Characters / Forged Destiny: Jaune Arc

Main Character Index | The Hunters Guild (Jaune Arc) | Friends and Allies | Enemies

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Jaune Arc

Class: Blacksmith Multi-Class: Swordmaster

The protagonist of the story. Jaune is a Blacksmith, a member of the Labour Caste, but he wants to be a Hero, a dream that becomes possible when he finds a magical pendant that changes the Class above its wearer's head to "Knight". With pendant around his neck and self-forged sword in hand, Jaune sets off for the Valean Hero Academy, Beacon, with no idea of the many dangers he will soon be facing.

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# to I

• 10-Minute Retirement: Jaune undergoes one when he is forced to resign from Beacon after The Reveal. During this time, he returns home to Ansel, reunites with his family, and makes plans for what he wants to do with his life before a contingent from Mistral arrives and informs him that they plan to burn down his village and that there is an army on its way to attack Vale.
• Absurd Cutting Power: What Crocea Mors gains thanks to Jaune's Swordmaster Passive and Skills.
• Achievement In Ignorance: As he was raised a member of the Labour Caste, Jaune is largely ignorant of the large amount of inter-class bias that is present amongst the Hero Caste. This allows him to befriend Pyrrha, who has an exceedingly rare and powerful class and is used to people seeing her for it instead of who she is, and Blake, a member of a rogue class which most "noble" heroes tend to shun, by simply treating them the same way he does everyone else.
• Affectionate Gesture to the Head: Jaune is prone to doling these out to Ellayne.
• Affectionate Nickname: "Strange Knight" by Blake since he always thinks the best of her and strives to do what is right, regardless of whether it will be rewarded or not. The "Strange" is due to how different he is when compared to Remnant's traditional Knights.
• Armor-Piercing Attack: One of Jaune's Swordmaster Skills, Piercing Thrust, easily penetrates through magical shields and defenses. Another, Dividing Slash, cuts through both armor and weapons with ease but deals no extra damage to their wielder.
• Armor-Piercing Response: When Cinder demands to know why Jaune returned, his response leaves her reeling.
  Jaune: Why? You sent an army to burn Ansel to the ground. You tried to slaughter my village and kill my family!
• Artifact of Power: Jaune has reached such a high Level that he can effectively make these, either through the inscription of his own Runes, transferring existing Runes onto other objects, or by Purifying objects to make them Protective Charms.
• Audience Surrogate: Jaune serves as this much like in canon, since his background as both a member of the Labour Caste, and being from a relatively isolated village, is used to justify his ignorance in many areas of the world, and thus would ask the same questions as anyone reading about an RPG Mechanicsverse.
• Back from the Dead: Merging himself with the dungeon sword impaled through his chest restarts Jaune's heart and allows him to continue fighting. This means that, as he technically died a hero, Jaune's deal with Salem has run its course as he was both given the opportunity to become a hero and died while pursuing said goal.
• Badass Boast: Jaune gives a pretty effective one that crosses over with Pre-Mortem One-Liner to the soldiers that try to attack Ansel.
• Bare-Handed Blade Block:
  • Jaune stops a swung sword with a single hand before then rapidly heating and cooling said sword to create an improvised grenade during the defense of Ansel. Justified as Jaune is at a much higher Level than the sword's user and his hand is still lightly cut.
  • Jaune does so again against the King of Mistral before effortlessly breaking his wrist and slapping him aside.
• Barrier Change Boss: Jaune can instantly shift his Class between Blacksmith and Sword Master depending on which benefits him more in that moment.
• Becoming the Boast: While not a boast of the verbal variety, Jaune's amulet changing the words above his head to "Knight" indirectly informs everyone around him that he should have a fairly high Charisma score and be innately suited to a position of leadership. As Jaune is not only not a Knight but has also never partaken in any battles whatsoever before attending Beacon, this is most definitely not the case. He even confesses his lack of experience to the rest of the guild during their dungeon quest and to Cinder during the defense of Stoneskeep, but in both cases he still manages to rise to the occasion and lead his forces to victory.
• Berserk Button: While he despises prejudice and discrimination based on people's Classes in general, the moment anyone insults or mistreats Blake over hers, it's all she or any of his friends can do to keep him from doing something rash.
• Beyond the Impossible: One's Class is something that they are given at birth and, although one can develop under it in different ways, it can never be changed. Until...
  JAUNE
  SWORDMASTER
• Big Brother Mentor: Takes this role to Ellayne.
• The Blacksmith: His actual class.
• Blade Spam: Four Flowering Petals, one of Jaune's Swordmaster Skills, is composed of four blows in quick succession from four different angles.
• Blood Knight: Downplayed. Jaune doesn't seek out conflict but he does find satisfaction in besting skilled opponents, has a tendency to break into fits of Mirthless Laughter after, or even during, such battles, and his first kill filled him with a sense of elation (and guilt at said elation). Conversely, Jaune finds no pleasure in having to mow down waves of weaker enemies as he was forced to do in the defense of Ansel.
