Fanfic / Aunt Salem

The Arc family has for a long time prospered under the guidance of their esteemed matriarch, Aunt Salem. For a very long time. Seemingly ageless, she's been a part of their life for so long that they've all accepted it as just a quirk of the family. But when her favorite nephew announces his intention to become a Huntsman, Aunt Salem offers him all the aid she can provide.

— Fanfiction Dot Net summary

A RWBY story by Selene Sokal, Aunt Salem is an Alternate Universe Fic where Salem has been watching over the Arc family for time immemorial. So when her favorite nephew Jaune decides he wants to go to Beacon, she offers him some help. He takes this in stride, but he does find it a little odd that all of his aunt's friends seem to be criminals and terrorists. And his teammates seem really devoted to making sure he succeeds. And anyone who gets in his way tends to disappear...

A Comedy AU that doesn't take itself too seriously, the story follows Jaune as his mere presence brings decades of plans to a screaming halt, since Salem thinks he's far more important than her silly little plots to Take Over the World—and makes sure all of her minions know it.

Can be read here at Fanfiction Dot Net.

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This fanfic provides examples of:

• Adaptational Backstory Change: In canon, Nora and Ren were orphans from a Grimm-shattered village. In the fic, both of them were orphans who were adopted by Tyrian and raised to be loyal followers of Salem and her cult.
• Adaptation Expansion: Salem's following goes from a few followers in canon to an extensive network of cultists who worship her as a God and force of good.
• Adaptational Nice Guy: Salem goes from a pure evil queen to an evil queen with some genuine fondness for Jaune and his family. Tyrian himself is still Salem's crazy minion but has a genuine care for both Nora and Ren.
• Adaptational Villainy:
  • Pyrrha, Ren, and Nora count as this, considering they are minions of the Queen of Grimm, albeit friendly ones.
  • Downplayed with Summer, who in the fic sold out to Salem and is ruthless enough to force Jaune into an arranged marriage with her daughters. In her case, she is portrayed as a Well-Intentioned Extremist who wants to protect her children from Salem's wrath.
• Affably Evil:
  • Nora and Ren are still their cheerful and stoically respectful selves respectively, but they are perfectly prepared to commit any atrocity to defend the Cult of Salem.
  • Salem is portrayed as a genuinely loving family woman with a deep affection for the Arc family, but she's still the Queen of Grimm who is not to be trifled with, as Cinder finds out.
    • Summer, however, deconstructs this trope: for all their friendliness, Salem and her followers are dangerous people who Summer feels the need to placate in order to protect her family.
  • Vernal is a ruthless bandit but is a pretty friendly captor to Jaune.
• Altar Diplomacy: To ensure protection for her family, Summer forces Jaune into a polyamorous marriage with her daughters.
• A Man Is Always Eager: Averted. Jaune is genuinely devoted to maintaining his relationship with Weiss and balks at the idea of having a harem of girls. Ren assures Emerald that he isn't the kind of person who objectifies women. He is extremely annoyed at being forced into a polyamorous marriage with Yang and Ruby, and assures Weiss that he wanted nothing to do with it.
• Anger Born of Worry: Downplayed. A scared Weiss lightly warns Jaune, after he's found, not to make her worry.
• Armor-Piercing Question: Furious about her and Ruby being forced into an arranged marriage, Yang angrily asks Summer if the greater good is more important than her daughters and if Jaune is just leverage to her. It is downplayed: Summer knows Yang is morally right, but the threat of Salem means that Summer considers her actions to be Necessarily Evil.
• Badass Preacher: Tyrian is a priest of the Cult of Salem, and Ren is training to be one. Both are also extremely skilled combatants, though Tyrian notes that Ren is a lot better at actually being a preacher, while he mainly took the "screaming Salem's glory" approach.
• Batman Gambit: Ren pulls one on Weiss; while convincing her to give dating Jaune a try, he hands her a briefcase full of incriminating information on her family, essentially blackmailing her. Instead of feeling threatened, Weiss is instead impressed (going so far as to tell him to leak some of the information) and the reveal that Jaune is connected to the criminal underworld intrigues her enough to become interested.
• Because You Were Nice to Me: Nora became a devoted cultist because they were the first group of people to look at her with respect.
