History Characters / TrailsSeriesReanSchwarzer

** His Brave Orders all increase the party's stats. ''Iron Will/ Black Tortoise'' increase grants 50-60 percent DamageReduction, ''Divine Song/ Dark Moon'' increases ATS while also allowing instant casting, and ''Gold/ Divine Dragon'' increases critcal hit rate by 50-60 percent along with granting the Insight Status (which increases evasion and accuracy). He loses the latter two in ''Reverie''.

* ShootTheShaggyDog: He never manages to fulfill what he was supposed to do at the climax of each game. From failing to put a stop to Crow and the Noble Alliance's invasion of Trista in ''Cold Steel I'', to failing to save Crow himself in ''Cold Steel II''. Then there's the DownderEnding of ''Cold Steel III''...

* IAmWhatIAm: His [[AdoptionAngst adopted status]], [[ChildOfTwoWorlds origins]], and fear of his [[SuperpoweredEvilSide unknown powers]], left him with a poor sense of self-worth. Overtime, he learns to love and cherish himself and let go of his emotional hang-ups as he sees there are many who are willing to love him unconditionally in spite of them all.

* NobleMaleRoguishMale: He's the noble to Crow's roguish, being a kind-hearted, proper man who tries to avoid conflict as much as possible in contrast to the latter who is TheSlacker and TheGambler.

* NobleMaleRoguishMale: He's the noble to Crow's roguish, being a kind-hearted, proper man who tries to avoid conflict as much as possible in contrast to the latter who is TheSlacker .

* NoMoreHoldingBackSpeech: At the climax of ''Reverie'', as Rean is pressed by his alternate self to make an HeroicSacrifice to get rid of Ishmelga, he answers with one of these and [[MartyrWithoutACause how he finally understand that sacrificing himself won't make anyone happy.]]

* PowerIncontinence: His main issue with his ogre power is that he goes into a berserker rage when it manifests. While he manages to master it in ''Cold Steel II'',by the time of ''Cold Steel III'', his powers are once again going out of control and he has to wear a pendant that Emma gives to him to keep the terrible effects of his powers at bay. This drawback disappears at the end of ''Cold Steel IV''.

* EnlightmentSuperpowers: His Spirit Unification craft is a result of him using the 7th form of the Eight Leaves, Void, to control the Curse. The form is heavily based on his state of mind and sense of self, strengthening as he gains a better understanding and appreciation of his self-worth and outgrows his previous emotional hangups.

* MustMakeAmends: In ''Cold Steel IV'', he shows a great amount of guilt towards triggering the Great Twilight. As such, he is fully dedicated towards trying to complete the Rivalries to atone, and is fully resigned with dying in the process to make up for it.

* NeckLift: He's on the receiving end of this at the end of ''Cold Steel III'' from his dad.

* NobleMaleRoguishMale: He's the noble to Crow's roguish, being a kind-hearted, proper man who tries to avoid conflict as much as possible.

* SinsOfOurFathers: The discovery that Osborne is his bioligical father caused Rean no small amount of grief, as he feels shame for his actions as Chancellor, especially when the man strongarmed him into his role as the Ashen Chevalier.

** His Spirit Unification Craft and its later variations grants him a boost to his STR, DEF, and SPD for three turns. His Upgraded Enlightened Spirit Unification in ''Reverie'' adds a boost to ADF as well and increases the buffs' duration to four turns.
** His Brave Orders all increase the party's stats. ''Iron Will/ Black Tortoise'' increase grants 50-60 percent DamageReduction, ''Divine Song/ Dark Moon'' increases ATS while also allowing instant casting, and ''Gold/ Divine Dragon'' increases critcal hit rate by 50-60 percent. He loses thelatter two in ''Reverie''.

* MultiMeleeMaster: Downplayed. He mostly fights with a [[KatanasAreJustBetter tachi]], and shows a decent amount of skill in it's [[BareFistedMonk unarmed form]]. He also has some skill in Western style swords from lessons from his adopted father which he puts to use in Soldat battles through the first half of ''Cold Steel II'' and during lessons at the Branch Campus. He also had no problems wielding the [[{{BFS}} Sword of the End]] in ''Cold Steel IV''.

*** During the Ouroboros attack on the ''Pantagruel'', Musse orders a [[RammingAlwaysWorks suicide attack on the ''Glorious'', which is averted when Olivert reveals himself to be alive and arrives in the ''Courageous II''. After the attack is repelled, Rean reveals that he overheard her order and approaches her with an expression that is [[TranquilFury calm but a clear sign that she's in deep shit]], telling her that he needs to talk with her about being willing to needlessly throw her life away like that.
*** During his Bonding Event with Emma, Emma attempts a forbidden Spell to enter his subconscious in a vain attempt to relieve him of the Curse, leaving out how she's likely to end up an EmptyShell if it failed. Rean immediatey cuts off the spell and snaps at her for being so reckless.

* DuelingPlayerCharacters: With Lloyd in ''Cold Steel II'' with the twist that Rean ''is the boss fight''.
** In ''Reverie'', he faces C and his team during Chapter 2. Unlike in ''Cold Steel 2'', you play both sides succesively.

* ElementalPowers: His Unite attacks and the available arts that Rean can cast with whoever is partnered with him during Valimar battles have them.

* LiteralChangeOfHeart: According to Osborne, a wooden splinter actually pierced his heart when he was a kid and was dying. Osborne had to transplant his heart to Rean's just so his son can survive.

* MoreThanJustATeacher: By ''Cold Steel III'', he becomes an instructor at the Thors Branch Campus, partially as a way to get away from Osborne's influence. Quite a few characters (such as Cedric) note his skills and accomplishments as the Ashen Chevalier would make him eligible for other more glamorous positions than training students at what is seen as 'a trashbin for undesirables', but he is shown to be rather satisfied with it.

* RedBaron: Comes to be known as the Ashen Chevalier after his actions in both the Erebonian Civil War and in the Crossbell campaign. He is referred as this by a lot of people in the following games. Although he does become a Divine Blade by ''Cold Steel IV'', by ''Reverie'' he hasn't come up with his own spin of the title, viewing himself too inexperimented for that.

* TallDarkAndHandsome: Becomes this by the time of ''Cold Steel III'', standing at 178cm tall (5'10). While not the tallest character there is, he's still quite good looking.

* TeachersUnfavoriteStudent: Discussed and subverted. When Ka-Fai [[IncompletelyTrained left him during his training]], Rean's [[HeroicSelfDeprecation low self-esteem]] naturaly lead him to believe it was because his master saw him as a lost cause. The ensuing letter correspondence he receives from his master however, ensure that was not the case, with Ka-Fai expressing a degree of [[SoProudOfYou pride]] at his growth. Then in ''Cold Steel IV'', Cassius reveals that Ka-Fai did the same with his other students when he believed they were on the way to mastery, and he in fact considers Rean one of his most valuable pupils who is likely to surpass him in discovering the true meaning of the school's teachings.

* TheApprentice: He was taught in the Eight Leaves One Blade school of swordsmanship by Yun Ka-Fai, the first protagonist who actively practices it. Over the course of the game, he goes from beginner rank, to intermediate, to finally acieving the rank of [[MasterSwordsman Divine Blade]] in ''Cold Steel IV''.

* AsleepForDays: ''Cold Steel II'' opens with Rean awakening atop a snowy mountain range with Valimar after having been asleep for a month due to Valimar being badly damaged in the dramatic battle at the end of the original game. The Awakener shares the pain and damage, but Valimar has expended a massive amount of mana energy, all in bringing Rean back to health. And in a flashback in ''Cold Steel III'', he apparently slept a few days after seeing a bunch of jaegers at North Ambria start killing citizens and gave in to his rage. This is {{Foreshadowing}} for his inevitable meltdown when he loses control of his ogre power.

* ElementalHairColors: Has black hair and his primary element is [[CastingAShadow time.]]

The main protagonist of the Cold Steel saga. A kind and respectable young man, Rean's insecurities regarding himself lead him to enroll at Thors Military Academy in order to find purpose in his life and a place to belong. He is assigned to Class VII and eventually becomes its unofficial leader. He is a practitioner of the Eight Leaves One Blade and later becomes a pilot for the divine knight Valimar.

* AesopAmnesia: Once per game, he has to learn that he's not alone and that he can rely on other people. Though in his defence, every time he learns the lesson, circumstances beyond his and his friends' control keep driving him to do things by himself thanks to his MartyrWithoutACause tendencies.

* {{Foreshadowing}}: Any of the luck fortunes that he draws in ''Cold Steel I'' foreshadows a lot of events ''Cold Steel II''.

* GameplayAndStoryIntegration:
** Rean's ability sense the presence of others can be taken as a referral to how in-game the players are able to know the location of each individual NPC and quest objectives via the map.
** He's known for [[MartyrWithoutACause being too willing to risk his life for others to an unhealthy degree]]. Fittingly enough, he has [[TakingTheBullet Cover]] as one of his Link abilities.
* GameplayAndStorySegregation: During the finale of ''Cold Steel II'', Valimar mentions that he'll need time to rest before he and Rean can take on Crow and Ordine. Despite this however, Rean can still summon in battle during gameplay.

* HeroicSelfDeprecation: {{Deconstructed|Trope}}. Rean's extremely low opinion of himself tends to annoy the people around him more than anything else. In chapter 1 of ''Cold Steel I'', he bluntly tells Laura that, when it comes to swordplay, he's a "drop-out who's never been able to move pass beginner level", much to Laura's dismay as she dislikes people who make light of their own abilities and can tell that Rean's capable of a lot more than he's convinced himself, something he proves beyond doubt in that very same chapter. Later, in chapter 4, he devastates Elise with the revelation that he's essentially going to disown himself from the Schwarzers out of a belief he's got a lot of grief for them (which isn't entirely wrong, but nevertheless isn't Rean's fault by any means), with Elise all but outright stating that he's been doing this kind of thing for as long as she can remember. At one point, he even goes so far as to say he doesn't have the right to be treated kindly. He works on this flaw considerably as the games progress, but it nevertheless remains a subtle part of his character.

** {{Played for Laughs}} after his final fight with Crow in ''Cold Steel II'', when Crow calls him out on saying that their fight had nothing to do with their classmates despite using their ARCUS links to help defeat him. Rean doesn't deny this, but states that at a certain point, he just did it unconsciously.

** Time and again, Rean will express surprise that one of his friends is able to say such profound things so casually, most notably Gaius during chapter 3 of ''Cold Steel I'' and Elliot during chapter 4 of the same game. In each case, the person in question will say that Rean is the ''last'' person who should be saying that to them.

* InterClassRomance: While the circumstances of his adoption [[ChildOfTwoWorlds muddies the issue,]] he is still considered a [[BlueBlood nobleman]], and all of his love interests besides Elise, Laura, Musse, and Alfin are commoners, with the latter two being well above him in terms of status as a Duchess and the Princess respectively. {{Downplayed|Trope}} in Alisa's case since she comes from one of the wealthiest families in Erebonia, essentially making her a noble in all but name.

** After he reveals that he's a noble to the rest of the class, Machias is pissed at Rean for lying to him, and the two remain on rocky terms until their next field study, with Rean eventually saying that he should have been up and front with Machias from the beginning. Thing is, Machias did kind of put him on the spot with his outburst about nobles so he can't really be blamed for dodging the question. There's also the fact that Rean technically didn't even lie; he said [[ExactWords he didn't have a drop of noble blood in him, he never said he wasn't adopted]].
** A major example is when he tells Elise that he fully intends to essentially disown himself from the Schwarzers, blaming himself for all the trouble his family has suffered over the years and believing that distancing himself from them will allow them to gain the respect they deserve with their peers. He also acts as though he needs to repay his parents for looking after him all those years, even though they did so because they love him unconditionally as though he were their real son. Fortunately, he eventually realises that this decision won't do any good, and his family care far more about him than they do about their reputation among the masses.

** In ''Cold Steel II'', he claims that he's going to duel with Crow without the help of his classmates. Yet despite that he subconsciously ends up pulling off ARCUS links with all of them to beat him. Crow calls him out on this.

** A major example is when he tells Elise that he fully intends to essentially disown himself from the Schwarzers, blaming himself for all the trouble his family has suffered over the years, believing that doing so will give them the respect they deserve with their peers. He also acts as though he needs to repay his parents for looking after him all those years, even though they did so because they love him unconditionally as though he were their real son. Fortunately, he eventually realises that this decision won't do any good, and his family care far more about him than they do about their reputation among the masses.

'''Warning: spoilers relating to events/reveals that happen during the first two ''Cold Steel'' games shall be left unmarked.''' However, certain spoilers relating to the third and fourth games, as well as ''Reverie'', shall remain tagged.