• Came Back Strong: Jaune's heart had already stopped beating before he fused himself with the dungeon sword, reviving himself as both a Blacksmith and a Swordmaster, a change that comes with an increased rate of stat growth and a wide variety of combat Skills.
• The Chains of Commanding: He spends quite a bit of time angsting about being thrust into the position of guild leader for the Hunters until it's gently pointed out to him that the position is mostly a bureaucratic title and no one really expects him to take personal responsibility for every decision that has to be made.
• Character Narrator: The story is told entirely from his perspective.
• Charm Person: Subverted. A Knight's characteristic attribute, Charisma, allows them to more easily manipulate others, but Jaune's is abysmally low as a Blacksmith. He is able to mimic a high value by both his understanding of people's motivations allowing him to convince them that helping him benefits their goals, and always maintaining a level head and projecting an image of calm to those around him, often with a plan for them to rally behind.
• Chekhov's Gun: The Rune of Cold Steel that Jaune extracted from the armor he gained from Beacon's vault. Initially, it only provides a large boost to Jaune's Constitution and defense when welded onto his breastplate, but he eventually welds the rune onto a pauldron he forges for Ruby, effectively increasing her Constitution by a factor of six.
• Child of Two Worlds: Jaune uses this to explain his ignorance of things the others take for granted, claiming to be a Hero born to Labour Caste parents. Apparently this is rare but not unheard of, and he usually gets pitying looks when he tells someone.
• Clueless Chick-Magnet: Over the course of the story, Jaune has earned the affections of at least three of his guildmates,^* Pyrrha, Ruby, and Blake and the complete adoration of his apprentice, Ellayne, without even realizing he had done so. Once he returns to Ansel, his sisters note that he is attracting quite a lot of female attention and that he's about to pop out of his tunic. Jaune notes that he did notice...that his tunic is too small.
• Compressed Vice: In Book 5, Jaune enacts several reckless plans, each of which could have gotten him into serious trouble, and never discusses any of these plans with the rest of the Hunters. This is meant to showcase Jaune's rash side, but his careless actions come across as entirely Out of Character as Jaune has been the most level-headed and cautious member of the guild up to this point.
• The Confidant: Even more so than in canon. Ruby reveals a critical weakness about her class relying entirely on using a scythe after only briefly knowing him, Yang tells him about their family issues caused by Summer's obsession and death, Pyrrha admits her loneliness and despair due to her special class, Oscar easily shares his desire for adventure and heroism, and Blake gradually opens up more and more of herself as they continue dating.
• Cover-Blowing Superpower: Jaune's always careful when using his active Skills in combat situations as they would give away his identity as a Blacksmith. He gets around this by either disguising his abilities as those of a Knight (Flaming Sword) or by killing his opponents right after using them. The one time he fails to do so is against Cinder which clues her in that Jaune is not what he seems.
• Cradling Your Kill: Jaune gently holds Cinder while she is dying and apologizes for everything that has happened between them.
• Crazy Jealous Guy: Averted. Though Jaune isn't happy with Sun making passes at Blake, he makes a conscious effort to not overreact.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: Forty invading Mistralian soldiers vs a small town of NPC's led by a single Blacksmith. The invaders never knew what hit them.
• Dark Secret: Jaune's identity as a Blacksmith. It's speculated in Book 6 that not only would every Caste despise him for his attempt to change his Class, but that the punishment for his actions would be either execution or indefinite imprisonment in order to both make an example and to preserve the Caste System.
• Dash Attack: Piercing Thrust allows Jaune to move forward at incredible speed to attack his opponent, irregardless of his Dexterity stat.
• Deal with the Devil: Jaune, according to Salem, unintentionally made one with Salem prior to the story's start to gain his class changing amulet.
• Determinator: Jaune's defining attribute, possibly because of his Resilience. No matter the state (severe pain, injury, fatigue, fear) or the situation (underleveled, outnumbered, outclassed, being in the very presence of Salem herself), Jaune will continue on for as long as he must to attain victory and save his friends.
• Did We Just Have Tea with Cthulhu?: The only member of The Hunters guild that Salem readily converses with in an almost friendly manner, especially after she finds out he is the new wielder of the amulet. She even jokingly asks if he has grown enticed by her visage.
• Died in Your Arms Tonight: On both the giving and receiving end of this trope:
  • Blake gently cradled Jaune after he had been impaled by Tyrian as he apologized for putting her through this and assured everyone else that he was content with his death. Averted as Salem then heals him.
  • Jaune gently held Cinder at the end of Book 6 as she lay dying by his own hands after she intercepted the blow meant for the king of Mistral.
  • Jaune cradled Lisa while she slowly passed on due to the effects of her wish to Salem and apologized for both not being completely honest with her and for not being able to save her. Her last act is to offer him Forgiveness.