• Beleaguered Assistant: Cinder finds herself forced into being one of Jaune's babysitters. Emerald is forced to go along with Cinder's crazy attempts to placate Jaune. It becomes deconstructed when both of them are genuinely upset with having the plans they worked hard on derailed just to please one guy they barely know.
• Beneath the Mask: Summer was stunned to see that beneath Salem's unrelenting cruelty was a kindly family woman.
• Berserk Button:
  • Ren, Nora, and Pyrrha will make you suffer if you do anything to menace Jaune.
  • Winter gets angered when Weiss compares her to Jacques.
• Beware the Nice Ones:
  • Like in canon, Pyrrha, Ren, and Nora are all perfectly nice people who just so happen to be highly skilled fighters. Unlike canon, they are also highly skilled agents of Salem trained by members of her inner circle from a young age to protect her cult and carry out her will.
  • Summer Rose is a kind, cheerful, friendly woman, who is also a highly-skilled, highly experienced Huntress who radiates danger even while she's being nice, and she is perfectly willing to take her time returning Jaune to Beacon if he doesn't give her "some good news to deliver to [her] daughters" (read: agree to break up with Weiss and start dating either Yang or Ruby). And Qrow notes that she is apparently a lunatic and is in league with Tyrian, a serial killer.
  • Yang is a cheerful, pun-loving, hot-headed, caring older sister who cares deeply about her friends and family. She is also a highly-skilled fighter, and is absolutely vicious when she calls Summer out in Chapter 19, and almost seems to be angrier about Summer's plan ruining Ruby's life than she is about it ruining her life, going so far as to imply Summer doesn't see her as a real daughter.
• Beware the Silly Ones:
  • Salem cheerily drops all of her plans at Jaune's whim, and overall acts like a rather dotty old grandmother. Then when Cinder carefully suggests trying to work around Jaune instead of instantly cancelling any plot that he shows the slightest amount of discomfort with, Salem makes it clear that she'll torture Cinder to death if she does anything of the sort. She's still the Queen of the Grimm.
    • Summer reveals in Chapter 19 that Salem is still extremely evil, having kept her captive in a cell for over a week and only sparing her because she found out Summer had two daughters. Even then, she may not have spared her if not for the fact that one of Jaune's sisters had been born recently. Despite years having passed and Salem being her friend, Summer tells Yang that she still thinks Salem is pure evil.
  • Emerald scouted out the cult early on, but dismissed them as too weak to be worth worrying about. Then Pyrrha, Ren, and Nora show up, and she realizes that the people she found before were just the rank and file who worship an immortal force of destruction when they get off their normal 9-5 jobs. The elites are a very real threat. Nora is the silliest of the bunch but still very violent to any perceived threat to Salem.
  • Summer is a loving mother...but she's ruthless enough to force Jaune into a marriage to her daughters.
• Big Brother Instinct:
  • Yang tells off Summer for trying to force Ruby into an arranged marriage, considering that forcing that kind of commitment on a sixteen-year-old girl could mess her up.
  • Saphron wonders if she and her sisters took this too far with Jaune, coddling him so much he became a sheltered dork who would unwittingly become a beloved figure for the cultists.
• Blackmail: When Weiss rejects one of Jaune's many incompetent attempts to woo her, Ren suggests she reconsider... and then casually reveals a briefcase full of incriminating information about her and her family. This actually makes a good impression on Weiss (as Ren knew it would). She had been bewildered by all the weird stuff going on around Jaune; finding out that his teammates are experienced criminals dedicated to removing problems explains pretty much everything, even if she's still missing most of the key details. She also enjoys the political game the blackmail represents and suggests that Ren leak some of the information that incriminates only her father.
• Bodyguard Crush: Pyrrha is Jaune's de facto bodyguard and is obsessed with joining his side. Blake, a fan of erotic novels, can see this type of relationship before her eyes due to Pyrrha's obvious interest in Jaune.
• Brutal Honesty: While Vernal is a pretty genial captor to Jaune, she doesn't mince words about how inept he is in combat.
• Calling the Old Woman Out: Yang wants to do this to Raven, which is part of why she is eager to help rescue Jaune from her. She never gets the chance, because by the time she manages to corner Raven, she discovers her making out with Tyrian, which grosses Yang out and ruins the moment.
