YMMV / Professor Arc

• Alternative Character Interpretation: Are Jaune's family members emotionally abusive jerks who love to put him down and walk all over him, or are they a loving family who are (understandably) worried and pissed off that he's doing something that could get him in a ton of trouble?
• Cargo Ship: Ozpin and coffee. The Chapter 18 omake in particular.
  "Don't listen to her, Special-Coffee-Chan! She's a rival for Sempai's heart!"
• Complete Monster:
  • Adam Taurus is the psychopathic leader of the White Fang who seeks Faunus supremacy over humankind. Leading his forces during the Battle of Beacon, Adam slaughters countless students and innocents while leaving his own forces to die with the Grimm, luring Blake to a confrontation in which he blames Jaune for "stealing" her and attempts to murder his family. Believing Sienna to be weak for not supporting his invasion, Adam plots her assassination via his security team, and when that fails, he schemes with Tyrian Callows to kill Jaune on a mission. Driven to a mad rage by Jaune's continued survival, Adam attacks the Schnee family manor to draw him out, taking dozens of people hostage and threatening to kill all of them if he doesn't arrive. Spiteful to his last breath, Adam rejects Jaune's attempts to reach out to him and dies believing that Jaune will prove him right.
  • Hazel Rainart, far more ruthless than his canon counterpart, is one of Salem's lieutenants. Blaming Ozpin for the death of his sister at the hands of the Grimm, Hazel joined Salem's cause when she promised to kill him, disregarding that it was her army that killed Gretchen in the first place. Participating in the Battles of Beacon and Haven, Hazel comes up with the plan to steal the Relic of Creation, knowing that it would cause Atlas to crash into Mantle and kill millions of people. When Salem actually agrees to peace with humanity following the siege of Vale, Hazel goes completely mad, attempting to bring the Relics together himself—knowing full well that it will destroy Remnant completely—just to put Ozpin down for good. When Ozpin tries to point out that he's only hurting his sister in her afterlife by committing these atrocities in her name, Hazel simply mocks him by gloating about the power of the Relics he wields, no longer caring for anything but satisfying his own grudges. Despite claiming to be against unnecessary casualties, Hazel proves there's no line he's unwilling to cross for the sake of his misplaced vengeance.
• Crosses the Line Twice: Jaune slowly choking out one of the mayor's guards in Misenwood - while Neo stands off to the side giving him instructions and he's begging her to just take over already.
• Harsher in Hindsight: In chapter 62 of Headmaster Arc, as part of Jaune's gambit to bluff Salem, Jaune has Penny bring him a broom, which she states is from "Chivalric Cleaning Ltd". Fast forward to Null and the company has become Chivalric Arms, a fierce contender for the most horrifying villain in any of Coeur's stories.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • In Chapter 32, Qrow asks if he's somehow been cursed when the population of Misenwood turns on them and attacks, but Jaune shrugs it off and assumes that he's the cursed one and Qrow just got caught in it. Volume 4 would go on to reveal that Qrow's Semblance is to cause misfortune, and he views it as a curse.
  • In Chapter 33, Yang pretends that her arms are dysfunctional in order to invoke Romantic Spoonfeeding with Jaune. When they are revealed to be just fine, she claims that her professor must have Healing Hands. Come Volume 5 of RWBY, Jaune's semblance is revealed to be exactly that.
  • As the two of them fight Adam, Yang jokingly suggests to Blake that they should use the "lesbian rumors" to further piss their opponent off. This is pretty much how Adam gets ultimately defeated in Volume 6 — his jealousy of Yang's relationship with Blake causes him to lose his cool and leave himself open to a counterattack from the former.
  • In chapter 39, Ironwood gives Jaune a cup of his coffee, which he quickly realizes is much too strong and tastes horrible even though the General seems to like it. It's a one-off joke in this fic, but in retrospect, this is likely the first appearance of Atlesian Black coffee.
• It Was His Sled: The fact that the sequel story is called Headmaster Arc spoils the fact that Jaune becomes Headmaster at the end of the first story. From there, the fact that Ozpin is no longer Headmaster makes it obvious that the Fall of Beacon and Ozpin's death from canon still occur.
• Jerkass Woobie: Jaune is a borderline example. Considering he is using a national tragedy to con his way to a job, and keeps lying for his own gain, it would be easy to hate him. But the guilt he feels for deceiving people (especially as he starts to consider them his friends) and the moments when he thinks his cover is about to blown make you feel sorry for him.
• Magnificent Bastard: Professor Jaune Arc, through a mountain of lies and the power of his reputation, gradually proves himself as a genuine manipulator and strategist as time goes on. Coming into his own by forcing Roman Torchwick and Neopolitan to obey him, Jaune grows exponentially upon becoming Headmaster, managing to defeat Cinder Fall and place her powers into Pyrrha. Later pulling a similar gambit to defeat Adam Taurus by exploiting his rage, Jaune even gives the go-ahead for Cinder to steal the Winter Maiden powers, putting her under his control in the process. When Salem then tries to advance on Vale, Jaune manages to bluff her into a complete retreat with only a broom and a box of cigarettes, simultaneously tricking Cinder into compliance through a mountain of pre-written letters predicting her actions. After pulling a series of gambits to get Salem inside and convince her to spare humanity, Jaune later combats Hazel Rainart's usage of the Relics with his own, destroying him and saving all of humanity.
• Moral Event Horizon: The SDC sicced the Atlas military on Faunus protestors and branded a thirteen year old Adam simply for being there.
• Nightmare Fuel:
  • In Misenwood, Neo gleefully forces a man to kill himself, doing it slow enough for him to beg for his life while she sadistically laughs.
  • According to Cinder, and later confirmed by Oobleck, not everyone still in the tunnels to Mountain Glenn died when it collapsed. Some were trapped in there, waiting for either their injuries, the Grimm, or asphyxiation to kill them.
• Ships That Pass in the Night: Perhaps Coeur’s most noted examples occur in this story, with Jaune/Glynda being teased seriously from the start and made canon, although by story’s end it gets sunk when Jaune’s lies unravel; there’s also the Cardin/Velvet Beta Couple, which actually gets a convincing execution even withstanding the story’s tone.