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 airship. There, he earned the nickname "Vomit Boy" from Ruby Rose.

In "The Final Word", he was knocked over into the void by Cinder Fall. His current status is unknown.

## Jaune Arc

### Nicknames

* Vomit Boy (by Ruby and Yang)
* Jauney Boy (by Cardin)
* Lady Killer (by Yang)
* Mr Muscles (by Nora)
* Jaun, Jim, Juan (by Marrow)
* Prince Charming (by Gea)

## Characteristics

### Weapon

* Crocea Mors
* Disc Grenade (Formerly)

### Age

* 17 (Volumes 1-3)
* 18 (Approx. Volumes 4-5)
* 19 (Approx. Volumes 6-7)

## Professional Status

### Previous Affiliation

* Yang's Group
* Beacon Academy

### Team

JNPR

* Nora
* Pyrrha
* Ren

### Previous Team

RNJR

* Ruby
* Nora
* Ren

## Personal Status

### Relatives

* Unnamed Father and Mother
* Saphron Cotta-Arc (Sister)
* Six Other Unnamed Sisters
* Terra Cotta-Arc (Sister-in-Law)
* Adrian Cotta-Arc (Nephew)

## 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 1–3)

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.

## Post-Timeskip Outfit (Volume 4–7)

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)

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.

## 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 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.

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.

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 line 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 makes him brash and headstrong in battle, jumping in without considering the risks and behaving predictably offensively.

However, following the Fall of Beacon, his personality is 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 is also angry at Qrow Branwen for his involvement in Pyrrha's near death, openly accusing him of using Ruby as bait. This is a completely different reaction from a year earlier when he tried to justify Cardin's bullying.

Jaune appears to prefer to keep his grief to himself, as he has continued to train on his own as a way to cope with the abandonment of Pyrrha, listening to her recordings on his scroll. This indicates a deep-seated sense of regret and guilt at not being able to save her fully 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 is not above losing his cool, as seen as he punches a hole in the wall of his sister's house, and when he takes his anger out on Oscar Pine over Ozpin keeping so many secrets, including how Pyrrha almost died for nothing.

It is only when he finds Pyrrha's memorial statue in Argus that he finally comes to term with her abandonment, understanding that she had to try and make a difference, and becoming 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. He also becomes much more wise in giving advice as he tried to help Ren.

Despite his idealism, Jaune is shown to be a remarkably strong-willed individual, forcing himself to go through with taking Penny's life to fulfill her desire to pass the Maiden powers on to Winter Schnee and prevent Cinder from acquiring even more power. During this, Jaune is shown to be distraught at the thought of killing his friend and screaming and crying as he does so, displaying signs of extreme trauma both during and after the act.

Additionally, Jaune is quick to be airsick, as seen in "Ruby Rose" and "As Above, So Below".

## Powers and Abilities

Despite not having it unlocked prior to the Beacon initiation, Pyrrha has 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 uses 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 demonstrates 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 does not have much skill in fighting, he has much more physical strength than would be expected. While not nearly at the level of his teammate Nora Valkyrie, he is strong enough to hold back the Nuckelavee Grimm for a few seconds, as well as lock swords with Cinder and not budge. 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

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 is broken by Cinder Fall as she attacks Jaune in a fit of rage after he uses the blade to kill Penny Polendina to deny Cinder the Winter Maiden's powers.

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

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" 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. 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.

## Weaknesses

Jaune's lack of experience has 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 is always the person on Team JNPR that contributes the least in terms of physical feats, much to his frustration.

Jaune is prompt to recklessly charge enemies when engaging them in single combat, which got him 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 show that Jaune is easily angered which causes him to make mistakes. This is a weakness he has yet to overcome. Jaune implies during his confrontation with Cinder that he has developed a martyr complex, justifying himself dying as long as it buys his allies time to accomplish an objective. Cinder bluntly dismisses him as "a failure with a death wish," and Ren and Nora confront Jaune about his complex during their stay in Argus.

Jaune appears to have taken efforts to improve upon these weaknesses in the months since the Fall of Beacon, as evidenced in "Remembrance" when he trains 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. He is also shown to be strong enough to hold up Tyrian Callows as he clung onto his shield, and later block a Nuckelavee's front legs and hold his ground for a few seconds.

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. He has also shown to no longer rush into danger, as after he was forced to kill Penny Polendina and saw all of Team RWBBY fall and presumably die, 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.