Rhetorical devices

**Rhetorical devices** are tools in literature to help communicate an author's ideas to the reader. Coeur Al'Aran employs several rhetorical devices in his works to communicate the main themes and character changes since he started writing *RWBY*-derived literary works in 2014 and engaged in active writing exercises with College Fool between September 2015 to February 2016.

## Coeur's Use of Rhetorical Devices

### Alliteration

**Alliteration** is the use of the same consonant sounds in words, either at the beginning or within the words, based on pronunciation instead of visual spellings. Coeur's clearest demonstration of alliteration is in chapter 19 of *A Rabbit Among Wolves* as Jaune Arc and Coco Adel use alliteration for propaganda purposes, highlighted by Trifa, Blake Belladonna, and Coco.

> "*"Verily does Vivian Von Valk Volkvan stand before you. And I ask, what virtue has brought two vivid and vivacious women to vie for my attention? That I might vicariously gaze in awe and veracious wonder at such vaunted beauty fills the vast depths of my heart with joy"*"
> ― Jaune Arc, A Rabbit Among Wolves, chapter 19[[source]]
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> "*A connoisseur of the covert should be more conscientious. Lest a capricious lady convince herself she isn't up to the calibre of your compliments. Comprehend me, criminal?*"
> ― Coco Adel, A Rabbit Among Wolves, chapter 19[[source]]
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> "*Trifa thinks this tandem tautology talking is tacky.*"
> ― Trifa, A Rabbit Among Wolves, chapter 19[[source]]
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### Allusion

**Allusion** is an indirect comparison between objects or events.

### Antagonist

**Antagonists** are characters whose main goal is to impede the protagonist achieving their goals. In some of Coeur's works such as *Not this Time Fate*, Jaune is the protagonist whose main goal is to save everyone during the Battle of Beacon, and he directly interacts with antagonists like Roman Torchwick, Neopolitan, and Cinder Fall while an indirect antagonist is Fate. Antagonists are not interchangible with villains, as villains may have their perspective shown with the contemporary heroes opposing them, such as in *Stress Relief* which shows Cinder's perspective as Teams RWBY and JNPR impede her goals of causing chaos in Vale or in *Null*, which features Jaune aligning with the White Fang and Cinder's faction for the goal of saving his family while the contemporary heros like Atlas, Team RWBY, Penny Polendina, and Headmaster Ozpin impede his goals.

### Anti-hero

**Anti-heroes** are characters who perform moral actions for different reasons than traditional expectations for heroism. The main differentation between a hero and an anti-hero is the motivation, as heros perform good for the sake of being good, while anti-heroes perform good for their self interests or ethical code. An example is Jaune in *Professor Arc*, who attains his academic position at Beacon through illicit means of falsified transcripts, but still engages in morally appropriate actions such as voting to not expel Yang Xiao Long after she breaks Mercury Black's leg during the Vytal Tournament.

### Diction

**Diction** describes the word choices an author makes to evoke imagery in a reader. Diction needs to be relevant for a character and the setting they inhabit, this may be seen by contrasting characters like Ruby Rose and Weiss Schnee, as the latter originates from high society while the former does not. Similarly, Coeur has used different dictions in various settings, such as *Forged Destiny, Arcanum*, and *The Enternal Crown* which take place in purse fantasy settings contrasted from the future-fantasy setting of RWBY, as highlighted by Ruby reacting to Knight in Arc Royale.

> "*When had Jaune talked so fancy?*"
> ― Ruby Rose, Arc Royale chapter 1[[source]]
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### In media res

**In media res**, Latin for "In the middle of things", describes when a story begins in the middle of events rather than at the beginning in chronological order. Coeur has not had any stories set using in media res, but a version of it is seen in *Arc Royale* where several characters are brought from the middle of their stories, including the Jaunes' from *Not this Time, Fate*, *Null*, and *The Self Made Man*.

### Irony

**Irony** is a broad descriptor for devices showing a dissonant reality from initial expectations. One type is **verbal irony** where a person says something while intending the opposite, particularly emphasized through sarcasm such as Weiss's initial hostility to Ruby in *RWBY* canon and *Professor Arc*.

> "*Oh yeah, and we can go shopping, and paint our nails. And talk about boys like tall, blonde and scraggly.*"
> ― Weiss Schnee, Professor Arc chapter 3[[source]]
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A second type is **situational irony**, featuring discrepencies between one's perception of what will happen and the actual reality. One example are works where Jaune is viewed as having greater competence than he actually does, such as in *Professor Arc* and *The Beacon Civil War.*

> "*Fancy us being the ones to fund the Festival, can't say I saw that coming.*"
> ― Mercury Black, Professor Arc chapter 17[[source]]
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> "*He planned for everything. Literally. And as far as Cinder will ever know, he perfectly planned for her.*"
> ― Blake Belladonna, Headmaster Arc chapter 83[[source]]
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The third type is **dramatic irony**, where the characters believe something is true, while the reader knows more. Since Coeur tends to use the third person limited perspective, readers receive greater insight into character motivations and actions. Examples include all characters who do not know of Jaune's time travelling in *Not this Time, Fate.*

### Metaphor

A **metaphor** is an indirect comparison between two objects without the use of direct comparison words including "like", "than", "as", or "appears." An example of a metaphor is when Coeur likens the battle between Jaune and Cinder to acquire allies in *Professor Arc* as a "cold war" in chapter 21, referencing the Cold War between the United States, Soviet Union, and their allied nations from 1947 to 1991.

