Awesome / Jaune Arc, Lord of Hunger

Moments pages are Spoilers Off. You Have Been Warned.

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Dreams

• In Jaune's dream of Nihilus's past, we see a then-Jedi Nihilus spar with Alek (a pre-Sith Malak). Nihilus utterly dominates the lightsaber duel and forces Alek on the defensive. Keep in mind, Darth Malak is a superior swordsman to Revan.
• Despite being outmatched, Alek still holds his own through some Combat Pragmatism. While in a Blade Lock, he uses the Force to fling some pebbles at Nihilus's face, taking the latter off-guard long enough for Alek to get the upper hand.
• At the end of the fight, Nihilus and Alek both try to use Force push against each other at the same time. The ensuing Beam-O-War causes the ground to break up around them with each step the other takes literally shaking the earth. Jaune believes that if the duel hadn't been stopped, the two would have destroyed the landscape with their duel, something that Revan also notes while breaking up the fight.

Initiation

• Jaune unlocking his telekinesis and using it for the first time to cushion his landing after being launched by the catapult.
  • The amount of force Jaune uses to break his fall creates a massive shockwave that rips trees from the ground and throws a cloud of dust into the air.
• Pyrrha saving Jaune from a Beowolf sneaking up behind him by throwing her javelin and pinning the Grimm to a tree.
• After Ruby jumps off the Nevermore, Jaune uses the Force to slow her landing. After some encouragement from his friends, he later uses his telekinesis to catch Weiss after she falls off the Nevermore as well.
• Nora tops her canonical achievement of riding an Ursa by instead riding on top of a Death Stalker. All the while, she's having the time of her life and yells "YEEEE-HAAAAW!"

Control

• When Cardin tries to blackmail with a recording of his confession that his transcripts to Beacon were forged, Jaune uses the Jedi mind trick to make Cardin back off on his threat.
  Jaune: Cardin. You will delete that recording, forget everything you just heard, and NEVER bother me or my friends again!
  Cardin: [mind tricked] Yeah, uh, I didn't hear anything, and I won't bother you or your friends anymore.

Fear

• Even with the Dark Side subtly influencing him, Jaune still dives in to save Cardin from the terentatek.
• Despite lying on the ground as he's bleeding out and slowly fading from consciousness, Jaune keeps enough focus to strategize and orders Nora to use her grenade launcher as an impromptu flare gun to call for help.
• Ruby's Big Damn Heroes moment where she uses her Semblance to move Pyrrha out of the way at the last second before the terentatek can impale her.
• The entirety of Professor Goodwitch, JNPR, and RWBY vs. the terentatek counts.
  • Glynda staring down the terentatek after using her telekinesis to draw first blood.
  • Glynda maintains her composure throughout the entire fight and is able to analyze the terentatek's apparent strengths and weaknesses despite only seeing the creature for the first time. She quickly identifies the creature as a Mighty Glacier and orders the least physically powerful members of JNPR and RWBY to use ranged attacks.
  • The terentatek demonstrates just why its species were nicknamed "Jedi Killers" in Legends. It smashes through Yang's Semblance and Aura in just one hit and holds off the combined force of multiple Huntsmen with ease.
  • Despite having her arm is broken, Yang endures the pain, resets the bones in her broken arm, and continues using her other arm to fire off shotgun blasts at the terentatek. Even more impressively, she did this without any Aura.
  • Ren and Blake using their speed to outmaneuver the terentatek and attack the creatures ankles, causing it to stumble. When the creature tries counterattacking with a clumsy swing from its arm, the duo dodge it and jump back.
  • Glynda and Weiss briefly stunning the terentatek by using their Semblances to smash a boulder and an ice rock on its chitin armor.
  • Even after the heroes drive themselves to the point of exhaustion throwing everything they have at the beast, the terentatek is still standing strong.
• Right when it seems that the heroes are completely screwed, they hear the familiar roar of engines as a Bullhead arrives on the scene. After a brief exchange with the pilot, the gunship opens up all its weapon ports and fires on the terentatek with everything in its arsenal. As the beast is pinned down by the gunship's heavy weaponry, Glynda orders the students to hit the creature with everything they've got. The final nail in the terentatek's coffin is when Glynda and Jaune use their remaining energy to form a giant stone javelin that they use to spear through the creature.
  • Even after the terentatek collapses to the ground dead, the students continue to shoot its corpse until all that's left is a mangled pile of flesh and green blood.

