The only reason why I can't get into this story is how lackluster Jaune's power is, and how it just doesn't make sense to cause this much drama about it. Qrow's semblance is litterally reality bending (what does bad luck even mean?), Raven's is way more game breaking if harnessed industrially and that's just off the top of my head. And how everybody is acting as if jaune is this invincible god of war and destruction that shouldn't be challenged when the only people in danger are people who don't know about his power AND stay like dumb rocks in the way of his gun to tank it with their aura.

I think if Null worked on very few individuals instead of on a space while keeping Jaune's aura intact would have made for a better and more believable story. It would truly make Jaune an invincibe monster on single combat, and justify the fear of people to get caught alone by him, but also make it so that a large coordinated attack against him (like CA's attacks) would still be a real threat and introduce tension.

You are a wonderful author when writing fun stories with ridiculously funny plot twists, but your "serious" stories always seem to have a glaring issue of this kind.

shiiiiiiiiiiit

It's Anakin and the sand people all over again. RIP Penny and Yang

The way, how Jaune acted in fight, was so disappointing...

First, didn't Jaune tried to be a good guy before? For example, in Vale in the beginning? As I remember, he tried. And eventually came to the conclusion, that fear works better (at least, in shot term). When he and Blake tried to deal with hunters in Mistral peacefully, hunters interpreted that as weakness. So, if he didn't want to fight, he should show quite the opposite, that he didn't really mind to kill few more occasional victims.
Second, there is a difference between "kill" and "wound". So, few shots in legs was the most peaceful and obvious solution.
Third, what exactly was his plan? Like "I hold blonde while Bullheads leave and ..." ? And what? How did he plan to escape? Ow, and meanwhile other two huntress — one of which is CA-agent (Penny) — were dealing with WF-guys and Roman. What chances in his opinion had Valean WF in this fight? Zero. What would CA do with WF-members? Most likely, kill. And then he had to fight not only blonde, but also 2 her allies.
So he acted not just VERY stupid. He also left his allies to death. And did it in very Blake-style. Like "don't kill ANY civilian, no matter what", "we should save ANY civilian, no matter what". And, as I remember, Jaune disliked Blake for that even before her betrayal.
But even Blake did't do such thing on the battlefield, so Jaune managed to surpass his "mentor".

Therefore, Jaune acted selfishly, hypocritically and stupidly. Could that NOT lead to a disaster? No, it couldn't. I sympathized poor WF-guys, but about Jaune I was more confused, than sympathetic.
Imho, that was very out of his character.

What will Jaune do next? In theory, he should swing from "very peace" to "very violence" — it will be only natural. But I doubt author let it end that simple for RWY.
So, another OOC or miracle.
In fact, Jaune should already have found golden mean in peace-violence, or at least be on the way.

Ugh. this story's got me in a fucking slump... why so depressing?

I had guessed it might happen, it doesn’t make Juniper’s death hurt any less. The problem is, the emotional torque is undermined by how forced it feels.

The whole series of events does feel contrived in order to make Jaune into an outright villain.
Let’s start with how despite being only a couple steps away from being a full-out military dictator in canon, Ironwood is portrayed as powerless to prosecute Chivalric Arms in order to drive the conflict.
And then there’s how Weiss idolizes her older sister, so while I think she wouldn’t be happy about being restricted to Beacon, I can’t see her rebelling against it.
Starting with events of this chapter, RWY makes the decision to head back home before when it stars to get dark, implying it’s early evening at the latest. But the Dust robbery at the docks clearly takes place at night; RWY should be long back at Beacon by the time Jaune and Roman arrive.
Penny could have also tried to mention to Jaune that Saphron and Sable are safe, and perhaps even offer a chance to speak with them, as an attempted olive branch to Jaune. It would be difficult for Jaune to believe her, but Penny should have tried just the same.
And then there’s how Penny was hacked in order to start the conflict seemed like a forced way to move the plot forward. Despite being a robot, we have seen no indications that Penny can be hacked by an outside force, making this a case of Diabolus ex Machina. Chivalric Arms has already been shown to have extensive resources and spies in the Four Kingdoms; giving them the ability to hack Penny just makes them cross the line into a Villain Sue.
Not to mention that despite being forced by programming to apprehend “Subject 000,” after her first punch, she does not persist in attempting to restrain him.
And when attacking the Bullheads, why did Penny use her laser beams? She has been shown to use her swords as grappling hooks as well, so she could prevent the escape of the Bullheads by sampling “catching” them and pulling them back down to earth.
And I thought Juniper had her Aura unlocked when she was experimented on by CA? They would have needed to in order to test what her Semblance was.

I admit, I’m not sure how much more of this story I can read. The way the plot is forcing Jaune to go down the path of darkness is unsettling, and after Juniper’s death, I don’t see any way he can reconcile with Ironwood’s faction, to climb out of the hole he has been digging. It looks more and more like contrary to his mother’s wishes, he will be taking part in vengeance, and not bothering to limit the collateral damage anymore.
I do intend on reading at least reading the rest of the battle and the aftermath. If it turns out that Jaune does intend to honor his mother’s last advice to him and to adhere to his goal of simply getting his family to safety, then I can still read this story because there is still hope for Jaune. But if it goes the direction I fear it will, and he becomes completely unfettered, then this story will become too bleak, too hopeless for me to enjoy anymore.

