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For the score of a similar name, see Jaune's Arc.
For anime character, see Negative Jaune and Jaune Arc (Dream Actor).
You've got people around you too. You don't have to force yourself to be strong. The more you hide from what you're feeling, the more alone you're going to feel. Trust me.
—Jaune Arc

Jaune Arc is a Huntsman and former student at Beacon Academy. He is the leader and one of the remaining members of Team JNPR and a member of Team RNJR. His weapon of choice is Crocea Mors, which consists of a sword and a sheath that can expand into a shield. The weapon was handed down in his family from his great-great-grandfather, who used it to fight in the Great War.

He makes his first appearance towards the end of the first episode, "Ruby Rose", throwing up in the Vale Airship. There, he earned the nickname "Vomit Boy" from Ruby Rose.

In "The Final Word", he was unable to escape the Central Location as it dissolved, leading him to fall into the void and find himself in the Ever After.

After picking a stopwatch fruit in "Confessions Within Cumulonimbus Clouds", Jaune was sent back in time and aged many years, becoming known as the Rusted Knight from the fairy tale The Girl Who Fell Through the World and taming a Jackalope he named Juniper.

In “Of Solitude and Self”, he was reverted to his original age by the spirit of Alyx as a final gift to her old friend. Afterwards, he and Team RWBY return to Remnant where they arrive at the Kingdom of Vacuo.

Appearance[]

Jaune is a tall young man with fair skin, blond hair and dark-blue eyes. He is quite toned, having strong muscles in his arms, shoulders, and upper chest.

Original Outfit (Volumes 1–4)[]

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During his attendance at Beacon Academy, Jaune wears a black short-sleeved hoodie with detached reddish-orange sleeves and a dark brown image of the bunny rabbit Pumpkin Pete trimmed in white with cute black round eyes. Covering his hoodie and hiding the Pumpkin Pete symbol is a white diamond-shaped chest plate cut off above his lower abdomen, and placed over his shoulders are a pair of white spaulders with rerebraces set under them. Below, he wears blue jeans with a white patch placed on the left knee and black sneakers which have "left" and "right" written in black on the respective shoes' soles. In Volume 1, Jaune has elbow guards with cords strung through them and he wears black high tops.

He has two belts crisscrossing his waist, both different shades of brown, with a pair of small pouches on them. Jaune wears brown wrist-length gloves with exposed fingertips and small metal plates over the back. His sword is strapped to his left hip in a sheath that doubles as a collapsible shield.

Pajamas[]

During his attendance at Beacon, he sleeps in blue full-body pajamas with blue bunny slippers and a white bunny face on its chest.

Mistral Outfit (Volume 4–7)[]

V4 01 00139

After the timeskip following the Fall of Beacon, his attire is updated. He retains his black hoodie, but he instead wears a modified pure white chest plate covering a bit more of his upper abdomen trimmed with gold lining and similarly-colored bracers. Additionally, he wears black gloves with gold-colored metal armor plates over his fingers, and he appears to wear a red sash around his waist, similar in design to the late Pyrrha Nikos. He wears dark brown laced boots and a single brown belt with a pouch included worn around his waist.

Like some of his other companions, he has grown in height as well.

Child[]

When Jaune was a child, he wore a similar outfit to his original battle outfit, except he wore a yellow shirt underneath and white socks.

Atlas Outfit (Volume 7-current)[]

V8 Opening 00024

After arriving in Atlas and meeting with James Ironwood, Jaune cuts his hair short and styles it to be upswept and somewhat spiky. He also gains a new outfit. He wears a high collar black shirt under a re-modified pure white chest plate that covers a bit more of his upper abdomen and similarly-colored bracers. Both the chest plate and the bracers are trimmed with gold, and he once again wears two shoulder pads. He retains his gloves and sash except he now wears dark navy jeans and dark brown boots.

In "Of Solitude and Self", Jaune is reverted back to his proper age and Volume 8 appearance by Alyx's spirit, albeit he retains the white strands in his hair from his time as the Rusted Knight. His rusted armor also reverts back to its Volume 8 appearance, effectively deaging alongside Jaune.

Rusted Knight (Volume 9)[]

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As the Rusted Knight, he appears slightly aged with a few wrinkles. His hair has grown longer, with some strands having faded to white, and is tied into a ponytail with a torn piece of red fabric. He has also grown a beard. His armor now covers more of his body and has accumulated a significant amount of rust and wear. He replaced his short-sleeved turtleneck shirt with a long-sleeved gambeson, and wears brown pants instead of navy.

