Jaune Is Just The Series Punching Bag, And It Sucks.
I went on to rewatch RWBY recently and still am—And I began analyzing and following alot of the characters that are supposed to have tons of impact to the story...And that's how I got to Jaune. And oh my goodness. So if we have to recap...
• He dealt with the bullying and having to pick himself from the ground-up after faking his way into Beacon
• Experience Pyrrah's love AND death, while also learning briefly about the maiden lore
• Fought Cinder TWICE while having PTSD about Pyrrah and Beacon
• Witness Weiss basically dying and had to be the one to bring her back
• Was the one to kill Penny once she became human
• And then have it all stir together as he's the Rusted Knight in the most recent volume
He literally can NOT catch a break in the entire series, but at the same time...Somehow, has no genuine growth or character development outside of him getting a haircut, meeting his family, and training ONCE with Pyrrah's instructions on repeat. And it's actually frustrating.
Ruby, Blake, Weiss, Yanga, Lie Ren, Nora, even Qrow and Summer Rose, dare I even say the butchered version of Adam we came to know along with The White Fang arc as a whole...All had proper depth, multiple episodes, and building on who they are in many different instances and showed their growth into more dominant/staple characters as the series continued.
I once said here that Jaune's anger and frustration towards Cinder—At a bare minimum—Should've had more fueling and growth onto him as a whole. He is one of the only people who knew that Cinder was the culprit behind everything that had happened in Beacon. The most screwed up part is that it's implied that he just knew about Pyrrah's death once it was all over...Probably through Ruby saying it or something. (Look at the Volume 3 finale and the ending/transition to Volume 4) And he just takes it on the chin with no real remorse
(Unless you count the 40second statue scene in Atlas that came like 2-3 volumes later).
But still, even then...The Jaune that was screaming and collapsing after Pyrrah sent him away and the Jaune that we were introduced to Volume 4 are vastly different. He's soaked up so much random trauma and punishment throughout the series, but they do nothing with it. It just makes me ask..."What's the point of doing this to him specifically?" The more I rewatch it. What do y'all think though?