  • Yang does this to Summer in Chapter 19, calling her out for putting her desires and plans ahead of what Yang, Ruby, and Jaune want to do with their lives by forcing them to get married, saying that, while she understands Summer wants to keep them safe, they don't need protecting, and what she has done is only making things worse. She's tears into Summer for trying to claim that her plans are "bigger than either of you", pointing out that she just claimed they are bigger and more important than her daughters, even asking if she thinks her plans are bigger than "her real daughter" (Ruby), something that cuts Summer deeply. She also points out that, despite what Summer thinks, Ruby is not happy to be marrying Jaune, she's a 16-year-old girl dealing with the usual issues of growing up that is now an emotional mess because her mother forced her to marry her best friend.
• Cassandra Truth:
  • Played for Laughs with Nora; as part of her energetic personality, she loudly and proudly proclaims herself as a member of a secret conspiracy to everyone who will listen, but because she's so childish and Ren constantly lies his ass off, everyone assumes she's just joking.
  • Jaune's sisters told him about their aunt's power and following for years, but Jaune brush their stories off as tall tales.
• Cerebus Retcon: Summer forcing Jaune into an arranged marriage with her daughters seems like the act of a silly obsessive parent. But after Yang confronts her, Summer admits she did it because she's terrified of Salem hurting them and thinks marrying them to Salem's nephew Jaune will protect them.
• Chick Magnet: Played With. Jaune gets a lot of attention from Huntresses, but that's more due to circumstance than qualities Jaune possesses: Weiss has to be blackmailed into dating Jaune but does eventually come to enjoy his company; Pyrrha's devotion stems from him being at the center of a religion built around Salem, Yang attraction is because she thinks the former two are in some polyamorous relationship and wants in and is annoyed when Summer arranges a marriage to Jaune against her will; Velvet senses the power Jaune possesses and concludes he's some kind of demigod. Both Fox and Vernal are perplexed at Jaune getting so much attention.
• Commonality Connection:
  • When Jaune and Weiss start dating, she's surprised to find that he knows a lot about wine. His family owns a vineyard, so he can easily keep up with Weiss on the subject.
  • Weiss discovers Blake's identity long before Blake intended to reveal it, and commiserates on them both being from prominent families and dedicating their lives to organizations that turned out to be worse than what they expected.
  • Summer Rose met Salem when she visited Jaune's parents after one of Jaune's younger sisters was born, and they ended up bonding over raising little girls, which resulted in Salem sparing Summer.
    • This also resulted in Summer meeting Tyrian, who she became friends with for similar reasons due to Tyrian raising Ren and Nora.
  • As Weiss points out to Winter, it is hypocritical for her to assume Jaune is evil and an agent of Salem just because he's related to Salem. After all, both of them are examples of how you can't judge someone based on who their family is.
• Conditioned to Accept Horror: The reason why Mercury finds the Cult of Salem so disturbing is that while he is a professional killer, he sees his murders as just a day job. The Cult of Salem, however, see their killings as a way of life, and can behave like normal people in spite of them.
• Contrived Coincidence: Weiss texts Winter about her new boyfriend just after Ironwood tasks Winter to travel to Vale and keep an eye on Jaune, a.k.a. Weiss' new boyfriend.
• Cult: Salem has a secret cult of devoted followers spread across the world, dedicated to tearing down the existing Kingdoms and allowing their Goddess to rule. Pyrrha, Ren, and Nora are all members of the cult, who specifically came to Beacon to keep Jaune safe and happy. It's noted to not be all too different from a normal church, down to things like free coffee after mass, Sunday socials, youth groups, and bowling leagues.
• Dating What Daddy Hates: There are several reasons that Weiss is dating Jaune, but she doesn't even attempt to hide the fact that she is aware that her father will hate him and she considers it a plus.
• Death Glare: Yang sports one while calling Summer out in chapter 19, with Summer internally noting that it makes her look a lot like Raven.
• Defector from Decadence: Saphron wants nothing to do with Aunt Salem and her cult and refuses to let any of them into her house uninvited. She is upset when she realizes that by allowing Summer to care for Adrien, she de facto accepted a favor from Salem. Downplayed, as it is all but stated that the Arcs usually have very little to do with the cult and Salem's plans to begin with.
• Dissonant Serenity: This is why Mercury is terrified of the Cult of Salem. Not because they kill people - he does that all the time - but they're able to do so without an ounce of hesitation or a moment of shock, shame, or confusion. It's just who they are, and that's downright disturbing.
• Dramatic Irony: Jaune is aware that Salem has genuine magical powers, but he dismisses the idea that she can control Grimm as impossible.
