Cover art by Kegi Springfield
When you have a bored god, and a guy who really wants to be a hero, you have more than just hijinks ensuing...
Of Gods and Losers is a RWBY Alternate Universe Fic by snakeboy33. The base difference is that before Jaune goes to Beacon, he's visited by the God of Darkness who, in a fit of boredom, decides to pay Remnant a visit, through Jaune. Jaune then proceeds to go through his adventure in Beacon and beyond with the God of Darkness (often referred to as just "Darkness").
The story is still in progress, and can be found here.
This Fan Fic provides examples of the following tropes, which may include unmarked spoilers:
- Above Good and Evil: The Creatures of Grimm are described at this, though perhaps it'd be more apt to say they're below good and evil. According to Darkness, they're simple agents of destruction who have no moral agenda, and are no more "evil" than a hurricane or an earthquake. He notes that their attributes, such as solely going after civilization were not the way he created them.
- Adapted Out:
- The Nuckalavee is not included in the story, with its role being taken by a Spirit named Viridios, and a Basilisk Grimm named Vritra.
- Similarly, the Apathy are replaced with a Spirit named Shauskha, and a Wendigo Grimm named Juracan.
- All There in the Manual: Throughout the equivalent of Vol. 4, there are short Worlds of Remnant narrated by the God of Light describing some of the differences from canon.
- Alternate Universe:
- The teams now consist of RYPJ (pronounced "reaper" and consisting of Ruby, Yang, Pyrrha and Jaune), and BRWN (pronounced "brawn" and consisting of Blake, Ren, Weiss, and Nora).
- The governments of the various nation states of Remnant are altered slightly. For example, Mistral is an autocratic state instead of a democratic one, ruled by an empress instead of a Council.
- In this universe, the God of Light created beings of pure creation called "Spirits", which were basically his equivalent of the Creatures of Grimm. The Spirits were the ones who created the Faunus in this version.
- And Then What?: Blake asks Ilia this when she explains her plan, if she'd be satisfied when the Faunus have enslaved or wiped out the humans.
- Anti-Nihilist: The Faunus characters learn that the Faunus were originally only created by the High Spirits as an act of spite against the God of Light. As their dealing with this information, Darkness tells that even though they were just meant as an act of spite, that doesn't mean they have to stay like that.
- An Arm and a Leg: Yang loses her arm like in canon, and Pyrrha loses her leg due to injuries sustained in her fight with Cinder.
- Armor-Piercing Question: Darkness is very good at these. A particularly harsh one when he's talking to Ilia, and asks how many human children are orphans because of what she (an orphan herself) was responsible for. Ilia doesn't take it well.
- Ascended Extra: Ilia gets promoted to main character in this story, joining the group on their travels after Haven.
- Big Brother Instinct: Talos has this for Penny. He was willing to take Marigold's abuse as it came, but when she threatened and insulted Penny, he promptly turned on her. The reason he ruthlessly hunts Pyrrha is because he blames her for Penny's death.
- Bodyguard Betrayal: All the Imperial Guard save for Rowan turn on Lin, killing Aurelius in the process.
- The Bus Came Back: After the skirmish in Haven Cinder is met by Drago (the leader of Team DRKE), Slate and Carmine (of the Mistrali Imperial Guard), and forms an alliance with them instead of Neo.
- Character Development: As the story progresses, Darkness gradually develops from an aloof god doing what he's doing because he's bored, to a caring teacher for his students who comes to view them as his children.
- Circling Vultures: Slate Skek, the chamberlain of the Menagerie Council of Elders, is a vulture Faunus, and all the Council members save Darwin are killed.
- Composite Character: Talos the android is named after Talos, the mythological automaton from Classical Mythology who guarded the shores of Crete. In terms of character, he resembles the character of Robbie from I, Robot.
- The Empress: Lin Hanzhi, the young Empress of Mistral, who inherited the throne at a young age after her grandfather died.
- Evil Chancellor: What Slate seeks to be for just about anyone who he thinks can grant the power to him.
- Expy:
- Slate Skek is based on the the Chamberlain, one of the Skeksis from The Dark Crystal.
- Magenta Cheshire is based on the Cheshire Cat.