Image Gallery[]

Personality[]

Jaune begins as an outgoing, goofy, and all-around friendly person. He treats people equally and has no problems expressing himself to strangers and bonds with them easily, showing a lot of confidence. When faced with entirely new social situations, Jaune's confidence leads to bold behavior. This can become out of hand and backfire especially when pursuing romance. His voice actor, Miles Luna, admitted this by saying when Jaune tries too hard it can cause a misunderstanding. At heart, Jaune is a kind, amiable person and means well. Additionally, Jaune is prone to get airsick, as seen in "Ruby Rose" and "As Above, So Below".

Jaune maintains his unselfish manner regardless of the situation, going as far as to defend Cardin Winchester, who had been blackmailing him and forcing him to do his work. A strong sense of integrity makes him willing to deliberately put himself in awkward situations, such as wearing a dress in public without a hint of embarrassment to uphold his family motto of not going back on one's word. During conversations, Jaune never contradicts himself and, while sometimes harsh, is always honest with answers.

Jauneismad

"I don't care what you do to me... but you are not messing with my team."

Jaune is shown to care for his friends and the people around him, being protective of them and having a sense of responsibility as team leader. He focuses only on his teammates' well-being physically, mentally, and emotionally, disregarding his own to ensure theirs. He steps forward when others threaten his friends, and he has proven himself unwilling to do something that may hurt those he cares about.

At first, Jaune's family lineage leads to an obsession with being a hero. However, he was never formally trained like others in his family, causing him to lack self-esteem and assign a lot of importance to his image as a fighter. He values this image so much that he is willing to act dishonestly to achieve it- even using fake transcripts to be admitted to Beacon. The obsession had made him brash and headstrong in battle, jumping in without considering the risks and behaving predictably offensively.

However, following the Fall of Beacon, his personality had somewhat changed. After witnessing the aftermath of the attack on Shion, he is shown to be somewhat cynical, saying that they would arrive at Higanbana "if it's still there". He would also get angry at Qrow Branwen for his involvement in Pyrrha's death, openly accusing him of using Ruby as bait. This was a completely different reaction from a year earlier when he tried to justify Cardin's bullying. Jaune initially tried to keep his grief to himself, as he had continued to train on his own as a way to cope with the death of Pyrrha, listening to her recordings on his scroll, which had shown a deep-seated sense of regret and guilt at not being able to save her from Cinder Fall. Jaune's good nature renders him almost incapable of comprehending the actions and personalities of people like Cinder, unable to fathom how someone can be so cold and cruel. This expression of disbelief at the sheer sadism of others serves to show how idealistic and noble Jaune remains despite his trials and losses, ultimately proving him to be a fundamentally humane and caring individual.

While Jaune is a good person, he has shown that he is not above loosing his cool, as seen when he punched a hole in the wall of his sister's house and when he took his anger out on Oscar Pine over Ozpin keeping so many secrets. In spite of this, he isn't above keeping secrets himself. In "A New Approach", he went along with Ruby's decision to lie to James Ironwood and keep Ozpin's disappearance, how many questions left in the Relic of Knowledge, and Salem's immortality a secret from him.

It is only when he found Pyrrha's memorial statue in Argus that he finally came to terms with her death, understanding that she had to try and make a difference despite the overwhelming odds against her, and became inspired to follow her example. This is best seen where in "Fault", where instead of getting mad at Ren who insulted him for faking his transcripts, he chooses not to argue and focus on getting to shelter. It is also during this period that he also becomes a lot more patient and wise, mediating the argument between Ruby and Yang as well as giving advice to Ren in order for him to open up on how he was feeling.

Despite his optimistic and ideal attitude, Jaune has been shown to be a remarkably strong-willed individual by doing things that most characters would not be easily willing to do. One such example of this is when he forced himself to go through with taking Penny's life in order to fulfill her desire to pass the Maiden powers on to Winter Schnee and, in the process, prevent Cinder from acquiring even more power. Despite having the will to commit to such a decision, Jaune was still distraught by the act of killing his friend, screaming and crying while he did so.

