Character Arcs
All of core plots were meant to be carried forward with the various character plots. If it wasn't clear already already, the idea of Spirit Marriages to share aura was a growing concept that was just going to get bigger. Much of Season Two was to be Jaune relying more and more on his friends, their aura, and the spirit marriages that result once Jaune can enter their dreams. Some, like Nora and Ruby, are chaste. Others, are not.
Add in the quest of getting Jaune a new body, and the question of 'what next?'…
(Don't call this a 'harem fic,' though. Harem is such a dirty word. I prefer… an open relationship of various degrees of emotional investment amongst a murderous coven of cannibalistic necrophiliacs. Usual Harem do need not apply.)
What those individual characters sketches were, and the sort of character jokes planned, follow.
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Ruby
A Listener, one of the few people able to hear ghosts. This makes her a natural friend for Jaune, as she's the easiest one for him to talk to and initially the only one he can.
Ruby had a hard life growing up because only she could hear ghosts, including the ghost of her mother. Ruby was relentlessly mocked for her claims, which led her to breaking down one day and demanding Summer leave her alone. Her Rebuke drove Summer away, leaving her alone, and left Ruby filled with guilt. Ruby attempted to ignore ghosts/ 'imaginary friends' afterwards but they're distractions that contributed to her reputation for socially inept. The spirits of her childhood were especially distracting since 'spirits' (unawoken ghosts) were to simplistic to entertain conversation, and she could hear ghosts dying of lack of aura. Ruby believed in ghosts, but also feared she might just be crazy, and Jaune is the first ghost who's responded to her in some time.
Ruby is quite sensitive about ghosts, and is greatly relieved to not only find one others acknowledge is real (Jaune), but to find someone else (Ren) who went through similar experiences. Ruby and Ren become closer friends than in canon on account of both team leader responsibilities and ghost-sensitivity.
Ruby is a natural friend for Jaune, but also the first real crisis during the Cardin incident. Ruby and Jaune have a rooftop moment in which Ruby confides her past, and Cardin overhearing allows him to frame Jaune for spreading it. This drives a wedge between Ruby and Jaune and nearly leads to disaster.
Ruby's Rebuke power as a Listerner-Seer is a real but subtle thing that wouldn't be identified until later. Early on it would appear to be more of a homage to Arc Words, the idea that Jaune specifically can't go back on his word, but in truth Ruby has this ability over most ghosts. Ruby's Rebukes are powerful and something she can regret- like when she drove her mother away, or tells Jaune to never talk to her again. In season two it would make her highly sought by the Exorcists, but Ruby refuses on account of siding with Jaune and never wanting to enforce her will on reasonable ghosts again. (Mad and evil ghosts who aren't interested in conversation aren't affected.)
As the person who unlocked Jaune's aura and awakened him as a ghost, Ruby is Jaune's first spirit-marriage even without a catalyst. Jaune and Ruby have a special relationship, including that Jaune can enter Ruby's cape even when he can't possess most people's clothes.
Jaune and Ruby's ghost marriage and Jaune Dreams are chaste, despite the rest of Team RWBY's wonders and suspicions. It focuses primarily on their friendship and themes of innocence, but also mutual reassurance as Jaune sees the sorts of dreams and old fears Ruby hides from even Yang and Ruby supports Jaune through this trial or that worry. Ruby helps Jaune remember what it means to be alive as they do simple things like play imaginary video games, make cookies, and anything else Ruby imagines up in her dream-scape. When Ruby has nightmares- which early on involve a fear that she's crazy and only imagining Jaune, and then turns to fears of her phantom pregnancy and later fears for the divided friends- Jaune's presence calms the dreams and makes them better, allowing Ruby to control her own dreamscape when Jaune is there.
When Jaune doesn't have a body or Crocea Mors, he frequently rides in Ruby's cloak. Jaune often raises Ruby's hood as his own 'face,' and it's often treated as a piggy-back ride when it's not a ghostly 'hug' between them. Ruby is the first of the Coven to conceive a weapon spirit, delivered by Salem and Summer, who possesses Crescent Rose upon birth and gives new meaning to Ruby's phrase 'my baby.' From then on, Ruby can hear murmurings from the scythe, expressions of contentment or dissatisfaction, though full weapon sentience is years away.
Ruby becomes more of a supporting player after the Cardin Arc during Season 2 and 3, when the White Fang ghosts start mattering more. Ruby tries to calm them, but only has limited success. Ruby becomes sought by the Exorcists to help them, which is also when she learns about her Rebuke ability and re-affirms the guilt she already had about banishing her Mother's ghost. Ruby goes through a period of depression- even dressing more gothic- until Jaune comforts her out of it. During season 2, Ruby shows symptoms of the phantom pregnancy she isn't aware of.
The Summer plot comes to the front in Season 3, when Jaune discovers that Summer is still dead (no surprise) but also still around as a ghost (surprise). Summer isn't dead-dead, but a whisp- a non-hostile fragmentary ghost so low on residual aura that she barely hangs on to non-existence. Ren and Jaune don't see her most of the time because she regularly phases out of existence, and can't be within a certain radius of Ruby due to Ruby's Rebuke all those years ago. Summer has spent years trying to look after Ruby and Yang as best she can, despite not being able to directly approach Ruby, and is a subtle actor at significant moments.
Summer is the voice Ruby 'hears' when leading Weiss to Jaune at the start of the story, and the one who leads Ruby to the kitchen where Jaune is making apology cookies. She's the ghost Jaune sees leading them to the train. Because of Ruby's rebuke long ago, Summer can't directly approach or speak to her, even from a distance. Therefore Summer has to abuse loopholes- not having a conversation or doing something that would 'bother' Ruby when she wants to be alone- to have any impact.
Summer's last source of residual aura is Ruby's cloak, and she's barely holding on to existence at the edges of Ruby's rebuke boundary. Jaune's frequently inhabiting of the cloak allow some of her residual aura to rub off on him and be carried outside the rebuke radius, gradually giving Summer a slightly firmer presence in reality. Despite that, Summer is on her last legs and near the edge of never coming back.
Jaune's discovery and rescue of Summer would be part of the emotional climax to Season 3. Summer is reunited with her family shortly before the tournament finals (and the finale), just in time to help deliver Ruby's spirit-baby. Summer almost falling to the Lantern becomes the catalyst for Pyrrha breaking the Lantern to save Jaune, who's saving Summer. Summer survives the finale, and is almost ready to Move On now that she's at long-last reunited with her family, to Ruby and everyone else's distress. Summer chooses not to Move On, to stay with Ruby and the rest as long as she can, even as she starts entering the Aura Starvation cycle of pain and incapacitation.
Jaune places Summer into the robot body made for him, even though it means giving up his own chance of a Penny-bot body to ensure his own life. Jaune's sacrifice and Summer's survival marks the moment Ruby starts to have more than platonic feelings for him, even though Summer is kidnapped by Raven soon after.
Ruby ends Season 3 joining Pyrrha in the hunt for Salem, leaving the hunt for Summer and Raven to Yang. In Season 4, Ruby serves as quasi-team leader for Pyrrha, Nora, and Penny (Team RNPP, aka Team Rest In Pieces) as they search for Cinder and deal with ghosts along the way. When the group finds the Brenda Badwitch coven, Brenda wants to kidnap/force Ruby to join her coven as a Seer-translator for the ghosts, which causes the RNPP conflict as they try to overcome the rival coven.
