History Literature / RWBYBeforeTheDawn

* ThePasswordIsAlwaysSwordfish: To get entrance into the FightClub called the Mirage, the guard posted asks "What do we fight for?". To get in to the Crown's meeting place, you have to reply, "for Crown and Kingdom."

** The Beacon Brigade is a group formed by the survivors of the Fall of Beacon, and come to see each other as close friends if not family. They have to unanimously invite others into the group, and while there is initial tension, by the books conclusion Team SSSN has fully joined the group. Sun himself ends up bonding a lot with the leader of the Brigade, Velvet, over the course of the book.

* WhatTheHellHero: Nebula's entire team including her friend Octavia are uncomfortable with the level of bullying she inflicts on Velvet when the teams are mixed up. Nebula is supposed to be Velvet's team leader, but Rumpole insists they fight each other; Nebula's opinion that Velvet is weak makes her beat Velvet viciously. When Rumpole insists the fight continues even when Velvet is trapped in sand and unable to defend herself, Nebula's old team-mates and Arslan step forward, angry with both Rumpole and Nebula for the way Velvet's being treated.

* ALighterShadeOfBlack: [[UpToEleven Threefold]].

* LackOfEmpathy: Sun is called out on this behavior repeatedly through the story, unable to see why his team is angry with him, or how the group therapy sessions with the rest of the Battle of Beacon survivors helps them. When he does apologize for being rude at a previous session, he immediately ruins it by acting like he was doing them a favour because of how apparently elitist the group looks to outsiders. It's noted that he doesn't really feel bad for Velvet when she is distressed at being separated from Yatsu during the sudden assignment of new teams. His bond with Velvet and Coco makes him realize how his behavior is coming off to others, and he improves as his understanding grows.

* DividedWeFall: Theodore enacts a team reshuffling to try and bring people closer together. No matter which kingdom they're from, the students are all horrified and very few of them adapt to the change well. [[spoiler:The plan is Rumpole's, who is brainwashed at the time, and the consequence is to shift blame for the tensions onto the newcomers while ensuring the worst possible team combinations; experienced leaders become followers and inexperienced or poor leaders put in charge. Year groups are even mixed up so that first years and fourth years can end up together, and the entire experience leaves all the students poorly balanced, resentful and ill-matched. It's a deliberate attempt to destablise the academy and undermine its defences in preparation for the Crown's plan. It almost works.]]

* LackOfEmpathy: Sun is called out on this behaviour repeatedly through the story, unable to see why his team is angry with him, or how the group therapy sessions with the rest of the Battle of Beacon survivors helps them. When he does apologize for being rude at a previous session, he immediately ruins it by acting like he was doing them a favour because of how apparently elitist the group looks to outsiders. It's noted that he doesn't really feel bad for Velvet when she is distressed at being separated from Yatsu during the sudden assignment of new teams. His bond with Velvet and Coco makes him realize how his behavior is coming off to others, and he improves as his understanding grows.

* WeAreStrugglingTogether: Throughout the novel, tension flares up between members of the same teams. In particular, Team [=SSSN=] deals with the resentment over Sun's tendency to abandon them and go off on his own adventures.

* SarcasticDevotee: Scarlet is extremely angry with Sun's history of running off to do his own thing when he's supposed to be the leader of their team. He's also upset with the way Sun refuses to acknowledge his mistakes and apologise. Almost all of their interactions involve Scarlet using venomous snark to pick on Sun's failings as both a leader and friend.

* DividedIntoDisaster: Theodore switches up the teams in an attempt to teach the students to accept each other. This leads to students being split up and being put into new groups of random experience and grade levels, comprised of people who despise each other and lead by unqualified leaders, creating a toxic environment. [[spoiler:The plan came from a brainwashed Rumpole who intentionally created the teams to be as unbalanced and dysfunctional as possible to leave Shade vulnerable to attack.]]

* DividedIntoDisaster: Theodore switches up the teams in an attempt to teach the students to accept each other. This leads to students being split up and being put into new groups of random experience and grade levels, comprised of people who despise each other and lead by unqualified leaders, creating a toxic environment. The plan came from a brainwashed Rumpole who intentionally created the teams to be as unbalanced and dysfunctional as possible to leave Shade vulnerable to attack.