After the destruction of Atlas and Mantle, being forced to spend decades alone trapped in the Ever After, as well as being poisoned by Alyx and left for dead, Jaune's overall mental state was severely affected. Because of this, he was more prone to fits of anger, such as when he met the Curious Cat again, and when he would lament at the fact that he couldn't even be a "make-believe hero" when he tried to get Alyx and Lewis on the same path as the fairy tale in order to get home. His mental state was so severely affected, he wasn't initially sure Team RWBY was real and not a hallucination until they hugged him and reaffirmed that they were, in fact, real.

Alongside his deteriorating mental state, Jaune also showed strong signs of stress and depression from the severe isolation and loneliness within the Ever After. This is shown in “The Perils of Paper Houses”, where Jaune's deteriorated mental state was exemplified in how he treated the Paper Pleasers. He named them after the people that he had once known and cared about back on Remnant as a way to still feel connected to them, which prevented him from letting them ascend since he viewed ascension as death, which reminded him of his past failures and his inability to save others. He also developed a deep hatred and prejudice against Afterans, believing them all to be either too clever, too stupid, or too crazy to trust. However, his attachment to the Paper Pleasers was demonstrated when they were finally able to ascend after the village was flooded due to a break in the dam, where he collapsed to the ground in sorrow, lamenting the fact that he had once again failed to save something close to him. He would later show open hostility towards Ruby for trivializing their "deaths" when she had called them his "make-believe friends", only calming down and apologizing after Weiss approached him.

However, in “A Tale Involving a Tree”, Jaune’s mentality would begin to improve for the better. After initially being confused at what the Ever After "wanted" from him and being tormented at being unable to save Ruby, Jaune was brought back to the Paper Acre alongside Weiss, Blake and Yang, where he would then meet the new incarnation of the Paper Pleasers, the Genial Gems. Jaune would watch as the Gems began rebuilding and remaking the flooded town of the Pleasers, causing him to realize that the errors of his actions as their "hero" through overprotecting them had prevented them from becoming what they needed to be due to a desire to be a hero and get the rush from successfully saving someone. After being comforted by Weiss and assured that he wasn't a failure by her, Blake, and Yang, Jaune's emotional and psychological state had been considerably restored as he accepted himself alongside his flaws and failures. This moment made Jaune realize that just because he had failed and made mistakes, it didn't mean that he was a failure as a person or a Huntsman.

Powers and Abilities[]

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Jaune's Aura, unlocked

Despite not having it unlocked prior to the Beacon initiation, Pyrrha had noted in "The Emerald Forest" that Jaune possessed a lot of Aura. This has proved useful over the course of the series as his lack of experience caused him to be hit frequently. Overtime, Jaune would use his shield and his durability to his advantage, taking or deflecting hits from opponents in order to force them within striking range of his sword.

During the initiation, Jaune demonstrated the skills to be an adaptable leader, being willing and able to coordinate with allies while under pressure, such as when a Death Stalker attempts to knock down the bridge his future team stands on.

Although he initially didn't have much skill in fighting, he did have considerable physical strength than would be expected out of him. While not at the level of his teammate Nora Valkyrie, he is strong enough to deflect an attack from a giant Death Stalker with his shield as well as decapitate an Ursa Major with a one-handed swing of his sword. During his fight with the Nuckelavee Grimm, he was able to hold back its charge for a few seconds. In his brief bout with Tyrian Callows, he was strong enough to hold him up on his shield. During his brief battle with Cinder, he was able to lock swords with her and not budge. He has also shown at various points in the series that he is capable of launching his teammates into the air from his shield with one arm. His attacks are also shown to be incredibly strong. He is capable of cutting through the flesh of large Grimm with ease and the great force behind his attacks is made evident when the impact of his blade clashing with Cinder's caused a chain behind her to move despite being several meters away.

Weapons[]

Main article: Crocea Mors
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Jaune and his shield

Jaune's weapon of choice is Crocea Mors. In contrast to Ruby, Jaune's weapon was not designed or made by him. It is instead a family heirloom that was passed down from his great-great-grandfather, who used it in the Great War. It is composed of a simple arming sword whose sheath unfolds into a heater shield for protection.