• The Dreaded: Salem sparks fear into everyone who knows her. Even the already scary Cinder is afraid of getting on her bad side. Summer admits her twisted marriage gambit is because she's afraid of Salem going after her daughters.
• Entertainingly Wrong:
  • Ren and Nora assume that the codename they were given for Jaune, Sauvignon, is a reference to his personality or martial prowess, as it is Old Valean(French) for savage. In reality, it is a reference to his family owning a vinyard.
  • Everyone can see how Nora, Ren, and Pyrrha are oddly protective of Jaune, and willing to do nasty things to defend him. They chalk it up to Jaune having ties to organized crime.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones:
  • Salem is a Humanoid Abomination responsible for countless deaths, but she adores the Arcs, especially Jaune, and will outright cancel major plans just to keep them safe and happy.
  • Tyrian is an Ax-Crazy religious zealot, but he truly does care for Ren and Nora. The same goes for most of the Cult of Salem: they may be a Religion of Evil, but it is made clear the members truly do care about one another, with Pyrrha even noting that part of what she likes about the Cult is that they accept her for who she is and don't put her on a pedestal.
• Even Evil Has Standards:
  • Roman is an unrepentant thief and criminal, but he's disgusted by Cinder's "kill everyone" plan and only works with her because she'll kill him if he's not useful anymore.
  • Mercury is a trained assassin who killed his own father and then joined with a selfish pyromaniac because he didn't have anything else to do with his time. The Cult of Salem creeps him the fuck out, and he even takes the time to warn Emerald to not go against them.
  Mercury: They would strangle you with a smile on their face and a hymn in their heart, then go on to their bowling league!
  • Watts is a Mad Scientist working for Salem despite believing that she's a threat to all sentient life on Remnant solely to get revenge on Atlas for "embarrassing him", and he cares for little other than himself. However, he objects to Tyrian raising Nora and Ren, pointing out that with him raising them, the pair growing up to be sociopaths is the best case scenario, and wanting them to be taken away out of a sense of basic decency. He's pretty much the only person to actually care, with even Hazel being fine with it.
  • Pyrrha, Ren, and Nora really don't like Cinder, largely because she isn't with Salem out of genuine loyalty but her own gain, and hate the idea of her using Jaune for her own gain.
  • Salem is evil incarnate, but she spared Summer after she begged for her children.
• Everyone Can See It:
  • Pyrrha's interest in Jaune is so blatantly obvious that everyone assumes they're dating. In fact, when he asks Weiss out, her initial objection is that she refuses to be party to cheating on his girlfriend. Jaune, on the other hand, assumes Pyrrha is just a tactile person, because she has never been shy about informing him about how they are going to study or train from now on. If she wanted to date him, she would have said "we're dating," and that would be that.
  • Nora and Ren are platonic variants. They cover up their actions with codewords, but Blake can read between the lines and see their devotion to Jaune is less "loyal teammates" and more "bodyguards who would give their lives to protect Jaune."
• Everyone Has Standards: Yang shamelessly spreads rumors about Jaune being a sex machine, and (half-jokingly) gushes about wanting to bang him, but wouldn't do anything to ruin Weiss' relationship with him. She also gets pissed off at her mom for trying to force her and Ruby into an arranged marriage with Jaune.
• Evil Is One Big, Happy Family: The Cult of Salem act like terrific friends when not enacting Salem's will. Averted otherwise: Cinder's faction and the cult don't get along, Roman doesn't like either side, Raven's bandits don't work for Salem and kidnap Jaune to mess with her, etc.
• Evil Mentor: Hazel was this for Pyrrha, and Tyrian was this for Nora and Ren. And pleasant ones to boot.
• Evil Virtues:
  • The Cult of Salem is an almost literal example: while they promote extreme violence in Salem's name, they also promote decent virtues like humility and generosity in their texts. Using the virtues of the Cult, Pyrrha dials back her jealous behavior toward Cinder and buries the hatchet with her. Ren also works out his issues with Emerald.
  • Salem, for all her evil, takes family very seriously. She spared Summer after learning she had a family.
• Exotic Extended Marriage: Polygamy is legal in Mistral, though there are restrictions on how it works. The most notable one is that all partners have to be married in a single wedding, and they can't have additional partners join later on. Summer uses this to force Jaune to marry Yang and Ruby while preventing any other girl from romancing him.