• Difficult, but Awesome: For a Blacksmith, attaining the Runesmithing skill not only requires achieving a level most won't reach, but also regularly partaking in combat in order for their Path to provide the skill at all. Even so, becoming one of, if not the only, people with the ability to make magical armaments at will is well worth it.
• Dispel Magic: One of Jaune's Swordmaster Skills, Disdainful Strike, disenchants magical arms.
• Do You Want to Haggle?: Having been raised in a family of Shopkeepers, Jaune is supremely skilled at haggling. While he only gets a couple of chances to display his abilities, his bartering skills leave onlookers awestruck and are taken as proof that he most certainly has the charisma of a Knight.
• Does Not Know His Own Strength: Jaune accidentally fatally wounded a member of the Soldier Caste with what was meant to be a deterring swing while he was trying to defend the prisoners said soldiers were attempting to unlawfully execute. This is despite the fact that the Hunters have faced multiple enemies over the course of the story dozens of levels higher than themselves without such a severe disparity in strength and constitution ever being apparent.
• Don't Call Me "Sir": After saving Ansel from Mistral Soldiers and inspiring the citizens to fight back, several begin referring to him as a lord, despite his insistence otherwise.
  "My lord," Anders greeted as I approached.
  "I'm not a lord, Anders," I said, sighing, "And I still remember you giving me a stern talking to when I tried practising with one of your swords as a child."
  "And I remember you saving my life not three weeks earlier," Anders countered.
• Doomed Home Town: Inverted. Ansel takes some casualties, but is actually left as the only town in the region to not be razed to the ground.
• Easily Impressed: At the early stages of the story, Jaune is frequently amazed by things that other Heroes find commonplace. This lessens over time as he becomes more familiar with Heroes and the society they compose.
• Et Tu, Brute?: Almost enters a Heroic BSoD after his true Class is revealed and he is abandoned by the rest of the members of the Hunters guild.
• The Face: Among the Hunters, Jaune shares this role with Weiss. Jaune, having been raised in a family of Shopkeepers, is in charge of, and incredibly proficient at, negotiations. Over the course of the story, he advances from arranging better weapon and lodging prices for the rest of the Guild to brokering a temporary alliance between warring armies and defusing a potential coup that would have hindered said alliance all in a matter of minutes.
• Face Death with Dignity: After he is critically injured by Tyrian, Jaune reassures those around him that he has made peace with his life, and that he will be content just to be remembered by others having saved the lives of his friends. Averted as Salem is forced to heal Jaune to repay him for getting her out of Tyrian's wish, which could have potentially bound her for decades.
• Famed In-Story: By Book 7, Jaune has become so famous due to both saving the king's life and gaining a second Class that the Royal court is concerned that he could begin a full-scale revolution were he to rebel against the crown.
• Foil: Several.
  • To Ruby. Both are individuals whose primary inspiration to become a Hero came from the idealized versions of them in stories but they follow different paths to pursue their ideals. But while Ruby puts the safety of others far above herself, and seems to pay no mind to the danger she finds herself in, even though her Constitution is so low that any error may mean her death, Jaune is constantly aware of his own mortality, which forces him to quickly adapt to situations with any missteps on his part not becoming fatal mostly thanks to his high Constitution.
  • To Pyrrha. Both left their homes to find a place they could start anew without any of the prejudices or expectations they were previously subject to. While Pyrrha is a high-level member of a Prestige class, Jaune is a low-level member of the Labour Caste. While Pyrrha is an incredibly skilled fighter who is most effective when fighting alone, Jaune initially has no combat skills to speak of, but excels when working closely with others. And while Pyrrha is satisfied to just be friends with the object of her affections, Jaune slowly and continually makes his feelings known to his crush.
  • To Blake. Both are people with troubled secrets that strive to overcome the prejudices of their inherent Classes but go about it in different ways. Blake is a relatively high leveled Hero with experience in multiple societies, but Jaune is a low level Blacksmith who is new to the larger world. Blake is openly an Assassin, known for their underhanded and backstabbing methods; Jaune tries to be a Knight, known for their honor and directness, but achieves this through deceit. Blake was an only child whose parents died when she was young while Jaune grew up with a large and loving family. Blake is reserved and anti-social, while Jaune is socially awkward, yet outgoing. This all ultimately culminates into them becoming a couple in the story.
• Forgot About His Powers: In Chapter 13 of Book 8, Jaune has to directly confront Salem, the only known entity in the setting that is truly Demonic, but seemingly forgets that he has a Skill that is tailor-made to combat exactly that type of enemy.
• A Friend in Need: After Blake bests Cardin in a sparring session, Jaune risks social isolation and ridicule to applaud her for her victory, inspiring the rest of the future Hunters to do the same. Blake returns the favor by joining the rest of the guild on their quest to Atlas and financially assisting them during their confrontation with Torchwick.
• The Gloves Come Off: Jaune fully cuts loose for the first time against the Mistral soldiers sent to raze his town.
• Glowing Eyes: While these occur anytime someone is using a skill, Jaune's are especially noteworthy as his also shine when he becomes extremely calm and focused during high-stress situations.
