History Literature / RWBYRomanHoliday

* SurpassedTheTeacher: Neo's able to surpass her teachers in combat by the end of the novel, and her journey concludes with her officially outgrowing her EvilMentor Lady Beat by [[spoiler:outwitting her, [[NeverFoundTheBody possibly]] killing her and exposing the Academy which drives the Spiders out of Vale.]] To symbolize this, she takes Lady Beat's emblem as [[KlingonPromotion her own]].

* CallForward: At one point, Ozpin appears on a brief news segment about Roman's bank robbery, warning him that crossing Huntsmen in the future may not go so easily for him. In the main show, he is the StarterVillain who struggles against Huntsmen students, particularly Team RWBY.

Roman Torchwick is a young, up-and-coming criminal mastermind, trying to make his way through Remnant's underworld. He butts heads with more prominent crime families, but manages to keep ahead- just barely - with his wit, charm, and stubborn desire to stay alive.

* ForegoneConclusion: Regardless of what happens, it's clear that Roman and Neo will survive the events of ''Roman Holiday'', and what was once depicted as an imaginary friend that might reflect a split personality, is actually Trivia's childhood search for her true identity manifesting through her Semblance until she uses her appearance to express herself.

* DidNotThinkThisThrough: Trivia attempts to escape her locked room by applying an AerosolFlamethrower to try and melt the locks (Or maybe just expand the metal to make it easier to pick). Unfortunately, Trivia realizes a little too late that her door ''is made out of wood'', and her room is full of flammable items. She just barely escapes the fire that would have killed her.

* ForegoneConclusion: Anyone who has watched ''{{WebAnimation/RWBY}}'' knows that Roman and Neo will survive the events of ''Roman Holiday'', and what was once depicted as an imaginary friend that might reflect a split personality, is actually Trivia's childhood search for her true identity manifesting through her Semblance until she uses her appearance to express herself.

* OriginsEpisode: The novel tells the story of how Trivia Vanille became Neo Politan, how Roman Torchwick became the greatest criminal in Vale, and how the two formed their partnership.

* PowerIncontinence: Because it's connected to her hidden rebellious streak, Neo's Semblance sometimes goes out of her control and reflects her true self, with "Neo" acting the way she wants to act and her hair and eye color changing to how she feels at the moment. In the last chapter, [[spoiler:hair hair acquires three white stripes after her parents' deaths without her meaning to, hinting that she's more affected by it than she'll admit to herself.]]

* CallForward: At one point, [[TheCameo Ozpin]] appears on a brief news segment about Roman's bank robbery, warning him that he's playing a dangerous game and there are greater forces than he knows about. Roman is unnerved, but ultimately puts it behind him. Sure enough, his reputation as an audacious criminal leads to Cinder recruiting him as a pawn for Salem's SecretWar.

* {{Foreshadowing}}: Quite a lot of it.

* DoomedByCanon: [[spoiler:Hei Xiong is killed by the Dust explosion at the Vanille mansion, leading to his son Junior taking over his organization by the time of the show.]]

[[caption-width-right:350: Lie. Steal. Cheat. Survive.]]

[[caption-width-right:350: Lie. Cheat. Survive.]]

* EnthrallingSiren: Roman meets a club owner in Vale and asks her if she plans on performing, inwardly noting that he never wants to hear her voice again. Later, it's revealed that she has a Semblance that puts anyone who hears her song under a hypnotic trance, [[spoiler:which Lil' Miss uses to capture him.]]

* TemptingFate: Neo ends the story on a line about how Roman and Neo will be together forever and never get caught. As anyone who's seen the show knows, while they aren't caught by the police, Roman is eventually killed [[spoiler:and Neo is thrown into a void by Cinder]].

** Carmel Vanille acts like a meek and submissive TrophyWife. When she's talking to Roman, on the other hand, a whole other side comes out. [[spoiler:She's actually a high-ranking Spider operative who is using Jimmy to infiltrate the Xiongs, and plans to pit them and Spider against each other so Jimmy can take over the illegal Dust trade. Jimmy is ultimately her UnwittingPawn who stumbled into crime by accident, while Carmel has been scheming her whole life to rule Vale's underworld with Jimmy as her puppet and Trivia as her minion.]]

