RWBY: Duelling Roses
is a RWBY and Yu-Gi-Oh! crossover by SeerKing. Here Ruby Rose isn't just learning how to be a Huntress; she is also learning how to Duel, as Duel Monsters draws upon the Aura of the Duelist.
This work contains examples of:
- Adaptational Sexuality: In canon, there hasn't been much clear evidence regarding Ruby's sexuality yet. Here, she's explicitly a lesbian.
- Bloodier and Gorier: Downplayed. Much like with Action Duels, Duelists are at regular risk of getting hurt here, namely due to Aura being used, specifically in summoning Extra Deck monsters. It has become customary to offer the opponent a chance to surrender if a Duelist looks to do a finishing blow with such a monster. When Cardin refused to surrender and Ruby attacked him with Black Rose Dragon, not only was his Aura depleted, he was sent flying and left unconscious with a minor concussion, requiring he be taken out on a stretcher.
- Cast from Stamina: Fusion, Synchro, and Xyz Summoning draw significantly from the Aura of the Duelist who uses them. It's considered impressive that Ruby, a fifteen year old girl fresh out of Signal, is able to summon a Synchro Monster like Black Rose Dragon despite being low on Aura from the Beacon Entrance Exam and so young. Synchro Monsters also require a "sacrifice" of life points when used outside of battles with Grimm.
- Combo Platter Powers: In addition to her canonical Aura and Semblance, and presumably her Silver Eye abilities, Ruby also has Akiza's psychic powers, allowing her to manifest her cards and inflict actual damage on her surroundings.
- Composite Character:
- Ruby is crossed with Akiza, having her psychic abilities and deck, including Black Rose Dragon.
- Team STRQ appears to be one with Team 5D's, with three of it's members so far confirmed to have or had three of the Signer Dragons as their Ace Monsters: Taiyang and Jack's Red Dragon Archfiend; Qrow and Crow's Black-Winged Dragon; and Summer and Akiza's Black Rose Dragon.
- Cardin is crossed with Gen Ankokuji, being a remorseless bully who favors Battleguard monsters.
- Empathic Weapon: Extra Deck monsters explicitly possess Duel Spirits that a duelist needs to commune with if they want to properly summon them. Some monsters will actually bond with their Duelists if the relationship is well enough, such as Qrow and his Black-Winged Dragon, or Ruby and Summer with Black Rose Dragon. Others though can be more temperamental and require great discipline to summon, hence why Taiyang won't teach Yang how to summon his Ace monster, Red Dragon Archfiend, until her second year, since he has a temper worse than Yang's, and the one time Yang tried summoning him, she was unable to separate her own feelings from his. The fact that Atlas viewed the bond as something to suppress like emotions in general during the Great War is a big part of why they ended up losing; since Vale and Vacuo still had people who could use the non-brute force method they had a significant advantage, and even to this day Atlas rejects the idea that monsters are anything more than just constructs of Aura and Dust.
- Famed In-Story: The Signer Dragons are well known In-Universe, albeit as the "Six Dragons" instead, being six Dragon-type Monsters from ancient times that each represent different aspects. Ozpin says that any duelist who manages to summon one tends to resonate with at least one of their dragon's aspects, and that Ruby and Yang are no exception.
- Red Dragon Archfiend represents passion, pride, righteous fury, and rage. His current partner, Taiyang, only resonates with his passion. Taiyang's daughter Yang on the other hand resonates with all four thanks to inheriting the latter three from her mother Raven. Ozpin notes though this makes her Too Much Alike to Red Dragon Archfiend, and in turn can make it hard for her to control him and herself.
- Black Rose Dragon represents dignity, optimism, inner and outer beauty, and determination. Both her former and current partners, Summer and Ruby Rose, resonate with all but dignity.
- Black Winged Dragon represents melancholy, resolve, and freedom. While not said outright, his current partner Qrow is implied to resonate with at least his melancholy.
- Ancient Fairy Dragon represents hope for life, the glory of the past, and the endless possibilities of the future.
- Stardust Dragon represents eternal hope, the light of a bright future, and trust.
- Lifestream Dragon represents the glory of life, evolution, and change for the better.
- Flat-Earth Atheist: Atlas is insistent that monsters are just constructs of Dust and Aura despite the hard evidence to the contrary. Apparently it started gaining real traction during the Great War, the idea being that the emotional bonds needed for the non-brute force methods of Advanced Summoning were also a threat. Even after they lost, in part because Vacuo and Vale still had people who could Fusion, Synchro, and Xyz Summon effectively, they still reject the idea that Duel Monsters have spirits that exist in other dimensions out of hat.
- Flawless Victory: Weiss and Blake defeat Russel and Dove, respectively, without losing a single Life Point. Ruby probably could have done so too, but her exhaustion from the previous exam makes it so that she tries to rush things.
- Yang effectively gets one of these against Sky, only losing two hundred life points that Blake notes she could have prevented if she'd used one of her trap cards. Ruby reveals that she lost those life points intentionally as her Synchro monsters, outside of fighting Grimm, demand an offering to reassure them that Yang isn't just relying on their power.
- Know When to Fold 'Em: When Sky realizes that he can't beat Yang, he surrenders.
- Like Father, Like Son: Discussed between Ozpin and Glynda regarding Yang. Ozpin points out to Glynda that Yang is very much Taiyang and Raven's daughter, both in looks and personality. While she inherited their virtues, namely Taiyang's passion and loving nature, and Raven's determination and straight-forwardness, she also inherited their vices, namely Taiyang's temper and overprotectiveness, and Raven's pride and ruthlessness. Because of this and the belief her deck isn't completely compatible with her, Ozpin doesn't believe Yang is truly at her full potential, but is instead a diamond in the rough.
- Made of Magic: Unlike the original series, Extra Deck monsters are explicitly made of Aura, and require using up one's Aura to even summon. As a result, the cards themselves don't exist outside of duels, as the moment aura is no longer supplied to them, the cards fade away.
- Normal Fish in a Tiny Pond: Team CRDL were the top hunting duelists back home, but that doesn't count for much in Beacon Academy. Cardin got his ass kicked by Ruby (who was still exhausted from the prior exam, which is the main reason Cardin got any real hits in), while Weiss and Blake each managed a Flawless Victory against Russel and Dove, respectively, and Yang could have done the same if they hadn't deliberately sacrificed some Life Points to summon a Synchro monster.
- Offscreen Moment of Awesome: Sadly, we don't get to see Ruby's duel against Roman. All we learn is that, if there hadn't been outside interference, Ruby would have beaten Roman soundly before her next turn ended.
- Power Limiter: When Ruby's psychokinetic Duel Affinity first manifested at age seven, it was so powerful that Ozpin needed to design a choker to lock it away until she was old enough to learn to control it properly.
- Teen Genius: Ruby is this, even more so than in the source material, due to being capable of Synchro Summoning. Normally, only professional Hunting Duellists are supposed to be capable of this, but Ruby, who entered Beacon two years early, was able to summon Black Rose Dragon for the entrance exam.
- Token Good Teammate: Dove Bronzewing is this for Team CRDL. Unlike Cardin and Russel, he's rather polite and serious to his opponent, Blake, and is a competent duelist in comparison. Because of this, he is the only one Team RWBY actually compliments, with Blake offering him advice for the future.
- Too Much Alike: Yang has trouble controlling Red Dragon Archfiend largely because she resonates with all four of the aspects that the Monster Spirit represents (passion, pride, righteous fury and rage), so she has trouble separating her emotions from its emotions, having flown into a berserker rage the one time she summoned the monster without her father helping her.