• Goal in Life: He will be a Hero.
• Got Volunteered: One of the reasons he was made the Guild Leader of the Hunters was because nobody else wanted to do it and he wasn't there to object when the paper work was written up.
• Guile Hero: What truly makes Jaune such an effective hero is his ability to come up with alternative ways around whatever problems he faces, be they letting Grimm bite him to stop their movements, using his Blacksmith skills to break an enemy's weapon, or forging from unconventional sources of metal to level up faster. In addition, almost every opponent he has ever encountered has been defeated not through brute strength, but by exploitation of their Fatal Flaws.
• He Is All Grown Up: When Jaune returns to his hometown of Ansel for a two week stay, everyone notices how much he's grown. While his appearance itself hasn't changed much in the time he's been gone, his improved bearing, attitude, and musculature all contribute to him being nearly unrecognizable to the person they once knew.
• The Heart: Jaune's roll in the group along with The Hero and The Leader. He is often the first one to act when there are lives to save and the most likely to call the others out for their actions. His consideration of others and ability to unite such a diverse group is the primary reason The Hunters guild was formed.
• Heart Is an Awesome Power: Jaune initially thinks of his Passive, immunity from heat generated from his own forging process, as a mostly useless skill with some mundane smithing applications, but it sees a great deal of use throughout the story. It allows him to physically touch and heat weapons in order to destroy them, heat his own armor without being cooked alive, set his sword alight without being burned, and, when used in conjunction with his other skills, quickly create high quality equipment without the use of a forge.
• Heel Realization: He undergoes one in Book 5. He comes to realize exactly how much forcing Blake to keep secrets and lie on his behalf had been an abuse of their relationship and her trust in him. In addition, he comes to believe that many of his actions since coming to Beacon were based solely on rash, selfish, and deeply arrogant reasoning, even if some good ultimately resulted from them; though whether this self-appraisal is accurate or a result of his inferiority issues is highly debatable.
• The Hero: Ironically, as he is the only member of the main cast that isn't of the Hero Class, Jaune seems to most closely align with what others think a Hero should be. He cares nothing for Class prejudices, having been raised a member of the Labour Caste, often inspires hope or determination in others, either through his actions or his words, and always shows a great deal of care for everyone around him.
• Heroic BSoD: Jaune enters a minor one when Salem reveals to him that she is the creator of the amulet and that, by her placing it in his path and him wearing it, they have a contract of sorts. When Blake tries to rouse him from it, saying that he is stronger than Salem, Salem reveals that Blake is a kinslayer. This prompts Jaune to stab Salem in the back.
• Heroic Safe Mode: Mysteriously develops the ability to become detached from his negative emotions during a Grimm siege, and again when watching a battle between Vale and Mistral's armies.
• Heroic Self-Deprecation: Due to not truly being a Hero Class, and an early incident nearly killing Ruby, he has rather low self-esteem, and constantly worries that he's not good enough to be a Hero. This comes to a head in Book 5 after a series of traumatic events causes him to see almost all of his actions since coming to Beacon as being based solely on rash, selfish, and deeply arrogant reasoning, with only some good ultimately resulting from them.
• Heroic Vow: Jaune makes one to Blake's deceased parents after she tells him a little more about them.
  I'll look after her, I promised the stars above. She means the world to me, so... I'll do my best to make her happy.
• Home Sweet Home: Zigzagged. Once Jaune does temporarily return home to Ansel, he finds the village very accommodating and feels truly content for the first time in a long time after reuniting and spending quality time with his family. Even so, Jaune's abilities and concerns have largely outstripped his quiet hometown and he doesn't believe he could ever be truly happy if he simply settled down there.
• Horrifying the Horror: Jaune may be the first person in existence to scare Salem thanks to his White Magic.
  [Salem] looked down on me with anger, but also a sudden wariness. Something that might have resembled fear, if it were shown in a being that neither recognised nor understood it.
• An Ice Person: One of his rune medals that he can weld on to his armor freezes anything that strikes it.
• Immune to Mind Control: While the likes of Pyrrha easily fall victim to Charisma-based persuasion, Jaune sits there unaffected in the same conversation. This is a product of his Res stat, which is much higher than is normal for a Hero (because he isn't one). Once he's higher level than a Labour Caste member could ever feasibly reach in a normal life, it gets so high that no realistic level of Charisma can overcome it. Jaune becomes pretty much the only person in the world who can't be compelled into submission with a word from a high-level Noble, and many of the Nobles are scared shitless of more NPCs trying to follow in his footsteps because it represents a threat to their power.
• I'm Not a Hero, I'm...: Jaune's response to the King of Vale.
  "I'm not a Hero," I said, stepping past my King. I allowed my Class to revert. "I'm a Blacksmith, a member of the Labour Caste. An NPC." I sneered at the last part, making it clear we both knew exactly who was the one in this fight who 'needed protection'.