[[caption-width-right:350:[[labelnote:Rean at the start of ''Cold Steel IV'' (SPOILERS)]]https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/rean_schwarzer___s_craft_berserk_tattered_28sen_iv29.png[[/labelnote]]]]
[[caption-width-right:350:[[labelnote:Rean during the majority of ''Cold Steel IV'' (SPOILERS)]]https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/rean_schwarzer_sen_iv.png[[/labelnote]]]]
[[caption-width-right:350:[[labelnote:SPOILERS]]Rean going through assimilation in ''Reverie'' https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/rean_schwarzer_resonated___s_craft_1a_28hajimari29.png[[/labelnote]]]]
[[caption-width-right:350:[[labelnote:SPOILERS]]Tyrfing S https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/tyrfing_s_hajimari.png[[/labelnote]]]]

The main protagonist of the ''Cold Steel'' saga of the ''Trails'' franchise. He is the adopted son of Baron Teo Schwarzer of Ymir. A kind and respectable young man, his insecurities regarding himself leads Rean to enroll at Thors Military Academy in order to find purpose in his life and a place to belong. Due to circumstance, he ends up being assigned as a member of the newly established Class VII together with eight other students. Thanks to his personality and actions throughout the games, he ends up becoming the unofficial leader of the group. As an Eight Leaves One Blade practitioner, he uses a tachi in combat.

At the end of the first game and after completing a series of trials together with his classmates, he ends up becoming the Awakener to the Divine Knight known as Valimar, a HumongousMecha previously piloted by Dreichels the Lionheart. After the invasion of Trista at the hands of the Noble Alliance and the betrayal of his close friend Crow, he and the members of Class VII end up scattered throughout the eastern side of the empire. In ''Cold Steel II'', Rean journeys across Erebonia and is eventually able to reunite with his friends. Together with support from Prince Olivert, he and the rest of Class VII, along with several others, end up serving as a Third Faction during the Erebonian Civil War.

During this time it's also revealed that his true biological father is none other than Giliath Osborne. Thanks to his deeds during the civil war, he also ends becoming a national hero to Erebonia known as the "Ashen Chevalier".

In ''Cold Steel III'', over a year and a half after the events of the previous game, Rean finally graduates from Thors. Instead of signing on with the military, he instead takes up a teaching position at Thors Branch Campus where he's in charge of history, martial arts, and Panzer Soldat training. He also ends up assigned as the instructor of Class VII: Special Operations.

* AboveTheInfluence: Much to Musse's dismay, he will not hit on her even when she forces herself on him. Even when she starts influencing his head, Rean still manages to snap out of it albeit barely. [[spoiler:If the player picks her for the fireworks event in ''Cold Steel IV'', he'll mention to Musse that she'll have to wait until she's graduated before she can even think of getting into that kind of relationship with him.]]

** Averted in ''Cold Steel III'' as he's OlderAndWiser now.
* AceCustom: Subverted in ''Cold Steel III''. If he's not piloting Valimar, he just uses a regular Drakkhen to teach the class. [[spoiler:Played straight in ''Reverie'' where he is the test pilot of a custom ashen-colored [[SuperPrototype high-performance prototype]] named "Tyrfing S".]]
* AcePilot: In real life, for a pilot to be considered an ace, they need to take down 5 enemy vehicles (8 by the standards of Erebonia's [[UsefulNotes/ImperialGermany historic]] [[UsefulNotes/PrussiansInPickelhauben counterpart]]). By the end of the second game, he and Valimar have defeated a magic knight, over a dozen Panzer Soldats, as well as Crow (who has 3 years more experience) and delivered the finishing blow on Testa-Rossa. During the Divertissement he entered the battlefield by cutting down two of Calvard's airships, which prompted them to retreat. And in Juna's backstory, Rean appears right away and one-shots a Calvard airship like it was nothing. He's a combination of both a Steamroller and a Plugger. [[spoiler:By ''Reverie'', he's gotten so good at piloting that a basic Drakkhen can no longer keep up with his reflexes when he has a friendly duel with Kurt and Ash in the "Tyrfing Project" minigame.]]
* AcheyScars: He has a nasty scar across his chest that pains him on occasion most ominously, when Osborne speaks to him. [[spoiler:In ''Cold Steel III'', it turns out that the scar is from when he was pierced with a wooden splinter when his house was attacked as a kid. Osborne had to transplant his heart to save Rean's life as Rean's heart was destroyed. ''Cold Steel IV'' reveals just how big the wooden splinter was and it is huge for a human, let alone a child, to even have lodged in their chest.]]

* AffectionateGestureToTheHead: Is prone to pat other people's head, most notably Elise, Alisa, Towa, Alfin, Altina, Juna, and Celine [[spoiler:especially in her CatGirl form.]] He's also on the receiving end of this himself from Sara, Toval, and Crow. ''Especially'' Crow.
* AfraidOfTheirOwnStrength: He's afraid that if he ever gave in to his SuperpoweredEvilSide, he'd start slaughtering everybody, both friend and foe. Victor calls him out on it and tells the guy to start accepting that it's a part of him. Fortunately enough for him, Alfin manages to finish the job and tells him that he really shouldn't worry too much about Elise. [[spoiler:Unfortunately in ''Cold Steel III'', his fears come to fruition after Millium's death wherein he completely loses control of himself at the climax of the story and unintentionally dooms Erebonia.]]

* AllYourPowersCombined: [[spoiler:His final S-Craft in ''Cold Steel IV'' combines all of the forms of the Eight Leaves One Blade style; Helix, Gale, Karma Flame, Autumn Leaves, Morning Moon, Scarlet Sky, and Void before sheathing his sword.]]

** ''Cold Steel IV'' takes this to its logical conclusion where [[spoiler:after he takes in some of the dark aura from killing the Nameless One, he starts forgetting his real name.]]
* AncestralWeapon: [[spoiler:In a very roundabout way, Valimar is somewhat this to him as it's revealed that his father, Giliath Osborne, is the reincarnation of Dreichels Reise Arnor. The man who served as Valimar's previous Awakener during the War of the Lions. Valimar even initially greets Osborne as Dreichels before correcting himself during the finale of ''Cold Steel IV''.]]

** Three instances in ''Cold Steel IV'', born of trauma related to [[spoiler:Millium's death]]:
*** [[spoiler:In a bonding event with Altina, she goes on a solo mission to Ymir without telling anyone else, having discovered that the IDF is planning to take the town hostage to lure Rean out. Rean is horrified when he finds out and, once Lechter has assured him that it won't happen again, he hugs her out of relief and yells at her to never do it again.]]
*** [[spoiler:During the Ouroboros attack on the ''Pantagruel'', Musse orders a [[RammingAlwaysWorks suicide attack]] on the ''Glorious'', which is averted when Olivert reveals himself to be alive and arrives in the ''Courageous II''. After the attack is repelled, Rean reveals that he overheard her order and approaches her with an expression that is [[TranquilFury calm but a clear sign that she's in deep shit]], telling her that he needs to talk with her about being willing to needlessly throw her life away like that.]]
*** During his Bonding Event with Emma, [[spoiler:Emma attempts a forbidden Spell to enter his subconscious in a vain attempt to relieve him of the Curse, leaving out how she's likely to end up an EmptyShell if it failed. Rean immediatey cuts off the spell and snaps at her for being so reckless.]]

* ApocalypseMaiden: [[spoiler:The Black Records have recorded him as the one who will trigger the Great Twilight by slaying the Nameless One, which he does at the end of ''Cold Steel III''.]]
* ArchnemesisDad: Osborne, who is his actual biological father. Rean has little love for him after the events of Crow's death and the annexation of Crossbell. [[spoiler:However, it's not until the climax of ''Cold Steel III'' that the two finally come to blows with one another as Rean tries to stop his father from potentially dooming Erebonia. Averted by the final battle in ''Cold Steel IV'' as it's clear that Rean doesn't hate Osborne anymore for what he had to go through to truly get rid of Erebonia's real issue.]]
* ArmorPiercingAttack: His final S-Craft in ''Cold Steel IV'' cancels all defense guards and reflects before applying damage. [[spoiler:After gaining the Sword of the End, he is able to pierce through Holy Beasts and [=McBurn=]'s true form.]]
* AsleepForDays: ''Cold Steel II'' opens with Rean awakening atop a snowy mountain range with Valimar after having been asleep for a month due to Valimar being badly damaged in the dramatic battle at the end of the original game. The Awakener shares the pain and damage, but Valimar has expended a massive amount of mana energy, all in bringing Rean back to health. [[spoiler:And in a flashback in ''Cold Steel III'', he apparently slept a few days after seeing a bunch of jaegers at North Ambria start killing citizens and gave in to his rage. This is {{Foreshadowing}} for his inevitable meltdown when he loses control of his ogre power.]]
* TheAtoner: Is NOT happy about his role in [[spoiler: [[HatePlague triggering the Great Twilight]] at the end of the third game]] and is determined to make up for it in the fourth game, even if he was NotHimself during the time.

** In ''Cold Steel IV'', [[spoiler:the entire Black Workshop level has him fully buffed in his out of control Demon Unchained and starts the game at level 90 compared to the rest of Class VII who hover between levels 84-87. Unlike ''Cold Steel II'' however, players can run around as Rean in this state which makes enemies almost impossible to kill off Rean even on Nightmare runs.]]

* BadassInDistress: Briefly when he's captured and taken to the [[CoolShip Pantagruel]] in the second game. [[spoiler:Happens again in ''Cold Steel IV'', where Rean spends the entirety of Act 1 imprisoned within the confines of the Black Workshop as the others all work to find a way to rescue him.]]
* BadassLongcoat: A black one in his DLC costume for the second game. His attire for the third game also has him [[https://twitter.com/Hatsuu/status/776235545529716736 wearing a white coat]] as part of his instructor uniform at Thors II.

* BadassTransplant: [[spoiler:Turns out the reason Rean has a scar and his chest and that it aches constantly and gives him access to ogre powers is because his heart is not his own. It's his father's, aka Osborne's heart, that's inside of him.]]
* BadPowersGoodPeople: An all around nice guy who'll stop to help anybody in need. However, he firmly believes that his powers are terrible in that he could accidentally kill someone in a fit of rage if he's not careful. Fortunately enough for him in the second game, he finally comes to terms with it and accepts those powers for his own strength. [[spoiler:But then ''Cold Steel III'' happens and he fully loses control over it in his rage and slaughters the Nameless One, fully unleashing the Curse of Erebonia.]]
* BarbieDollAnatomy: One of the costumes that he shares with Emma for NewGamePlus in ''Cold Steel IV'' is him being fully naked but not showing off his privates, all covered up in glowing markings. [[spoiler:It's because Emma dives into his subconsciousness to try and hold off the effects of the curse within him.]]

* BattleInTheCenterOfTheMind: [[spoiler:His final test before becoming a Divine Blade is him fighting a duel against his own self in ogre form.]]
* BeatTheCurseOutOfHim: [[spoiler:Subverted in ''Cold Steel IV'' where new Class VII holds him off while he attacks them but he doesn't snap out of his berserk self (in fact, he becomes even more enraged for a while). It takes their ARCUS IIs and Celine in her CatGirl form telling them what to go inside his subconsciousness and snap him out from within.]]

* BenchedHero: [[spoiler:At the climax of ''Cold Steel III'', he's captured by Osborne, requiring Juna and Class VII to bring him back. Save for brief appearances, he barely appears throughout Act 1 of ''Cold Steel IV''.]]

* TheBerserker: [[spoiler:Throughout the Black Workshop where he's in his SuperpoweredEvilSide, he will swing his sword at nearly anyone while he makes his way towards Valimar and the Sword of the End.]]
* BewareTheNiceOnes: Much like Estelle and Lloyd, Rean is who is quite nice and helpful towards the people around him, but will get angry and fight those who threaten the innocent and his loved ones. However, unlike Estelle and Lloyd, Rean's rage can turn completely ''murderous'' if provoked enough and result in him instinctively activating his [[SuperpoweredEvilSide ogre power]]. Best seen when he nearly slaughters the Northern Jaegers that attacked Ymir after believing they had killed his adoptive parents [[spoiler:and again when Millium is killed in front of him which results in Rean killing the Nameless One and then brutalizing its corpse in a fit of vengeance.]]

* BeyondTheImpossible: In ''Cold Steel IV's'' climax, [[spoiler:he is able to separate Ishmelga from his soul using a powered up version of Spirit Unification, something not even [[MagnificentBastard Osborne]] could achieve.]]

* BladeLock: Engages in this with Kurt in his bonding event in ''Cold Steel III''. And in ''Reverie'', [[spoiler:he engages in this with Matteus Vander, and ends up losing while the latter was wielding his {{BFS}} with one hand.]]