Post-timeskip, it adopts the same style of his armor and has the symbol of Pyrrha's headpiece. Jaune can combine the sword and shield of his modified Crocea Mors to form a more powerful blade whose edge is lined with metal from Pyrrha's weapons, Miló and Akoúo̱. Crocea Mors upgrades by having its sword placed into the sheath as the sheath folds inward, forming a second, stronger blade around the sword. It was used against the Nuckelavee and was noticeably more effective than Jaune's lone sword.

During his stay in Atlas, the weapon has received further upgrades. The sword now has Hard Light Dust built into the sides, allowing Jaune to cover more of his body when using the shield in defense and give his weapon a sharper edge. The Hard Light also allows Jaune to use the shield as an improvised paraglider. Jaune has also had his emblem on the shield modified to store Gravity Dust, allowing him to blast targets away or break long falls by using the shield as a bounce pad.

In "The Final Word", Crocea Mors was broken by Cinder Fall after she attacked Jaune in a fit of rage due to him killing Penny Polendina in order to deny Cinder the Winter Maiden's powers.

Main article: Disc Grenade

While in Atlas he also acquired a Disc Grenade, which can project a Hard Light Dust shield and be pulled back to Crocea Mors through the use of Gravity Dust. The Disc Grenade was shown to be durable enough to withstand attacks from multiple Sabyr Grimm as well as a large fireball created by Cinder Fall.

Leadership[]

Jaune's most remarkable feature is his natural leadership. He shows these skills, quickly grasping the tactical situation, forming plans to work according to their advantages and counter possible threats. He's very aware of the capabilities of his team and is able to properly coordinate them into achieving feats that can give them the upper hand during an encounter.

Semblance[]

Main article: Aura Amp
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Jaune transferring some of his Aura to amplify Weiss'

Jaune's Semblance, Aura Amp, allows him to amplify his own Aura and that of others, effectively increasing the effects of Aura. He first accidentally uses it in "Forever Fall, Pt.2"[4] when his Aura shield is intensified to the point of Cardin hurting his hand after punching him. Jaune can also use his Semblance to accelerate the healing effects of Aura and intensify another person's Semblance, as well as helping Penny Polendina resist the effects of a virus meant to control her actions. He can also amplify his own aura, shown when training with the Ace-Ops his aura went from 65% to 95%. However, it cannot remove severe scar tissue from a person's body as shown when he tried to heal Nora in "Risk".

He does not fully discover his Semblance until "Vault of the Spring Maiden" when he desperately tries to save Weiss Schnee's life and helps her recover from severe injury by amplifying her Aura.

Weaknesses[]

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Jaune defeated after recklessly attacking Cinder, a much stronger combatant

Jaune's lack of experience had remained an ongoing problem for him throughout the volumes. Despite his noticeable improvement, evidenced by the speed with which he slays an Ursa in each of the first three volumes, Jaune would always be the person on Team JNPR that contributed the least in terms of physical feats, much to his frustration. Additionally, while his physical strength is notable, he would rarely show it unless enraged by someone like Cinder, and would fly off the handle when doing so.

Starting out, Jaune would be prompt to recklessly charge enemies when engaging them in single combat, which led him to be defeated in a spar with Cardin, and nearly got Jaune to lose all his Aura against an Ursa during the events of "Forever Fall". In his first encounter with Cinder during the events of "The More the Merrier", Jaune once again charged against a stronger enemy without a plan, fully intending to subdue her with brute force, and was easily defeated. Although Jaune usually keeps his emotions in check during a fight, the previously mentioned cases had shown that Jaune would be easily angered at even the slightest provocation, which caused him to make mistakes. Jaune implied during his confrontation with Cinder that he had developed a martyr complex, justifying himself dying as long as it bought his allies time to accomplish an objective. Cinder bluntly dismissed him as "a failure with a death wish," and Ren and Nora would later confront Jaune about his complex during their stay in Argus.

Jaune has since taken efforts to improve upon his weaknesses in the months after the Fall of Beacon, as evidenced in "Remembrance" where he trained using an instruction video sent to him by the late Pyrrha Nikos. His fighting stance is more composed and his sword swings are shown to be so strong that their force causes gusts of wind to blow through the air several meters in front of him. The independent training he underwent has since allowed him to become a more competent combatant that can confidently fight alongside his peers.