Ruby's season 4 character plot focuses on her growing feelings for Jaune, the breakup of the Sisterhood, and the aftermath of her pregnancy as Crescent Rose becomes a spirit-weapon.
As Jaune spends less time with her in order to be with all the Coven equally across Remnant, Ruby has her own insecurities about the wellbeing of everyone and dealing with the recently born weapon-spirit. Ruby's not jealous as much as she tries to monopolize him when she can. Ruby's happy enough to see Jaune off to go check on their scattered friends, but eagerly awaits his return all the same, especially to help her deal with the quasi-parenthood of their ghost-child. Ruby's the happiest to see Jaune return to Team RNPP, and not-quite monopolizes his time and attention when he is around. Partly because she wants to, and partly because she has worries/wants to show/wants to keep Jaune involved in Crescent Rose's nascent growth as a weapon spirit. Even if it's not a 'normal' child, it's still her baby.
Ruby's turning to Jaune for emotional support reflects her growing interest, but Ruby also adds on Jaune's burdens at a time when Jaune is worrying about everyone's character crisis. Jaune is overstressed and over-taxed as is, and Ruby isn't helping, coming to a near breaking point where Jaune lashes out at Ruby in frustration. Other people's character plots- Blake being trapped by Adam, Ren trying to break into a Lantern, and Weiss just trying to survive her haunted home- are just more critical and need Jaune's focus.
It's a fight of sorts, and it hurts Ruby because she thinks Jaune is rejecting her and their spirit-child… which isn't true at all. Jaune's just stressed, but Ruby's hurt adds more to Jaune's plate at a time he really doesn't need it. Ultimately Pyrrha plays mediator to help Ruby understand, and so Ruby grows a bit more emotionally secure and self-sufficient to allow Jaune to focus on those who need help more. Jaune's a dead dad, after all, and even if when he's not around Ruby has her coven-sisters and fellow spirit-spouses to rely on.
The comes to a head with the Brenda Badwitch coven, which RNPP ultimately handle on their own without Jaune while Jaune is tied up in the Ren and Blake subplots that are climaxing at once. Even though Jaune promises Ruby she can summon him if she really needs to, Ruby and RNPP are able to handle the rival coven on their own, sparing Jaune the trip and a trap that had been intended for him.
In Season 5 and beyond, Team RNPP gradually re-collects the coven as the hunt for Cinder takes them into ancient necropolis and across the world. Ruby and Jaune's relationship is secure, in that Ruby is comfortable sharing Jaune with the coven as needed, and would only grow tighter as Jaune has the time to take a closer role with the weapon-spirits.
In the Sisterhood Who Murdrered Jaune, every member has a Coven Name as part of their super-special-secret society cult club that forms as a result.
Ruby's Coven Name is Sister Ghost Whisperer.
After Jaune's body is defiled by Cardin, Goodwitch helps purify his corpse to remove the spiritual corruption. This ends up destroying the body, but Goodwitch makes a number of relics from Jaune's body, enough for every member of the coven.
Ruby's Jaune relic is a cross, which she uses as a clasp for her cloak. When Ruby holds it she can feel Jaune touch her and vice versa as if she has the sense of ghost-touch, though it only works with Jaune. This usually occurs when he gives her ghostly hugs he gives using her cloak.
Ruby's relationship with Jaune is based on closeness becoming something more. Ruby and Jaune start close and platonic, and only grow closer over the first few seasons. The rescue of Summer tips the feelings to the romantic at the end of season 3, though Ruby's expression of that was never really planned. Ruby is aware that Jaune has something with Yang and others, though they hide dirty dreams from her, but due to the weird nature of the coven and how the spirit marriages are introduced before Feelings get involved, Ruby doesn't feel neglected or get jealous about 'sharing' Jaune with her Coven-sisters. As long as Jaune isn't 'neglecting' their friendships she's fine, and so Ruby's actually the first to think of the coven and spirit-marriage in polyamorous terms.
Ruby's openly romantic relationship with Jaune would have been the last- maybe season 5 or 6- after after the Coven had reunited. It would have marked the thematic closure/rejoining of the coven, as the first spirit marriage would be the last to be something more.
It would have 'officially' started on Ruby birthday, to celebrate her coming of age and the Sisterhood being back together again. It likely would have been almost anti-climatic in its reciprocation with Jaune- a gentle transition rather than tense confession- with a general feel from the friends of 'weren't they together in all but name already?' It would followed the general trend of spirit-marriages-turned-more, with Ruby joining the Coven's unique polyamory. Ruby's first Jaune Dream of an un-chaste sort would have been at her own request, her 'birthday present' from Jaune being to become a woman and not just a girl. Ruby would ask, Jaune would reciprocate, and that, as they say, is that… with Ruby waking up the next morning to wet sheets, waiting friends, and Yang welcoming her as a Sister of another sort- pole sisters.
Ruby is the only member member of the coven who isn't directly interested in Jaune moving on or getting a new body. Ruby doesn't want Jaune to 'die' by moving on, especially once she has Crescent Rose as a spirit-child, but Ruby also fears losing Jaune if he had a body and was taken away (or just taken) by someone else. Ruby would be happy if the Coven shared ghost Jaune existed indefinitely.
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Weiss
A normal person with no aptitude to ghosts, Weiss none the less has been affected by them for much her life even if she doesn't know it.
Weiss has never known ghosts, and has spent her life believing they weren't real. In truth, much of her life has been affected by them without her knowledge, a consequence of the Faunus suffering by the SDC. The ghosts of angry humans have been just as active in response as both sides of the Human-Faunus conflict continue to fight from beyond the grave in the halls of her haunted-mansion of a home. Weiss's mother died in a freak ghost-caused accident. The Schnee family is under a curse placed by angry ghosts, and Weiss's Father is influenced/affected as a result. Weiss's ostracization with her father is in part an attempt by him to protect her from the spirits afflicting him. When Weiss returns to Atlas in Season 4, the Schnee Manor would have been a haunted house.
Weiss does have something in her favor, though- angels. Angels are benevolent guardian spirits with their own society hidden in Atlas. Weiss's mother became one such, who survived and has tried to protect her family. The Schnees have ties to the Angels of Atlas, giving new meaning to the nick-name 'Snow Angel.' Factoring in Season 3, Weiss's family semblance of summoning sigils have the ability to give spirits a temporary form. Using her sigil, Weiss can summon/give ghosts (Jaune) a glowing white form, even if she still can't hear or see him otherwise.
In the early story, Weiss's role- besides comedic scapegoat and screaming really loud at everything scary- is mostly tied to her role in the coven and character plot with Jaune. In the Sisterhood, Weiss goes from reluctant scapegoat to active participant, organizing them and leading in their rituals (planning sessions) on how to save Jaune. Weiss approaches the issue of saving Jaune's afterlife in a methodical fashion, systematically investigating the leads they have. Weiss even embraces the charge of having murdered Jaune, with tsunderish banter such as 'no one's allowed to kill you but me' and trying to cover for Pyrrha when Salem is looking for Jaune's murderer.