• Face–Heel Turn: While Summer does mean well, Qrow notes that Summer trying to tie her family to Salem's good graces means she has de facto joined the bad guys.
• Family-Values Villain: Salem maybe an evil woman but she's also a family woman.
• Fantasy Counterpart Culture: Parts of Vale, especially the countryside, are inspired by France, with Jaune's family owning a vineyard, and the Old Valean language just being French. This pops up in a number of Selene Sokal's fics.
• I Fight for the Strongest Side!: Played for Drama. After being imprisoned by Salem and being forced to beg to see her children again, Summer decided the best way to protect her family was to align herself with Salem, even forcing Jaune into an arranged marriage with Ruby and Yang.
• For the Evulz: Why did Raven ditch Tai and Yang? Why doesn't she pay alimony? Why isn't she working for Ozpin anymore? Why did she become a bandit again? Why was she planning on meeting Yang, acting distant towards her, then leaving and ghosting her for another decade? Why did she kidnap Jaune to hold for ransom, despite knowing he was important to Salem? Because, in her words, she's "a messy bitch who lives for drama".
• Free-Love Future: Mistral has far looser sexual mores than the other kingdoms, with polygamy being legal and Mistralian girls having a reputation for being loose. One of the reasons why Jaune doesn't take Pyrrha's affections seriously is because he sees them as a product of her Mistralian upbringing than any genuine desire.
• Gambit Pile Up: The various groups who show up in Chapter 14 to rescue Jaune from Raven include:
  • Qrow, who is working for Ozpin to rescue a student of Beacon from his sister.
  • Winter and Ace Ops, who officially have the same mission, but are actually there to take him into Altesian custody because they know he is someone important to Salem.
  • Teams RWBY, NPR, CFVY, and Sun, who are rescuing Weiss' boyfriend/the VIP they are tasked with protecting/the person Pyrrha and Velvet worship. Sun was just tagging along because he's bored and knew where the Branwen Gang was, though after he told Headmaster Lionheart rescuing Jaune became his official mission.
    • The other members of SSSN show up officially to help rescue Jaune, but also to retrieve and beat up Sun because he ditched them. Lionheart allowed them to go because he is terrified as to what will happen if Jaune gets hurt in Mistrali territory and Salem finds out.
  • Cinder, Emerald, and Mercury, who are there to show up NPR and regain Salem's favour.
  • Tyrian, who shows up out of a mixture of religious fervour and wanting to help Nora and Ren, his adopted children
  • And finally, Summer Rose, who is the only one to realize that Raven left her camp entirely undefended, meaning she just walks in and releases Jaune while all the other groups end up fighting Raven, her bandits, and each other.
• Happily Adopted: Tyrian effectively adopted Nora and Ren while becoming their Evil Mentor. Despite his crazed behavior, Nora and Ren see him as their father figure, and Tyrian sincerely tells Ren he’s proud of him.
• Irony:
  • It was Salem's stories in Jaune's youth that made him want to become a Huntsman, meaning he was inspired to hunt Grimm by the Queen of the Grimm herself.
  • Pyrrha has been trying to induct Ruby, a Silver-Eyed Warrior (not that either of them know that yet), into the Cult of Salem, and Ruby is actually interested.
• Hidden Depths:
  • For all his stoicism and zealotry, Ren actually takes his role as a spiritual leader pretty seriously and is quite skilled at it: when Emerald is hurt by all their plans being ruined, Ren genuinely offers her guidance that is actually quite helpful.
  • Despite styling herself as "Queen Bitch of Remnant" and claiming she's going to ransom Jaune to Salem before kidnapping him, Raven isn't stupid: her actual plan is to ransom him to whatever faction trying to rescue/capture him is willing to pay her the most, and she knows none of Salem's minions are dumb enough to admit they let Jaune get captured to Salem.
• I Just Want to Be Loved: Pyrrha realizes that Cinder, for all her opportunism, is just somebody who wants to be appreciated for all her hard work. Pyrrha manages to diffuse the tensions between her and Cinder by offering the woman honest sympathy.
• It's the Principle of the Thing: Yang's desire to bang Jaune doesn't stem from any real attraction: she genuinely thinks Jaune, Weiss, and Pyrrha are in some kind of polyamorous relationship and as a self-proclaimed party girl, she doesn't want to be outdone.