* AdaptationalJerkass: In the series proper, Sun is often rather carefree and supportive with his worst quality being that he's InnocentlyInsensitive at times, being described by Blake as very earnest, and even coming to the conclusion that while he had done it to help Blake, his running off on his team made him a horrible leader, leading to him deciding to go to Vacuo with his team to try and improve. Here, Sun is ignorant and dismissive of his teams issues with him, and repeatedly demonstrates NeverMyFault over his running off and thinking the team just needs to get over their issues with him. It takes having the issues spelt out to him by Velvet for him to finally realize how shitty he's been to his team. His team-mates believe he's incapable of staying in one place for too long out of fear of growing attachments to either places or people, which pushes his friends away in the process.

'''Spoilers for the first six volumes of ''RWBY'' are unmarked.'''

* DividedWeFall: Theodore enacts a team reshuffling to try and bring people closer together. No matter which kingdom they're from, the students are all horrified and and very few of them adapt to the change well. [[spoiler:The plan is Rumpole's, who is brainwashed at the time, and the consequence is to shift blame for the tensions onto the newcomers while ensuring the worst possible team combinations; experienced leaders become followers and inexperienced or poor leaders put in charge. Year groups are even mixed up so that first years and fourth years can end up together, and the entire experience leaves all the students poorly balanced, resentful and ill-matched. It's a deliberate attempt to destablise the academy and undermine its defences in preparation for the Crown's plan. It almost works.]]

!!Tropes included:

* ALighterShadeOfBlack: [[UpToEleven Threefold]].
** The Crown is this to Salem and her forces. [[spoiler:Salem seeks to cause the destruction of the four kingdoms so as to claim the Relics for an unknown purpose, and cares for little outside her own goals. The Crown however seeks to abolish Shade Academy and reinstate the monarchy, believing Vacuo to be weakened by what the other kingdoms have done to it and desiring to subjugate the other kingdoms under their rule.]]
** [[spoiler:Bertilak Celadon]] is an amoral and racist huntsman, however they only worked for the Crown because they were OnlyInItForTheMoney, and doesn't subscribe to their ideals in the slightest. [[spoiler:Fittingly, once they betray him, he turns his back on them and decides to hunt down his ex-partner Carmine.]]
** [[spoiler:Gillian may be one of the two leaders of the Crown and despise the other kingdoms, but she has no real faith in the cause of the Crown, only apart of the group because she's a LoveMartyr for her brother Jax, wanting to make his desires a reality. Once it becomes clear though that they've lost and he betrays her, she aids Yatsuhashi is stopping him once and for all.]]
* AdvertisedExtra: A {{downplayed|Trope}} case. While the book is advertised as sharing the spotlight between CFVY and SSSN, the story is predominantly focused on CFVY and Sun. Neptune fares best out of the rest of his teammates, getting an established backstory and his character fleshed out along with interacting with Fox and Yatsuhashi. Scarlet fares slightly worse, largely used to express the frustrations the team has with Sun. Sage however is completely OutOfFocus, mainly stuck giving Sun the silent treatment with no real indication towards his personality or abilities and the only one who isn't a focus character.
* AdaptationalJerkass: In the series proper, Sun is often rather carefree and supportive with his worst quality being that he's InnocentlyInsensitive at times, being described by Blake as very earnest, and even coming to the conclusion that while he had done it to help Blake, his running off on his team made him a horrible leader, leading to him deciding to go to Vacuo with his team to try and improve. Here, Sun is ignorant and dismissive of his teams issues with him, and repeatedly demonstrates NeverMyFault over his running off and thinking the team just needs to get over their issues with him. It takes having the issues spelt out to him by Velvet for him to finally realize how shitty he's been to his team. His team-mates believe he's incapable of staying in one place for too long out of fear of growing attachments to either places or people, which pushes his friends away in the process.
* AndNowForSomeoneCompletelyDifferent: Like ''After the Fall'', the book is set up to explore a different main character's perspective in each chapter. [[spoiler:However, the third act includes Jax and Gillian Asturias becoming viewpoint characters, as well, despite not being members of either Team CFVY or SSSN.]]
* BrainwashedAndCrazy: Part of what makes the Crownsmen so hard to fight is that they gain power from the Crown to function beyond their normal level. However, they're brainwashed as part of that process. [[spoiler:Professor Rumpole, Sun, Velvet, and Yatsuhashi all fall victim to the brainwashing over the course of the story. Yatsuhashi's Semblance turns out to be the only effective counter to it, enabling him to break the brainwashing by manipulating their memories; he even has to use it on himself to break Jax's control over him.]]
* CultureClash: There's a lot of tension between the Vacuan students and the refugees from Beacon and Haven. The refugees struggle to understand and adapt to the harsh environment and culture of Vacuo, resulting in them accidentally coming across as ungrateful and rude. Meanwhile, the Vacuans don't understand what happened at Beacon and Haven in terms of either the threat or what the refugees experienced; they therefore see the refugees as people who give up and run when the going gets tough, and assume that these refugees won't stick around to defend Shade or Vacuo should anything happen.