Later on- in a hypothetical season four after the tournament- Weiss was going to be separated from the group to return to Atlas, and the ghosts of her past. This would be her chance to be a major plot focus in and of herself, even as she a supporting character until then. Weiss's house would be a warzone between human and faunus ghosts, and Weiss would be struggling to survive and make sense of what was happening. Jaune's presence, infrequent as it is, would be key to surviving and clearing the mansion and ultimately meeting the angles of Atlas. That's about as far as that planning got, except that Weiss trying to survive the haunted mansion would be a major stressor for Jaune.
Back to the main story, Weiss's other main plot was her personal relationship with Jaune. Weiss- who swallowed a bit of Jaune during initiation when Yang flicked guts at her- becomes the first person to have a Jaune Dream, before they realize Jaune could do such a thing. Jaune falls into a raunchy dream in which Weiss, not realizing it's the real Jaune, promptly dominates him and tells him to shut up and put his mouth to better use. Weiss takes Jaune's dream-virginity as a form of fantasy stress-relief, but shows a softer side afterwards when- at the end- she asks Jaune to stay and cuddle. Weiss wakes up after falling asleep in her dream, and becomes the first victim of the ongoing early morning dirty sheets joke.
The incident becomes an embarrassing secret between them afterwards once Jaune's dream hopping is shared amongst the friends. Aside from taking his dream-virginity, Weiss is the unacknowledged second spirit-spouse for Jaune after Ruby, and the first to do so with a catalyst. The ritual of ancient faunus covens for spirit-marriage was to eat of the dead and sleep with them. Weiss ate of his body when Yang flicked guts in her mouth during initiation, which is what allowed her to share dreams with him, and sleeping with the dead is what creates the spirit-marriage. Dream-sex isn't required, but definitely cements it. Because Weiss is the only one everyone knows ate of Jaune, Weiss becomes the butt of all cannibalism jokes while Blake gets off scott-free. Weiss makes the most vocal protests to the idea of spirit marriages later whenever they're brought up, like after Yang's crisis.
Weiss is among those who believes the worst of Jaune during the Cardin incident, afraid he's holding the dream over her as blackmail and not believing Jaune's protests to the contrary, but Blake's confession of her own secret prompts Weiss to believe in Jaune as well. Afterwards, Jaune and Weiss's relationship normalizes, and carries on mostly in her dreams where Weiss is less restrained in how she acts. Jaune becomes a regular audience to her suppressed thoughts and her desires, though after the first incident (what Weiss calls the 'mistake') Weiss never does anything improper with the real ghost Jaune, though it's implied/insinuated she does have some more dirty dreams of purely dream Jaune.
Weiss bristles and resists the idea of 'spirit marriage' from the start. Instead Weiss finds a friend in Jaune, as Jaune listens when Weiss wants to rant, weathers her stormy rages, and gives her some support when she's feeling down and being hard on herself. Jaune doesn't judge, doesn't hold her acerbic nature against her, and most of all doesn't tell, and so gradually becomes her confidant.
This cements itself during the lead-up to the Dance, when Weiss sees and falls for Neptune. In her dreams Weiss wants him bad, as Jaune can attest, but in public she tries to be prim and proper and so gets ignored. Jaune takes a role in trying to encourage her to outright confess, and when that fails Jaune tries to spook Neptune into it. It backfires, with Neptune spooked away from Weiss instead, and his rejection is excessively cruel because of not only his belief in the 'Weiss killed Jaune,' but in the general outsider creepiness of the coven of friends in general- talking with dead people, walking around with Jaune's bones, and so on.
Jaune can't fix it by telling Neptune the truth or to man up, and so- trying to fulfill Weiss's dream (figurative and literal) of a romantic dance that could lead to a passionate evening- Jaune ends up knocking out Neptune with a possessed item and using a good deal of aura to forcibly keep Neptune in a state of lucid dreaming. With Neptune watching as Jaune controls his body, 'Neptune' returns, invites Weiss to a dance, and gives her the dance of her dreams. 'Neptune' explains away 'his' change of mind, saying that Jaune explained everything in a dream. 'Neptune' leans into a kiss, with Jaune relinquishing control to a more than willing Neptune- until Weiss pushes away, and leaves a befuddled Neptune behind.
That night, in her dreams, Jaune enters and asks what Neptune did wrong. Weiss denies he did anything wrong, only that he wasn't what- who- she wanted. Jaune takes it as Weiss realizing he was in control, but Weiss puts it differently. Neptune was a crush- but not the man of her dreams, and not the one who'd (ful)fill her dream. Jaune is lost and confused, until Weiss tells him to stop talking and dance with her. Weiss and Jaune dance in her dreams, like she had with Neptune earlier and like she had in her dreams before that. As the dream becomes more and more exclusive, everyone else fades away, and Jaune eventually asks if this is what she wanted. Weiss says he's not… but that he's not a mistake either. Controlling her dreamscape, Weiss brings them to her (empty) room. When Jaune begins to ask why, Weiss tells him to shut up and put his mouth to better use, a call-back to their first dream together. Weiss pushes Jaune down into her bed, and the dream fades to black.
Weiss wakes up early the next morning to knowing looks from Blake and Yang and first shot at doing laundry.
From then on Weiss no longer protests the idea of spirit marriage, and is even occasionally nice to Jaune in public, in a tsundere-ish sort of way. Weiss becomes one of the most eager proponents for trying to find Jaune a new body, and takes an active leadership role in the coven. It's Weiss who ultimately organizes the time-sharing schedule for who Jaune is supposed to visit each night to draw aura from. Nominally it's so that no one is overtaxed in loaning aura to Jaune, but in truth…
Seven members of the coven, seven days in a week, and one of those nights Weiss is changing her sheets.
(Weiss, and Team RWBY as a whole, gets a slightly unfair reputation as a team of bed-wetters.)
After Season 3, Weiss is taken back home by her father. The Schnee Mansion is a war zone between ghosts on both sides of the human-faunus conflict, while her father is clearly under malign ghostly influence. While trying to survive, Weiss needs to uncover the cause of the conflict, with weekly Jaune summons being the key to moving around the haunted mansion where Jaune's ghost-skills are key to getting into locked rooms and dealing with murderous ghosts. As they go through the house, clearing ghosts, Weiss's childhood is revealed- including a formerly close relationship with her father, the tragic (ghost-caused) death of her mother, and her father's sudden change of personality and distance between him and his daughters that eventually drove Weiss to go to Beacon. Throughout the arc, there's evidence of another ghost at work- protecting Weiss when Jaune isn't around- but when Jaune sees her it's a female spirit in great pain, and who doesn't stay for long. The culmination of the arc- at the same time as the Blake and Ren arc culminations- is breaking into a Forbidden Basement that President Schnee has tried to keep Weiss away from all this time.
The basement is the Schnee family crypt, and inside is the spirit responsible for attracting so many ghosts to the Schnees- a Devil. The first Devil the heroes meet, the Devil is responsible for bringing the ghosts to curse President Schnee, and is even desecrating the body of Weiss's dead mother in order to affect President Schnee. President Schnee spirit-married his wife after her death, who had been a guardian spirit for Weiss and Winter in the good years, but the Devil captured Miss Schnee and used her spirit-marriage link to affect President Schnee as well, driving him into to escalate the war with the White Fang and faunus to cause more misery in general. Weiss and Jaune have to defeat the devil who is orchestrating the curses on President Schnee, and free Weiss's mother.