Oh my god Coeur you’ve done it countless times before and yet again you’ve done it. I’m shivering in anticipation for how you’re gonna write Jaunes “idgafa” switch this upcoming chapter. All throughout the Yang/Jayne fight I was getting antsy with Jaunes inability ti fight back. In all reasoning I fully understand your reasons for why he couldn’t just immediately end her, reasons like character consistency throughout a story (yangs a big impact so killing her off early doesn’t sound like your style) and other reasons such as the fact you most likely have plans for each character already and having Jaune straight up annihilate her straight away probably doesn’t work with your little scheme. Didn’t stop me from being annoyed he didn’t kneecap her, or shoot her in the foot. No death and she’s pretty much a nonthreat anymore, of course her shotgun gauntlets then come to mind, at which point I gave up on the futile train of thought and starting reading again.

But that is not the point.

I’m saddened obviously at Junipers loss, as this marks a moment of character development that will surely bring Jaune down a darker path, switching him from a reluctant killer trying to save his family, onto a more “vengeful killer avenging his parents” vibe.

Which in all honesty I’m so goddamn doen for words can’t express.

I’m a sucker for a emotionless Gary Sue character just the irony of a person with unimaginable power but no real imagination sparks a strangely humorous adrenaline spike within me. Somewhat like one punch man vibes.

Obviously I don’t mean to compare your work to that of a crack anime series but the similarities are only there in the slightest of ways, and I only used him to reference my meaning.

But anyway, I’m happy the fic is starting to fully get underway with the character development. I already gathered from the first few chapters vibe that Jaune was gonna be the guy that does what he has to do in situations that most likely would progressively get more and more terrible as the story progressed, so far I haven’t been incorrect, but I wasn’t prepared how correct I was.

I fully believed Jaune was gonna get his family back together and then menagerie would be attacked by atlas or CA, making Jaune join up and take the fight back to them or Jaune would want vengence for his father, something along those lines.

In all honestly I should’ve known you woulda pulled a fast one you cheeky bastard you. Obviously Jaune would need more encouragement to keep his motivation for combat up, where would the story be if not for Jaunes struggle? If his family was all saved that would make for a very small fiction, probably no less than 40 chapters if you had some ending arc involving CA attacking Menagerie like I said.

But anyway, this review has progressed enough as it is. All I really wanted to say was marvellous creative ability as always Coeur you trickster. Keep this up as this Grimdark atmosphere you’ve sorta got going on right now is seriously my vibe and I’m down for it so hard.

My regards,
The Demon of Beamin.

This seems to have been the worst possible week to start reading. Fuck. Jaune is bout to go fucking insane

Oh shit. Im starting to realize that with the amount of pull CA has, the only real place that would be safe would be the Grimmlands. Salem is the only person that can guarantee their safety. I dont think this is going that way but its a terrifying thought.

Jesus, when things go to hell they really go to hell. I have no idea how this will go. Jaune is going to be out for blood, if he doesn't just shut down from shock.

I can't help but feel bad for team RWBY, even if they have a devil may care attitude when it comes to most of their fights, Ruby and Yang especially when they find out the full context. Which I don't see not happening, with Jaune most likely about to go on a warpath screaming about what they've done.

I was optimistic about the ending of the story but now I have no idea how this will end well. There was always enough degrees of separation that both sides could possibly reach a deal, Jaune hadn't killed anyone not involved or not hostile, yet that's not going to last. Any bridge that could have been made was destroyed in an explosion along with the bullheads. Either Jaune is going to die in a blaze of vengeance, or he's going to be a new member of Team Salem.

Just...shit. I'm really interested in seeing what comes next.

Is "subject 000" supposed to be pronounced "subject zero", "subjekt tripple o" "subjekt tripple zero" or "subjekt zero zero zero"
It fucks with my flow everytime it comes up.

Well... Penny is dead, isn't she? I mean, Jaune is going to activate Null, and Neo is going to rip her apart. Might be some other casualties too, I don't think he's going to be looking to leave any survivors. Overall, great story. You've done an excellent job of showing Jaune's descent. Awesome read, I can't wait to see more! Thanks for writing.

Boys, we will now forsee the death of team RW_Y and Penny

I can't wait to see Yang get torn into shreds.

Fuck it. Everyone dies. No exceptions. Especially the bimbo.

If killing his mother is what it takes for him get over this "Kill the deserving" business, then great. The sooner that's put to an end, the better. I just hope he doesn't treat it as a last wish sort of thing and try to honor it. Like, that fight with Yang could have been a start-stop experience with enough potshots, whether she survived or not. Tsk tsk, Jaune. Tsk tsk.