• Indy Ploy: Jaune's specialty. His ability to develop strategies in near hopeless situations has saved the entire guild on numerous occasions.
• Informed Flaw:
  • Jaune's status as a Labour Class is something we are told is a serious hindrance to being a hero, however Jaune is frequently able to beat Hero Classes of similar or greater Levels in spars and fights, and whenever he isn't able to compete always boils down to a disparity in Levels than in Class. The whole concept is made even more questionable when we learn of the Tier system with the existence of Hero classes that have even worse base stats than some Labourers.
  • The author has stated that Jaune is in a constant struggle between being a good person trying to help and a selfish glory hound putting others in danger. However, Jaune is often portrayed as the guild's most cautious member when it comes to taking on dangerous tasks, as seen with both the Dungeon and Atlas, with most of the other hazards they face being pushed on them by outside forces with no other options readily available, and we never once see him actively spreading news of his accomplishments or even caring about his reputation as one would expect someone concerned about glory would.
• Insult Backfire: When Victor learns of Jaune's ideals and supposed origins he dismisses Jaune as a 'peasant knight'. Far from being insulted, Jaune liked the sound of the title.

J to Z

• Knight in Shining Armor: This trope fits Jaune well despite him not being an actual Knight. As his primary inspiration for becoming a Hero came from the idealized versions of them in his stories, Jaune tries to live up to the ideal of a Knight rather than the reality.
• The Leader: Jaune continues to develop as one as the series progresses by both inspiring his comrades and often providing a plan that sees them triumphant. This is seen in Book 5 where he remains calm and focused by some unknown means during a battle between Vale and Mistral forces while everyone else is emotionally distraught, and thus provides the rest of the guild the strength to move forward. Reinforced in Book 6 when the rest of Ansel's townsfolk rally behind him to kill the Mistral squadron sent to destroy their home; everyone present charges in to help Jaune fight them off.
• Magikarp Power: Jaune's second Passive, Blade Bond, increases damage dealt in proportion to the length of time the same sword has been wielded. While this means that any new weapon would deal no additional damage at all, after using the same sword for almost a year and a half, à la Theseus' Ship Paradox, Crocea Mors is able to slice through high-tier equipment with ease.
• Meaningful Name: Jaune is a Sword Master which can mean both a master swordsman or a master of swords.
• Metaphorically True: According to Jaune's Swordmaster Passive, every sword that he has forged over the course of the story has been the same blade, Crocea Mors. While each blade has been named "Crocea Mors" and Jaune has viewed each new sword as merely an upgrade to the last, none of them have been composed of the same materials nor have all of them even had pieces of the previous iterations used as components in their construction, making the claim that all of them are the same weapon only true in spirit.
• Mighty Glacier:
  • Jaune's Strength and Constitution stats are his second and third highest parameters respectively. His Dexterity and Agility, however, are his second and third lowest. This means that he often has to immobilize his opponents in some manner so as to effectively hit them.
  • Partially averted when Jaune engraves a Rune of Dexterity onto his sword.
  • Fully averted when he gains Sword Master as a Multi-Class.
• Mirthless Laughter: Jaune has a bit of a habit of laughing in relief after high stress situations, such as after the conflict with Watts or the retreat of Salem after the fight with Watts and Willow.
• My Greatest Failure: What Jaune considers his inability to tank the Beowolf that nearly killed Ruby. This became one of his driving motivations to grow stronger so as to prevent anyone from being hurt due to his own weakness.
• Next Tier Power-Up: What his ability to change his Class from Blacksmith to Swordmaster amounts to, as it comes with better stats, and more direct combat skills.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: A very literal example when Jaune uses his Purify Object ability to cleanse his amulet of Salem's power, which apparently dismissed whatever influence she had over him while also getting rid of the amulet's ability to change his class title.
• No-Sell: When Jaune wears a set of superheated armor, he not only isn't burned alive thanks to his Passive, but he also becomes immune to any flame-based attacks as his armor is the hotter substance. All enemy fire does is cool him down.
• Not the Intended Use:
  • Jaune's Blacksmith skills are primarily geared towards engraving decorative designs, cooling metals, or heating a forge. This doesn't stop him from engraving so deeply as to compromise a fortification's structure, rapidly cooling a weapon to weaken it, or grabbing his opponents and burning them alive.
  • Swords are primarily seen by others as melee weapons meant to be used to either stab or slash into one's opponents. Jaune superheats and then rapidly cools them to make improvised grenades.
• Not What It Looks Like: Invoked by Jaune on the Magnis quest when Blake walks in on him with a drunk Ruby snuggling him while having fallen asleep. Blake quickly assures him of the truth by pointing out several obvious deductions so that even with her trust issues there's no possibility for misunderstanding.
• Obfuscating Insanity: Is forced to resort to this when imprisoned by the Greycloaks. Jaune realized that they were attempting to mentally break him by addicting him to the euphoria gained by Level Grinding, and so played the part of an addict slowly slipping into madness. He does note, however, that the act isn't entirely false as he is suffering from constant pain due to his fever and infected wounds, with Levelling being the only process that brings him any sense of joy.