> "*The beginning of the cold war.*"
> ― Coeur Al'Aran, Professor Arc chapter 21[[source]]
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### Parody

**Parody** is a comedic derivative of an existing work, usually featuring absurd plots divergent from the tone of the original piece. Coeur has written several parodies both of *RWBY* and of his works in the form of omakes like in *Professor Arc*, "The Equalizer"*,* and *A Rabbit Among Wolves*.

> "*Instead, imagine it more like a parody of those fics where Jaune (or any main character) learns an obscure skill before Beacon and then goes through canon events using that special ability.*"
> ― Coeur Al'Aran, "The Equalizer", 2016 November 15[[source]]
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### Personification

**Personification** is the attribution of human qualities to non-human things. Coeur exmplored personification with the Grimm in *White Sheep*, as several Grimm such as Mannie and Kevin can express affection for human-Grimm hybrids or humans, such as Jaune, Cinder, and Pyrrha Nikos. In other pieces such as *Not this Time, Fate*, *Headmaster Arc*, *Relic of the Future*, and *Arc Royale*, personification is also used as an approximation to describe the motives and actions of higher deities like Fate and the Brother Gods.

> "*Like humans, Gods are not born wise. They are not born complete...And, in a rare similarity to humans and animals, the primary method of learning is to play. Humans play with toys, animals play with their environment, and Gods play with concept. This play, aside from a learning experience, allows entities to form themselves.*"
> ― Unknown speaker, Arc Royale chapter 1[[source]]
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### Plot

The **plot** are the events that take place in a story dictated by the author. All of Coeur's works feature a plot, as it is a useful aspect to advance a story. Coeur has stated that he does not like the plot of *RWBY*, but still uses the universe as a setting for most of his stories. Most of Coeur's stories tend to proceed in chronological order, where characters are followed in real-time or through described events like in *The Beacon Civil War*. Another component is the **subplot**, which are secondary stories running parallel with the main plot that help advance the narrative, such as the Beacon Dance in *Not this Time, Fate*.

### Protagonist

**Protagonists** are the main characters of a story and can express heroic and despicable traits depending on if the perspective is from the hero or villain's perspective. In canon *RWBY*, the main protagonist is intended to be Team RWBY, showing their changes as they start the year attending Beacon, experiencing the fall of Beacon and the revelation that the Grimm are controlled, and the existence of higher deities. Coeur tends to focus on Jaune and Blake as protagonists, as Jaune and Blake fits his needs for a "protagonist" better than Team RWBY, having a motivation and obstacle that he can write around, while characters like Ruby Rose do not have such motivations or obstacles for dynamic characterization.

### Simile

A **simile is** used to make comparisons between dissimilar objects with the use of words including "like", "than", "as", or "appears," An example is seen in chapter 18 of *Professor Arc* as Neopolitan struggles to come up with a proper description to describe the sunrise. Despite Neo's perception that she is using a metaphor, she is attempting to make use of a simile.

> "*[The] early tendrils of dawn light slowly creeping across the darkness like… like… she wasn't sure. Like a tentacle monster made of light violating the chastity of the starry sky?*"
> ― Neopolitan, Professor Arc chapter 18[[source]]
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### Unreliable Narrator

**Unreliable narrators** have a different interpretation of events than was originally devised by the author. In the context of Coeur's works, most of his pieces feature unreliable narrators that have seletive interpretations of the plot, such as the Arc family and teams JWBY and RRNN trying to determine what is wrong with Jaune, but not understanding the fact that he is a time traveller

## References

1. ↑ Michael Meyer, The Bedford Introduction to Literature, 2nd edition (p. 608)
2. ↑ "At least they're not alliterations," Trifa grumbled back. "What was all that? Do you even understand half the things you said?"
3. ↑ "I guess we are." Trifa eyed him sharply. "Don't think that's permission to wax like this ever again. I refuse to be seen dating someone who speaks in third person or uses constant alliteration. Those are my two rules."
4. ↑ *He just ranted with a load of words beginning with V.*
5. ↑ "Coco. Call me Coco. And no alliteration for me? I'm hurt."
6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 Meyer (p. 44)
7. ↑ Meyer, (p. 64)
8. ↑ Meyer, (p. 229)
9. ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20211104022319/https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13983348/1/Arc-Royale
10. ↑ Meyer, (p. 39)
11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 Meyer, (p. 562)
12. ↑ Meyer, (p. 660)
13. ↑ Meyer, (p. 567)
14. ↑ Meyer, (p. 38)
15. ↑ 15.0 15.1 Meyer, (p. 944)
16. ↑ In all honesty I’m not a fan of the plot or story of RWBY but find the lore and world to be very interesting.
17. ↑ Ultimately, I like using Jaune because he fits my needs of a character, i.e. an individual with a “motivation”, an “obstacle” and a “conflict that comes from them”.
18. ↑ Ruby, by comparison, lacks some of this because her dream is to become a huntress and she is accepted into Beacon in episode 1. Obstacle removed and Ruby doesn’t have any conflict after. She gains a brief one with Weiss over being a leader but… that’s fixed by episode 4 or so.
19. ↑ There are quite a few RWBY characters who don’t have a Goal and Obstacle, and some that never quite gain one.
20. ↑ Same reason as above. Blake has a strong motivation and obstacle in that she wants to escape her life in the White Fang, but the White Fang have come to Vale and threatened her new life, and Adam is after her.
21. ↑ This creates conflict and, in canon, you can see that Blake actually drives ALL the conflict of the first two seasons.
22. ↑ She'd never had much use for metaphors.
23. ↑ Meyer, (p. 132)