Roman Torchwick in Not this Time, Fate

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**Roman Torchwick** (Date unknown — 1 AB) was an antagonist in *Not this Time, Fate* alongside Neopolitan, Cinder Fall, Emerald Sustrai, Mercury Black, and Adam Taurus. His first appearance was during the dust store robbery in chapter 6 and his last living appearance was during the Mountain Glenn breach chapter 32 before being killed by Jaune Arc in chapter 33.

## Background (Birth to Crime Rise)

It's unknown what year Roman was born, but he is likely the same age as Dr. Bartholomew Oobleck. As implied in other Coeur Al'Aran narratives like *Professor Arc* and *In the Kingdom's Service*, Roman and Bartholomew worked on the same team (TORCH). Following the Mountain Glenn disaster, Roman grew disillusioned with the huntsman ideal, but according to Headmaster Ozpin, he still graduated from Beacon. After graduating, Roman turned to a life of crime, starting as a street rat before ascending the hierarchy and capitalizing on corrupt police. Torchwick branded himself as a "gentleman criminal", but Jaune asserts he killed innocent people. Roman also started collaborating with Cinder Fall and her cohort, which Jaune notes was before he started Beacon.

#### NTF Divergence (Before Plot)

Note: Collection is not comprehensive, as Jaune does not list every detail he performed in previous lives.

At varying points in history, Jaune intervened with the timeline in support and opposition of Roman. Jaune provided intelligence to Roman to try and convince him to switch sides and worked as his getaway driver piloting bullheads, among other vehicles. Jaune also met several of the Valean Police Department collaborators of Roman.

## Not this Time, Fate Canon

### Shop Robbery

Roman made plans to rob a shop and recruited the help of Hei Xiong Jr.'s goons. At the store, Roman encountered Jaune, Lavender Arc, Amber Arc, and Ruby Rose for the first time. Roman attempted to trick Jaune into giving him one of his sisters for hostage leverage, but Jaune refused. A battle broke out between Roman and Jaune, and Roman appeared to get the upper-hand, though he was tackled after attempting to take Lavender hostage. Roman attempted to poke out one of Jaune's eyes while Jaune tried to do the same and crack Roman's skull. Roman successfully kicked Jaune off, but was forced to leave as Ruby poised to join the fight too. Realizing his disadvantage, Roman left the scene, using a dust explosion as a distraction (6).

### White Fang Collaboration

Eventually, Roman started working with the White Fang to conduct robberies. It is unknown when this alliance happened, but Valean authorities knew about it by chapter 13. Roman and the White Fang continued to collaborate until his death in chapter 33.

### Paladin Rally

Jaune noted that Roman had not moved the Paladin to one of his warehouses for the rally in chapter 20, but it was present by chapter 21.

Roman generally kept his plans well-compartmentalized to minimize the risk of spies leaking info to the Valean authorities, so Roman was suspicious that an agent would appear after two of his warehouses were compromised, and was actively looking for suspicious behavior. He soon found this in Jaune, disguised as a White Fang agent, only discovered because he referred to Roman as "sir", which the Faunus in the White Fang wouldn't do. As Roman presented Jaune as an example of a spy responsible for the imprisonment of several White Fang, he asked if Jaune had any last words. Jaune summarized how Roman would die an insignificant death for Cinder's cause. Roman tried to execute him, but was thrown off by an explosion induced by Qrow Branwen. As chaos ensued from the involvement of Qrow, Weiss Schnee, Blake, and Yang Xiao Long, Roman continued giving orders to the White Fang as he entered a Paladin. According to Yang, the Paladin fell over, trapping him inside, but he still managed to escape.

Roman was getting increasingly frustrated by the Beacon student's antics, as he had been thwarted in multiple crime attempts since initially robbing the Dust shop.

### Mountain Glenn Breach

It is unknown when plans for the Mountain Glenn breach were first proposed, but Qrow established that he knew the White Fang was conducting operations in Mountain Glenn (29). It is known that Roman's objective for the Breach was to survive and get arrested to act as a distraction (32).

### Roman's Last Stand

Roman lamented his situation, noting his increasing expendability and uncertain future. He heard the last of the White Fang garrison die at the hand of Jaune, and prepared for a fight. Roman's final battle was with a drug-induced Jaune, and while Roman had an upper hand with a more lucid mind and fresher body, he had the problem of not being able to kill Jaune since he was looking to get arrested instead of executed.

### Death

Jaune did not kill Roman in the train as Weiss, Yang, and Blake would have witnessed it. But his aura was likely low or broken by the time they arrived, as he was in visible panic when Jaune attempted to kill him. Roman likely survived the train accident, but was killed via jugular wound by Jaune after the fact, as a forensic analysis by Glynda Goodwitch states his eyes were wide with fear and mouth set to scream.