Hunger

• Jaune's sparring match with Pyrrha on the roof of their dormitory.
  • Seeing how far Jaune's combat prowess has developed thanks to his Force-sensitivity. He almost manages to beat Pyrrha during their sparring match.
  • One for Pyrrha. Despite Jaune putting her on the defensive with his Force-enhanced blows, she keeps a cool head and wins the fight by using a defensive feint that takes him off-guard.

Satiation

• The entire sparring match between Jaune and Mercury. Fueled by his anger and hate, Jaune utterly dominates the fight and even forces Mercury to stop holding back.

Breach

• Seeing Jaune use Force lightning for the first time.
• After Jaune charges up Nora with his Force lightning, she proceeds to headbutt a King Beringel until it dies.
• Despite being worn down and exhausted by all the fighting, Yang and Blake refuse to fall back until all of Vale's civilians are rescued.
• Jaune going One-Man Army on the Grimm after embracing the power of the Dark Side.

Destiny

• Pyrrha finally deciding to confront Jaune and call him out, not only for his complete Lack of Empathy towards Yang's situation, but also for keeping secrets from her.
• A small moment for Qrow at the end. Up until this moment, Qrow had been under the impression that Jaune's possession was similar to Ozpin's and didn't know anything about the mask. Despite this, when Jaune puts on the mask and transforms into Nihilus, Qrow is the only one present to immediately realize what's happening and he pulls out Harbinger to prepare for a fight while holding Ruby back.

Legends

• The Nerves of Steel Nariel shows while attacking Nihilus's ghost. Unlike most characters who fought Nihilus, she knew exactly what she was dealing with and probably even grew up hearing horror stories about the Lord of Hunger. Here, she's face-to-face with one of the most feared Sith in all of history — a being she herself admitted to being terrified of — and rather than panic or freeze up, she draws her lightsaber out and immediately lunges at him without hesitation.
• The fact that four droids—who Nihilus deemed were of no threat to him—unknowingly saved the entire galaxy by marooning the Lord of Hunger on an isolated planet where none of the galaxy's major players would ever find him.
• Alixandre Arc breaking free from Nihilus's influence through his Heroic Willpower. Then there's his line as he throws the mask away from himself.
  Alix: NO! Loyalty... is its own reward!

Nihilus

• Darth Nihilus starts out surrounded a squad of Atlas soldiers and androids, who all open fire on him with hundreds of Dust rounds. In a manner reminiscent of The Matrix, Nihilus raises his hand and telekinetically stops walls of bullets midair. By the time the soldiers empty their guns' magazines, Nihilus is standing inside a dome made up of thousands of floating bullets. He then sends the bullets flying out in every direction, shredding apart the soldiers and drones surrounding him.
  • It's worth pointing out that unlike the slow-moving blaster bolts from Star Wars, the Atlesian soldiers were using kinetic Dust firearms with bullets that moved at subsonic speeds.
  • Credit to the soldiers, they don't panic when they see that their bullets seemingly have no effect and continue firing until they run out of ammo.
• While Nihilus has previously been shown fighting, it was all during flashbacks when he was either a Jedi or a Force ghost. Here, we actually get to see Darth Nihilus himself fight for the first time and it is glorious in a terrifying way.
  • The fact that Darth Nihilus is more than capable of taking on the combined might of Pyrrha, Qrow, Ruby, Weiss, Nora, Ren, Blake, and team ABRN all at once. And he wipes the floor with them.
  • For comparison, when Pyrrha fought Cinder in canon, she was at least able to hold her own for a while and even got a few good hits in. Unlike her canonical duel with Cinder, here Pyrrha has most of her friends backing her up. Despite all this, she can't even touch Darth Nihilus and he casually dispatches her like she's nothing. As if that wasn't impressive enough, Pyrrha deduces that, based on Nihilus' body language, he's actually holding back for most of the battle.
• Right before attacking Nihilus, Qrow offers the gathered teams of NPR, RWB, and ABRN the chance to Opt Out. None of them take it.
• When Nihilus charges up to unleash a Force scream, Qrow immediately realizes what's happening and yells at everyone to run, despite having never seen Jaune use this power before.
• Credit where it's due, Qrow keeps a cool head throughout the fight despite being up against an opponent who vastly outmatches him and is capable of killing him at any time. He even manages to make Nihilus slip up twice with his Semblance and gets in a solid hit with his scythe. Compared to how one-sided most of the previous fights featuring Nihilus were, Qrow holds out for a surprisingly long time.
• Right as Nihilus has Ruby dead to rights, Flynt Coal pulls off a Big Damn Heroes moment by blasting a distracted Nihilus with his trumpet. The trumpet's blare also signals the arrival of The Cavalry in the form of team FNKI, BRNZ, and an unnamed adult Huntress who is inferred to be Raven herself.
• Right when the tide of the battle seems to have turned against Nihilus, he calmly raises his hand towards General Ironwood's flagship in the sky. Then, he uses the Force to pull the entire airship towards him and throw it at Beacon! What really sells this moment is the incredulous reactions of everyone else present, who initially are in shock at what's happening before panic sets in and everyone makes a mad dash for safety.
• At the end when Qrow is fleeing from the crashing airship, he decides to sacrifice himself by using his body to shield a random waitress who had slipped while running.

