Jaunedice, Parts 1 & 2
A clash of rivals.
"I'm tired of being the lovable idiot, stuck in the tree while his friends fight for their lives! Don't you understand? If I can't do this on my own... then what good am I?"
— Jaune Arc
In Part 1, Jaune struggles with combat lessons while Cardin makes a name for himself as a bully.
In Part 2, Pyrrha offers to help Jaune with his combat lessons, but it doesn't go well.
Tropes in these episodes include:
- "Blackmail" Is Such an Ugly Word: After Cardin finds out Jaune's secret, he asks if Cardin will report him. Cardin replies that the two of them are "buddies" who "look out for each other", meaning that Cardin will only keep Jaune's secret if Jaune does whatever he says.
- Bystander Syndrome: Teams RWBY and JNPR witness Velvet, a rabbit Faunus, being tormented by Cardin. Despite being disgusted by Cardin's behavior and sympathetic to Velvet's plight, not one of them actually do anything to help her.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: Jaune can't land even one hit on Cardin.
- Fantastic Racism: Cardin towards Faunus, a race of people with animal-like characteristics, like rabbit ears.
- Faux Affably Evil: At the end of Part 2, Cardin refers to Jaune as his buddy, all the while bullying and threatening him complete with a "friendly" arm around the shoulder.
- Innocently Insensitive: Pyrrha offers to help train Jaune with his fighting, but Jaune takes it as just more confirmation he doesn't belong at Beacon.
- Jerkass: Cardin spends the entire two-parter showing more and more how much of an asshole he is.
- Meaningful Background Event: In a Blink and You'll Miss It moment, just before Pyrrha offers to train Jaune, the camera goes into a far away shot and if you look at the bottom of the screen you can see Cardin leaning out of his window listening in on their conversation.
- The Reveal: Jaune snuck into Beacon through forged transcripts because he wanted to be a hero like his father, grandfather and great-grandfather, meaning he didn't get in the proper way. The other students already had formal training or experience and passed combat exams before coming to Beacon. This explains why he didn't already know about Aura and other basics.