Beyond the Devil, Weiss and Jaune find a sealed passage to the Angels of Atlas, who are able to help Weiss's mother's spirit (who was an angel before being caught and tortured), who can help protect President Schnee. The Angels and their Genesis Pool could provide a homunculi body for Jaune to live- but at the time Jaune and Weiss can't afford the time it would take to do so, and the Angels aren't yet willing to give Jaune a new body either. Jaune has to leave immediately to help Blake and Ren, and Weiss is given a task or quest of some sort before the angels are willing to give Jaune a body. The quest would entail stopping the Devils, who have ties to Cinder, and require Weiss to leave and rejoin the Coven.
Weiss's haunted-house crisis would end in Season 4, with the Angels able to protect Papa Schnee from further danger and Weiss reconciling with her now-sane father. Despite his desire to protect her and keep her at home and safe, Weiss returns to the Coven, though with a much lighter heart now that her Father is as she once knew him- not a perfect man, but a better one, and one on the side of angels and willing to change . Weiss has a week at home before her next turn to summon Jaune and learn where to go, and spends it reconciling, before heading back into the world to rejoin Ruby. Weiss leaves on a cruise ship/airship, waving goodbye to her father with Jaune over her shoulder and Weiss's mother over her father's shoulder. It's a happy farewell and a chance for a romantic day alone on a cruise with Jaune… with Weiss not knowing that her father and Mother already know of the spirit-marriage between her and Jaune. Papa and Mama Schnee approve, or at least accept it… and have threatened Jaune with a fate worse than death should he hurt Weiss. Weiss's Mom may be an angel, but that doesn't mean she won't bring the wrath of heaven down on Jaune if he misbehaves… though it goes the other way around as well. Weiss may be the daughter of an angel, but she's a little devilish in her dreams as well. Weiss and Jaune enjoy a peaceful day on the cruise together, as Jaune can finally relax after a hectic finale of crisis.
They spend it sleeping.
Beyond Season 4, there wasn't much in mind for Weiss specifically. Schnee Dust Corporation changes once President Schnee's sanity is restored, adopting a… not necessarily 'benevolent' line, but a willingness to compromise with peaceful faunus groups. SDC also offers the Coven assistance in the hunt for Cinder and the Devils. When Atlas gets entangled in a plot concept of creating a golem army of the newly returned ghosts to fight Grimm, SDC gets in on the action, providing golems to the Kingdom of Angels, to form an Angel Army. The Army of Angels- with Penny-bot technology- would be an big endgame force.
Weiss, though… it'd mostly be her entwined character plot with Jaune about self-expression of her desires, admitting what she wants even when it's not 'proper.' That comes mostly in the context of her relationship with Jaune- something she keeps tightly held and private, but believes she'll have to give up in favor of Yang/Ruby/the general impropriety of having such a ghostly affair, especially when she'll one day be expected to carry on the family legacy. She'll have to produce an heir if she wants to keep the company inside the family, and not just a weapon spirit either. Which, as long as Jaune is a ghost…
Weiss's coven name is Sister Screamer. The name has multiple reasons- one that everyone wishes they hadn't heard, and another that her team wishes they hadn't heard when they were trying to sleep. Over time Weiss tries to give herself the name of Weiss WiseWitch, a pun Yang refuses to use.
Weiss's Jaune relic is a pair of bone earrings. When Weiss is wearing them she gains a limited ghost-hearing sense and can hear Jaune's voice as faint and intimate whispers, as if he's leaning over her shoulder and whispering into her ear from behind. If Jaune possesses one of the earrings, he can hear Weiss's thoughts, like a one-way telepathy.
Weiss's relationship with Jaune is a 'Secret Keeper' dynamic. It's something that starts as an embarrassing mistake, but Jaune keeping the secret of how he lost his virginity gradually leads to Weiss trusting Jaune with more. Weiss's dreams are where Weiss lets down her hair and is unrestrained- an embarrassing (and comedic) difference of persona once she's no longer exercising self-control and can vent or express her true opinions without fear of rebuke or hurting anyone else's feelings. Unlike Blake, whom Jaune convinces to share her secrets openly within the Coven, Jaune keeps Weiss's secrets hidden, allowing her to express herself more healthily in private. Jaune's patience and discretion in helping Weiss express herself, and supporting the desires she can't say aloud, bring them closer. Jaune's efforts with Neptune in particular- who rejected Weiss's interest both in terms of her and her friends- marks the moment of a significant shift. Jaune goes from 'confidant' to 'safe outlet for desires,' and growing from there.
Weiss's relationship with Jaune from then is 'fond' and 'intimate,' but not quite 'love.' While the informal rules of the Coven are that what happens in Jaune Dreams stays in Jaune Dreams, Yang's open interest in Jaune outside of the Jaune Dreams tempers Weiss. Weiss doesn't want drama within the team, Weiss doesn't want to tarnish their public reputation, Weiss doesn't want a fruitless relationship… but she does want Jaune, at least some times, and so Jaune and Weiss's ghostly affair is a private, secretive thing. Blake and Yang know of the Jaune Dreams, but not Weiss's real feelings, which grow. It's the one secret Weiss tries to keep from Jaune, even if the pent-up tension is expressed within the dreams. By the end of the Schnee Mansion arc, with Jaune helping her face her past and save her parents souls, Weiss's feelings are real, even if not yet open. Weiss will only admit her feelings once the Coven becomes a polyamory, after which her next character arc would be accepting and coming to terms with her desire to be a part of it.
Weiss's position for Jaune's long-term state, as with most of Team RWBY, is to give Jaune a body so that he can live. Weiss becomes very interested in the homunculus option- both because it would give Jaune a 'real' body, but also because it would let him have a 'real' family and living children one day. With who… well, that's unsaid.
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Blake
Another normal person without ghost senses. Blake's didn't grow up with ghosts, but she has a ghost connection through her heritage and via the White Fang's taboo rituals that they started since she left.
Blake's primary comedy trait is her acquired appetite for Jaune's meat, a taste she ends up sharing with her team. This man-eater may or may not descend from the clans of faunus shamans who pioneered the practice of spirit marriage through ritual cannibalism, but she is the one to find the lore and hide the 'how.' The reason why Jaune falls into peoples dreams is a mystery to everyone but Blake, who gets a number of comedic sequences when the catalyst falls to other people. Weiss had guts flicked into her mouth by Yang, but other members of the sisterhood were… less deliberate, early on during the pre-Cardin segment. Yang steals some without asking, Blake misplaces hers with Nora's hand-made beef jerky, and so on. All are treated for comedy. After the Cardin incident Blake has to get rid of the rest of her stash, decides to make them all guilty, and hosts a BBQ after Jaune's funeral.
After Jaune's meat is gone, Blake's craving are a regular joke no one in-story catches, and the basis of Blake's physical attraction to Sun's hunk of abs. No one knows Blake (or anyone else) is a cannibal, but she has a tendency towards biting and staring at muscle. Blake's cravings get satisfied with her personal Jaune artifact.
In terms of plot, aside from taking the meat off Jaune's bones before Cardin can defile them, Blake's earliest relevance is being among first people whose dreams Jaune falls into. After his experience with Weiss, Jaune soon falls into one of Blake's dreams, where he learns that she is a faunus. Jaune keeps Blake's dream, race, and risqué fantasy a secret.