## Legacy

Immediately after his death, Ozpin and Glynda lamented that Roman deserved his death. The story given to the media was that Roman died in an accident of his own making. Despite this, Glynda still wishes that she could forget Roman’s forensic examination.

Neopolitan was distraught from her loss, even though no one could define Roman’s relation to her (35, 48). She went on a campaign of revenge, fully committing to Cinder’s faction (35). She committed to stalking Jaune and his family for the remainder of the story. This culminated in an assassination attempts against Juniper Arc, Sapphire Arc, and Amber, but she is eventually killed by Nicholas Arc in chapter 48.

Barthlomew Oobleck mourning loss of Roman Torchwick, by PaulBlartorias

### Date

Published: 2017 June 30

Bartholomew took time off from Beacon to “visit relatives” in chapter 36. According to Coeur on 2017 June 30, while never explicitly stated, Bartholomew took time off to grief over Roman, but did not include specifics since their interactions were not relevant to NTTF. The subtext is depicted in an artistic work by Paul Blartorias.

## References

1. ↑ "Sadly, not everyone is cut out for the life [Huntsmen & Huntresses] lead. Roman Torchwick might be considered one such example. Though he graduated from Beacon, circumstances caused him to... reconsider his life choices."
2. ↑ "[Memories] of his fights as a street rat came back and [Roman] blocked the next, twisting [Jaune's] arm and flipping them over so that he was on top."
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 "More than that, he might have felt the need to tell the police, which Jaune knew Roman had more than a few friends within. It should have been obvious from how often Roman got away with what he did, but Jaune also knew from experience. He'd met a few of them."
4. ↑ It was people like Cinder and Adam, like Torchwick and Neo who were the beasts that killed hundreds, thousands of innocent people.
5. ↑ But you didn't get to be Roman Torchwick's getaway driver without learning fast, and driving faster. If [Jaune] could maneuver a lorry filled with explosive dust around the streets of Vale while being chased by the cops? This would be a cake walk.
6. ↑ [Jaune] hadn't spent a year or so serving under Roman Torchwick for nothing. With the amount of running they'd done, it made sense his getaway driver would have to know how to secure a vehicle, and there was nothing better to use than a Bullhead.
7. ↑ "Sounds good to me, how about we leave together - just to make sure no unpleasantness happens? I'll even escort one of those lovely ladies [Lavender or Amber] for you."
8. ↑ Ruby had been fighting Torchwick's goons at the front of the store and had only really arrived in time to see Jaune be defeated by the crook. She didn't even see their fight.
9. ↑ "Saw the footage too, you'll never guess who I caught with [the White Fang]."
"Torchwi-!?"
10. ↑ "The absence of the Paladins was telling. Clearly Roman either hadn't moved them or hadn't revealed them yet."
11. ↑ A culling of the ranks followed by changing safe houses... the first thing to come to her mind was that a spy had been caught and disposed of. If information had been leaked, then it made sense as to why Roman would suddenly be nervous.
12. ↑ "You were good, I almost didn't notice it, wouldn't have noticed it, if I weren't looking for it. Did you think we wouldn't start to pay attention when we lost a base? Did you honestly think we'd still be ignorant when we lost *two*?"
13. ↑ [Roman] would be expendable in time, and then his future was less assured.
14. ↑ [Killing Jaune] would be so damned easy... but it wouldn't fulfill [Cinder's] plan. He needed to be arrested, he needed to be taken in and handed over to Ironwood, all to turn their silly, little toys against them. If he killed this kid, if he butchered him right here and now, then the chances of that peaceful arrest happening soon dwindled.
15. ↑ Jaune, on his knees, knelt over a figure that struggled to remove him. Torchwick saw them too, his green eyes wide with panic. "I surrender! Just get him off me!"
16. ↑ 16.0 16.1 [Glynda] just wished the image of [Torchwick] would leave her mind. His lifeless green eyes, opened wide in fear, mouth set to scream. His throat slit from ear to ear.
17. ↑ "[Jaune] has killed before, after all, and there's no denying Torchwick deserved it after what he did."
18. ↑ "Roman Torchwick died in an accident of his own making. It was an unfortunate, if not unpredictable, end."
19. ↑ And yes, although it was never explicitly said, Oobleck took that time off out of grief over Roman.
20. ↑ I guess you could take it generally as 'Oobleck drinking', but like the passage it's inspired by, the subtext is important. Oobleck mourns Torchwick, NTTF.