• Outside-Context Problem: Is one for everyone else, as absolutely no one is prepared for a Blacksmith pretending to be a Knight. Gaining a second class mid-battle will likely prove to be the same, as no-one has ever been known to do that.
• Outside-the-Box Tactic: In the climax of Book 6, Jaune encases himself in molten armor, granting him a jury rigged immunity to fire. This allows him, a lowly level 40 Blacksmith, to go toe to toe with Cinder, a much higher level Prestige class who can only use fire based spells.
• The Paragon: What Jaune is slowly developing into as the story goes on. Most prominently seen when his actions rally the rest of Ansel against the Mistralians that seek to kill them.
• Playing with Fire: One of Jaune's Blacksmithing Skills, Stoke the Forge, allows him to generate an intense amount of heat in his hand for a short time and his Passive prevents him from being burned by his own forging process. A normal blacksmith would use this to light their forge or heat a metal without the use of one. Jaune finds it to be just as effective at burning Grimm, or welding a spear tip into his armor.
• Please Spare Him, My Liege!: Using the leverage he gained from saving the kingdom, he asks the king to spare Hazel's life. The king agrees seeing as he didn't want to have Hazel executed in the first place and was only doing due to being a Slave to PR.
• Pre-Mortem One-Liner: Jaune gives a fantastic one to the Mistral soldiers who seek to destroy his town and break the Grand Treaty.
  "It was a mistake," I said, softly, but with a voice that carried, "To believe that a Blacksmith is ever without a weapon. It was a mistake to believe that a mere NPC is no danger. It was a mistake to come here prepared for war. And it was a mistake to try and betray us. But most of all, it was a mistake to break the Grand Treaty."
  "Because it was the only thing protecting you."
• Properly Paranoid: Jaune never told the rest of his Guild about his true class as he was scared how they would react and that they would treat him differently. When his secret is revealed, the rest of the guild not only reels from him not trusting them with the knowledge of his true class, but they also take the Dungeon drop from him (his only weapon), immediately push him to the center of their formation away from any potential fighting, and show no signs of reluctance in returning to Vale when the punishment there for Jaune's actions would either be incarceration or execution. Jaune was right in that they no longer treat him as a comrade to fight beside but rather as a member of the Needs Protection Caste (NPC).
• Protective Charm: Jaune's amulet after he Purifies it of Salem's influence and imbues it with the ability to actively harm her and any other Demonic entities.
• Rags to Riches: The Arc family is by no means poor, but having to support 8 children is still a strain on their resources. So when Jaune, who has become well off by the standards of Beacon, returns home to his rural village, he may well be the single richest person in town. His sisters are quick to take advantage of this.
• Reasoning with God: Jaune to Salem in Book 4. He proposes that, as her presence naturally paralyzes those around her, her orders to Tyrian to kill them would be unfulfilled as she would be the one responsible for their deaths, not her servant, and such an act would not prove said servant's worth. Salem, however, sees right through it, and dismisses the argument, but then allows Jaune to choose three others to fight alongside Qrow anyway to ostensibly make things more interesting.
• Reforged Blade: Being a Blacksmith, Jaune reforges Crocea Mors each time it is shattered to the exact same specifications as before, either by reusing the old steel or by using entirely new materials. Each new iteration still counts as the same blade to Jaune's new Passive, Blade Bond, which increases damage dealt in proportion to the length of time he has been wielding his sword.
• Relationship Upgrade: Jaune and Blake, who start as strangers and acquaintances in Book 1, are friends with hints of mutual attraction in Book 2, and officially become a couple by the end of Book 3.
• Required Secondary Powers: Jaune is initially bereft of these in regards to Runesmithing. While the ability to enchant weapons with various abilities based on the single inscription placed upon them sounds incredibly useful it has two major drawbacks:
  • Engraving a rune upon a metallic object requires time as well as a set of specific tools to perform the engraving process, meaning that it can't be performed in the field. This is rectified once Jaune gains the Engraving Skill.
  • While Runes are a Language of Magic, they're a seemingly long-dead Language of Magic, meaning that Jaune has no way to understand what Runes perform what function. This forces Jaune to test each Rune individually and then try to ascertain their abilities from there. This is rectified once Jaune gains the Skill Runesight.
• The Reveal: Jaune's class is finally revealed to the rest of the Hunters (and Sun) when he Purifies his amulet to repel Salem, but in doing so purifies it of its Class concealing ability as well.
• Revival Loophole: Any wish made upon Salem must bring about the death of whoever asks for it, and Jaune's is no exception. The wish he unintentionally and unknowingly made granted him his amulet and his chance to become a hero, but also allowed for Salem to directly harm him as his death by the hands of the progenitor of all Grimm would still be a hero's death, and thus in accordance with his wish. Jaune's death at the hands of Cinder, however, was also a hero's death, and satisfied the terms of his agreement with Salem. His subsequent revival therefore robbed the Queen of the Grimm of any influence she may have had over him and put a permanent end to their contract.