Jaune keeping her secret rather than spread it across the school is what tips Blake off that it's not Jaune spreading Ruby's secret during the Cardin arc. Blake standing up for Jaune, even to the point of revealing her race, means a lot to Jaune, who vows to return the favor. After (re)staring off as better friends, the friendship escalates a bit quicker than others when Jaune sees a side of Blake neither of them ever intended- the inside.
Not only does Jaune fall into Blake's Ninjas of Love dreams, but in one of his experiments with electronics Jaune accidentally ends up being trapped in one of Blake's private toys… before she uses it. Much fun, and embarrassment, was hidden from others. Between her private hobby and her faunus past, Blake (not entirely intentionally) builds a rapport with Jaune based on trust and discretion. Jaune stands by Blake throughout the docks incident, which culminates in Blake letting Jaune a little closer as an active participant her dirtier dreams.
Blake approaches her 'relationship' with Jaune not as lovers but as a 'friends with benefits' sort of deal. Jaune's a friend she trusts, she gives a bit of aura for him to stay alive, and in return she gets some risk-free fun in her dreams. It's stress relief that means nothing, really. There's no downside, except the occasional change of sheets and knowing looks and maybe not being strictly 'friends only' after all. But, at the very least, no chance for pregnancy, right?
Blake and Sun make for an almost-not-quite love triangle when physical attraction in the flesh has to compete with the other part of Blake's mind. Sun's initially attracted, and Blake considers him an attractive hunk of ribs with aside of nice thighs and delicious abs with a head on top, and while Jaune doesn't understand that he does approve of Sun and encourage Blake to consider it. Jaune's needling/encouragement, and sharing with Ruby that Blake finds Sun hot, gets Blake to be a bit more expressive than she normally would be as she seriously considers Suns advances much earlier, albeit on a more casual level. Since dealing with her faunus heritage and White Fang past were easier than she feared, Blake is more comfortable opening up faster and is willing to dabble with Sun.
But while Sun's someone Blake can fantasize over, Jaune's the one who enters her dreams during said fantasies. Blake is someone who has desires, but is also hesitant about letting a relationship develop… complications, which is why she enjoys her dream-relationship with Jaune. Sun, while treated mostly sympathetically, gets a bit weirded out at not automatically winning an almost-triangle with a dead guy. It brings up the awkward question of not only why isn't he winning by default, but also why he's trying to woo a girl sleeping (sorta) with a dead guy (sorta) and who looks at him like a hunk of meat rather than meeting his eyes. Sun tries to persevere, and gets pretty far during Season 2 as Blake's date to the Dance, but Blake's acquired taste drives him off when she gives a hickie that draws blood. Sun is creeped out, backs off, and Blake is officially a cute but creepy coven girl from then on.
Blake's more serious plot deals with the White Fang and their use of mad faunus ghosts. Blake initially believes that the ghosts the White Fang uses are victims of SDC- tragic but natural victims- but the investigation reveals that this isn't true. The White Fang defiling the bodies of the dead to turn normal faunus into weaponized ghosts is a betrayal of everything they should stand for, and after Cardin's demonstration of doing so on Jaune Blake is committed to stopping the White Fang. In Season 3 there would even be a faunus ghost character who Blake, Jaune, and the others do their best to save from the White Fang, though that 'innocent' is probably doomed.
At the end of Season 3, during the crisis-climax, Blake ultimately 'betrays' her friends to join the White Fang at Adam's invitation. Nominally a betrayal, Jaune doesn't believe it and chases after Blake during the night of Summer's kidnapping to understand why. Thanks to ghost powers and the part of his body Blake holds, Jaune is able to reach Blake and enter her dream to discover that she's doing it to go undercover within the White Fang and find out more about the ghosts and how to stop the desecrations.
Season 4 would be Blake being a double-agent, even as she's forced to resume her relationship with Adam as part of her cover, even as she finds relief in Jaune's weekly hauntings and Jaune Dreams. Pregnancy would come up as a result, and be a key part of Blake's character plot. Adam is an insecure/possessive boyfriend, and the question of parentage creates tension.
Adam brings in a witch with a semblance who can see the future child- this witch also the same witch or part of the coven allowing the White Fang to use ghosts- who he uses to check on Blake and the baby's health. This viewing creates drama when 'Adam's' child is discovered to have blonde hair instead of red or black… even though Blake knows that she never actually slept with Sun. Adam would go crazy- possibly being under a ghost's curse, but also jealous- viewing Blake's pregnancy as a betrayal. Adam then does the only rational thing- locking Blake up in her room- before trying to figure out how to 'fix' the problem.
(What actually occurs is that Blake's weapon spirit, conceived with Jaune, transitions into the baby conceived with Adam. The weapon spirit overpowers Adam's influence from the start.)
Remembering the stellar quality and good taste of a story that spent its first few chapters brutally splattering body parts, the likely angle for Blake's pregnancy and Adam's plans to 'fix' it would have been an involuntary abortion.
Souls who die before they are born Unborn- the spirit of an unborn child who never had a chance to live. Unborn created by abortion are the Unwanted- angry ghosts who blame their parents for not getting to live. Blake's life would have been in danger of her own child, even as she lost trust and would be locked away by Adam. Normally Unborn die fast, not having the residual aura reserves to exist, but Blake is in a spirit marriage with Jaune, and family has rights to the Arc family aura reserves…
Blake's forced abortion is probably the most genuinely traumatic events in the story, both in execution and how it literally comes to haunt her. Though Blake worried about a physical relationship and becoming pregnant, and was very uncertain of what she felt about it, she wasn't sure what she would do. Adam forcing that decision on her to 'fix' the problem, because he 'loves' her and wants to spare her the burden of someone else's child, leaves her scarred- especially when the spirit begins haunting her nightmares.
Dealing with the Unwanted, helping Blake cope with the trauma of events, and helping her escape Adam would have been the key parts of the White Fang arc for Blake and Jaune. Blake's arc is the most dangerous/tense of them all, the core driver of Jaune's stress vis-à-vis other partners, as Blake is under the captivity of an unstable Adam, the White Fang, and the White Fang's witch-coven that is destabilizing ghosts and honing in on Blake's spirit-marriage. Trying to figure out how to help Blake escape becomes one of Jaune's biggest priorities, and a distraction from other character plots- especially since he generally only spends one day a week with Blake, as the whole 'taking turns' summoning Jaune thing means each member of the Coven summons Jaune one day of the week. This means Blake is on her own at times, dependent on Adam and the witches' protection from the Unborn, which worries Jaune extremely.
By the end the child-ghost would be saved, pacified when Blake convinces it that she didn't have the abortion willingly and when Jaune promises to give it a body to live in. The Unwanted turns its wrath on Adam, helps Blake escape with Jaune, and then accompanies them… somehow. I'm not quite clear, and hadn't decided, but Salem would have been involved to save her Grandchild. With something that probably entails Blake following a quasi-satanic ritual prescribed by Salem and riding out of there on a Nevermore, Jaune and Blake and the ghost-child make it to Salem, who can guarantee its survival by giving it the homunculi body she recently conceived to help Jaune. This does mean that Jaune's humunuli body from his mother is put off by at least another nine months, but a promise is a promise and Salem always did want grandkids, even if she didn't expect to bear them herself.