During his time in Atlas, Jaune showed drastic improvement in both his fighting skill and keeping his emotions in check during battle. He was able to use his upgraded shield as a glider, allowing him to fly around and propel both himself and his opponent in battle, providing better mobility in the air. His competency in combat has improved to such an extent that he was able to defeat Flynt Coal in one of his team's sparring sessions by himself. He has also shown to no longer rush into danger, as after he was forced to kill Penny Polendina and saw all of Team RWBY fall to their presumed deaths, he did not rush and attack Cinder Fall, instead deciding to retreat. He even ordered Winter Schnee to do so as well to prevent the risk of the Maiden powers falling to Cinder.

Trivia[]

Allusion[]

  • Jaune alludes to Joan of Arc. For more information on this allusion, as well as other choices the creators made for this character, see Jaune Arc/Behind the Scenes.
  • His role as the Rusted Knight alludes to both the "White Knight" and "Red Knight" from "Through The Looking Glass, and what Alice Found There".

Color Naming Rule[]

  • The Arc siblings are all a color of the rainbow, with one set of twins. Jaune is yellow.[5]
    • "Jaune" is the French word for yellow.
    • "Arc" may come from the French word arc-en-ciel, meaning "rainbow".

Story[]

  • Foreshadowing his skills as an adept dancer, before Volume 2 started, Monty uploaded a video of Jaune dancing to his Facebook.
  • Jaune has his own official Twitter account at RT_JauneArc, like Ruby (@RT_RubyRose), Weiss (@RT_WeissSchnee), and Yang (@RT_YangXiaoLong), all of which are currently inactive.
  • At the RTX Australia 2016 RWBY Panel, Jaune's Skype username was "I <3YellowSnow".
  • Jaune's Huntsman license number is 63600-89061-45795.
  • Miles Luna liked the idea of either Neptune or Jaune's birthday being February 29th.[6]
  • During the montage in "Sparks", Vine Zeki asked Jaune if he ever considered extending his Aura. Since Jaune couldn't do it himself yet, this would have led into the introduction of the Disc Grenade as a substitute during Volume 7. However, the introduction of the Disc Grenades had to be moved to Volume 8 instead.[7]
  • Jaune's armor is segmented and layered to aid his mobility.[8]

Character & Design[]

  • During "The Stray", it is shown that, before he modified his sword, it was nearly identical to the one wielded by the man on the statue in front of Beacon Academy.
  • The "warrior's wolf tail" haircut that Jaune mentions in "Remembrance" originates from Avatar: The Last Airbender. The Volume 1 commentary track also mentions that Jaune was deliberately written to be evocative of Sokka from the same series, being a more normal character for the audience to latch onto as a surrogate.
  • Jaune's Volume 7 attire, alongside the remainder of Team JNPR, was designed by senior concept artist Erin Winn.
  • The crew thought everyone would love Jaune's new haircut in Volume 7 and were immediately shocked when many people disliked it. Miles Luna wanted to see Jaune grow up a bit, so he liked the change.[9]

Media[]

  • In Episode 4 for gen:LOCK, another animated series produced by Rooster Teeth, one of the main characters, Julian Chase, can be seen dressed as Jaune (Volume 4-7) in the Ether.[10]

Miscellaneous[]

  • Jaune, alongside Nora, Ruby, Blake and Penny, is one of the characters who owns an object sold in the Rooster Teeth store. In Jaune's case, his Hoodie.
  • According to Eddy Rivas, if Jaune were an animal, he’d be a golden retriever.
  • Jaune's voice actor's first name is Miles which is derived from the Latin word miles which means soldier or knight which Jaune is themed after with his armor and weapon.
  • Jaune's Emblem is in the shape of two crescent moons and his voice actor's last name is Luna, which is Latin for Moon.
  • Despite loving Pumpkin Pete's cereal so much that he traded in box tops to win a prize hoodie with the mascot on it in the main series, Ice Queendom retcons this fact by stating he actually doesn't enjoy it.

References[]

  1. RWBY Roundtable Episode 7
  2. RTX Austin 2023 RWBY Panel
  3. "The Lady in the Shoe"
  4. Volume 1 Directors Commentary "Forever Fall, Pt.2"
  5. Volume 6 Directors' Commentary Chapter 7
  6. RWBY Panel | RTX 2020
  7. RWBY Volume 8 Directors' and Writers' Commentary Chapter 2
  8. Erin Winn on Twitter
  9. RWBY Volume 7 Crew Commentary - Chapter 3
  10. Gen:Lock Episode 4
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