• Secret Art: Runesmithing. No other known Blacksmith has the Skill and there are no records of it in any of the history or skill books that Jaune searches.
• Secret-Keeper: To Ellayne. Having lied about the fact she failed her First Quest, and thus shouldn't be attending Beacon.
• Shrouded in Myth: Invoked. Jaune suspects that members of the Noble Caste are deliberately keeping information about him, the man who brought about the end of the war by slaying Mistral's strongest Hero in one-on-one combat, secret so as to prevent the Labour Caste from thinking above their station. It doesn't work.
• Sorry That I'm Dying: Jaune apologizes to Blake when he sees how afraid she is after he is lethally impaled by Tyrian. Averted as Salem heals him for his part in getting her out of Tyrian's wish.
• Spontaneous Weapon Creation: Downplayed. Jaune's Blacksmithing Skills and high Level allow him to forge things at thousands of times the speed of an actual smith but it still takes about a minute or two to forge a sword from a source of metal.
• Spotting the Thread: Jaune correctly deduces that the pair of Night Guards that check in on him and Lisa after a failed assassination attempt are either impostors or compromised, stating that they had to have either been directly outside on the street and immediately guessed the correct building and room number where the assault took place while only going off Lisa's scream, or were already aware of the assassination attempt to begin with.
• Stronger Than They Look: While Jaune's physique is certainly nothing to scoff at, his youth and Class above his head inadvertently informs everyone around him that he is almost certainly significantly weaker than any Soldier and entirely incomparable in terms of strength to a true Hero. The group of Mistralian raiders who come to destroy Ansel make this assumption, and it proves to be the last mistake they ever make.
• Sword Beam: One of Jaune's Swordmaster Skills, Part the Reeds, allows him to release a buildup of energy from his sword.
• Sword Plant: Jaune stabs his sword into the ground right next to the head of the King of Mistral after deciding not to kill him. The coward still faints from fear.
• Taught by Experience: Jaune continually develops and modifies his armor and fighting style throughout the story based on past conflicts so as to better combat future opponents. This includes modifying his armor, his armaments, changing how he fights in groups, and employing previously tested strategies against old opponents.
• These Hands Have Killed: Played with. Jaune becomes troubled after killing a Berserker pirate that attacked them on the way to Atlas, and appears to suffer from the guilt of his first human kill, but it turns out he was actually thrilled at his accomplishment, and is instead troubled by his lack of guilt.
• Their First Time: Jaune and Blake have theirs together after attending Beacon's end-of-the-year festival.
• This Looks Like a Job for Aquaman: Book 6 climaxes with a scenario that only Jaune has the ability to face. Not just a Blacksmith, not even an unprecedented combat-focused Blacksmith, but Jaune specifically. His Passive combined with his Skills, normally considered by him to be lame, let him not only reach the site of battle in spite of obstacles, but effectively make him a hard counter to his opponent, such that he can fight her evenly despite being much lower level.
• Thunderbolt Iron: Forges a fallen meteor into a sword for Raven but conceals a small amount of the material on himself by using it to plate Blake's locket.
• Took a Level in Badass: At the start of the story, Jaune needed the help of Blake, Ren, Nora, and Pyrrha to kill a lone Beowolf. By Book 4, he's gained enough Levels, skill, and experience to easily kill another Beowolf single-handedly while also fighting amidst a horde of lesser Grimm.
• Took a Level in Cynic: As of the start of Book 7. After going through what may very well be the worst experience of his life, Jaune grows suspicious of the people surrounding him as well as defensive and short-tempered with the rest of the Guild even while they're treating him normally. Justified as Jaune is both under house arrest while surrounded by many Nobles who seek to either use or dispose of him and mildly estranged from the rest of the Hunters after the events of Book 6. He is, however, aware that his treatment of the Guild is unfair and makes a conscious effort to be more patient with them.
• Tranquil Fury: When a Mistrali commander informs him that Mistral has no intention of honoring the peace treaty and that they intend to raze Ansel to the ground, Jaune, in a calm and controlled manner, burns the first of the soldiers alive, pulls a reforged Crocea Mors from their smoking corpse, and tells the rest of the soldiers exactly how screwed they truly are.
• Translator Microbes: Runesight, a very high-level Blacksmith Skill, grants Jaune the ability to identify and understand Runes.
• Trauma Conga Line: What Jaune endures after his Blacksmith class is revealed - he's rejected by his erstwhile friends in the Hunters, his relationship with Blake ends on acrimonious terms, and he's expelled after a thorough dressing-down from Ozpin. He is then able to return to his hometown and mentally recuperate while spending quality time with his family...before he is forced to slaughter a platoon of soldiers that tries to massacre his village and later kill the only woman who showed him any decency while he was at his lowest. He is then able to return to his hometown and mentally recuperate while spending quality time with his family...before he is forced to once more return to Vale and infiltrate a peaceful group of social reformists lest the king have them slaughtered en masse. He is attacked and heavily injured while protecting the leader of said reformists before they are both abducted with Jaune then subjected to a week long torture session before he is returned to Vale and forced to watch as the reformist leader he has befriended dies. He is so emotionally destitute by this point that he forgives the guild for their trespasses against him because he doesn't have the ability to continue begrudging them.