• I Want Grandkids: Jaune's mother and Salem both want him to hurry up and give them grandchildren/grandnephews and grandnieces/descendents to spoil, since Saphron and Terra live too far away for them to visit very often. Summer also wants Jaune to have grandkids with Yang and Ruby.
• Knights and Knaves: While they aren't guarding anything, Nora notes to herself that she pretty much always tells the truth about who they are, while Ren pretty much always lies. Luckily, nobody ever catches on, due to a mixture of Ren and Nora's personalities leading people to trust Ren more, and the truth about who they are being so strange to the point of being unbelievable.
• Knight Templar: Winter and Atlas are planning to detain Jaune just because of his connection to Salem and not because of anything he's actually done.
• Knight Templar Parent: Summer wants to protect her children, but does so by forcing Jaune into a marriage with her two daughters against his will (and their will).
• Know When to Fold 'Em: Raven gives up after a brief battle, since all the factions who have shown up to rescue Jaune have made continuing the fight not worth it... and because Yang and Nora stumbled across her and Tyrian making-out, which made it awkward, made worse when they accidentally convince Tyrian to propose to Raven, which she rejects.
• Like a God to Me: Velvet comes to this conclusion about Jaune despite not be a part of nor have been influenced by the Salemist cult. After experiencing his Super-Empowering semblance, she comes to believe that Jaune is "Aura Incarnate" due in part to her family’s belief in the Old Ways of Mistral that venerate spirits of nature that occasionally took the form of a man. She has been trying to start up another cult around him ever since.
• Locked Out of the Loop:
  • Jaune is in the dark about a lot of things, including there being a cult of people devoted to him. He's shocked that Ren blackmailed Weiss into being his girlfriend.
  • Chapter 19 subverts this. It turns out his family never tried to keep who Salem really was or the existence of the cult a secret from him, he just never realised his sisters weren't teasing him when they told him that their immortal "aunt" who could control the weather and the Grimm was the Queen of the Grimm. Saphron is actually shocked to find out he didn't know.
• Loony Fan: Terra is this to a certain degree: she's such an incredible fan of Pyrrha Nikos that she would love Jaune to marry so she can be related to her.
• Loving a Shadow: The Cult of Salem's followers have a zealous devotion to Jaune. But it isn't Jaune the person they are enamoured with, but with the child of the family whom Salem has blessed. They thus imagine Jaune as having far more power and prowess than he actually does. Jaune himself is disappointed and exasperated by all this, thinking he is getting praise and help he hasn't actually earned. Only Ren avoids this.
• Mama Bear: Saphron gets pissed off when Salemists show up at her door, not wanting them around her baby Adrian.
• Misaimed Fandom: In-Universe, the Cult of Salem has whole books and rituals centred around Salem, but she not only has nothing to do with them or their traditions, but she also doesn't think that highly of the cult. Jaune himself is a bit taken aback at being treated like a demigod.
• Noodle Incident: Apparently, the book on parenting that Tyrian used while raising Ren and Nora got banned after the author (implied to be Doctor Merlot) was caught doing illegal Grimm research.
• "Not So Different" Remark:
  • Weiss points out that Winter, in assuming she knows what is best for Weiss, and that Weiss is simply a child who doesn't know any better, is acting a lot like their father.
  • As Jaune notes, both Raven and Summer look almost exactly like their biological daughters, just with somewhat different colour palettes, both of them radiate danger, and both of them have kidnapped Jaune, even if it is for different reasons and despite Summer dressing it up as a rescue.
• Not So Stoic: Like in canon, Ren is quite stoic... unless it involves his religion. He is extremely passionate when reading scripture at a cult meeting, and when Pyrrha says she thinks Jaune is part of Salem incarnated as a human, as he views it as heretical.
• Oblivious to Love: Downplayed. Jaune notices Pyrrha's affections, but she brushes them off as plain affection and not attraction.
• Only Sane by Comparison: Ren is a cultist for Salem, with the propensity toward violence that comes with it. But he’s also the only one of Salem’s followers who sees Jaune as a person with his own feelings and desires, rather than just an object of devotion and worship. In fact, he outright views Pyrrha's worship of Jaune as being heretical.
