I don't ship White Knight but the idea of a complete reversal from the dynamic at Beacon is DEEPLY funny to me.

Like cause to one side you have Weiss who has just discovered that Jaune is the fairy tale hero she crushed on her entire childhood, the literal legendary knight who she would play pretend 'saving' her from her lonely isolation. And on top of that she has discovered that he will also remain SMOKIN well into his forties and show a superhuman level of caring and devotion to those he loves. Of course she wants to Get Up On That, and hey it's been an appropriate amount of time since his last girlfriend died and he was SUPER into her back at Beacon. This will be easy.

But then you have Jaune who is still dealing with the fallout from spending decades trapped in a fairy tale/divine nursery on top of abruptly being seventeen again. He no longer has arthritis but he also no longer recognizes the person staring back at him from the mirror. He keeps trying to pay for things with good stories and cool rocks he found, and one morning when he wanted to sleep in he tried shooting down the sun sort of expecting that to work. The urge to reason with sandstorms and help unionize farm animals is Strong In Him. And he knows it's all wrong, that he's not in the Ever After anymore, but he's having to overcome decades of brain hard wiring in his efforts to adjust. Jaune barely has time to work on re-bonding with Nora and Ren never mind dating. He doesn't even have the extra brain power needed to recognize that Weiss is flirting with him, and when he does it's easy to convince himself he's just imagining it, or getting an inflated ego again. She's Weiss Schnee, of course she has better thing to do then flirt with some loser she shot down already, and he's the Rusted Knight now, he has no business dating at all. There is a WAR on.

The rest of the Becaon crew is incredibly divided because on the one hand it's a little sad to watch, on the other it is VERY funny to see Weiss make a fool of herself the way Jaune used too.

That face when you and your siblings are all doomed by the narrative

I just noticed something

I’ve officially drawn more of this rabbit than I have of Zwei

Thinking about how, in a volume where characters' weapons have been linked to their sense of identity and purpose,

Jaune's still got Crocea Mors.

It's damaged and marred, from all he's been through, but he's still the wannabe hero turned genuine protector and leader.

Can't believe they just turned Jaune into a DILF.

HE NAMED IT JUNIPER I'M ACTUALLY SOBBING

I miss Volume Seven when the kids were happy

Anyway happy V9 countdown y’all

Something about Arkos that I feel is often overlooked, yet is precisely what makes their relationship so interesting and compelling is the fact that Pyrrha is so much MORE than just a ‘love interest’ for Jaune.

When we look at the Beacon arc, we can see that even more than a love-interest, Pyrrha is a mentor to Jaune. She’s the first person in the show to really believe in Jaune and actually help him improve. And not just in a vague ‘moral support’ or hackneyed ‘pretty girl believes in the hero guy’ way, but in a very real, tangible case of a seasoned, experienced veteran taking a feckless rookie under her wing and actually training him to be better.

In that context, Pyrrha dying to Cinder in Volume 3 is really less of a ‘tragic death of a love-interest’ and much more of a ‘the mentor makes a big heroic sacrifice’ moment. It’s more like ‘Obi-wan staying behind to hold off Vader’. Which as an aside, is one of the big reasons I’ve always thought Pyrrha’s death was a resounding aversion of the whole ‘fridging’ trope.

And after Pyrrha’s death it’s clear that, more than simply ‘the girl I loved’, Jaune looks to Pyrrha’s memory as an inspiration. As someone whose ideals he aspires to live up to. Pyrrha didn’t give up when things seemed impossible, and so neither will he.

It’s one of the many cases of CRWBY taking a tired and well-worn stroy-telling trope, in this case the archetype of the feckless protagonist guy archetype and the pretty girl he likes, and subverting them and taking them in a far more interesting direction. Jaune isn’t the protagonist and isn’t growing into some boring OP hero-guy. While Pyrrha isn’t just some pretty girl for the hero-guy to pine for. Instead, Jaune is a heroic everyman without any truly special powers who’s nonetheless doing everything he can to help, and Pyrrha is the mentor who always believed in him and whose example he continues to aspire towards.

I’m a Jaune fan lol

Something that interests me about the training scene in A Night Off, one of the things that's showcased is Jaune working on aura recovery. He's learning how to recover his aura faster.

Which in hindsight makes sense because following this he used up a lot of it during Salem's attack. Boosting Ren's semblance, helping Oscar heal, even trekking through Solitas drained his aura. Of course he would have to recover it quickly to use it so much in such quick succession.

It was established that some people can recharge their aura faster than others (like Hazel), and I'm glad they chose to highlight Jaune doing the same thing. It's a minor detail, but I'm glad it was included.

Man, I'm sure glad he's a good guy and not fighting RWBY

Finally finished a drawing I started last year 😂

You're honor I love him and will cherish him sm.

Not if I do first

He's calling for his sister.