- Famous Ancestor: All of RYPJ and BRWN have some, whose stories are told in the "Old Ones" shorts.
- Ruby's ancestor was a famous hunter of Grimm named Jack Bean.
- Yang's was an outlaw named Branwen, who liberated the island of Patch from an oppressive baron.
- Pyrrha's was a Mistrali general named Medea Spartacus who lead the defense of Mistral from an invading army.
- Jaune's was William D'Arc, the last King of Vale.
- Blake's ancestor was Princess Neith, the sister of the last Empress, who lead a revolution that toppled her sister from power, and ended the age of Faunus supremacy time.
- Ren's was the bodyguard of the first Emperor of Mistral.
- Weiss', in accordance with canon, was Nicholas Schnee.
- Nora's ancestor was a warrior named Ragnar Asgard who liberated Mantle from the rule of an oppressive Faunus warlord.
- Fantastic Racism: Aside from the established prejudice against Faunus, the story also explores Ilia's own personal prejudice against humans. She's disquieted being among humans initially (spending most of her time with Blake), and is slightly disapproving of Jaune's sister marrying a Faunus. That said, she understands the feelings are unfair, and is somewhat ashamed about feeling them.
- A Form You Are Comfortable With: According to Darkness, his and his brother's dragon forms are their true forms, and their humanoid forms are simply for interacting with mortals without terrifying them. Later, both him and the God of Light assume mortal forms named Shade and Gleam respectively to interact with the mortal world.
- Full-Circle Revolution: After Neith overthrew the Faunus-ruled Wild Empire, her human lover and partner, Orion, is murdered, causing her ambitions for peace between the two races to crumble.
- God's Hands Are Tied: As the story progresses, Darkness comes to realize that he's interfered more than he should've, and elects to no longer interfere if he can avoid it, as interfering would potentially cause his brother to be summoned, forcing the time of judgement to come.
- How the Mighty Have Fallen: It turns out that the Faunus once commanded a vast Empire that controlled the whole of Saunus, enslaving the humans in the process. Darwin even says this word for word after learning this.
- Interspecies Romance:
- Jaune's oldest sister, Vermillion, is married to an octopus Faunus named Hunter Tako, and they have three children, also octopus Faunus.
- Blake's ancestor, Neith, had a human lover, eventually getting pregnant by him before his murder. This makes Blake consider that she has (albeit very distant) human ancestry.
- "It" Is Dehumanizing: General Fae Marigold, the one who turned Talos from an otherwise peaceful android into a Killer Robot, and later commissioned Penny's construction, only refers to both individuals as "it" or AGA (Artificial Grimm Annihilator) 1 and 2, and never directly addresses them.
- Jerkass Gods: According to Darkness, this is what the Spirits are, describing them as dangerous, deceptive beings who cannot be trusted. The ones we see are shown taking delight in the tormenting and killing of mortals. They also created the Faunus for no other reason than to spite the God of Light.
- King Incognito: When she first meets Ruby, Lin is disguised as a common girl named "Lina", who claims the Imperial Guard are trying to kidnap her. Ruby doesn't find out until the Guard all bow to Lin.
- Late-Arrival Spoiler: The existence of the Brothers and the past about humanity and Ozma and Salem in canon.
- Loophole Abuse: After granting RYPJ and BRWN magic, Darkness declares he cannot intervene any further. However, when Bai fatally wounds Ghira, Blake prays to Darkness to help, and he states that answering a prayer may not truly count as intervening.
- Mystical Pregnancy: Played with slightly. After Jaune combines with Ruby and Weiss to form a three-headed dragon, the process causes their Auras to combine, creating new life inside of them. Unfortunately for the girls, according to Darkness, their children are only developing while they're dragons, meaning they have to assume dragon form every so often, or their magic will force them to.
- Mythical Motifs: As in canon, many characters are based on various fairytales.
- Talos is named after Talos, the mythological automaton from Classical Mythology who guarded the shores of the Greek island of Crete.
- Bai Suzhen is both named after and based on the Chinese legend Legend of the White Snake.
- Magenta Cheshire is based on the Cheshire Cat.
- Crane Hollow is named after Ichabod Crane and the titular town from The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. He also takes elements from its main antagonist, the Headless Horseman.
