History YMMV / RWBYBeforeTheDawn

** Neptune fares the best out of the three, getting an established backstory, elaboration on his Semblance, and exploration on both his relationship with Sun and [[FunnyAneurysmMoment his hydrophobia]]. Aside from that though, he's largely just left as the butt of numerous jokes, including using his hydrophobia as the basis of one ''in spite'' of being a FunnyAneurysmMoment. Not helping matters is that the InsistentTerminology from the series proper of him being an intellectual is largely an InformedAttribute here, with him instead coming across as TheDitz.

YMMV tropes for ''Literature/RWBYBeforeTheDawn''. For the main series, see [[YMMV/{{RWBY}} here]].

** When Fox and Yatsuhashi learn that Velvet and Sun are gone and need to find out where, they try to interrogate Neptune, with Fox specifically saying they're ''both'' playing bad cop when Neptune asks if it's GoodCopBadCop. While the intent is for the two of them to come across as desperate in trying to find Velvet, it just makes Fox look like an asshole when he exploits Neptune's hydrophobia to try and get information out of him and instead just gives him a panic attack, not helped by the fact Fox ''knows'' what trauma can do to someone thanks to knowing about Coco's {{claustrophobia}}, but that Yatsuhashi ''also'' says there's a line between being harsh and being a bully, only for Fox to just tell him off.

* BaseBreakingCharacter: Sun's portrayal in the book split the fandom in half. The first half of the fandom likes the exploration of problematic behavior they felt had been glossed over in the show through deconstructing [[TheDulcineaEffect his habit]] of ditching his team to insert himself into the lives and business of strangers or friends without permission. However, the other half of the fandom was furious with his portrayal, feeling that the novel stripped Sun of his charm and character growth, to so excessively and negatively exaggerate his behavior that he became unrecognizable. The gulf between the feeling that the novel gives him much needed character growth versus the feeling that it completely ruins him frequently turns discussions about the novel into fights.

* CompleteMonster: [[ItsAllAboutMe Jax Asturias]] is the leader of the Crown, an organization dedicated to restoring the Vacuo monarchy with him in charge. Born with a weakened Aura but a Semblance of MindControl, Jax uses his Semblance to [[SlaveryIsASpecialKindOfEvil enslave]] any who cross his path, [[SuperhumanTrafficking recruiting them]] for his "army" to destroy Shade Academy. He also manipulates his twin sister Gillian into going along with his plans, forcing her to constantly spend her Aura on him even though he doesn't care about her at all; in fact, as a child, he once attempted to take all of her Aura, which would have killed her if it had succeeded. Jax has a particular dislike for Huntsmen, DrivenByEnvy due to his weak Aura, and specifically targets them for his Semblance whenever he can.

* FunnyAneurysmMoment: In the series proper, Neptune's hydrophobia is largely PlayedForLaughs, being used to show he's not as suave as he pretends to be, with his WebAnimation/RWBYChibi incarnation having this be the basis of a third of his gags.[[labelnote:*]]The other two-thirds being his inability to dance and his bromance with Sun such as with the Junior Detectives[[/labelnote]] Here, his hydrophobia is revealed to stem from a deep-seated trauma from when he was a child, and that whenever it starts acting up, he's effectively having a ''panic attack''. Many readers have noted it's nigh impossible to see any of the previous scenes as funny as a result of this development.