* BlessedWithSuck: His SuperpoweredEvilSide in general. While it does give him the benefit of a power boost which would be helpful in tight spots, it also comes with the price of Rean being consumed by feral rage and thus becoming prone to attacking anyone close to him if he's not careful. He starts taking steps to mastering this power of his in ''Cold Steel II''. [[spoiler:Unfortunately in ''Cold Steel III'' his power starts growing beyond his ability to control and eventually culminates in him completely losing it after Millium's death.]]

** His master tasks him with mastering the Seventh form of the Eight Leaves One Blade School in order to get his powers under control. In Cold Steel IV, [[spoiler:he uses a technique seemingly of his own creation, Seventh Form: Enlightened Spirit Unification, to permanently separate Ishmelga from his soul and give him a corporeal form in the real world.]]

* BrokenPedestal: [[spoiler:In ''Reverie'', he is considered as this to the rebel soldiers as Rean was the reason why they joined the army to fight against Calvard and yet Rean supported ending the war. Rean's companions call them out on it.]]
* BroughtDownToBadass: [[spoiler:With Ishmelga finally dead at the end of ''Cold Steel IV'', Rean ends up losing his ogre power by the end of the game. Subverted however as ''Reverie'' reveals that Rean does in fact still have the power itself, it just lacks the curse aspect that made him overly aggressive when using it with Spirit Unification.]]

* CallingParentsByTheirName: [[ArchnemesisDad Thanks to the nature of their relationship]], he never actually calls Osborne "father" and instead simply refers to him either by his name or title. [[spoiler:He finally calls him "dad" at the end of the GoldenEnding just before Osborne disappears for good.]]

* CelibateHero: By ''Cold Steel IV'', the women in his harem have started to confess to him, long before the final bonding event. Despite this however, Rean does acknowledge it but doesn't say anything about it till the final bonding event [[spoiler:mostly because he's already accepted that as the ultimate Sacrifice of Ishmelga's curse, he would have to die at the end of the Rivalries.]]

** In ''Cold Steel IV'' [[spoiler: after being saved by friends in the Intermission, Rean is able to finally move past his insecurities and become the person he was always meant to be. He ends up becoming a more confident version of himself, willing to share his burdens with others and never hesitates in the face overwhelming adversity (both inner and outer) culminating in him finally becoming a Divine Blade after passing Cassius' test.]]
** A huge part of his character development is centered around his understanding of the Eight Leaves One Blade Seventh form: Void. Initially, Rean has difficulty grasping the true meaning behind the words "form Is Emptiness, emptiness is form". The phrase essentially boils down to the idea that nothing (Void) is separate from anything else and that everything is connected. Yun Ka-Fai teaches him this concept in the hopes that he will realize that it applies to his own life, that his existence is an indelible part of everyone else's life and vice versa. While Rean is able to grasp the meaning of these words by ''Cold Steel II'', he is only able to reach true understanding in ''Cold Steel IV'' [[spoiler:during his trial of the Divine Blade. Cassius asks this question whilst assuming the form that Rean fears most: his ogre self.]]
--->[[spoiler:'''Cassius:''' Will you offer yourself to him to reach the peak of swordsmanship?]]
--->[[spoiler:'''Rean:''' No. I will exist alongside him. We will be as one.]]
** His character development from the past games is apparent in Reverie, as Rean comes across as wiser and more amenable to receiving help from others, but ''Reverie'' fully completes his character development by having him [[spoiler:confront the personification of his past mistakes, self-loathing and self-sacrificial tendencies in the form of his alternative self. When offered the chance to sacrifice himself to defeat Ishelmga-Rean and take responsibility for the latter's existence, Rean refuses. Rean acknowledges his tendency to sacrifice himself only ended up hurting his loved ones in the end, and reasons that he himself needs to be alive and happy, if he wants to make his friends and family happy in return.]]

** [[spoiler:''Cold Steel III'' reveals that his master, Yun Ka-Fai, had taught Rean the [[ArcNumber Seventh Form - Void]] out of the belief that Rean could master it and that through it he would be able to succeed where ''both Cassius and Arios'' have failed; learn the true meaning of the Eight Leaves One Blade style.]]
** [[spoiler:''Cold Steel IV'' reveals another two: first, that he was chosen as the Sacrifice to unleash the curse of Erebonia ever since he had gained the scar on his chest. Second, that in all of [=KeA=]'s visions about the future, [[SaveThisPersonSaveTheWorld he is the key to ending the Great Twilight prematurely thus preventing the world war from turning into a continental bloodbath.]]]]

* ClothingDamage: ''Cold Steel IV'' shows that his ''Cold Steel III'' outfit has been left in tatters [[spoiler:after having been held captive by Osborne and Alberich within the Black Workshop. He later trades the outfit in for a new one after his rescue, though the player can undertake a sidequest to regain the ''Cold Steel III'' one as a costume.]]

* TheComplainerIsAlwaysWrong: In regards to his powers, which he saw as a source of shame and Angst. Those who witness him using it in the first two games tell him to try and embrace them and put them to use as an asset despite how clearly uncomfortable he is with the subject. Come the third game, its clear he was right to be wary of them as they start [[PowerIncontinence going out of control]] and [[HeroicRROD taking a toll on him]] [[spoiler: culminating in him triggering the Great Twilight when he goes postal at the end of the third game.]]
* ConnectedAllAlong: In ''Cold Steel II'', it's revealed that Rean met Alisa when they were children when Alisa's family went on a vacation trip to Ymir. [[spoiler:Then it turns out that their fathers are more connected with each other than at first glance. ''Cold Steel IV'' reveals that he's also secretly connected to Lianne Sandlot, as she had been watching over him since childhood in order to help keep him safe because of his connection to Osborne. The latter of whom is the reincarnation of Dreichels Reise Arnor, the man that Lianne had sworn fealty towards and had loved.]]
* ContrastingSequelMainCharacter: Estelle and Lloyd were brown haired commoners from states that had ben antagonized by [[TheEmpire Erebonia,]] fought with blunt weapons (a staff and tonfas respectively), started their games as rookies for their organizations, and were related to the BigGood or The Ace whose legacies they are either unaware of (Estelle) or try to live up to (Lloyd) and raised by stable and loving blood relatives. Rean meanwhile has black hair, is a BlueBlood from TheEmpire, fights with a [[KatanasAreJustBetter tachi]], being the first protagonist to study the [[FantasticFightingStyle Eight Leaves One Blade School]] instead of being merely acquanted with one, and was raised by adopted parents, started his adventures as a student only getting into action due to Olivert's actions and turns out to be the son of [[EvilChancellor Giliath]] [[GreaterScopeVillain Osborne]] which leaves him ashamed and exacerbates his self-worth issues. Both were also BadassNormal unconnected with Zemuria's more paranormal aspects while Rean is heavily immersed in it by becoming Valimar's Awakener and his unique power as [[spoiler:the Sacrifice of Ishmelga's curse making him TheChosenOne.]]

** Then there's the Zemurian Ore tachi that he has forged for Valimar's use, guaranteed to cut through almost anything that isn't made of the same material or is stronger. [[spoiler:It unfortunately gets destroyed during the finale of ''Cold Steel III'' during the battle against the final boss, but is later restored at some point of ''Cold Steel IV''. However, by that point, Rean has already switched over to the [[InfinityOnePlusSword Sword of the End]] which allows him to kill the Nameless One (though that is ''not'' a good thing).]]

* CosmicPlaything: For all of his powers, abilities, and main character status, the plot still manages to find ways to screw him over in the worst possible ways ever conceived. [[spoiler:This is finally averted by of ''Cold Steel IV'', killing the being that made him, his family, and Erebonia cosmic playthings]]

** [[spoiler:His all-black ensemble in ''Cold Steel IV''.]]

* CurbStompBattle: [[spoiler:In ''Cold Steel III'' he delivers the mother of all curb stomps onto the ''FinalBoss'' once his ogre power goes out of control, transforming Valimar into a new form and corrupting the Sword of the End forged from Millium's soul. He ends up ''utterly destroying the beast'' as a result. Then, after he finally finishes it off, he ''still hacks at it in rage''.]]
* CurseThatCures: [[spoiler:Flashbacks show that a large chunk of wood had pierced his heart when the jaegers sent by Arundel attacked his childhood home. Had Osborne not agreed to a DealWithTheDevil with Ishmelga to transplant his heart into his son, Rean would have died then and there.]]

** Reverie tops this [[spoiler:at the climax of chapter 3 where he ''scales'' to the top of the mountain while dueling the fake Arios.]]

** His ogre power in general. Using it comes at the cost of Rean potentially losing control of himself in a fit of rage if he isn't careful with it. [[spoiler:In ''Cold Steel III'' this becomes even more apparent when his power starts growing beyond his ability to control.]]
** In ''Cold Steel IV'' [[spoiler:He's able to enter this form at will, though he's only able to control it for three turns before completely losing control with a 30% chance of snapping out of his berserk state.]]

* DarkAndTroubledPast: [[spoiler:A few days before the Hamel Incident, his original house with the Osborne's was raided because his dad didn't want the Hamel Incident to happen. Rean's mother dies and Rean was impaled with a wooden splinter where his scar is at, damaging his heart. Osborne then transplants his heart to Rean's via unknown means and gives Rean to Osborne's foster younger brother Teo and tells the latter to forget about their sibling relationship as Osborne was about to do the things that he did throughout the series.]]
* DarkIsNotEvil: His primary orbment element is time, which is the darkest element in the series, yet he is very heroic. This also applies when he's in control of his SuperMode which makes things scary when he starts losing control over it. [[spoiler:In the fourth game he wears an all black outfit, and due to the effects of The Great Twilight, permanently has white hair and red eyes, which gives him a rather intimidating appearance, though he's no less heroic than the previous games.]]

* DatePeepers: One late hidden sidequest in ''Cold Steel II'' has him peep on a date with Anton and Sharon. He also accidentally peeps on [[spoiler:Olivert and Schera during their date in ''Cold Steel IV'', even overhearing the former proposing to the latter. Rean quickly leaves in order to avoid being a MomentKiller.]]
* DeadAlternateCounterpart: [[spoiler:Subverted as it's revealed in ''Reverie'' that his Normal Ending self actually did not die from self-destructing Valimar in space. Instead, he has an "Eternal Rivalry" against Ishmelga where they've tried to combine with one another, only to fail repeatedly.]]

* DeathOrGloryAttack: How Spirit Unification works: it costs 100 CP that boosts Rean's strength, speed, and defense and makes him immune to most status ailments. However, it only lasts three turns and once those turns are up, he reverts to his base self. It's usually best to use Spirit Unification in conjunction with him unleashing a 200 CP S-Craft to maximize its effects (and his ogre form 2nd S-Craft usually has the highest S-Craft rating in the game). Exaggerated with [[spoiler:Demon Unchained]] in ''Cold Steel IV'' where [[spoiler:once the three turns are up, he enters into a berserk state where he has a permanent strength buff but he can only attack an enemy. He can't even counterattack enemies in this state nor can he use ARCUS links, and him snapping out of it manually depends on how many turns the game takes to bring him back or have another party member waste their turn and cure the ailment.]]
* DeathSeeker: [[spoiler:Defied in ''Cold Steel IV''. In their first bonding events, Laura accuses Rean of searching for a place to die and Emma [[WhatTheHellHero yells]] at him for accepting his role as a sacrifice. For his part, Rean claims he's accepted that he may die, but he does in fact want to live.]]

* DefeatingTheUndefeatable: [[spoiler:In ''Cold Steel III'', with the help of the SwordOfPlotAdvancement, he's able to slay one of the Holy Beasts, sacred creatures that are supposed to be completely unkillable. [[NiceJobBreakingItHero This is not]] [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt a good thing.]]]]

** In ''Cold Steel III''' he's forced to go on grueling missions as a military officer (at a rate of once per month). [[spoiler:The North Ambria campaign was particularly traumatic for him, and it marked the downward spiral for his power, permanently losing the ability to fully control it. Said game's finale manages to take this up a notch where Millium ends sacrificing herself right in front of him in order to forge a new sword for Valimar, he gives in to his SuperpoweredEvilSide, engulfs the world in darkness after killing the FinalBoss in pure rage, and then later is captured by Osborne.]]
* DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu: [[spoiler:The first character of the series to kill a Holy Beast sent by Aidios to guard her treasures, corrupted or not. As stated, [[NiceJobBreakingItHero this is not]] [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt a good thing.]]]]
** In ''Cold Steel IV'', [[spoiler:using Millium as his sword, he slices Ishmelga, the source of the curse and everything wrong with Erebonia, into two after it desperately attacks Rean one final time. This time, it's a good thing.]]
** Right before that, he's the first confirmed character onscreen to make [[spoiler:''Cassius Bright'' '''''kneel!''''' Granted the guy comes back up really quickly but ''still!'' Even the party in ''The 3rd'' couldn't make him kneel after his boss fight.]]
* DiedInYourArmsTonight: At the main story of ''Cold Steel II'', Crow dies in Rean's arms. [[spoiler:In ''Cold Steel III'', Millium dies while he's riding Valimar. Finally in ''Cold Steel IV'', Osborne physically disappears in his arms.]]