* DeusExMachina: Grimm suddenly being attracted to both Aura and negativity, despite the main show establishes that Grimm are attracted only to negativity. During the battle for Shade, the Grimm congregate on the battlefield as normal, but then attack only the Crownsmen because of their excessively powerful Auras. This saves the day for the Academy, who couldn't win without this unexpected twist, but raises continuity questions such as Ren's Semblance inexplicably calming people to shield them from the Grimm; Jaune's massive Aura and Aura-boosting Semblance, and Zwei being a dog with Aura, are also never cited as potential risks. [[spoiler:Fox reveals to Gillian that the Grimm are being attracted to the enhanced Aura she's given to the Crownsmen; while Coco ''does'' question if Fox is telling the truth, the fact the Grimm largely ignore the Academy forces until the Crown is defeated does suggests he was.]]

* DeusExMachina: Grimm suddenly being attracted to both Aura and negativity, despite the main show establishes that Grimm are attracted only to negativity. During the battle for Shade, the Grimm congregate on the battlefield as normal, but then attack only the Crownsmen because of their excessively powerful Auras. This saves the day for the Academy, who couldn't win without this unexpected twist, but raises continuity questions such as Ren's Semblance inexplicably calming people to shield them from the Grimm; Jaune's massive Aura and Aura-boosting Semblance, and Zwei being a dog with Aura, are also never cited as potential risks. [[Fox reveals to Gillian that the Grimm are being attracted to the enhanced Aura she's given to the Crownsmen; while Coco ''does'' question if Fox is telling the truth, the fact the Grimm largely ignore the Academy forces until the Crown is defeated does suggests he was.]]

* DeusExMachina: The Grimm suddenly being attracted to Aura. During the fight with the Crown, numerous Grimm end up congregating to the battlefield, but only attack the Crown's forces. [[spoiler:Fox then proceeds to tell Gillian that the Grimm are being attracted by the enhanced Aura given to the Crownsmen, and while Coco ''does'' question if Fox is telling the truth, the fact the Grimm largely ignore the forces of Shade Academy until the Crown is defeated suggests he was.]] Up to this point, Grimm had been specifically said to be attracted to ''negativity''. For them to be attracted to Aura also introduces several continuity issues, as despite his massive Aura reserve, Jaune is never anymore a target of the Grimm than the others, Ren's Semblance explicitly calms people down which shields them from the Grimm, and Zwei, an animal ''with'' aura, never attracts Grimm with his presence.

* LackOfEmpathy: Sun is called out on this behaviour repeatedly through the story, unable to see why his team is angry with him, or how the group therapy sessions with the rest of the Battle of Beacon survivors helps them. When he does apologise for being rude at a previous session, he immediately ruins it by acting like he was doing them a favour because of how apparently elitist the group looks to outsiders. It's noted that he doesn't really feel bad for Velvet when she is distressed at being separated from Yatsu during the sudden assignment of new teams. His bond with Velvet and Coco makes him realize how his behavior is coming off to others, and he improves as his understanding grows.

** The Beacon Brigade is a group formed by the survivors of the Fall of Beacon, and come to see each other as close friends if not family. They have to unanimously invite others into the group, and while there is initially tension, by the books conclusion Team SSSN has fully joined the group. Sun himself ends up bonding a lot with the leader of the Brigade, Velvet, over the course of the book.
** While there may be resentment towards him due to his constant running off, after Sun apologizes, he is shocked to find his team declare they would always be a team regardless of his screw ups, he just needs to let them be there for him.

** The book has Team CFVY share the limelight with Team SSSN, Sun and Neptune in particular being AscendedExtra after the former was initially the {{deuteragonist}} in Blake's storylines, and the latter was the PluckyComicRelief.

* RealityEnsues: Sun abandoned his team for nearly a year to chase someone he hardly knew who he himself admits did not actually need his help. His team are understandably upset and hurt by his actions and his refusal to admit to his mistakes only exacerbates things.