(If that was too complicated- Blake and Jaune's conceived weapon spirit takes over the body of Blake and Adam's conceived child before a soul can form, making it 'his' body. When Adam finds out, he forces Blake to abort it. That turns the weapon spirit into an Unwanted, which because it had a body can't go back to being a weapon spirit. Blake and Jaune turn the Unwanted's wrath towards Adam by placating it and promising it a new body. That body is a homunculus conceived by Salem for Jaune, even if Salem is tainted with Grimm powers of darkness and all but guaranteed to grow into a creepy child who, because the body was meant for Jaune and the spirit is already self-aware, will already have a developed mind upon birth.
But- yes- this means that Salem will give birth to Jaune's child, conceived by Blake and Adam, thus making Jaune's son his brother while making Blake an aunt to Jaune's sisters and her own child in a-
Let's put it this way- this was deliberately intended to be convoluted as hell, so that it'd make no sense and trying to fit the Coven into some 'sensible' arrangement would be impossible. The Coven, the story, and the romance plots work together because they're too convoluted to try and fit in 'normal' relationships, and so the characters involved give up on normality and just go with their internal logic.)
With Blake rescued and the ghost-child safe, Jaune has to leave to help Ren arrange a jail-break, the last of his three-part tour de arc of helping Weiss than Blake then Ren all in a row. Jaune leaves a worn but relieved Blake with his mother, who has some sympathy over Blake's recent boyfriend ordeal… and makes very pointed suggestions about how nice a boy Jaune is and how Blake could do so much worse than him. Blake agrees, but flinches, and Salem gently promises to teach her some ghost rituals before she leaves. A dowry, if you would.
Blake trains under Salem as she recovers, and leaves to rejoin the Coven some time later. Blake's experience with Adam, traumatic as it was, changes her- she's a bit more reclusive, having been hurt again, quite a bit less interested in a living relationship, and she even develops a slight fear of men that she has to overcome. She's been hurt… but she survives, and in some ways has become stronger and a committed witch of the coven. Blake is the first to wear the title of 'witch' openly, without shame, and has even been given books by Salem to study. Even though Blake is pushed away from guys and towards girls for awhile, Salem provides mother(-in-law)ly mentorship to help her find a solace in the bonds of spirit-marriage, and a thirst for revenge. Six of one, half-a-dozen of the other, but Salem does help Blake work her phobia of men by sharing a spell to turn Jaune female in the dreamscape.
Blake (with Salem providing some motherly mentorship along the way) takes her role as a spirit-wife very seriously indeed, and even happily at times.
Beyond Season 4, which was Blake-heavy, Blake's primary character arc is recovering from the trauma from Adam. She does so with the help of her Sisters of the Coven, and a healthier, more emotional relationship with Jaune. Blake's trauma and modest fear of men is something she tries to overcome with Jaune, but it creates a barrier to their previous dream relationship, even with the gender-change spell for Blake's ease of mind.
There's less sex, more emotional support, and rather than resume the friends-with-benefits bilateral dynamic that Blake finds secure and familiar, Jaune pushes Blake to open up to the rest of the coven about her ordeal. Ultimately it's the trust that Blake will be able to rely on the Coven- Jaune and Sisters all - that helps Blake start to heal from the trauma inflicted by Adam. When the Coven agrees to help her raise her child after it's born by Salem, from Weiss volunteering financial support to Nora offering babysitting, Blake is able to overcome. Blake's child, and the commitment of the Coven to raise it together if need be, and the intent to keep together over the long term is the catalyst that really turns the Coven from 'a group of friends make-pretending to be married to a ghost as a joke' to something more committed, more serious, and real. Blake's healing is what turns a series of bilateral relationships into a multilateral polyamory- and not just because Blake's straying from men makes her look at her sister-wives differently either.
Blake's primary story arc is the reoccurring skirmishes with the White Fang. Adam's coven of witches inciting ghosts into madness has to be stopped, but Blake is out for revenge to. Blake couldn't do it on her own, and so it becomes a Coven mission, though when that would happen wasn't even on the planning horizon.
One thing's for sure, though- Blake has a habit of pushing good taste. Don't ask what happens with the baby's remains. Or what Blake will do to Adam when she catches him.
Blake's Coven name is Sister Jinx, after Jinx the Black Cat.
Blake's Jaune-relic is a chopstick set, made of Jaune's bones. Including a soup spoon for good measure, the dining set has the curious trait to make anything taste like Jaune. They also allows Blake to consume residual aura. Not ghosts- not like a ghost eater- but any residual aura on physical things… or bodies. Any residual aura Blake consumes can be passed onto Jaune.
Blake's stance on Jaune's fate is that living is better than not living, and so she's all for helping him get a body if possible. Once the friends-with-benefit relationship started, she favored the Jaune-bod robot idea. After the trauma with Adam, however, Blake is afraid of physical relationships with men, and so moves closer to Ruby's position of preferring if Jaune just stayed a ghost for awhile longer.
Blake's relationship with Jaune has been covered a bit, but to hit the main emotional points again- Jaune and Blake get close due to Jaune's discretion about Blake's race, Blake's dreams, and a naughty accident early on involving Jaune, a vibrator, and an unwitting participant. Unlike Weiss, with whom Jaune keeps her secrets, Jaune's relationship with Blake is about pushing her to share her secrets with others- race, past, and more. After building trust, Jaune and Blake enter a friends-with-benefits but non-committed relationship after the dock. Because it's only limited to dreams, and nothing more, Jaune pushes Blake to be more outgoing, including encouraging her towards to a casual relationship with Sun. Blake's biggest hitch-up with 'physical' relationships is a fear of being hitched with consequences and complications. Blake fears a repeat of her childhood- of a single-mother stuck with a child. Blake prefers ghost-friends-with-benefits with Jaune Dreams because it's safe, discrete, and consequence free (or so they think). When Sun looses interest after being creeped out by the Coven by the period of the Dance, Blake is okay and even a bit relieved… until the reveal of ghost pregnancy, when she gets skittish and has the most concern about Ruby and the most questions about raising the ghost-children that come after. Blake 'defects' without answers, but Jaune chasing her provides emotional relief.
Blake's relationship with Jaune becomes more emotionally-driven during the Adam ordeal. Blake starts strong and brave despite being in over her head, but the advent of real pregnancy shakes her. Jaune tries to support, but he's limited to one day a week. Blake's being shaken becomes trauma when Adam finds that the child isn't 'his,' locks Blake away, and forces an abortion. Blake and Jaune become emotionally close in the aftermath, as Jaune worries about Blake most of all-especially with the ghost of the Unwanted trying to kill her. Blake's climax is as much a rescue as an escape, with Blake surviving with her child but being traumatized by the forced abortion. Blake heals through the Sisterhood of the coven, and is the first to embrace the polyamours aspects of it.