• Ultimate Blacksmith: Jaune is the only known Blacksmith to have acquired Runesmithing, and by Book 5 he may well be the highest level Blacksmith to ever exist. Jaune's own father, who himself is a high-level smith and who studied under his own father, an even higher level smith, states that Jaune's creations are easily the best in all of Remnant even when he makes them halfheartedly. Raven kidnaps him for this very reason as she wants him to forge her an Infinity +1 Sword.
• Unblockable Attack: One of his Skills, presumably as a Sword Master, allows him to phase his sword in such a manner as to entirely bypass an opponent's defenses.
• Underestimating Badassery: A Mistralian Knight thinks Jaune is a helpless NPC before being bested and cooked alive in his own armor. A Bladedancer comrade of his does the same, and gets her leg sliced off for her trouble.
• Unreliable Narrator:
  • As the story is told mostly from his perspective, and he had an initially isolated upbringing, certain facts and observations he makes may not be accurate.
  • This also becomes an apparent issue with his self-assessments, as many characters have pointed out he's not as bad as he believes himself to be, and his judgement of his behavior in past events either overlooks or flatly contradicts key details.
• Unstoppable Rage: When Corvo was forced to sacrifice himself, Jaune became so enraged that the forced suggestion he was under lost all effect. Jaune then easily impaled the corrupt Lord Roux before pushing him into the very same pyre in which he had been sacrificing his victims.
• What the Hell, Hero?:
  • Delivers a pretty effective one to the rest of the party while in the dungeon. He calls out Weiss and Blake for their continual sniping at each other, Yang for her overprotectiveness of Ruby making them both useless, Ren and Nora for retreating into themselves instead of helping, and Pyrrha for foisting leadership and strategy onto him when he has no tactical experience. Ruby is exempt from the rebuke, but she still feels bad as her near death at the hands of a Beowolf is what caused a lot of the issues to begin with.
  • Delivers another to the guild during their attempts at reconciliation midway through Book 7. First, he confronts them on the discrimination they showed towards him after his class was revealed in the deserts of Vacuo wherein they took the dungeon sword from him and forced him to the center of their formation. He then continues to call them out by pointing out that they practically abandoned him once he was expelled from Beacon with no thought having been paid to the state he was in or how miserable he would be if he stayed as merely a Blacksmith. Jaune admits that he himself should have revealed the truth of his Class to the rest of the guild before Vacuo, but that their actions still hurt.
• When All You Have Is a Hammer…: Since he is a Blacksmith, Jaune doesn't actually get any combat related skills and his stats aren't distributed for combat. Jaune gets around this by using his high constitution and strength to trap opponents after they attack him and using his Skills to burn opponents.
• White Magic: Jaune's path has been encouraging him to develop this so as to combat Salem. His latest skill, Purify Object, not only removes curses but also imbues objects with the ability to resist and repel Demonic taint. Salem finds this out the hard way.
• With a Foot on the Bus: Jaune contemplates leaving Beacon and Vale entirely after his expulsion. While he knows he could take up the position Ozpin offered him as Beacon's blacksmith, he knows that he would never be happy there and instead contemplates joining a mercenary band or perhaps Cinder's entourage. He returns anyway after Mistral's betrayal forces his hand.
• Worf Had the Flu: During an attack on New Dawn by Hero classes, Jaune struggles due to not wearing any armor, and needing to take hits to protect their leader that leaves him too injured to fight normally.
• Working Through the Cold: While held captive by Raven and the rest of her tribe, Jaune is forced to fight in a series of gladiatorial matches against a gauntlet of foes all while under the effects of a flu and an infected wound. This is an effort by Raven to force him to become addicted to Level Grinding, something that Jaune takes full advantage of.
• Worthy Opponent: Jaune's view of Cinder. She fully reciprocates.
  "And I [admired] you. I saw you as a Princess who didn't care about Class or Caste. Someone who would lead Mistral well and genuinely do the best for her people."
• Wrecked Weapon:
  • Jaune's Blacksmithing skills make this a valid combat tactic, allowing him to weaken the Berserker's ax, melt Glenn's spear, deface the runes on Watt's sword, and destroy Mistral's siege towers. He was also on the receiving end of this when Crocea Mors was destroyed during his confrontation with Watts.
  • The Sword Master Class seems to be particularly geared to this with a lot of Jaune's Skills focused on destroying or disenchanting weapons and armor.
• Your Normal Is Our Taboo: Jaune runs afoul of this a few times at the start of the story, but is able to explain it away as a consequence of being raised among Labourers instead of Heroes.

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