Chaos

• A villainous example for Cinder. When Darth Nihilus's rampage in the previous chapter completely derails her original plan, she improvises on the spot and has Mercury broadcast footage of Nihilus all over the Remnant. Then, she creates a worldwide panic worse than when she killed Penny in canon by making it seem as though Nihilus is the Grimm's hidden master.
• The sheer determination that Ruby shows throughout the chapter. Any other character would have completely broken down after experiencing what she went through in the previous chapter. However, Ruby never loses hope and focuses on regrouping with her friends.

Death

• Upon seeing Nihilus, the person responsible for Roman's death, enter the arena, Neo immediately snaps out of her BSoD and attacks the Sith Lord in a revenge-filled fury despite knowing that she likely stands no chance of killing him.
• The entirety of Darth Nihilus vs. Cinder, Emerald, and Mercury. Even though it's clear from the beginning who's going to win, Cinder still manages to fare significantly better than any of the heroes during her battle with Nihilus, despite only having a fourth of the numbers that the heroes had.
  • Knowing of Nihilus's Force lightning, Cinder waits for him to use it and then uses the Fall Maiden's powers to absorb all the electricity, form it into an Energy Ball, and fling it right back at Nihilus's face. When Nihilus tries blocking it, he fails and is blasted backward by the ball of magic.
  • Cinder follows this up by stabbing both of her scimitars into Nihilus's collar bones and breaks through his Aura. She then superheats both blades, cooking the Sith Lord inside out and causing him to howl in pain.
  • Keep in mind that Cinder only has half of the Fall Maiden's powers at this point. Despite this, she still puts up a good fight against Nihilus and even manages to break through his Aura.
• Even after she's defeated and her underlings are killed, Cinder remains defiant in the face of death and doesn't try begging for her life like Mercury. When Nihilus uses the Force to take control of her mind, she realizes what he's doing and, in a final act of spite, kills herself to deny Nihilus access to the Fall Maiden's powers.
• Pyrrha becoming the Fall Maiden. The first thing she does while testing out her new powers is to form a pair of flaming wings from her back, giving her the appearance of an angel of battle.
• Despite Amber's underlying resentment towards Ozpin and the general confusion she feels at having her mind merged with Pyrrha's, the moment she learns about Nihilus, she immediately puts her feelings to the side and agrees with Pyrrha that he has to be stopped.