* DreamingOfThingsGoneBy: [[spoiler:In ''Cold Steel III'', as soon as he steps inside Hamel, he sees a vision of a young Loewe, Karin, and Joshua and then watches Hamel destroyed and finally Osborne carrying his young self.]]

* EarnYourHappyEnding: [[spoiler:After everything—his mother's death, his father's abandonment, his adoption woes, his struggle with his ogre power, his grief over losing both Crow and Millium, and his general insecurity, he was finally able to move past it all, get his two friends back and protect the people who are precious to him until the end. It took him four whole games, but he was finally able to get a happy ending.]]

* EleventhHourSuperpower: Happens in ''Cold Steel I'' where he gains access to Valimar and proceeds to beat Scarlet's Spiegel with him. A second time happens during his fight with Crow and later the Vermillion Apocalypse where Rean somehow activates a SuperMode of Valimar's that allows him to keep up with Ordine's own SuperMode. [[spoiler:A third time happens right before the FinalBoss fight of ''Cold Steel III'' begins, wherein he obtains the divergent sword from Millium's soul and together with Valimar, both are then corrupted by Rean's SuperpoweredEvilSide. [[RoaringRampageOfRevenge Rean then proceeds to unleash hell upon the Divine Beast]]. He also receives another one in ''Cold Steel IV'' from [=McBurn=] as a one time gift that allows the party to heal their HP, EP, and CP to full and cures status debuffs and ailments, just in time for Osborne's Divine Knight fight.]]

** [[spoiler:His reaction towards Ishmelga-Rean, a version of himself from the normal ending of ''Cold Steel IV'' who sacrificed himself during the final rivalry in order to be rid of Ishmelga only for the two of them to fuse and become one.]]

* ExactWords: When he first meets the noble-hating Machias, he reassures him that he "doesn't have a single drop of noble blood in him". This is true... but he never said he wasn't a noble: he's adopted. [[spoiler:As revealed in ''Cold Steel III'', this was done ''towards him'' when he's told the truth of how he came to be in the care of the Schwarzer family. Osborne went to Teo and asked the latter to take care of his son and to forget their relationship. So FromACertainPointOfView, Rean really was abandoned at a snowy field. Just that his father (Osborne) told Teo about where to find and raise him in Osborne's stead.]]

* ExtremeMeleeRevenge: Implied to have done this to the bear that he killed as a child. [[spoiler:He unknowingly does this again towards the Nameless One after seeing Millium killed right before his eyes. Unknowing because he wasn't planning on killing the Nameless One but rather just put it back to sleep. When he comes back to his senses, he's in shock as to what he has done.]]
* EyeColorChange: His eyes turn red whenever he uses Spirit Unification. [[spoiler:Goes even moreso when he loses control of himself at the end of ''Cold Steel III'', where he gets [[SupernaturalGoldEyes Gold Eyes]] with HellishPupils and [[BlackEyesOfCrazy black sclera]].]]
* FaceDeathWithDignity: [[spoiler:How he accepted his death in the normal ending of ''Cold Steel IV''. ''Reverie'' reveals that death would be more preferable than having to suffer for an eternity fighting against Ishmelga.]]

* FailureHero: All three games end up with Rean failing in some way. In ''Cold Steel I'', he and Class VII fail to prevent the Noble Alliance from invading Trista. In ''Cold Steel II'', he fails to keep his promise to Towa to bring Crow back as the latter ends up dying. [[spoiler:In ''III'', Millium ends up dying right in front of him which leads to Rean going berserk and killing the divine beast, accidentally releasing the curse of Erebonia upon continent in the process. Defiantly averted in ''IV'', where he outright ends up saving the world.]]

* FateWorseThanDeath: [[spoiler:The fate of his Normal Ending self in ''Cold Steel IV'', as revealed in ''Reverie'', is that he and Ishmelga kept vying for control as they try to merge with one another only to fail in the cold atmosphere of space.]]

** By ''Cold Steel IV'', Rufus is another foil for him. In short order, [[spoiler:both are the adopted older brothers to their younger siblings, both are Awakeners, both are raised by a noble family, both use swords as their weapons, and both have a relationship with Osborne. The differences however are that while Rean ends up loving his adopted parents, Rufus thinks of his relationship with Duke Albarea as a sham; while Rean took the trials to become a Divine Knight with his friends inadvertently, Rufus took the trial by himself and intentionally sought out his Divine Knight; Rean is a practitioner of an eastern style of swordsmanship while Rufus practices western court fencing; Elise is very loyal to Rean and falls in love with him, while Jusis ends up seeing Rufus as a BrokenPedestal; finally Rean is the biological son of Osborne but at the same time is very estranged with his father while Rufus seeks approval from Osborne to be his son while knowing that in the end, Osborne still loves his real son.]]

* TheFourGods: In ''Cold Steel III'', his final brave order obtained after [[spoiler:defeating Aurelia in an optional duel in the final chapter]] has him invoking "Kōryū's" name. And in ''Cold Steel IV'', his upgraded defense Brave Order has him invoking "Genbu".

* FutileHandReach: Does this in ''Cold Steel III'' where [[spoiler:he reaches out his hand towards Azure Siegfried and asking the latter if he forgot everything they've been through. He also does this in Alisa's first bonding event in ''Cold Steel IV'' where he tries reaching out to her to try and comfort her but doesn't get to.]]

* GenerationXerox: [[spoiler:In ''Cold Steel III'', he receives a letter from his foster father where he explains more about his real parents. Osborne also was abandoned as a kid on a snowy field, though in his case, both of his parents died when Osborne was 13 years old thanks to an avalanche and he was then adopted to the Schwarzer family, with Teo being Osborne's adopted younger sibling as he was 5 then, just like Elise is Rean's adopted younger sister.]]

** [[spoiler:After losing control of his ogre power at the end of ''Cold Steel III'', his eyes are yellow with a black slit in the middle.]]
** [[spoiler:When Rean uses Demon Unchained, which is essentially a cursed Spirit Unification, in ''Cold Steel IV'', he enters this state.]]

* GoodScarsEvilScars: He's a good guy with a very prominent scar. [[spoiler:And it turns out the scar itself is actually insignificant compared to what's ''behind'' the scar as his heart was destroyed when he was a child, forcing Osborne to transplant his heart to Rean's.]]

* GuiltComplex: As a result of his MartyrWithoutACause tendencies, he tends to feel guilty when things go south even if he can't reasonably be blamed such as the annexation of Crossbell and North Ambria, which would have happened with or without him or [[spoiler:Ash's assassination attempt of the Emperor thanks to the curse]] which he had no way to know about. Gets worse upon learning his biological father is [[EvilChancellor Osborne]] and begins to [[SinsOfTheFather feel responsible for the people affected by his actions]]. Comes to a head after [[spoiler: he triggers the Great Twilight and has effectively resigned himself to die in order to atone for it]] despite having been NotHimself when he did it.

* HatesTheirParent: He was horrified at finding out who his real father is at the end of ''Cold Steel II''. Come ''Cold Steel III'' and the first time they see each other, it's clear that Rean would rather not talk with him. [[spoiler:He finally comes to terms with Osborne in ''Cold Steel IV'' after seeing how his father became the way he is and finally acknowledges him.]] [[spoiler:Before their final battle begins, Osborne also names Kasia, Lucia, and Lianne as Rean's mothers.]]

* TheHeart: Is usually the one who acts as a mediator whenever some of his classmates argue (with examples being Jusis with Machias and Fie with Laura) and the one who can have the easiest time maxing out bonding links with the others. [[spoiler:The moment he's taken out of the picture, Class VII almost immediately falls apart as seen in ''Cold Steel IV'' where his capture together with Millium's death have demoralized his old class to such a degree that they all fail to take any real action for two weeks until Juna snaps them out of it.]]
* HeartbrokenBadass: Crow's death takes a heavy toll on Rean as seen at the end of ''Cold Steel II''. ''Cold Steel III'' ups the ante [[spoiler:by having Millium die right in front of Rean without him being able to do anything at all.]]

* HeroOnHiatus: [[spoiler:Save for brief appearances, he is not available throughout all of Chapter 1 in ''Cold Steel IV'', as he's captured by the Black Workshop. Rescuing him is the primary goal of Class VII, which entails having to find out where the Black Workshop is located]].

* HeroicSacrifice: Attempted to do this when Class VII is thoroughly defeated by Scarlet with a Soldat equipped with a [[NoSell Reactive Armor]] by him tapping in his SuperpoweredEvilSide. He never goes through with it because this is when Valimar shows himself to Rean for the first time. The normal ending of ''Cold Steel IV'' also has him, Crow, and Millium sacrificing their lives to get rid of the Great One for good. [[spoiler:Reverie reveals that Rean actually survived and is locked in eternal combat with Ishmelga, with both trying to take control of their shared undying bodies.]]

* HisStoryRepeatsItself: At the climax of ''Cold Steel II'', Crow dies in his arms after Crow gives him an opening to rescue Cedric with Emma and Celine frantically trying to heal him to no avail. [[spoiler:After their duel in ''Cold Steel IV'', Crow loses and is about disappear for good with Emma and Celine trying to heal Crow yet again, when Rean won't have any of it and shares the life energy that Valimar's absorbing to Ordine, back to Ordine so that Crow will live.]]
* HorrifyingTheHorror: [[spoiler:For one last time in ''Cold Steel IV'', Ishmelga tries to save his own skin by begging Rean for mercy. Naturally, Rean refuses and cuts him down into two, claiming that it's time for humanity to move on. Ishmelga's shock and expression despite being nothing more than just a bunch of eyes really says it all as it's clear that he's shaking.]]

** When [[spoiler:Musse orders the Pantagruel to ram into Ouroboros' flagship in a kamikaze attack out of desperation, with full intention of GoingDownWithTheShip]] near the end of ''Cold Steel IV's'' second act, he chastises her for being so willing to throw her own life away. Though he admits [[MartyrWithoutACause he]] is one of the last people to admonish someone on recklessness or self-preservation, he still decides punishment is in order.

** After [[spoiler:Musse orders the Pantagruel to crash into the Glorious in a DesperationAttack with full intention of GoingDownWithTheShip]] Rean chews her out for being so reckless with her life. Rean may be a MartyrWithoutACause who has more or less [[spoiler:resigned himself to dying in the Rivalry as atonement at that point,]] but he had every right to admonish his student for such a stunt.

* IdentityAmnesia: At the end of ''Cold Steel III'', Rean [[spoiler:goes completely berserk, giving into his "ogre power" and is captured by the Empire. In ''Cold Steel IV'', he is chained up in the Black Workshop, completely out of his mind and having forgotten everything about his past. Anytime his name appears on-screen in scenes involving him, it appears blurry and struck out. When your party finally comes to rescue him, they end up in a IKnowYoureInThereSomewhereFight with him, or "???" as the game names him. If you scan him, the description reads "Sacrifice to the Great Twilight, driven so berserk he doesn't even remember his name, much less recognize his students."]]
* IGaveMyWord: Promises Towa, Angelica, and George in ''Cold Steel II'' that he will bring back Crow. Tragically, he fails. [[spoiler:However, he's finally able to live up to the promise in ''Cold Steel IV'' as he successfully convinces a resurrected Crow to join them after preventing him from sacrificing himself to power up Valimar.]]

* IKnowYouKnowIKnow: He pulls this off in ''Cold Steel IV'' in his first bonding event with [[spoiler:Crow where Crow pretends to not know about Vantage Masters, only to pull off a move that would give Crow an advantage. While it is true that it is Crow's first game of VM, Crow has seen Zephyr play VM while he was still Azure Siegfried. Rean then pulls off his trump card and wins in their match with Crow remarking that Rean grew up.]]
* ILetGwenStacyDie: What he feels after Vulcan dies from the exploding Soldat. He then swore that he would not let anyone else die after that. He only succeeded with Scarlet, but Crow was killed after a HeroicSacrifice. [[spoiler:''Cold Steel III'' adds Millium to the list as his weapon was wrecked very easily plus Valimar was being chewed up. It would have been Altina had Millium not swooped in at the last minute.]]

* ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice: [[spoiler:He does this to the beast after hacking it so many times in ''Cold Steel III''. Unfortunately, this also releases black Pleroma Grass into the world and blankets the world in darkness. When the cutscene returns back to Rean, he still keeps hacking at it! During Osborne's flashback in ''Cold Steel IV'', Rean finally sees that he was impaled in the heart by a gigantic wooden splinter that should have killed him if not for Osborne making a DealWithTheDevil to save Rean's life.]]

* InASingleBound: Showcased in ''Cold Steel II'' during his escape aboard the Pantagruel where, while carrying Alfin in his arms, he jumps really high twice to reach another floor in order to escape both Duvalie and Bleublanc. In ''Cold Steel IV'', [[spoiler:he jumps towards the portal from a really great height with Millium following him.]] In ''Reverie'', [[spoiler:he ''scales an entire mountain'' while fighting the fake Arios.]]

* IndyPloy: As the leader of Class VII he has a tendency to come up with plans on the fly when the situation calls for it. One of the most notable examples of this is in ''Cold Steel II'' when he escapes the Pantagruel together with Alfin. [[spoiler:There's also him preventing Crow from disappearing by having Valimar return the power that was he was absorbing from Ordine in ''Cold Steel IV''.]]

* InterClassRomance: While the circumstances of his adoption [[ChildOfTwoWorlds muddies the issue,]] he is still considered a [[BlueBlood nobleman]], and all of his love interests besides Elise, Laura, Musse, and Alfin are commoners, with the latter two being well above him in terms of status as [[spoiler: a Duchess]] and the Princess respectively. It's [[DownplayedTrope downplayed]] in Alisa's case, however, since she comes from one of the wealthiest families in Erebonia, essentially making her a noble in all but name.
* InterfaceScrew: [[https://i.imgur.com/9N8TCGm.jpg A minor variant happens]] in ''Cold Steel IV'', where players can barely read his name. [[spoiler:This signifies his current state of mind after losing control of his ogre power at the end of ''Cold Steel III''. It's bad enough that he can't even remember his own name. It even extends to people outright saying his name in his presence as it ends up being muted out. This also includes Millium's name as well.]]

** In a discussion with Sara during ''Cold Steel III'', [[spoiler:he expresses this sentiment regarding his inability to capture the Northern Jaegers' heads during the Northern War because he was busy protecting citizens. Sara tells him the war was rigged from the start and he made the best possible choice.]]

** [[spoiler:In ''Cold Steel III'', he blames himself for not seeing through Ash's anguish and shooting at the emperor, unaware that the emperor actually made a HeroicSacrifice. Randy tells him to not blame himself as he's also partly to blame for not seeing it when Ash was also his student as well. And by ''Cold Steel IV'', he blames himself for killing the Nameless One and spreading the curse as far as Crossbell and beyond.]]

* ItSucksToBeTheChosenOne: After Rean uses Valimar to subdue the Noble Alliance and help end the war, he is portrayed in the press as a war hero and strong-armed by the Intelligence Division into assisting in the Imperial Army's occupation of Crossbell. He goes along without complaint, but it's abundantly clear to everyone who knows him that the burdens of the civil war, Crow's death, and the empire's militarism are taking a heavy toll on him. [[spoiler:And then there's his role in the prophecy of the Great Twilight recorded in the Black Records.]]
* ItHasBeenAnHonor: [[spoiler:In the normal ending of ''Cold Steel IV'' he tells his friends and students that their time together was fun before blowing himself up in the atmosphere alongside Crow and Millium.]]

* LateArrivalSpoiler: As of ''Cold Steel III'' it's nearly impossible to talk about Rean without mentioning any of the things he does throughout the first two games at least once. This includes things like him becoming Valimar's Awakener at the end of ''Cold Steel I'', and later becomes the Ashen Chevalier at the end of ''Cold Steel II'' because of his actions during that game. There's also the fact that Giliath Osborne is his biological father. Ditto ''Cold Steel IV'' where [[spoiler:Rean kills the Nameless One after Millium dies and she transforms into the sword that is capable of defeating one of Aidios' seven guardians of her treasures, dooms the continent, and gears Erebonia up for a war against Calvard.]]

* LikeFatherLikeSon: With Osborne. Several characters note that the two of them resemble each other in a number of ways, one of which is being thickheaded when it comes to women. [[spoiler:Osborne even lampshades that both of them have a penchant for sacrificing themselves for the sake of others as well.]]
* LimitBreak: His S-Craft in ''Cold Steel I'' is Flame Slash, which would later be upgraded into Azure Flame Slash by the end of the game. In ''Cold Steel II'', he gains Termination Slash - Dawn during the final chapter; it's also his S-Craft during his and Altina's boss battle in the Divertissement Chapter. For ''Cold Steel III'', his S-Craft is 7th Slash - Fallen Leaves[[labelnote:*]]Ashen Slash - Fatal Leaves when in Spirit Unification[[/labelnote]], which would later be upgraded in Chapter 4 into 7th Slash - Shredded Leaves[[labelnote:*]]Ashen Slash - Mortal Leaves while using Spirit Unification during ''Cold Steel III'' or his normal state during ''Cold Steel IV'', Termination Slash - Dusk while using Demon Unchained, Glinting Slash - Shredded Leaves while using Spirit Unification during ''Reverie'', Ashen Slash - Umbral Leaves when using Chained Spirit Unification, Termination Slash - Ascend when using Enlightened Spirit Unification[[/labelnote]]; on top of that, [[spoiler:''Cold Steel IV'' and ''Reverie'' give him a second S-Craft called Breaking Dawn[[note]]Luminous Abyss while using either Demon Unchained, Spirit Unification, or Enlightened Spirit Unification; Nebulous Zenith when using Chained Spirit Unification[[/note]] in the intermission before the former game's Final Chapter]]. Whenever he pilots Valimar in all four ''Cold Steel'' games, [[spoiler:or his Tyrfing S in ''Reverie'']], his finishing move is Enlightened Domination[[labelnote:*]]Elysion Domination only during the final "[[NoHoldsBarredBeatdown battle]]" of ''Cold Steel III''[[/labelnote]]. Finally, his union attack in ''Cold Steel III'', ''Cold Steel IV'', and ''Reverie'' is Starfall Slash.
* LimpAndLivid: [[spoiler:When he breaks free from his chains in ''Cold Steel IV'', he's slightly hunched and struggling to walk for a bit before he grabs his sword nearby.]]
* LiteralChangeOfHeart: [[spoiler:According to Osborne, a wooden splinter actually pierced his heart when he was a kid and was dying. Osborne had to transplant his heart to Rean's just so his son can survive.]]

* LivingEmotionalCrutch: He's this for Class VII. [[spoiler:When he gets captured in ''Cold Steel IV'', they all end up being lost as to what to do for an entire week before Juna had to call them out when New Class VII just woke up.]]
* LivingLegend: Starting in ''Cold Steel III'', people who don't know him see him as a legendary man who was able to end the CivilWar of ''Cold Steel II'', bring fear into the hearts of Calvard soldiers in Divertissment, has the respect of [[spoiler:the Northern Jaegers for Rean's role in the North Ambria war and in fact claims that they don't blame him for his role]], and is one of the reasons [[spoiler:so many soldiers drafted for the world war.]] This becomes a plot point in ''Reverie'' where [[spoiler:said soldiers were disgruntled at the fact that Rean chose to support the end of the war rather than taking part of it.]]

* MagneticHero: He is able to turn both Class VII into his TrueCompanions, is generally well-liked and [[spoiler:managed to get a HeelFaceTurn out of Crow and Arianrhod.]]
* ManHug: Delivers this towards Machias in ''Cold Steel II'' in their reunion. [[spoiler:He also shares a ''very'' passionate hug with Crow in ''Cold Steel IV'' while giving Crow the power that he absorbed from Ordine back to Ordine to preserve Crow's life, tying their lives together.]]
* MarkOfTheSupernatural: [[spoiler:In ''Reverie'', once the Assimilation Effect begins, his left eye turns yellow while his right eye remains purple.]]

* MasterSwordsman: Comes with the territory being that he's a practitioner of the Eight Leaves One Blade style. In the beginning Rean considers himself a mere failure of one, but his skills are good enough to impress Laura who herself is considered to be the best swordswoman of their year at Thors. [[spoiler:He later takes it up a notch in ''Cold Steel IV''. After completing a test from Cassius Bright, Rean finally becomes a ''Divine Blade''.]]
* MeaningfulName: His last name, Schwarzer, means "the black one" in German. He is the only member of Class VII, and the first ''Trails'' protagonist , with black hair, and his primary outfit in ''Cold Steel IV'' is black, though ironically his hair is stuck in silver due to being stuck in his Spirit Unification state through most of the game. [[spoiler: It's also revealed that his fate was set in stone in the ''Black'' Records, with most of the problems in his life due to the machinations of the Ebon (another term for black) Knight Ishmelga.]]
* MirrorBoss: [[spoiler:Ends up fighting his ogre self in ''Cold Steel IV'', using the same techniques as him. In reality, he's fighting against Cassius but in his head, he's fighting against himself.]]
* MirrorCharacter: As far as Claire is concerned, both Rean and Osborne are very similar to one another from their facial features to the atmosphere they put out. [[spoiler:Their backstories also ended up beings mirrors of one another starting with the abandonment issue on a snowy field (in Osborne's case, his parents died due to an avalanche), being adopted as the older sibling to a Schwarzer (Teo for Osborne, Elise for Rean), to attending and graduating from Thors, both ended up in the army, both went from bright and optimistic to cynical and jaded due to circumstances, and finally both father and son ended up becoming an Awakener to a Divine Knight.]]

* MissingMom: His biological mother is nowhere to be seen. [[spoiler:Turns out, she died a few days before the Hamel Incident with his mom telling Osborne to take care of him. It also turns out that Rean mostly inherited her looks.]]

* MomentKiller: [[spoiler:Averted in ''Cold Steel IV'' where Rean stealthily ran away immediately once he overhears Olivert proposing to Schera.]]

* MustMakeAmends: In ''Cold Steel IV'', [[spoiler:he shows a great amount of guilt towards triggering the Great Twilight. As such, he is fully dedicated towards trying to complete the Rivalries to atone, and is fully resigned with dying in the process to make up for it.]]

** His backstory where he starts becoming afraid of his powers when he destroys a beast with nothing but a hacksaw and giving in to his SuperpoweredEvilSide to protect Elise is this trope. [[spoiler:And in ''Cold Steel III'', when he finally snaps himself out of his rampage courtesy of Osborne calming Rean's heart (that used to belong to Osborne), Rean starts to have this reaction after he kills the beast that they were supposed to put to sleep in the first place.]]

* MyGreatestFailure: He considers failing to bring back Crow alive to be his. [[spoiler:Then in ''Cold Steel III'', Millium's death is another one for him. He also has a hard time letting go of the fact that he doomed the world by killing the Nameless One and ushering in the Great Twilight, but he doesn't let it stop him from doing what needs to be done.]]
* MySignificanceSenseIsTingling: Aside from his normal ability to sense the presence of others, he also has another form of sensing thanks to his ogre power. Through the scar on his chest aching, it's sometimes a tell tale sign that something supernatural is near Rean such as when [=McBurn=] is present or Roselia appears out of nowhere to talk with him during ''Cold Steel III''. It also happens when he's near Osborne at times [[spoiler:which is likely due to the fact that Rean's heart is actually Osborne's to begin with.]]

* NeckLift: [[spoiler:He's on the receiving end of this at the end of ''Cold Steel III'' from his dad.]]

** In ''Cold Steel IV'', for story reasons, [[spoiler:Spirit Unification is replaced with Demon Unchained. For the first three turns, Demon Unchained is largely a renamed Spirit Unification, but because the Great Twilight is preventing him from reliably controlling it, there's a significant nerf: after the three turns are up, Rean goes berserk instead of reverting to normal, resulting in him being uncontrollable for a while, and only has a strength buff in this state. The only way to get him out of this state without waiting for him to randomly come to his senses after a turn is Curia or an art, item, or Craft that behaves like Curia. Fortunately, the game allows Rean to learn Arcane Gale in his base form rather than needing to transform after he gains some levels.]]

* {{Nephewism}}: [[spoiler:As he finds out in ''Cold Steel III'', his biological father Osborne was himself adopted by Schwarzer family, making Rean's adoptive father Teo his "uncle," in a sense.]]

* NiceJobBreakingItHero: [[spoiler:His killing of the Nameless One ends up engulfing ''entire continent'' in darkness. Though to be fair to Rean, he was not in control of himself at the time.]]

