The Games We Play (RWBY fanfic): Difference between revisions

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* [[Can't Catch Up]]: Most everyone Jaune meets, even many of those initially far above him in level -- he levels up and improves his skills so ridiculously fast that he quickly equals and then surpasses them.

** Actively defied in the case of Autumn, Gou, Adam and later Raven -- especially Adam -- all of whom Jaune adds to his "party" and [[Leaked Experience|power-levels]] far beyond what they would have achieved by themselves in the same amount of time.

* Jaune himself, compared to {{spoiler|Cinder/Famine}}, at least when we see them "on-screen". He may have finally exceeded them by the end of the story, but there's no way to know for sure.

** Jaune himself, compared to {{spoiler|Cinder/Famine}}, at least when we see them "on-screen". He may have finally exceeded them by the end of the story, but there's no way to know for sure.

* [[Card-Carrying Villain]]: Conquest makes no bones about what he is and what he does.

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* [[God of Evil]]: {{spoiler|Malkuth, and in the forgotten distant past the members of his faction among the archangels. Also, Jaune late in the story notes that all of the archangels, including his earlier incarnation, were basically monsters.}}

* [[Going Cosmic]]: The plot and the opposition continually escalates, until we discover that the [[Big Bad]] is effectively a deity, {{spoiler|so was Jaune's previous incarnation, and Jaune is well on his way to recovering that level of power himself.

* [[Going Cosmic]]: The plot and the opposition continually escalates, until we discover that the [[Big Bad]] is effectively a deity, {{spoiler|so was Jaune's previous incarnation, and Jaune is well on his way to recovering that level of power himself}}.

* [[Gone Horribly Wrong]]: {{spoiler|Keter's attempt to relieve Malkuth's pain, as seen in the Tenth Interlude, is when everything went to hell, resulting in the war between the Archangels and the reduction of the world to Remnant.}}

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* [[Hammerspace]]: In addition to Jaune's Inventory, mentioned above under [[Bag of Holding]], his "daughter" Autumn has some kind of extradimensional storage for the literal forests' worth of plant matter she has absorbed into herself.

* [[Healing Factor]]: The Gamer's Body turns all the damage Jaune takes into the loss of Hit Points, leaving him visually undamaged by anything he suffers -- even the amputation of limbs and [[Off with His Head|decapitation]]. He also has an ability to refill his Life Meter at an outrageous pace simply by resting or meditating, and later gains [[Regenerating Health|Regeneration]] at a rate that would boggle Wolverine. On top of that, he can drain [[Mana|Dust crystals]] and instantly restore his hit points (and mana points) that way. And anything that transforms, mutates or otherwise inimically changes his body without actually killing him (like, say, [[Taken for Granite|Petrification]]), he can completely shake off simply by sleeping for six hours.

* [[Healing Factor]]: The Gamer's Body turns all the damage Jaune takes into the loss of Hit Points, leaving him visually undamaged by anything he suffers -- even the amputation of limbs and [[Off with His Head|decapitation]]. He also has an ability to refill his Life Meter at an outrageous pace simply by resting or meditating, and later gains [[Regenerating Health|Regeneration]] at a rate that would boggle [[X-Men|Wolverine]]. On top of that, he can drain [[Mana|Dust crystals]] and instantly restore his hit points (and mana points) that way. And anything that transforms, mutates or otherwise inimically changes his body without actually killing him (like, say, [[Taken for Granite|Petrification]]), he can completely shake off simply by sleeping for six hours.

* [[Healing Hands]]: Jaune's "Soulforge Restoration" skill. It affects anything with aura -- even [[Robot Girl|Penny Polendina]].

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* [[Impossible Item Drop]]: Jaune's bizarre Semblance makes him a real-life video game character -- and that includes inexplicable drops of money, equipment and skill books when he kills the Creatures of Grimm, found neatly stacked next to their evaporating corpses after the fighting ends. In particular he initially spends a lot of time worrying about just where the money came from, specifically whether it's real or somehow "manufactured" by his power and thus some variety of counterfeit.

* [[In Spite of a Nail]]: Despite the impact Jaune has on the world, some canon events -- like the Black and Yellow trailers -- ''still'' happen, as unlikely as it might be. Likewise, when he gets to Beacon Academy, we see that many of the canon teams ''still'' exist in some form despite the changes he's made.

* [[In Spite of a Nail]]: Despite the impact Jaune has on the world, some canon events -- like the Black and Yellow trailers -- ''still'' happen, as unlikely as that might be. Likewise, when he gets to Beacon Academy, we see that many of the canon teams ''still'' exist in some form despite the changes he's made.

* [[In the Back]]: {{spoiler|In the distant [[Backstory]], Malkuth's servant Death stabbed Keter in the back repeatedly as Keter was locking himself and Malkuth away to protect the world.}}

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* [[Level Grinding]]: What Jaune spends quite a lot of his time doing. Every time Jaune goes up a level, he gains multiple benefits, including points to add to his stats. He can [[Stat Grinding|grind the stats directly]] if he has an appropriate task, but for some -- like Luck -- there isn't really anything he can use. And naturally, it becomes harder and harder to raise a stat by grinding, so the points from leveling become more efficient.

** Members of his party ''also'' gain points from leveling and can apply them to their stats as long as they remain in the party and have access to the interface. Naturally, Jaune forms a party with a non-[[Ax Crazy]], non-[[Jerkass]] Adam Taurus (and later adds [[It Makes Sense in Context|his daughter, his familiar and Raven Branwen]]) with the explicit purpose of leveling them up sufficiently to face the [[Big Bad]] by killing thousands of ~~monstrous~~ Grimm.