- Meaningful Name: All of Ozma and Salem's daughters were named after women of royal status who were dethroned, or were the last of their dynasties. These include Marie (blue), Jane (orange), Cleopatra (pink), and the youngest Anastasia (green).
- Not-So-Omniscient Council of Bickering: The Menagerie Council of Elders is supposed to hold an advisory, and limiting force on the Chieftain. However, most of them, save for Darwin, mostly just argue the semantics of the issue, and fail to get anything done in time. It's rendered moot when Bai kills all them save Darwin, anyway.
- Our Dragons Are Different: Both RYPJ and BRWN are gifted the power to transform into dragons by the God of Darkness.
- Parental Substitute: Weiss later comes to view Darkness as more of a father to her than her actual father.
- Praetorian Guard: The five member Imperial Guard of Mistral. Save for Rowan, all of them betray Lin during the battle at Haven.
- Put on the Bus: After Darkness manifests himself in full to Roman and Neo, they both quickly lose any interest in Cinder's exploits, and leave Vale.
- Related in the Adaptation: Sienna is Kali's sister in this version, thus making her Blake's aunt.
- The Resenter: The Spirits deeply resent humanity for, in their eyes, stealing the favor of the God of Light.
- The Revolution Will Not Be Civilized: Adam states outright that he plans on simply inverting the power dynamic, and enslaving the humans as the humans did to them.
- Robotic Reveal: Talos is an android like Penny, describing her as his "sister". Unlike Penny, he's much less human in mannerisms, and more weaponized.
- Scaled Up: A heroic version, after revealing himself to both teams, Darkness grants them the ability to transform into dragons.
- Ship Tease:
- All the female leads in the story, save for Nora, get minor ship tease with Jaune during the first half of the story, due to the author's admitted difficulty in figuring out a couple in the story. By the second half, it's been narrowed down to Ruby and Weiss, with the teasing being appropriately increased. Jaune ends up Taking a Third Option on Ruby's suggestion, and starts dating both of them.
- Pyrrha and Yang start to get their own as the story progresses.
- Shout-Out:
- The Imperial Guard of Mistral are all named after characters from Jurassic Park.
- Jaune's dragon form is based on Villentretenmerth from Netflix's The Witcher
- Skelebot 9000: In Penny's fight with Pyrrha, instead of getting torn apart, Pyrrha breathes fire at her, exposing Penny's metallic endoskeleton.
- Spared By Adaptation:
- Roman, Pyrrha, and Sienna all survive.
- Later, it's revealed that Ozma and Salem's youngest daughter (the one in green), named Anastasia in this continuity was the sole survivor of her parents' battle.
- Undying Loyalty: Rowan Hammond, the Captain of the Imperial Guard, to Lin as the only one who remains loyal to her while the rest of the guard betray her.
- We Hardly Knew Ye: Aurelius gets his throat slashed by Carmine in his third appearance in the story.
- The Menagerie Council of Elders gets it worse, with all of them, save Darwin, being killed by Bai in their second appearance.
- Wendigo: In place of the Apathy at Brunswick Farms is a Wendigo-themed Grimm named "Juracan". Its shown to be capable of consuming the Auras of people, which manifests in the person as extreme hunger which gradually builds until the people become so hunger they begin to lose their sanity. The Wendigo is described as being a tall, emaciated being with a deer skull for a head, and hooves for feet.
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Word of Gay: According to Word of God, Rowan Hammond is gay, and was in love with Lin's father before he passed away, which contributes to his Undying Loyalty to her. - Wise Old Turtle: Darwin Oogway is the oldest and wisest member of the Council of Elders, and is naturally a tortoise Faunus.
- You Have Out Lived Your Usefulness: The High Spirits eventually get fed up with they perceive as Salem's consistent failures, and banish her from the Land of Darkness, with one of the Spirits impersonating her.
- You're Not My Father: Yang firmly declares Summer to be her real mother, and renounces Raven, only referring to her by her name.
- Your Soul Is Mine!: A variation with the Wendigo, which is able to consume the Auras of its victims. It can do this quickly, literally sucking their Auras out of their bodies (causing their bodies to become withered until their Auras replenish), or slowly, where the consumption manifests in the victim as extreme hunger.