* BeneathTheMask: Both Roman and Neo act like tough, hedonistic, careless crooks, but beneath it all they really do want genuine love and latch onto what small bits of genuine affection they can get from each other. [[spoiler:When Roman is tricked into thinking that Neo betrayed him, he does his best to pretend that it's just the way the world works and he should have seen it coming, but he's clearly heartbroken and betrayed, and when she comes to rescue him he's overjoyed.]]

%% * FlippingTheBird: It’s implied that Neo does this at one point.

** Neo compares herself to the in-universe fairytale "The Girl In the Tower", a woman imprisoned by her controlling father who is eventually rescued by a man. She's more right that she knows, as the fairytale was based the true story of how [[BigBad Salem]] and [[BigGood Ozma]] met. Just like Salem, Neo is denied her HappilyEverAfter when her rescuer dies; this sends her into a self-destructive spiral of revenge that leads to her meeting the Girl in the Tower in the flesh.

** Neo compares herself to the in-universe fairytale "The Girl In the Tower", a woman imprisoned by her controlling father who is eventually rescued by a man. She's more right that she knows, as the fairytale was based the true story of how [[BigBad Salem]] and [[BigGood Ozma]] met. And just like Salem, Neo's HappilyEverAfter will end when her rescuer dies and his death sends her into a self-destructive spiral. Bonus points for this leading to her actually meeting the Girl in the Tower.

** Neo compares herself to the in-universe fairytale "The Girl In the Tower", a woman imprisoned by her controlling father who is eventually rescued by a man. She's more right that she knows, as the fairytale was based the true story of how [[BigBad Salem]] and [[BigGood Ozma]] met. And just like Salem, Neo's HappilyEverAfter will end when her rescuer dies and his death sends her into a self-destructive spiral.

* ForegoneConclusion: Anyone who has watched ''WebAnimation/{{RWBY}}'' knows that Roman and Neo will survive the events of ''Roman Holiday'', and what was once depicted as an imaginary friend that might reflect a split personality, is actually Trivia's childhood search for her true identity manifesting through her Semblance until she uses her appearance to express herself.

* ForegoneConclusion: Neo's Semblance, appearance and close relationship with Roman are well-established in ''WebAnimation/{{RWBY}}''. Since ''Roman Holiday'' is a prequel, those familiar with the series will know that Roman and Neo will befriend each other, survive the events of the novel, and what was once depicted as an imaginary friend that might reflect a split personality, is actually Trivia's childhood search for her true identity manifesting through her Semblance until she uses her appearance to express herself.

* ForegoneConclusion: Neo's Semblance, appearance and close relationship with Roman are well-established in ''WebAnimation/{{RWBY}}''. Since ''Roman Holiday'' is a prequel, those familiar with the series will know that Roman and Neo will form a long-standing friendship, survive the events of the novel, and what was once depicted as an imaginary friend that might reflect a split personality, is actually Trivia's childhood search for her true identity manifesting through her Semblance until she uses her appearance to express herself.

** Roman survives in a room with a Grimm because he knows that Grimm are drawn to anger even more than fear and takes advantage of that, keeping calm and riling up his captor to draw the Grimm towards him. This is exactly how he'll eventually die: his fury at Neo's supposed death not only distracts him from the much bigger threat in favor of beating on Ruby, it sends him into an [[TheReasonYouSuckSpeech anger-fueled tirade]], allowing the Grimm to notice him amidst the overall carnage and [[EatenAlive devour him]].

* ForegoneConclusion: Neo's Semblance, appearance and close relationship with Roman are well-established in the show. As the novel is a prequel, those familiar with the show will already know how it ends: Roman and Neo will form a lasting friendship, survive the events of the novel, and what was once depicted as an imaginary friend that might reflect a split personality, is in reality Trivia's childhood search for her true identity manifesting through her Semblance until she learns how to express herself directly through her appearance.

* AllPsychologyIsFreudian: Lady Beat's personal philosophy is that people are governed by thirds: three aspects each of fashion, behaviour, and personality. The three aspects of personality are the Id, Ego and Superego. Her school's symbol of the triskelion represents how people achieve beauty by harmonising all these thirds.

* ForegoneConclusion: Since ''Roman Holiday'' is a prequel to ''RWBY'', those who are familiar with the show will already know that Roman and Neo will form a friendship and survive the events of this novel.

* RedHerring: The start of the book has readers believe that "Neo" is Trivia's imaginary friend, or a figment of Trivia's imagination representing a split personality. It isn't until later that "Neo" is neither; she's a product of Trivia's Semblance.