* NoHoldsBarredBeatdown: [[spoiler:Not satisfied with just curb stomping the Nameless One, he goes on top of the thing and keeps on slashing at it repeatedly and no one can even hold him back.]]
* NoMoreHoldingBackSpeech: At the climax of ''Reverie'', [[spoiler:as Rean is pressed by his alternate self to make an HeroicSacrifice to get rid of Ishmelga, he answers with one of these and [[MartyrWithoutACause how he finally understand that sacrificing himself won't make anyone happy.]]]]
-->'''Rean''': [[spoiler:The me from before did try to hold up the weight of the world on his own. I used to think that as long as I could save everyone else, I didn't care what become of myself. Once I became the Sacrifice, I decided that I didn't deserve to be happy. But it's not about whether or not I deserve it, I have to become happy. Because a person cannot be happy alone and because a person should not be alone in distress, if I want the people who are precious to me to be happy, I have to first be happy myself.]]

* ObiWanMoment: [[spoiler:Tells his students and friends goodbye before he, Crow, and Millium die to destroy the Great One for good in the normal ending of ''Cold Steel IV''.]]

* OffscreenMomentOfAwesome: During the North Ambria Campaign, [[spoiler:he was able to sneak into Haliask, the capital of North Ambria, and while he was helping with the evacuation of the citizens, thousands of archaisms were unleashed onto the city. The last thing people have heard about him is that he used both Spirit Unification and Valimar at the same time and demolished all the archaisms.]] Prior to that, there's also Rean's mission in Crossbell, which save for the Divertissement Chapter in ''Cold Steel II'' and Juna's flashback in ''Cold Steel III'', we don't really get to see much of.
* OhCrap: [[spoiler:In ''Cold Steel III'', he makes a huge one when he hears Abend Time on the radio and hears Vita's voice.]]

* OnlyICanKillHim: A gameplay and a downplayed example in ''Cold Steel IV'' where [[spoiler:he's the only one who can defeat [=McBurn's=] demon form by having him summon Valimar and cut him up with Millium's sword to dispel his barrier and bring him down to his knees. And even then, [=McBurn's=] still fine but he's started to finally remember his former self and his new goal and that was enough to calm him down.]]

* OOCIsSeriousBusiness: While he can be be prone to anger, he's usually calm about it. At least until he sees Osborne alive despite all of Crow's efforts to kill him. He then runs toward him and grabs his collar, demanding from Osborne why he's still alive. He later gets another moment in ''Cold Steel IV''. [[spoiler:After discovering the truth behind Osborne's fall to darkness and as well as finding out the true culprit behind the Curse of Erebonia, Rean nearly succumbs to the curse himself out of pure rage.]]
* OpenSecret: By ''Reverie'', everyone who is at least acquainted with him already know that his father is Giliath Osborne. In Lloyd's chapter 2 of said game, [[spoiler:Lechter outright says that he's at Crossbell as a member of the Ironbloods because Osborne's biological son cannot help them as he and his team are busy trying to find Olivert and the missing Courageous II.]]
* PainfulTransformation: The activation of his ogre power always causes physical pain to Rean as he clutches away at his heart whenever transforming. This averted once he gains control of it through Spirit Unification, but overusing it can still lead to some physical pain and tiredness.
* ParentalAbandonment: Abandoned in a snowy field at that! Though Rean does think (and confirmed by Baron Schwarzer) that the entire abandonment issue was deliberate since Rean reasons that a child so young would have died from freezing after a few hours. [[spoiler:In ''Cold Steel III'', it turns out that both Teo and Osborne knew about each other and were ''related by adoption'' for years before Osborne asked Teo to take care of his child and to forget about their relationship.]]
* ParryingBullets: Downplayed and played straight in two different occasions in ''Reverie''. [[spoiler:He manages to cleave a 8 meter artillery shell in two with his Tyrfing S at the climax of chapter 3 and he parries the bullet aimed at Juna in chapter 4 by Juna's EvilCounterpart.]]
* {{Patricide}}: [[spoiler:He defeats Osborne which then had Ishmelga be absorbed into Valimar which also kills off Osborne. Admittedly it was the final part of the Rivalries and it's clear they'd rather not do it but the trope still sticks.]]
* PatrickStewartSpeech: [[spoiler:Rean states that, while humanity in general has prospered because of the curse brought about by the Sept-Terrion of Steel, he's not becoming Ishmelga's host, because at that point, humanity is ready to move on from the latter.]]
* PayEvilUntoEvil: Anytime his family or friends are in harms way, his first instinct is to transform into his SuperpoweredEvilSide and start wrecking at whoever messed up his friends and family, possibly even killing them. His victims include the bear in his backstory with Elise, Ol-Gadia before Crow joins him, the Northen Jaegers after seeing his mother and father lying down with blood on Teo's body, [[spoiler:and the Nameless One after Millium dies.]]

* PlotPoweredStamina: [[spoiler:Shows this off in ''Cold Steel IV'' during the Intermission. Granted he was in a perpetual ogre power state at the time, but it should be noted that Rean had been chained up for little over a month, spent that time mostly awake, and likely has not eaten much during said period either. Yet despite all this, he's capable enough to rampage throughout the Black Workshop aided by Celine, Crow, and Duvalie, gets into a fight against [=McBurn=] and the Stahlritter, gets into a fight against New Class VII, and after snapping out of his rage, he then gets into a fight against ''Osborne and Arianrhod''. At the end of this Rean looks barely out of breath, though he does end up falling asleep for over a day upon returning to Eryn.]]

* PowerEchoes: Anytime his SuperMode manifests.
* PoweredByAForsakenChild: [[spoiler:His most powerful sword in ''Cold Steel III'' is forged from Millium's own soul.]]
* PowerIncontinence: His main issue with his ogre power is that he goes into a berserker rage when it manifests. While he manages to master it in ''Cold Steel II'',by the time of ''Cold Steel III'', his powers are once again going out of control and he has to wear a pendant that Emma gives to him to keep the terrible effects of his powers at bay.
** [[spoiler:This drawback disappears at the end of ''Cold Steel IV''.]]

* PreMortemOneLiner: Delivers this towards [[spoiler:Ishmelga in ''Cold Steel IV''.]]
-->'''Rean:''' [[spoiler:"Farewell, Ishmelga. I'm not sure if you even ''have'' a soul, but I hope you find your way to Aidios."]]

* ThePromise: In ''Cold Steel II'', he makes a promise to Towa, Angelica, and George that he'll bring Crow back so that their group can be reunited once more just like Class VII. Tragically, he fails as Crow dies from his wounds from the Vermillion Apocalypse. [[spoiler:It's subverted when Crow comes back to life by ''III'' however, and after defeating him one last time in ''IV'', Rean's able to convince Crow to return to the fold for good.]]
* ProperlyParanoid: Constantly worries that he will harm someone innocent or something bad will happen if he gives in to his ogre power. [[spoiler:In ''Cold Steel III'' his fears end up becoming true as he loses control after Millium dies and accidentally dooms Erebonia in darkness after slaying the beast that was holding the curse of Erebonia at bay.]]

* ProtagonistPowerUpPrivileges: In ''Cold Steel III'' and ''Cold Steel IV'', his status as the protagonist makes him the only character to have more than one Brave Order. In fact, he has a grand total of ''four'', though he loses 2 of them in ''Reverie'' to show how he's not the sole protagonist. Compared to his predecessor protagonists, he gains ''a lot'' of power-ups throughout his arc. In order: his SuperRobot, his controlled SuperpoweredEvilSide, his Zemurian Ore sword, and [[spoiler:Millium becoming the Sword of the End. By the end of ''Cold Steel IV'', he loses all of them.]] Downplayed in ''Reverie''; [[spoiler:he gains a standard, but cutting edge prototype mech, however it is weaker than Valimar. It temporarily gains a power boost when Valimar's spirit briefly returns in the final battle but it loses the boost after. Averted with his Spirit Unification ability with the power being left behind but without having to go berserk.]]

* PummelingTheCorpse: [[spoiler:What he does in his berserk state towards the corrupted Holy Beast that he already killed. ''Repeatedly''.]]
* {{Pun}}: [[spoiler:Since Rean's biological father is the reincarnation of Dreichels the Lionheart, and Osborne had to transplant his heart into Rean in order for Rean to survive, you could technically say Rean has a "lion's heart".]]

* QuickDraw: Whenever he uses Autumn Leaf - Cutter, he sheathes his sword then immediately draws it out at fast speeds. [[spoiler:It's also how he executes the fourth form in his second S-Craft in ''Cold Steel IV''.]] His Crescent Slash skill from ''Cold Steel III and on'' also counts as this.
* RageBreakingPoint: Rean hits one in the second game when Crow dies and Osborne is revealed to still be alive. This is also usually the key to his ogre power awakening, as he nearly loses it whenever his loved ones are in imminent danger [[spoiler:as seen when Millium dies and her soul is used forge the Sword of the End. He then subsequently slaughters the Holy Beast responsible and would have done the same to Osborne and Alberich before being stopped.]]

* RedBaron: Comes to be known as the Ashen Chevalier after his actions in both the Erebonian Civil War and in the Crossbell campaign. He is referred as this by a lot of people in the following games. [[spoiler:Although he does become a Divine Blade by ''Cold Steel IV'', by ''Reverie'' he hasn't come up with his own spin of the title, viewing himself too inexperimented for that.]]
* RedEyesTakeWarning: Any time his SuperpoweredEvilSide is out. Even if he finally has control over it. It's when his eyes turn gold is where he fully loses control over his powers. [[spoiler:He's stuck with his red eyes throughout ''Cold Steel IV'' though he loses it, and his white hair, after killing Ishmelga.]]

* RefusalOfTheCall: [[spoiler:In ''Reverie'', when Rean's counterpart tells him to sacrifice himself just like he did in the Normal Ending of ''Cold Steel IV'', Rean refuses to do so, reciting the lessons he's learned up until that point as he realized that for the people he loves to be happy, Rean himself needs to learn to be happy as well.]]

* ReplacementGoldfish: [[spoiler:Though she initially tries to deny it, Claire sees Rean as one for her deceased younger brother. She eventually realizes the folly of this and decides afterwards to look at Rean as his own man.]]
* TheReveal: [[spoiler:How he came to be in the care of the Schwarzer family is revealed in ''Cold Steel III''. His house was raided when he was a kid and actually had his heart pierced from wood splinter a few days before the Hamel Incident. Osborne then transplants his heart to replace Rean's.]]
* RevengeBeforeReason: [[spoiler:Admittedly he was goaded by the curse but at the climax of ''Cold Steel III'', he wants nothing more than to kill the Nameless One for killing Millium. It's when he forcefully brought back to his senses is when he realizes he had made a fatal mistake.]]
* ReverseGrip: [[spoiler:In ''Cold Steel IV'', the way he uses the fifth form in his final S-Craft has him unsheathing his katana by reversing his grip and jumping while slashing the target.]]
* RoaringRampageOfRevenge: In ''Cold Steel II'' he nearly pulls this off on the jaegers responsible for razing Ymir after believing that they killed his parents. Fortunately, he was able to snap out of it after discovering that Teo and Lucia were still alive. [[spoiler:In ''Cold Steel III'', he goes on a full rage, losing control of his SuperpoweredEvilSide after Millium dies and her soul is used to forge a new sword for Valimar. Then he solos the FinalBoss, even managing to cut off one of its arms easily, and after said final boss fight, he ''still starts hacking at it'' in rage.]]

* ScarsAreForever: His scar on his chest has been there since he was a child. [[spoiler:He got it from a wooden splinter piercing through his chest and destroying his heart in his past. Osborne had to transplant his heart to save his life.]]

* ScrewDestiny: [[spoiler:Because of the players actions after finishing ''Cold Steel IV'' for the first time when he dies, he's able to alter his fate from dying by visiting a shrine that has the spirit of Argres, the Holy Beast of the Sept-Terrion of Earth. This is also his response to his ''Cold Steel IV'' Normal Ending self in ''Reverie'' where that Rean offers him to follow his destiny of taking in Zoa-Gilstein's power and fly up to the atmosphere and detonate himself, just like what his Normal Ending did.]]

** PlayedForLaughs with both Jusis and Machias. By ''Cold Steel IV'', even he can't resist shipping [[spoiler:both Agate and Tita together if Rean picks Tita during the purifying the hot springs sidequest.]]
** [[spoiler: He spends almost the entirety of the Overture chapter shipping various people together. It's all sorts of wholesome.]]
* ShootTheShaggyDog: He never manages to fulfill what he was supposed to do at the climax of each game. From failing to put a stop to Crow and the Noble Alliance's invasion of Trista in ''Cold Steel I'', to failing to save Crow himself in ''Cold Steel II''. [[spoiler:Then there's the DownderEnding of ''Cold Steel III''...]]