• Only Sane Man: Qrow is one of the only rescuers who realizes that them fighting each other is exactly what Raven wants, and is the only adult rescuer who is there solely because rescuing Jaune is the right thing to do. After they rescue Jaune, he realizes he and Marrow are the only two adults present who aren't obsessed with forcing Jaune to marry someone for political reasons, with Qrow's only plan for Jaune's marital status being to annul the marriage contract Summer forced him to sign due to none of the people bound by the contract actually wanting to get married, Ruby being legally too young to actually get married (and possibly a lesbian if she's not bisexual), and the contract being signed under duress.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Roman notes that Cinder expressing fear towards her "master" should amuse him, but she's so outwardly terrified of Salem that he gets even more nervous and quickly vows not to mess with them.
• Open Secret:
  • While exactly who they worship and how important they are wasn't known, when Pyrrha, Ren, and Nora admit that they are part of the cult in chapter 12, both Ruby and Blake reveal they knew about the cult, as Pyrrha has been trying to convert Ruby and gave her pamphlets, and Ruby went to Blake for help with some of the words she didn't understand in the pamphlets. And Sun also knew about the cult, because he is part of it... and several other cults, mainly for the wicked parties they throw.
  • In Chapter 13, it's revealed that Weiss already knew about them being in a cult after she found a hymn book Nora accidentally left lying around, and while she didn't know exactly how important Jaune was, she did realize he had to be related to somebody important in it.
  • Chapter 19 reveals that, not only do Saphron and Terra know about the cult and who Salem really is, but Jaune's the only member of his family who didn't. His family didn't even try to hide it from him, and Saphron's surprised he didn't already know.
• Opportunistic Bastard: Cinder has no real devotion to the Cult of Salem, but merely her own power and glory. Her only concern with Jaune is whether or not she can gain glory from having any involvement with him. When Emerald tries to ingratiate herself with Jaune, Jaune's teammates, who are more genuinely devoted to his well-being, can see it for the power play it is.
• Overprotective Mom:
  • Aunt Salem is an overprotective aunt to Jaune. She sent her own minions to zealously guard Jaune, is willing to torpedo Cinder's plans just because they would hurt his well-being, and constantly admonishes him about getting her grandkids.
  • Summer Rose is an odd play on this trope, possibly even an inversion. She threatens Jaune into marrying her daughters, believing that because of his ties to Salem, her daughters could live very happily and in peace, and that Silver-Eyed warriors like herself and Ruby can be protected from harm. This is one of several things Yang calls her out on in Chapter 19, talking about how she and Ruby don't need to be protected and that Summer's attempt to protect them is ruining their lives and made Ruby an emotional mess.
• Overt Operative: Nora will happily tell everyone she meets about her missions for the Cult of Salem, like how she threatened villagers into paying protection money or broke the legs of someone who stood against them. But she's so bubbly and cheerful that everyone assumes she's joking around—helped by Ren constantly lying his pants off to cover.
• Parents as People: Summer knows, deep down, that forcing Yang and Ruby into an arranged marriage is morally wrong and Yang has every right to be mad. But she's a woman who wants to protect her children and there aren't easy options when they have to face an evil goddess.
• Perky Female Minion: Nora is this to a T: silly and cheerful, but incredibly violent when the situation calls for it.
• Pet the Dog: Summer offers to help baby Adrian get back to sleep.
• Polyamory: Most of the cast, male and female alike, think that this is a perfectly logical solution to the problem of who gets Jaune. Weiss, Jaune's actual girlfriend, does not appreciate the discussion, and Emerald is not happy that Cinder basically sold her to a harem without asking her first. Ren assures Emerald that 1: Jaune probably isn't going to be on board with the harem plan, and 2: even if he is, he wouldn't force anyone into it.
• Punch-Clock Villain: Vernal is depicted at this, being a pretty genial captor to Jaune.
• Refuge in Audacity:
  • Tyrian taught Nora the value of being loud and distracting so that her allies could accomplish their missions. Naturally, she takes this to its logical extreme by declaring herself a member of a secret society in public to everyone, and only gets away with it because no one believes her.
  • The reason why Jaune doesn't see Pyrrha's attraction is because of how blatantly infatuated she is toward him.
• Religion of Evil: Played for Laughs with the Cult of Salem. They are zealous followers of Salem who are prepared to do any kind of atrocity in her name, but they also offer mundane activities typical of regular church organization, like free coffee and bowling leagues.
• Religious Bruiser: Ren is a Huntsman and a profoundly devoted acolyte of the Cult of Salem and its principles. Pyrrha questioning the texts leads him to get somewhat aggressive.
