Jaune Arc (volume 7 - current)

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.

After arriving in Atlas and meeting with James Ironwood, Jaune cuts his hair short and styles it to be upswept and somewhat spiky in a quiff-like style. 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 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.

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 losing 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 wiser, 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 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 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.

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 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" 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 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 fearlessly and 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. In response to this, Cinder bluntly dismissed him as "just a failure with a death wish trying to make his own inadequacies seem noble," 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.

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