* SignatureMove: For the mech fights, his finishing move is Enlightened Domination. Meanwhile on foot, the moves he keeps using throughout all four games are Arc Slash and its upgraded version, Crimson Slash, and Gale. In-universe however, he's far more well-known for his [[SuperMode Spirit Unification]] that even the members of the [[Characters/TrailsSeriesCalvardArkrideSolutionsOffice Arkride Solutions Office]] know about it and are shocked that [[spoiler:Shizuna Rem "Hime" Misurugi, also known as the one who broke his tachi, also knows this technique.]]

* SingleStrokeBattle: [[spoiler:His final battle with both Osborne and Ishmelga Loge ends with him winning the strike. His duel against the Simulacrum Arios in Act 3 of ''Reverie'' ends with both charging each other with Arcane Gale, with Rean the only one left standing.]]

* StrongFamilyResemblance: Noted by Claire herself to resemble Osborne slightly. [[spoiler:As seen in a flashback during ''Cold Steel III'' however, it's seen that Rean quite clearly takes after his birth mother, Kasia Osborne, in terms of looks.]]
* SuperMode: In ''Cold Steel II'' Rean comes to terms with his "ogre power" and gains the Craft Spirit Unification which allows him to tap into it at will. For three turns, it boosts his stats, makes him immune to status ailments and changes his Crafts to even more powerful ones. [[spoiler:Even after he destroys Ishmelga at the end of ''Cold Steel IV'', ''Reverie'' shows that he still has the Ogre Power and can still use Spirit Unification but without going berserk. By the end of the main game, it's been upgraded into Enlightened Spirit Unification.]]

* SupernaturalGoldEyes: [[spoiler:In the final battle of ''Cold Steel III'', he has these eyes instead of his normal red in his SuperMode. It's a sign that he's completely lost control of his powers.]]
* SuperpoweredEvilSide: In situation of extreme emotions like when trying to protect Elise, he loses control of himself and turns mostly feral while gaining a massive power boost. This ogre power is a massive source of angst for him, leading him to reject it and take up the sword to acquire control on himself. After a GetAHoldOfYourselfMan speech by Alfin in ''Cold Steel II'', he is able to master it and turn it into his SuperMode. [[spoiler:It is revealed in ''Cold Steel III'' that Rean is still prone to losing control of this state and it is linked to Osborne's heart inside Rean. He loses it at the end of ''Cold Steel IV'' after the curse is destroyed.]]
* SuperPrototype: [[spoiler:He gains the Tyrfing-S in ''Reverie'' which is built by Makarov, partly because Rean broke one of the Drakkhens in the "Project Tyrfing" side story. But mainly because Makarov decided to make one for his graduation project.]]
* SurvivorGuilt: He ends up being hard on himself after Crow sacrificed his life to give Rean an opening to save the prince. [[spoiler:He also ends up being hard on himself when Millium dies right in front of his eyes.]]

* TakingYouWithMe: Takes Ishmelga with him in death in the normal ending of ''Cold Steel IV'' with Crow and Millium joining for the ride. [[spoiler: Averted as unfortunately Reverie reveals that he and Ishmelga both survive and are now locked in eternal combat trying to take control of their shared body.]]

* TechnicolorFire: While his flame attacks and his first [[LimitBreak S-Craft]] are the regular red color, his upgraded S-Craft, Azure Flame Slash, is blue. In his SuperpoweredEvilSide, the color of the flames are purple, though it's back to blue after he masters his SuperMode in ''Cold Steel II''. It becomes purple again in ''Cold Steel III'' and ''Cold Steel IV'', [[spoiler:including his second S-Craft where in his base self, they're all different colors but after he's used Spirit Unification or Demon Unchained, it's all purple.]]

* ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill: After defeating the final boss of ''Cold Steel III'', [[spoiler:he starts hacking at it so many times that even when it's lying on the ground and dying, he still keeps on doing it over and over till the corpse finally disappears.]]

* ThisIsUnforgivable: [[spoiler:After seeing the hidden past of Dreichels and Lianne, Osborne, Franz becoming Black Alberich, and Rutger coming back from the dead, he blames Ishmelga for everything, complete with him nearly giving in to the curse.]]
* ThouShaltNotKill: Much like the rest of his classmates, this is his stance for the most part as he'll try to knock enemies unconscious instead of outright killing them. [[spoiler:He foregoes this rule in ''Cold Steel IV'' when faced with Osborne, calmly accepting the fact that he needs to kill his biological father in order to save the world. He also doesn't hesitate to end Ishmelga's life during the True Ending either, recognizing that even without the apocalypse, Erebonia is doomed to fascistic stagnation and self-inflicted tragedy so long as that '''thing''' exists.]]

* TookALevelInBadass: Takes several leaps in strength throughout the ''Cold Steel'' games. The most notable example of which would be how he initially fares against Crow both on foot and in their Divine Knights. He was initially outclassed on both fronts, but several months of training and fighting for the former and over a month of piloting for the latter helps him to eventually close the gap and allow him to defeat Crow. Come ''Cold Steel III'' and Rean's strength and skill is taken even further as he becomes strong enough to defeat Wallace Bardias in combat, and even manages to bring ''Aurelia Le Guin'' down to a knee during a spar. This is eventually taken to its logical conclusion in ''Cold Steel IV'' [[spoiler:where, after passing a test from Cassius, Rean finally becomes a ''Divine Blade''.]]

* TransformationIsAFreeAction: Played straight with Spirit Unification [[spoiler:or Demon Unchained]] as while it does cause the turn bar to move, it's still his turn afterwards. So is summoning Valimar throughout ''Cold Steel II'' as none of the Noble Alliance soldiers even think of attacking him while he's summoning his mech. Averted in ''Cold Steel III'' to the point of RunningGag where someone either interrupts him from either summoning Valimar or unleashing Spirit Unification until the climax of the chapter.

* TraumaCongaLine: In short order in ''Cold Steel II'': fails to save Crow and keep his promise to Towa, Angelica, and George, finds out that Osborne is his father, and finally said father makes him into a national hero where circumstances force him to participate in a war he has no stake on because he's the only guy who can pilot Valimar. [[spoiler:Then in ''Cold Steel III'', the ''entirety of the finale'' is pretty much this as he suffers one thing after another, culminating in dooming Erebonia in darkness from the curse spreading throughout the country.]]
* [[{{Deuteragonist}} Tritagonist]]: [[spoiler:Of ''Reverie''. His route is the most disconnected from the main plot, with him not even making it to Crossbell until Chapter 4, ''the penultimate chapter''. However, he is the protagonist with the connection to the main story's BigBad.]]

* UniqueProtagonistAsset: Rean has two. The first asset is his [[SuperMode ogre power]], a mysterious ability that allows him to boost his own capabilities at the cost of his sanity. The only other character in the series to show a similar ability is [[BloodKnight [=McBurn=]]]. The second asset is Valimar, a HumongousMecha of great power wherein there are only six others like it in existence. [[spoiler:He eventually loses Valimar at the end of ''Cold Steel IV'', but is revealed to have kept his ogre power in ''Reverie'' just without the curse aspect that makes him go berserk.]]
* UnskilledButStrong: Initially when it comes to piloting Valimar. At the start it's made clear that Rean's successes against the Noble Alliance's Panzer Soldats are inevitably due to Valimar himself being a much more superior machine in comparison. When pitted against Crow, who also has a Divine Knight and much more experience, both are easily taken down twice. By the third match they're able to fight on more equal terms since Valimar had been equipped with the Zemurian Tachi, allowing Rean to fight at his full potential as an Eight Leaves One Blade style practitioner, but even then both are barely able to pull out a win and only do so thanks to Rean subconsciously creating combat links with everyone in Class VII during the fight. By the time of ''Reverie'', Rean has so much experience in piloting Soldats that he's able to defeat Crow in the Soldat simulator, all while both are using the [[spoiler:Tyrfing model]] while having no access to combat links.

* UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom: [[spoiler:Killing the corrupted beast in ''Cold Steel III'' was not the plan, but Rean unfortunately does this because he loses control of himself and his powers after seeing his friend die in front of him.]]
* UnwittingPawn: Unfortunately, no matter what he does, he'll always be a pawn to Osborne. Anything he does will only further Osborne's plans. He knows this and can't do anything about it. [[spoiler:And the one time he can finally stop him, he gives in to his rage and SuperpoweredEvilSide and kills the beast for Osborne. And just to make things worse, Osborne calmly ''snaps him back to reality'' just by stretching his hand towards Rean without even touching him.]]

* VampireBitesSuck: [[spoiler:He gets bitten by Roselia twice in ''Cold Steel III''. Once at the Great Forest, and the other at Bryonia Island. Both times happen because his ogre power went a bit berserk and her bites were there to calm them down. His students, after seeing the bite, think that he had one crazy night after [[ChickMagnet Sara and Claire both kissed him on his cheeks at two separate occasions on the same night.]] Subverted when it turns out that she's not a vampire at all.]]

* WeaponTwirling: [[spoiler:His final S-Craft in ''Cold steel IV'' has him twirling his sword twice before sheathing it and then starts attacking the enemy by unsheathing his blade and forming a TornadoMove for his first attack.]]

*** In their first bonding event in ''Cold Steel IV'', [[spoiler:he ends up calling out Sara for being so willing to sacrifice herself to bring Rean back to his senses after he takes in the curse that was possessing both Nidhoggr and the Northern Jaegers at the grave site of Sara's father.]]
*** [[spoiler:In a bonding event with Altina in ''Cold Steel IV'', she goes on a solo mission to Ymir without telling anyone else, having discovered that the IDF is planning to take the town hostage to lure Rean out. Rean is horrified when he finds out and, once Lechter has assured him that it won't happen again, he hugs her out of relief and yells at her to never do it again.]]
*** [[spoiler:During the Ouroboros attack on the Pantagruel, Musse orders a [[RammingAlwaysWorks suicide attack]] on the Glorious, which is averted when Olivert reveals himself to be alive and arrives in the Courageous II. After the attack is repelled, Rean reveals that he overheard her order and approaches her with an expression that is [[TranquilFury calm but a clear sign that he's extremely mad]], telling her that he needs to talk with her about being willing to needlessly throw her life away like that.]]
*** During his Bonding Event with Emma in ''IV'', [[spoiler:Emma attempts a forbidden spell to enter his subconscious in a vain attempt to relieve him of the Curse, leaving out how she's likely to end up an EmptyShell if it failed. Rean immediatey cuts off the spell and snaps at her for being so reckless.]]

*** During their first Bonding Event of ''Cold Steel IV'', Laura rebukes him on [[spoiler:resigning himself to die during the Rivalries if it means putting a stop to the Great Twilight.]]

* WithGreatPowerComesGreatInsanity: The main reason why he's so hesitant about fighting at his full strength. As beneficial as it is, using his ogre power results in Rean becoming more aggressive and feral the more he draws strength from it and will eventually lose control of himself. Being a pacifist at heart, the idea of this frightens Rean. He makes motions to try and get his ogre power under control and somewhat succeeds by ''Cold Steel II'' after his talk with Alfin leads to an epiphany about himself, but this eventually revealed to be only temporary as by ''Cold Steel III'' his power has started growing even stronger than it was before and he now needs outside help to control it. [[spoiler:Sadly this is for naught, as at the end of that game, he loses control and butchers the Nameless One out of revenge for Millium's death.]]
* WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds: [[spoiler:Finds out that his student shot the emperor thanks to a curse, loses his allies and friends that he trusted throughout the series and is forced to fight them, ''sees his most trusted allies blown up in an explosion'', finds out that his Zemurian tachi isn't enough to even dent the Nameless One and is nearly chewed, nearly sees his student and friend Altina sacrifice herself to protect Rean, and ''sees Millium'' killed in front of him. End result: Rean loses control of his SuperpoweredEvilSide, hacks the Nameless One in rage and dooms Erebonia to have every citizen become bloodthirsty for Calvard because the gun Ash uses is made from Calvard. Yeah, guy cannot catch a break.]]

** Rean himself undergoes this during his short story in ''Reverie''. [[spoiler:Although they don't actually fight, his encounter with Shizuna results in her taking Rean by surprise and snapping his tachi in half. This is well after Rean had already become a Divine Blade and fought and defeated various enemies of great skill, demonstrating Shizuna's own strength and the potential danger she poses]].
* WorthLivingFor: His MartyrWithoutACause tendencies come to a head during ''Cold Steel IV'' [[spoiler:when he's outright [[DeathSeeker resigned himself to death]] to try and atone for the Great Twilight, and is shown to still be wondering if he deserves to live and be happy by ''Reverie''.]] He eventually outgrows it as he realizes just how much his loved ones care for him, with him deciding to value himself for their sakes.