Blake is the first bisexual to get attention as such. While she leans more towards men, after Adam she has a phase of drawing towards the other phase. Blake's openness to bisexuality, and her friends, would get a reoccurring joke of 'in your dreams, Blake'- which, of course, is exactly where it would happen. Once the Coven rejoins, finding themselves in three-way dreams with Blake and Jaune becomes the new running dream joke. First on the platter, though, would likely be Yang and/or Weiss: Jaune possessing Yang's body offers so many possibilities to help with Blake's acquired phobia, while Weiss's dreams are all about repressed improprieties anyway…
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Yang
Yang is yet another 'normal' person with no ghost sense, despite Ruby's gifts. Yang eventually the only member of the coven who gets to become a ghost herself, with Jaune's assistance, due a secret not even she knows about herself.
Growing up, Yang didn't believe in ghosts. After the loss of Summer, when they were really, really young, Yang was among those who didn't believe Ruby about hearing Summer's voice. Yang wasn't cruel, but didn't believe in her, and so ended up not being there for Ruby when Ruby broke and inadvertently banished Summer. From then on Yang did her best to protect Ruby from bullies who belittled her 'imaginary' friends, even if she didn't really believe herself.
Yang didn't really believe, but didn't totally disbelieve either. Yang couldn't sense ghosts, but she has an open mind because of a history of lucky 'chances' or odd events that worked in her favor- like times when something precariously balanced stabilized rather than fell on her, or when small objects moved/were found without anyone remembering moving them. These were little gestures from Summer, who tried to keep looking out for her family.
Come the plot, Yang's role is broadly to parallel Ruby's relationship with Jaune and then escalate. When things are good early on pre-Cardin, Yang is the third RWBY dirty dream that Jaune falls into, and ultimately the one that reveals to the group Jaune's 'fall into dreams' thing after the Weiss and Blake dreams are kept secret. When Jaune is framed for belittling Ruby, Yang is hotly against Jaune, supporting her sister until it becomes clear that something is amuck. In the general post-Cardin make-up, Yang shares with Jaune her experience with Ruby's difficult childhood as part of their friendly make-up.
Yang gets a significant mini-arc post-Cardin that gives her one of her own unique plot angles- her ability to have an out-of-body experience and become a ghost if possessed while berserk. When Yang is berserk, her soul has a loose grip on her body that no longer has self-control, and if Jaune possesses her then Yang 'pops out' as a ghost. When she is a ghost, Yang has full ghost senses, just like Jaune- she can see/feel/hear/touch/taste Jaune (or other ghosts). Unlike Jaune, who has ample residual aura reserves, Yang has almost none because her body is still alive.
The first time this is discovered, the plot of the arc is Yang having fun being a ghost and refusing to go back into her body. Leaving Jaune to deal with living as her, Yang goes on her own immature/consequence-free ghost spree- claiming it's to let Jaune live a little, but mostly letting her goof off and act the mischievous/perverted ghost angle. (Including a scene where ghost-Yang slips into the boys lockerroom… and emerges face-to-face with Ren, causing a comedy of errors as Ren starts talking, Ruby hears half of the conversation through the wall, and Nora ends up breaking down the wall separating the changing rooms.) Yang is repeating the same sort of consequence-free ghosting that Jaune did early on, which seems to be a normal thing for ghosts, even as Jaune and the others try to convince her to stop and return to her own body.
Yang's lack of residual aura reserves becomes the problem when Yang's body is lost. Jaune leaves the body to chase Yang down and try and bring her back, but without a soul controlling it Yang's body acts like a simple, instinct-driven animal (ergo, no different from the usual says Weiss), and wanders off to comedic/scary hijinks. The berserk-without-being-berserk soulless Yang acts like an animal, and so after it does some comedic things it's found by unscrupulous guys- like the rest of Team CRDL- with ignoble intentions. The friends looking for it is cast as a race-against-time rescue against a possible revenge rape… until they find that soul-less Yang is still as strong as Berserk Yang, and pulverized the rest of Team CRDL with ease.
The time it takes to find Yang's body again, however, takes Yang into critical aura deprivation levels. To save Yang's soul, Jaune shares his own residual aura reserves, even though it requires the first official/nearly explicit spirit marriage to 'bring Yang into the family.' From then on Yang can also draw from the Arc Residual Aura reserves when she's a ghost, though she tries not to so as to not shorten Jaune's after-life span. Yang starts to train her own ghost abilities as well, allowing her to help out against White Fang ghosts. By the tournament in Season 3, Yang is able to create a dual combo-attack where Yang's berserk form is triggered, but then Yang herself exits and possesses her gauntlets in order to double-team her opponents with her berserk form and her body-less punches. It takes a lot of practice to do- and to learn how to direct her form- but it's a potent thing when done right.
After Yang's near after-death, Yang and her relationship with Jaune becomes mature. Initially starting as 'thank you' dream sex, it escalates when the two find they can fool around as ghosts. Yang pushes Jaune into more private fun, in dreams and out. Because of how her spirit-marriage bond formed, though, Yang's Jaune Dreams typically have marriage undertones, even as Yang embraces ghost-sex as a consequence-free alternative to the real thing. Yang's free-spirited (and body-free) fun with Jaune claims to be friends-with-benefits like Blake, but Yang is a lot less convincing.
Yang is the only member of the coven who indicates jealousy over how Jaune spends his nights and wants more of them to herself, though she tries not to let it show. The way the Jaune Dreams gradually started means there's no expectation of exclusivity about who Jaune spends nights with, especially since most of them are platonic friend time with his team and with whom he couldn't talk to otherwise. Jaune and Yang's ghost-relationship is open, as all the spirit-marriages are, and like Blake, it's treated as a 'not really real' thing. Yang could go off and get a 'real' boyfriend at any time she wanted. She just… doesn't care to.
In Season 2 Yang gets flustered when she's caught daydreaming, is hotly protective against the slightest threats of Exorcists, and sighs a lot without meaning to. During the Dance arc Yang goes by herself in a white quasi-wedding dress, and sits alone the entire night as if waiting to be asked to dance. It's that night- after seeing 'Neptune' dance with Weiss and Jaune skip a Jaune Dream invitation with her because he's worried about Weiss- that Yang admits to herself that she likes Jaune more than she admitted in the lead-up. After the Breach, and the Breach-arc's Meaningful Question from Oobleck about what they see Jaune being in a few years, Yang ends the Breach cool-down by directly asking Jaune out, just the two of them.
At the same time, though, Yang clearly values/desires commitment. Yang has her lingering issues with how her mother abandoned her and her father as soon as she was born, and how things with Summer were ambiguous because Summer wasn't married to Taiyang and wouldn't call herself Yang's mother when asked. As flippant and flirtatious as Yang is, Yang doesn't want a half-hearted relationship. Yang wants certainty… but she doesn't say this to Jaune, and doesn't admit it, and so Jaune thinks Yang is a lot less serious than she is.
Despite the troubles, Yang's interest in Jaune steadily rises over the course of the seasons. It starts as friendly friends, Cardin crisis excepted. It ignites with gratitude-ghost-sex after the spirit marriage. It's fueled by the ghost-to-ghost connection they have as Yang escapes her body, and their team-work to fight ghost-vs-ghost against the White Fang wraiths. Yang admits her interest for more to herself after the Dance, and during the 'what do you want to do with your life' question from Oobleck, which leads to Yang going official in her open relationship with Jaune. Emotional interest becomes entrenched when Jaune finds Summer, and solidifies once Jaune gives up his chance at a life-sustaining body for Summer. By the end of Season 3, Yang wants something committed, even as the Coven breaks up.
