RECAP:
Index | Prologue | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | Epilogue

Vytal

"From such small things, from such critical points, the universe and its masses may be moved… that is why you must be careful in all you do, and in every choice you make."

— Kreia

As the Vytal Festival kicks off, Glynda confronts Jaune over the source of his newfound abilities.

Tropes in this chapter include:

Arbitrary Skepticism: Averted when Jaune sarcastically confessing to Glynda that he's possessed by a magic Grimm warlord. Because of her experience with Ozpin and the Maidens, Glynda has no trouble believing Jaune's claim and finds that his situation parallels Ozpin's.
Barehanded Blade Block: During their match, when May swings her axe at Jaune, he catches her weapon with his left hand.
Combination Attack: Jaune has one with Nora that he calls "Lightning Storm". He hits Nora with a massive amount of Force lightning, charging her up and increasing her power so she can charge in and one shot her opponents.
Continuity Nod: Nora has a Lame Pun Reaction to Yang's puns and boos her, nearly starting another food fight. In the show, this how the food fight in Volume 2 got started.
Curb-Stomp Battle: Jaune easily defeats May during their tournament match, easily dodging or blocking all of her attacks and he toys with her for the entirety of their fight.
Drunk on the Dark Side: Nora under the influence of Jaune's Force-lightning becomes an Ax-Crazy berserker prone to Large Ham tendencies.
Elemental Punch: Jaune generates Force lightning around his hand and then punches May with his electrically-charged fist.
Even Evil Has Standards: Subverted. While watching Jaune fighting in the Amity Arena, Cinder recognizes Jaune as a sociopath comparable to Tyrian and expresses worry. Of course, this is only because Cinder believes it's more difficult to fight someone who has no moral restraints.
I Know You Know I Know: Jaune plays this game with Professor Goodwitch after giving his Sarcastic Confession. Glynda does believe what he said, but she hides it and instead pretends that she doesn't. Being a Living Lie Detector, Jaune can tell she's hiding something, but chooses to pretend that he believes she doesn't believe him.
Jedi Mind Trick: Jaune uses the Jedi mind trick on Ruby to erase her memory when she insists that Jaune's eyes were yellow instead of their usual blue.
Lame Pun Reaction:
Yang: Somebody's acting confident there. Don't get too cocky, otherwise you'll be getting a bad case of freezerburn.
Nora: Booo.
Yang: Hey that was actually a good one!
Parrying Bullets: Jaune deflects May's sniper shots with his sword.
Pragmatic Villainy:
- Jaune has refrained from completely dominating his friends' minds because he doesn't want to mentally destroy them and considers continually mind tricking them too risky since they might eventually wise up to what he's doing.
- When May signals that she's giving up after Jaune breaks her ribs during JNPR's match with BRNZ, Jaune has the urge to continue beating her until she was physically and mentally broken. He instead controls his impulse and accepts her submission before using his telekinesis to remove her from the arena. However, this is purely because he knows they're being watched by thousands of people, meaning that he would be severely punished if he continued to attack her.
- When Jaune senses through the Force that Glynda is pretending to not believing his claims of being possessed to hide something, he seriously considers using a mind trick to force the information out of her. He ultimately refrains because he knows she has an indomitable will that might allow her to resist his control. And even if he could successfully pull off a mind trick, Ozpin would quickly notice something was amiss with Glynda and catch on to what Jaune was doing.
Psychotic Smirk: Jaune lets out a small smirk while dragging a terrified May towards him with the Force during their tournament match.
Rapid-Fire Nail Biting: Cinder chews on her thumbnail in frustration while watching JNPR's match with BRNZ.
Rage Against the Mentor: When Glynda tries to pull an intervention and asks Jaune where his powers came from, he initially goes off on a rant about how he's now stronger than anyone else and that he doesn't need her anymore.
Rhetorical Question Blunder: Played with. While Jaune mutters that he's going to worse than "break a leg" like Ruby metaphorically encouraged the worst he ever does is break a few of May's ribs during the tournament match mainly for the sake of Pragmatic Villainy.
Ruby: Break a leg!
Jaune: Don't worry Ruby! (mumbling) I intend to do far worse than that.
Sarcastic Confession: When Glynda questions Jaune on where his new powers came from, he sarcastically quips "I'm possessed by the spirit of an ancient, magic warlord that got turned into a Grimm." While he said that to throw her off, Glynda's experience with Ozpin leads her to immediately deduce that he's telling the truth.
Sense Loss Sadness: Averted. While eating noodles with his friends, it's revealed that Jaune has lost his sense of taste as the noodles taste like ash to him. However, he isn't the least bit distraught due to the Dark Side's influence and his newfound craving for Life Energy.
Silent Treatment: Weiss refuses to talk to or even acknowledge Jaune due to the events of the Beacon Dance.
Silly Rabbit, Idealism Is for Kids!: While under the Dark Side's influence, Jaune inwardly scoffs at Ruby's child-like nature.
What Measure Is a Non-Human?: While noticing Jaune's sociopathic behavior during the tournament rounds, Glynda notes that if this behavior was limited to the Grimm, she might have been willing to overlook it.
Xanatos Speed Chess: After analyzing Jaune's fighting style and realizing that he's a sociopath, Cinder immediately alters her plans and thinks of using Jaune as a Red Herring Mole since his sociopathic behavior has already been noticed by Beacon's staff.
You Will Not Evade Me: Jaune uses the Force to pull May closer to him and take away her long-range advantage.