** [[spoiler:During the climax of the story, Rean's Zemurian tachi he forged for Valimar gets wrecked after the beast bites it. He then obtains a new sword from Millium's soul after she dies protecting him.]]
** [[spoiler:In ''Reverie'', one of the short stories of the future Calvard arc ends with his tachi being completely busted by the "Princess," a woman claiming to be his senior apprentice.]]

** His lack of self-worth has resulted in him being on the receiving end of this on numerous occasions. Whether its due to his angst at being adopted into a noble family and thinking he's a burden to them, his fears of his powers, failing to bring back Crow alive, his actions as the Ashen Chevalier [[spoiler: and especially after bringing out the Great Twilight at the end of ''Cold Steel III''. How well he takes them to heart is instrumental to whether or not [[EarnYourHappyEnding he'll survive]] or lose his life in a HeroicSacrifice at the end of ''Cold Steel IV''.]]
* YouAreNotAlone: During the epilogue in ''Cold Steel II'', he's starting to feel the burden of being a national hero, who then joined the war at Crossbell and ended it much quicker. Fortunately enough, his friends all tell him that he really shouldn't be holding onto all those burdens. [[spoiler:This is the focus of his character development in ''Cold Steel IV'', with the main theme of the game itself being the lesson of people being stronger and better when they work together. Rean can only finish Ishmelga off if he accepts the help of not only the Holy Beast of Earth, but also from all his friends and comrades, who gave him enough energy through the ARCUS to expel Ishmelga out of his body. The last boss fight is also all the 39 characters against Ishmelga, with Rean finishing it off for good with Millium's help and Osborne's guidance.]]
* YouAreNotMyFather: Towards Osborne when learning about their true relationship. Outright tells Olaf that Baron Teo Schwarzer is the only man he would call father when the former tells him more about Osborne's history. [[spoiler:Subverted at the end of ''Cold Steel IV'', where he acknowledges both Teo and Osborne as his fathers.]]
* YouCantFightFate: [[spoiler:In ''Cold Steel III'', it turns out that all of his actions from the climax of ''Cold Steel II'' (the Vermillion Apocalypse) to ''Cold Steel III'' were already preordained within the Black Records and that someone will be the one who will kill the corrupted divine beast and fulfill a thousand year promise. Unfortunately for Rean, that guy is him.]]
* YourDaysAreNumbered: [[spoiler:In ''Cold Steel IV'', Rean is well aware that due to becoming a Sacrifice, it's only a matter of time before the curse consumes him for good, and so he'll likely have to die before that happens. The Normal ending plays this straight, as the only way to eradicate Ishmelga is via a HeroicSuicide, but the GoldenEnding allows him to subvert what fate has in store for him and make it out alive.]]

* InterClassRomance: While the circumstances of his adoption [[ChildOfTwoWorlds muddies the issue,]] he is still considered a [[BlueBlood nobleman]], and all of his love interests besides Elise, Laura, Musse, and Alfin are commoners, with the latter two being well above him in terms of status as [[spoiler: a Duchess]] and the Princess respectively.

** After the incident between him and Alisa on their first day, he spends much of the subsequent month trying to apologise for it, believing he should have known the trapdoor was designed so they wouldn't get hurt from the fall and the whole thing wouldn't have happened if he tried to play the hero. As Alisa points out to him when they both apologise, however, there's simply no way he could have known that, and she's the one in the wrong regardless of how one looks at it.

** At the start of ''II'', he blames himself for failing in his battle against Crow at Trista despite the fact that he had no real way of winning said duel at all.

* UnskilledButStrong: Initially when it comes to piloting Valimar. At the start it's made clear that Rean's successes against the Noble Alliance's Panzer Soldats are inevitably due to Valimar himself being a much more superior machine in comparison. When pitted against Crow, who also has a Divine Knight and much more experience, both are easily taken down twice. By the third match they're able to fight on more equal terms since Valimar had been equipped with the Zemurian Tachi, allowing Rean to fight at his full potential as an Eight Leaves One Blade style practitioner, but even then both are barely able to pull out a win and only do so thanks to Rean subconsciously creating combat links with everyone in Class VII during the fight. By the time of ''Reverie'', Rean has so much experience in piloting Soldats that he's able to defeat Crow in the Soldat simulator, all while both are using the same type of Soldat while having no access to combat links.

* UnskilledButStrong: Initially when it comes to piloting Valimar. At the start it's made clear that Rean's successes against the Noble Alliance's Panzer Soldats are inevitably due to Valimar himself being a much more superior machine in comparison. When pitted against Crow, who also has a Divine Knight and much more experience, both are easily taken down twice. By the third match they're able to fight on more equal terms since Valimar had been equipped with the Zemurian Tachi, allowing Rean to fight at his full potential as an Eight Leaves One Blade style practitioner, but even then both are barely able to pull out a win and only do so thanks to Rean subconsciously creating combat links with everyone in Class VII during the fight.

* ArmorPiercingQuestion:
** During the search for Elise in chapter 4 of ''Cold Steel I'', Rean is on the receiving end of this from both Laura and Fie. Laura states that she understands some of Rean's frustrations due to his status of someone adopted into nobility and is not technically recognized as such, but she asks Rean if he swears to his sister that he was not merely trying to run from that life. Fie, on the other hand, tells Rean that while she wasn't related by blood to any of the members of Zephyr, she still considered them her family, and never considered leaving them since that was the only place she knew she would always belong, then asks if Rean feels the same way about his family. Both question leave Rean speechless, but the girls ultimately drop the subject, since they have their own issues to sort out (i.e. with each other).
** He's on the giving end towards Claire during the Epilogue of ''Cold Steel II'', asking if she really didn't know that Osborne was his true biological father. She replies no, but she did have her suspicions. Rean curtly leaves her after this, though he quickly comes to regret his behavior afterwards.
** PlayedForLaughs in ''Cold Steel III''. During Chapter 3, while he's thankful for his students to help him out at the Raquel casino, he then starts asking [[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome what exactly are bunch of minors are doing at casino in the first place]]. HilarityEnsues as his students keep making excuses with Ash just doing an innocent whistle.

* ArmorPiercingQuestion: During the search for Elise in chapter 4 of ''Cold Steel I'', Rean is on the receiving end of this from both Laura and Fie. Laura states that she understands some of Rean's frustrations due to his status of someone adopted into nobility and is not technically recognized as such, but she asks Rean if he swears to his sister that he was not merely trying to run from that life. Fie, on the other hand, tells Rean that while she wasn't related by blood to any of the members of Zephyr, she still considered them her family, and never considered leaving them since that was the only place she knew she would always belong, then asks if Rean feels the same way about his family. Both question leave Rean speechless, but the girls ultimately drop the subject, since they have their own issues to sort out (i.e. with each other).

* ArmorPiercingQuestion: During the search for Elise in chapter 4 of ''Cold Steel I'', Rean is on the receiving end of this from both Laura and Fie. Laura states that she understands some of Rean's frustrations due to his status of someone adopted into nobility and is not technically recognized as such, but she asks Rean if he swears to his sister that he was not merely trying to run from that life. Fie, on the other hand, tell Rean that while she wasn't related by blood to any of the members of Zephyr, she still considered them her family, and never considered leaving them, since that was the only place she knew she would always belong, then asks if Rean feels the same way about his family. Both question leave Rean speechless, but the girls ultimately drop the subject, since they have their own issues to sort out (i.e. with each other).

* AesopAmnesia: Once per game, he has to learn that he's not alone and that he can rely on other people. Though in his defense, every time he learns the lesson, circumstances beyond his and his friends' control keep driving him to do things by himself thanks to his MartyrWithoutACause tendencies.

* ArmorPiercingQuestion: Gives one towards Claire during the Epilogue of ''Cold Steel II'', asking if she really didn't know that Osborne was his true biological father. She replies no, but she did have her suspicions. Rean curtly leaves her after this, though he quickly comes to regret his behavior afterwards.

* HeroicSelfDeprecation: {{Deconstructed|Trope}}. Rean's extremely low opinion of himself tends to annoy the people around him more than anything else. In chapter 1 of the first game, he bluntly tells Laura that, when it comes to swordplay, he's a "drop-out who's never been able to move pass beginner level", much to Laura's dismay as she dislikes people who make light of their own abilities and can tell that Rean's capable of a lot more than he's convinced himself, something he proves beyond doubt in that very same chapter. Later, in chapter 4, he devastates Elise with the revelation that he's essentially going to disown himself from the Schwarzers out of a belief he's got a lot of grief for them (which isn't entirely wrong, but nevertheless isn't Rean's fault by any means), with Elise all but outright stating that he's been doing this kind of thing for as long as she can remember. At one point, he even goes so far as to say he doesn't have the right to be treated kindly. He works on this flaw considerably as the games progress, but it nevertheless remains a subtle part of his character.

* ItsAllMyFault: Rean has a tendency to blame himself whenever something goes wrong with him present, even when it's clearly someone else's fault or just completely beyond anyone's control

* HeroicSelfDeprecation: {{Deconstructed|Trope}}. Rean's extremely low opinion of himself tends to annoy the people around him more than anything else. In chapter 1 of the first game, he bluntly tells Laura that, when it comes to swordplay, he's a "drop-out who's never been able to move pass beginner level", much to Laura's dismay as she dislikes people who make light of their own abilities and can tell that Rean's capable of a lot more than he's convinced himself, something he proves beyond doubt in that very same chapter. Later, in chapter 4, he devastates Elise with the revelation that he's essentially going to disown himself from the Schwarzers out of a belief he's got a lot of grief for them, with Elise all but outright stating that he's been doing this kind of thing for as long as she can remember. At one point, he even goes so far as to say he doesn't have the right to be treated kindly. He works on this flaw considerably as the games progress, but it nevertheless remains a subtle part of his character.

* ItsAllMyFault:

** After he reveals that he's a noble to the rest of the class, Machias is pissed at Rean for lying to him, and the two remain on rocky terms until their next field study, with Rean eventually saying that he should have been up and front with Machias from the beginning. Thing is, Machias did kind of put him on the spot with his outburst about nobles so he can't really be blamed for dodging the question.

* HypocriteHasAPoint: At times, often combined with HypocrisyNod.

* ItsAllMyFault: Whenever things go wrong with Rean present, you can guarantee that he'll likely blame himself for it, even when it's clearly someone else's fault or just completely beyond anyone's control.

** After he reveals that he's a noble to the rest of the class, Machias is pissed at Rean for lying to him, and the two remain on rocky terms until their next field study, with Rean eventually saying that he should have been up and front with Machias from the beginning. Thing is, Machias did kind of put him on the spot with his outburst about nobles so he can't really be blamed for dodging the question. Not to mention he technically didn't even lie, since [[ExactWords he really doesn't have any noble blood in him]].

* MoralMyopia: Interestingly [[InvertedTrope inverted]]. Whenever Rean helps somebody in some way, his general attitude is ThinkNothingOfIt, but whenever someone does something nice for him, he sees it as a debt he must repay even at the cost of his own well-being. It gets to the point where Elise has to outright tell him that acts of kindness are not debts to be repaid.

* HeroicSelfDeprecation: So many times, thanks to his low self-worth from being an adopted child and his mysterious powers, which cause him no end of grief.

* {{Hypocrite}}:
** At the end of Chapter 1 in ''Cold Steel III'', he berates his students for disobeying a military order of staying put at the Derfflinger due to the danger. Elliot, Laura, and Fie are quick to remind him that they and the old Class VII did exactly just that at the climax of ''I''.
** Near the end of ''Cold Steel IV's'' second act, after [[spoiler:Musse orders the Pantagruel to ram into Ouroboros' flagship in a kamikaze attack out of desperation, with full intention of GoingDownWithTheShip, Rean chews her out for being so willing to throw her life away.]] He admits later on when talking to her again that ''[[MartyrWithoutACause he]]'' has little room to admonish someone for being reckless with their own life, so will leave that to [[CoolAndUnusualPunishment Elise and Alfin]].
* HypocriteHasAPoint:

* ItsAllMyFault:
** Whenever things go wrong with Rean present, then chances are that he'll likely blame himself for it. Best seen when he blames himself for failing in his battle against Crow at Trista despite the fact that he had no real way winning said duel at all.

* MartyrWithoutACause: Downplayed, in that he often has very good reason to put himself at risk, given the nature of threats he faces off against, but his fellow associates both within and outside of Class VII note that even without all this, Rean doesn't seem to need much of a reason to fall on his sword. An early indicator of this can be seen when Jusis calls him out on this by trope name when he talks with Rean at Bareahard, and when Elise confronts him about planning to forfeit his standing within the Schwarzer family, completely unprompted, simply because he never felt worthy of being considered one of them.