promotional duel.
  • Coco likes Nora from the start of their duel, and her respect grows as it continues. After momentarily being stunned speechless when Nora was hit by the backlash from her failed summoning of Thor (which shattered the protective field surrounding them), the second-year laughs and calls her by her name for the first time when the girl just shrugs it off, whereas before she always called her "freshie".
• The Worf Effect: Cinder's very first onscreen duel has absolutely demolish Ruby, who just one chapter prior had defeated Lil' Miss Malachite, a Dark Signer, in addition to all her previous victories. This established immediately that Cinder is going to be a phenomenally dangerous threat.
• Worf Had the Flu: It's explained a large part of the reason Cinder was able to defeat an experienced Hunter like Rhodes in her backstory was because his Red-Eyes monsters (the lynchpin of his deck) refused to let him summon them in disgust at him "betraying his potential".
• Xanatos Gambit: Mercury does this a lot in his duels, having several cards that involve his opponent choosing one of several to destroy/discard while always having another effect ready to summon the one he wants regardless of their choice.
• You Are Better Than You Think You Are:
  • Astral tells Weiss that despite being raised in a life of privilege and under the thumb of one of the cruelest men in Atlas, she still managed to become a highly empathetic and driven individual, outright dismissing an easy solution to her current dilemma since it would harm him.
  • Likewise, Yang tells her that despite her fears of turning out like her father, she's nothing like him on the simple basis that she loves helping people, and her greatest stumbling block has been caring too much about even those that have tried to kill her, whereas Jacques can barely muster empathy for his own family.
• You Kill It, You Bought It: It's implied that Adam's Six Samurai deck was stolen from his last SDC overseer after Adam killed him.

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