YMMV / A Rabbit Among Wolves

• Accidental Aesop: Sun getting arrested by Atlas based on his abs shows the dangers of showing off and being ostentatious.
• Anvilicious: The story is not subtle in any way, shape, or form when it comes to its depiction of racism and the parallels to real life. Adam (and the narration) not only call out racists as a whole, but the bystanders who choose to sit back and watch, merely content in the fact that they're not participating rather than actively trying to stop it. Considering that this fic has been going for most of 2020, with the real life protests against systemic racism in the U.S. going on for most of that time, this work came at a very prudent time.
• Complete Monster:
  • Cinder Fall, lacking any of Coeur's usual sympathetic treatment, is instead a spiteful and petty lieutenant of Salem. Following the death of Adam Taurus, Cinder is forced to seek a new group for her "army", doing so by going around the Vale underworld, burning alive anyone she can find, and forcibly recruiting the survivors. Intending to either kill or frame Jaune Arc to inflame racial tensions in Vale, Cinder has him shot at the Vytal Festival, instigating a riot; kills his prisoner transport while leaving White Fang symbols behind, causing several more riots in the streets; detonates bombs on the Amity Colosseum, threatening thousands of lives; and sets a trap for Sienna Khan that would force Jaune to watch her die. After killing the Fall Maiden, Cinder then gets enraged by Jaune's survival and promises to exterminate the entire Faunus race, all because Jaune once accidentally called her a stripper.
  • Elizabeth Tanner is the forewoman of the SDC lumber camp that Jaune investigates. Presenting an aura of being tough yet fair, Tanner coerces Faunus with nowhere else to go into a debt trap that leaves them stuck in her camp for over a decade, underpaying them for their hard labor so as to keep them for longer. She also takes advantage of her power to rape young, male Faunus in her camp, threatening to make them suffer if they don't comply. Attempting to rape Jaune as well, she quickly reveals her true colors as a racist psychopath, believing that she is above the law just because of her power and race, and threatens to make Jaune and Trifa suffer for denying her what she wants. Vile to her core, Tanner's actions represent the worst of the racism Faunus face every day, and it is her actions that truly open Jaune's eyes as to the abuse they suffer.
  • The boss of the brothel Jaune investigates proves to be the vilest enemy he's ever faced. Luring in victims from outside of the Kingdom with promises of a repaired life, the boss's gang instead enslaves them for his clients, with everything from rape to torture being permitted as the clients would like; he also forcefully drugs his victims until they're addicted in order to ensure they don't try to flee. When confronted by the White Fang and Team RWBY, the boss personally shoots one of his prisoners to save his own life before beginning to destroy any incriminating evidence.
• Heartwarming Moments:
  • When Jaune is arrested after getting shot, Adam declares that he's needed for the Fang, saying he was always willing to lay his life down for the cause but Jaune is actually taking it further. Then, in perhaps his first genuine moment of kindness, he reads the terrible poetry he wrote to Blake in order to distract him, giving him someone to talk to despite the isolation. Meanwhile, the White Fang are fighting against the Council even harder while still rejecting violence.
  • Jaune's return to the White Fang after escaping Cinder's captivity.
• Moral Event Horizon:
  • Elizabeth Tanner, the SDC manager, seems like a strict but reasonable person. Then she tries to force herself on Jaune. And then Trifa reveals she's done this before.
  • Rosemary and Thyme cross the line hard when they drive spikes through the ears of a donkey Faunus, Swan, and then attempt to blackmail her into silence when confronted.
• Older Than They Think: Couer actually came up with a similar story that featured a dead character stuck in Jaune's head as a voice (that is not Ozpin as he doesn't count) in The Writer Games based on a prompt by co-author College Fool.
• Rescued from the Scrappy Heap: Blake has been disliked for her irrational hatred of Jaune and the White Fang, which many readers consider to be obnoxious and excessive. In chapter 49, she admits that she's taking her anger out on Jaune because deep down, she's upset that Jaune has accomplished more in the fight for Faunus rights than she did, without sacrificing what she did, without causing the sort of damage she did, and seemingly did it just by being a better person than her. Readers became more sympathetic to her in light of this.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: Jaune's family appears in the first chapter and are a bit dismayed to see him become a terrorist. Their reactions to Jaune's campaign would've been a source of drama and humor, but their appearances in the fic are scant and don't get much focus.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: Jaune doesn't tell anyone about Adam's ghost in his head, even Blake, the girl whose spend 90% of the story being sad and angry about Adam's death.