Vengeance

• A posthumous moment for Cinder. It turns out that the wounds she inflicted on Nihilus during their battle were serious enough that he resorts to draining an entire Wyvern in order to heal from his injuries.
• Seeing Nihilus stare down the Wyvern before killing the massive Grimm in mere seconds with his Force Drain.
• After realizing Adam had cut out Weiss's eyes, Winter shows her Big Sister Instinct as she confronts him while filled with Tranquil Fury.
  Winter: Adam Taurus. From crimes of assault, robbery, murder, destruction of property, and terrorist actions, I should place you under arrest. However… [deploys parrying dagger from her saber and points both weapons at Adam] For what you did to my sister, I will kill you here and now.
• The short but vicious duel that follows between Winter and Adam also counts.
• Given what Adam just he did to Weiss and Blake, it is hard not to cheer when Nihilus kills him.
• Adam flash-stepping in front of Nihilus, firing his chokutō from its sheath while seamlessly catching the sword with his other hand, and then slicing Nihilus across the chest with all the energy stored in his blade. What's even more impressive is that Adam moved so fast that even Nihilus's Force-enhanced reflexes couldn't keep up. Had Nihilus' Aura not been supercharged, Adam would have killed him.
  • Again, what Adam managed to pull off should have been nearly impossible. He was facing a Master Swordsman who had a lifetime of training and experience over him. And that's not even taking into account the Super-Reflexes and Spider-Sense that Nihilus's strong connection to the Force affords him. Nevertheless, Adam moved at such a speed that even the Force couldn't react fast enough to his attack.
• Darth Nihilus completely tanks Adam's strongest attack and grabs him by the neck before draining him of his life in mere seconds.

Sorry

• After his revolvers run out of ammo, Ironwood decides to engage Darth Nihilus in some Good Old Fisticuffs. He manages to hold his own surprisingly well, especially since Nihilus was using his Force Lightning to charge up his fists.
• Pyrrha shows just what a Maiden with magnetic powers is truly capable of by lifting up a pile of metal debris and melting it into liquid metal which she dumps on top of Nihilus. Even Nihilus is taken aback by what he sees.
• Nihilus absorbing Penny's energy beam and then flinging it back at her in the form of an Energy Ball. Even more impressive is that he copied this technique off Cinder despite only seeing her use it against him once.
• After absorbing Nihilus' Force Lightning, Penny shoots him with her Wave-Motion Gun supercharged to 400% power. It's outright stated that her newly-improved energy beam had the same power as a turbolaser from the wider galaxy and the beam instantly shatters Nihilus' previously impenetrable Force Barrier and sends him flying across the courtyard before crashing into the ground and forming an impact crater where he lands. Nihilus also audibly lets out a groan of pain as he picks himself off the ground. Even though the attack failed to break Nihilus' Aura, it still left it heavily depleted and is the first time that any of the heroes land a solid hit on him in the battle.
  • Really, it's worth repeating that Darth Nihilus was able to tank a direct hit from an energy blast as strong as a turbolaser, something that no other Jedi or Sith has ever done. Even more impressive is that he didn't know until the last second how powerful a supercharged Penny was, yet he still survived being shot with his Aura still intact.
• Ozpin decides to give Nihilus exactly what he wants and releases all of the stored up energy in his cane, generating a magical explosion that decimates Beacon Academy and blasts off Nihilus!Jaune's left arm along with most of his clothes.
  • There's also Ozpin's Pre-Asskicking One-Liner:
    Ozpin: If you want my magic... [activates cane] Then why don't you eat your fill.
• After Pyrrha is killed, Ruby unlocks her Silver Eyes at the same time that she becomes the new Fall Maiden. What follows is her combining her new Maiden powers with her Silver Eyes, firing a burst of amber-tinted Light Side energy that engulfs Nihilus!Jaune and purges the Dark Side from Jaune's body, leaving nothing of Nihilus behind except for his mask still latched onto a now reawakened Jaune's face.
  • Nihilus deserves some credit for (barely) surviving a direct blast from Ruby's Silver Eyes while she was empowered by the Fall Maiden's magic. Anyone else in his place would have instantly been destroyed, but he still manages to cling onto his life without turning to stone.
• Jaune performs a Heroic Suicide, taking himself and Nihilus down together by impaling himself through the stomach—exactly how Nihilus killed Pyrrha.
  • Also counts as a The Dog Bites Back moment for Jaune. After spending the entire fic being screwed with by Nihilus, Jaune gets his payback by depriving Nihilus of his body — the one thing that the latter had spent thousands of years working for.
  • Right before Jaune stabs himself, Nihilus claims that Jaune is nothing without him. However, Jaune is having none of that and delivers an epic Shut Up, Hannibal! speech that tears apart Nihilus' argument.
    Jaune: All you did was twist me into a fucking parody of who I was! You destroyed everything I worked [for], killed and hurt those I loved! You took everything from me! And now, I'm going to take everything from you.

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