• Shell-Shocked Veteran: Summer Rose has flashbacks to her days as an active Huntress while arguing with Yang, and it is apparently a recurring problem. As well, her time in Salem's captivity is shown to have made her something of a cynic about things, leading her to the conclusion that the only way to protect her daughters is to force Jaune to marry them so she has leverage to keep them safe.
• Shipper on Deck:
  • Pyrrha is an odd example; she wants Jaune and Weiss to be a happy couple while dreaming of getting to join one day.
  • Salem exaggerates this trope, believing her nephew should have a whole harem of girls. But she has a special preference for Pyrrha, since she is a genuinely nice and beautiful girl who loves Jaune’s cooking.
• Shipper with an Agenda:
  • Summer tries to force Jaune into a polyamorous marriage with her daughters, thinking it would protect them from Salem's wrath.
  • Terra, Sapphron's wife, and Jaune's sister-in-law, wants Jaune to date Pyrrha because she wants to be related to a famous celebrity.
• Sleeping Their Way to the Top: Cinder assumes that Pyrrha and Blake are both sleeping with Jaune to make use of his influence. Neither of them are; Pyrrha is Jaune's bodyguard and is genuinely infatuated with him (albeit out of some weird loyalty to Jaune), and Jaune helped Blake because she's his friend (and because Weiss asked him, but Weiss isn't dating him to make him do things like that).
• Spared by the Adaptation: Summer Rose wasn't killed by Salem due to them having become friends before Summer confronted her (not realizing that her friend was the leader of the Grimm until she actually reached her lair). As it was revealed, Salem planned to execute Summer, but spared her after learning she was a family woman.
• Sparing Them the Dirty Work: Nora, Ren, and Pyrrha are prepared to go to any extreme to hurt anything that threatens Jaune. Including literally giving Team CRDL (non-fatal) food poisoning.
• Stockholm Syndrome: Jaune strikes up a bit of a rapport with Vernal while being held hostage by her. Jaune himself internally notes he is developing an attachment to his captor. Somewhat justified since Jaune's captivity is more boring than painful, he's looking for someone to talk to, and Vernal is pretty genial to him.
• Sugar-and-Ice Personality: Weiss is cold-hearted most of the time, but genuinely comes to care for Jaune, is upset when he's kidnapped, and is very hurt by all the girls wanting to steal him away from her.
• Super-Empowering: Jaune’s Semblance instead of just amplifying one’s aura also sends them into a state of religious euphoria and makes them focus on a specific command of his and somehow makes them scarily competent in accomplishing said command.
• Talking the Monster to Death: Pyrrha defeats Cinder by acknowledging her frustration with having all her hard work be thrown out on a whim, apologizing for not realizing it sooner, comforting her and telling her that she has, indeed, worked hard and done a good job, which is all Cinder really wants.
• They Look Just Like Everyone Else!: This is why Mercury finds the Cult of Salem so unsettling: they commit incredibly horrible deeds, but also can behave and hang out like normal people in their spare time.
• Transparent Closet: It is becoming increasingly clear that Ruby is a lesbian, with her having a massive crush on Pyrrha and generally being more interested in what it would mean for her relationship with the other girls if she joined Jaune's theoretical harem.
• Unwanted Harem: As Ren notes, at the end of the day, Jaune loves Weiss and has zero interest in any sort of harem, polygamous marriage, polyamory, or the like, despite what almost everyone else seems to think.
• Villainous Valor: Pyrrha is genuinely devoted to the Cult of Salem and would take on Atlas' forces to protect its members.
• Was It All a Lie?: Once he's rescued, Jaune asks Pyrrha point-blank if she actually liked him as a person, with Pyrrha assuring him that she does.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: The Salemists are violent terrorists who believe Salem is a force of good and the authorities that run Remnant as tyrants that deserve to be overthrown.
• What Does She See in Him?: The blind Fox Alistair almost literally asks this, wondering (somewhat enviously) what so many beautiful and famous ladies can see in a person like Jaune that he can't.
• Your Terrorists Are Our Freedom Fighters: The Salemists see themselves as just fighters while Atlas regards them as a national security threat. In canon, Tock was a minion of Salem sent to kill Maria Calavera, who ended up blinding her. From the Cult of Salem's perspective, Saint Tock gave her life facing down the Silver-Eyed Bandit to protect a community of believers. It isn't clear how much of their story is true.