** Members of his party ''also'' gain points from leveling and can apply them to their stats as long as they remain in the party and have access to the interface. Naturally, Jaune forms a party with a non-[[Ax Crazy]], non-[[Jerkass]] Adam Taurus (and later adds [[It Makes Sense in Context|his daughter, his familiar and Raven Branwen]]) with the explicit purpose of leveling them up sufficiently to face the [[Big Bad]] by killing thousands of Grimm.

* [[Level-Locked Loot]]: Some of the drops -- both artifacts and skills -- Jaune receives have stat or skill level minimums he must meet before he can use them.

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* [[Life or Limb Decision]]: Just about the only way anyone survives a {{spoiler|Conquest infection}}. At one point, Jaune has to amputate his mother's legs and one arm to save her.

* [[Limit Break]]: Jaune wins practically every fight with these. Every time one of his stats hits a multiple of 50, it grants him new skills or abilities; every time a skill hits 100, it transforms into a prestige version ~~of the skill~~ that's even more powerful and effective. And he's constantly grinding dozens of skills and almost all his stats, ''even in the midst of battle''.

* [[Limit Break]]: Jaune wins practically every fight with these. Every time one of his stats hits a multiple of 50, it grants him new skills or abilities; every time a skill hits 100, it transforms into a prestige version that's even more powerful and effective (and can itself be raised to 100). And he's constantly grinding dozens of skills and almost all his stats, ''even in the midst of battle''.

* [[Literal Split Personality]]: Jaune accomplishes this with the skill ''Thaumiel'' toward the end of the story.

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* [[Open-Minded Parent]]: Jacques Arc. The utterly supportive position he takes when Jaune comes to him for advice about the upcoming White Whale mission, even after Jaune intimates that it will be both illegal and dangerous, is a Crowning Moment of Heartwarning.

* [[Our Angels Are Different]]: Well, for one they're not literal supernatural beings, just greatly enhanced humans of some variety. The [Humanoid Abomination|Archangels]], on the other hand...

* [[Our Angels Are Different]]: Well, for one they're not literal supernatural beings, just greatly enhanced humans of some variety. The [[Humanoid Abomination|Archangels]], on the other hand...

* [[Our Souls Are Different]]: They're made up of different combination of ten kinds of "soul atoms", each named for an emanation of the [[w:Sefirot|Sefirot of the Kabbalah]]. They can be broken apart and recombined in different ways and in different quantities, if you have the knowledge and technology to do so. {{spoiler|The Archangels each had a ~~souls~~ artificially built completely from a single kind of emanation, in quantities far larger than any natural soul possessed.}}

* [[Our Souls Are Different]]: They're made up of different combination of ten kinds of "soul atoms", each named for an emanation of the [[w:Sefirot|Sefirot of the Kabbalah]]. They can be broken apart and recombined in different ways and in different quantities, if you have the knowledge and technology to do so. {{spoiler|The Archangels each had a soul artificially built completely from a single kind of emanation, in quantities far larger than any natural soul possessed.}}

* [[Overly Pre-Prepared Gag]]: Jaune sets up at least two such gags during the course of the story. In one case he has gone to the extent of creating [[World's Smallest Violin|a literally microscopic violin]] and storing it in [[Bag of Holding|his inventory]] for weeks just so he can pull it out and tell Adam [[Sarcasm Mode|"This is the world's smallest violin and it's playing just for you"]] at an appropriate moment. In another case, he reflects during the climactic (and taxing) battle of the story that he may yet have a chance to pull out [[Kitchen Sink Included|the kitchen sink]] he's been carrying around just so he can use it in a particularly challenging fight.

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* [[Self-Destruct Mechanism]]: Early on, Jaune is presented with a "simple" make-up kit that is so large and complex he half-seriously thinks it might have a self-destruct.

* [[Serial Escalation]]: ''The Games We Play'' is, basically, ''Serial Escalation: The Fanfic''. The plot is a continuous series of incidents that unceasingly expand the scope, danger and significance of Jaune's actions (as well as his personal power). It starts out on an amusingly small and intimate level -- gaining a skill in dishwashing on practically the first day he is the Gamer -- and in one inexorable step after another ends up as a [[Cosmic Horror Story]] {{spoiler|where Jaune faces a [[God of Evil]] on almost even footing}}.

* [[Serial Escalation]]: ''The Games We Play'' is, basically, ''Serial Escalation: The Fanfic''. The plot is a continuous series of incidents that unceasingly expand the scope, danger and significance of Jaune's actions (as well as his personal power). It starts out on an amusingly small and intimate level -- gaining a skill in dishwashing on practically the first day he is the Gamer -- and in one inexorable step after another ends up as a [[Cosmic Horror Story]] {{spoiler|where Jaune faces a [[God of Evil]] on an almost even footing}}.

** Jaune is ''always'' pulling something unexpected from his bag of tricks, or finally allocating earned stat points in the middle of a battle to unlock new skills which are exactly what he needs at the moment to defeat the opponent who had been outclassing him up until that point. Oddly, these aren't [[Deus Ex Machina]]e -- at least, not entirely -- because ''that's the way Jaune's Semblance works''.

** Jaune is ''always'' pulling something unexpected from his bag of tricks, or finally allocating earned stat points in the middle of a battle to unlock new skills which are exactly what he needs at the moment to defeat the opponent who had been outclassing him up until that point. Oddly, these aren't [[Deus Ex Machina]]e -- at least, not entirely -- because ''that's the way Jaune's Semblance -- thanks to {{spoiler|the nature of Keter's soul}} -- works''.

* [[Sheep in Wolf's Clothing]]: Jaune masquerading as Conquest once he acquires the "White Rider" title/ability.