Yang's relationship with Jaune is the first that becomes open-knowledge and 'official' after Yang asks Jaune out after the Breach. Rumors spread and words get out, enough that her father Taiyang and Uncle Qrow visit in Season 2.5 after hearing dark rumors about Yang and Ruby and Jaune. Where Ruby denies there's anything special/romantic between her and Jaune, Yang doesn't, and so has to deal with a father's concern for his necrophiliac daughter. Yang's necrophilia is the running joke of her relationship with Jaune, especially given how much of it is ghost-on-ghost. Taiyang and Qrow's attempts at intimidation fail comically, even as Yang taunts them by having all manner of dirty ghost shenanigans over them. The climax/acceptance point would occur when Yang- again- loses track of her body, which goes out and gets lost. There's a search, but also a competitor when Raven gets involved- Raven stumbles across Yang's body by chance, recognizes that she's soulless, and chides her as wasting the body. Raven takes Yang away, placing her in a secure room while Raven finishes some other business, and implicitly intends to take her away. It's only because Jaune finds Yang's body- thanks to Yang's relic of him he can track- that Jaune is able to possess Yang's body himself and lead an escape. Raven's recognition of a soul-less Yang is foreshadowing that isn't picked up on, but Jaune gets on Taiyang and Qrow's good sides by recovering Yang's body and looking out for her. Jaune doing the right things and saying the right things (from Yang's body) persuade Taiyang and Qrow to drop their objections. What Jaune specifically says- that even if Yang hadn't had his relic, he still would have kept looking for her until he found her, no matter how long it took- endears him to Yang in particular. She'll reward him later, but Taiyang and Qrow leave with two foreshadowing-in-restrospect comments: Taiyang tears up a bit at Yang's safe return and good relationship, saying he never imagined she'd grow up so much, while Qrow has a bit more ominous aside to Jaune in that Jaune's commitment to recovering Yang reminds him of her mother.
From then on Yang and Jaune's relationship is official, if somewhat open within the Coven. Yang doesn't try to shut down Blake or Weiss's Jaune Dreams, but Yang does try to get more out-of-dream time by going ghost herself more often. The limiting factor in their relationship is, ahem, a lack of communication, as Yang can only perceive Jaune in the dreams or as a ghost herself. When Salem arrives to find Jaune, there's a comedic angle where Yang frets about meeting Jaune's mother, but they end up getting along famously as soon as the word 'girlfriend' is mentioned. Salem slide right into a mother-in-law role, with Yang even jokingly asking if she should call Salem 'Mother' (answer: yes), and otherwise getting alone well. There's the uptic in jealousy and anger when Ruby's phantom pregnancy is revealed- and a bit more when Jaune has to claim Phyrra is his fiancé to spare her Salem's wrath- but it's all made up for when Jaune shows Yang an apology present- the ghost of Summer.
Summer's ghost becomes a significant thing, but also something that Jaune and Yang try to keep a secret as they try to make sense of it. Summer and Yang reunite fondly, but they can't reunite with Ruby because of Ruby's Seer-ability Rebuke as a child. Summer admits to being responsible for some of Yang's ghost-suspicions from her childhood- protecting from mischance and accidents- but denies being responsible for some others, like lost toys being found. Summer has more to say, but is too weak to say it and Yang doesn't want to get distracted. Summer is recovering residual aura thanks to Jaune bringing it from Ruby's cloak, but she also can't approach Ruby herself, and she's reluctant to try and force the issue. Ruby already suspects she banished her mother, but if she knew for sure it would hurt her. Jaune and Yang work on a solution, with Yang guiding Ruby into revoking the rebuke, and ultimately Jaune and Yang are able to reunite Summer, and Ruby, and then Taiyang as well. Reuniting the family is an emotional sweetspot for everyone, but also builds Jaune and Yang's relationship. Taiyang goes from tolerance to approval, Summer thinks well of Jaune for making Yang and Ruby happy and reuniting her with Taiyang. Summer's and Yang have a mother-daughter ghost-ghost bonding session, with Summer talking to Yang and advising her to be clear in her intentions to Jaune. Summer wasn't when she, Taiyang, and Raven were in a love triangle… though Summer doesn't consider it a mistake, as it ended up giving her Yang. Yang takes the point that she needs to make things clear if she doesn't want to end up losing Jaune, and intends to make things exclusive when Jaune gets his body at the end of the tournament.
During the finale, when Jaune is trying to save Summer from getting trapped inside the Lantern, Yang is able to exercise her ghost abilities to exit her body at will in order to hold onto Jaune who's holding onto Summer to keep them from falling in. Yang, like Ruby, is distraught when Summer is on the brink of perma-death after the battle, and is deeply affected when Jaune saves Summer by giving her the body he could have had. When Summer is stolen away by Raven, Yang joins Taiyang in searching for both of them. Yang asks Jaune to accompany her as the Coven breaks apart. Even if she doesn't have the Seer abilities, she wants him to choose her over the others. Knowing she's being possessive Yang leaves without hearing Jaune's answer- because, again, not a Seer- setting the stakes as Jaune has to decide who to follow as his Coven splits. Jaune's compromise solution- of being summoned amongst the coven and spending a day with them each week as he keeps them in touch- is an imperfect compromise that Yang accepts.
Season 4 is Yang's quest with Taiyang, and confronts Yang's growing jealousy and desire for an exclusive relationship with Jaune. When it's Yang's pre-arranged turn to have Jaune, it's typically for Jaune Dreams or ghost-sessions that continue their relationship and leave Tiayang an uncomfortable third wheel. Over time, though, Yang tries to summon Jaune more than she should, even when the other members of the Coven need Jaune's help more, and wants Jaune to prioritize her (his girlfriend) over others. This causes friction with Jaune, who both doesn't understand the full extent of her feelings and is committed to being there for all of his friends. Jaune won't abandon friends in need just to have a relationship, and while Yang doesn't want to abandon them she does want a disproportionate time of his time and attention.
Yang wants a monopoly of interest that Jaune won't give, which threatens their relationship. Taiyang- after being very uncomfortable third wheel to the lovers spat and lovers dreams- provides advice to Yang about the difficulties of open/polyamorous relationships. Taiyang would draw back from his own experience from the love polygon that was him, Qrow, Raven, and Summer, and how (badly) that turned out. While Yang took from Summer that ambiguously muddled relationships were bad, Taiyang's moral of the story would end up being that understanding, not exclusivity, is what would make a relationship work. Trying to monopolize Jaune away from friends isn't healthy, and if Jaune was the sort to go along with Yang's desires and abandon his commitments to the others he wouldn't have the sort of commitment Yang wants either. Yang's character development / relationship maturity peaks when Yang willingly foregoes a turn or two with Jaune when Jaune is preparing the Weiss/Blake/Ren tour de force of season climaxes. Yang wants compensation for it later, but her willingness to compromise saves the relationship and shows her balancing her friends and Coven's needs against her own desires. Jaune is grateful, having feared he was in a messy breakup if Yang insisted he stay, and Jaune promises to make it up to her. After Jaune's successful mission with Weiss/rescue of Blake/Lantern prison-break with Ren, Jaune returns to Yang at the next summoning to give her his undivided attention. It even happens to be on the six-month anniversary of them going out, or round abouts, and so Jaune remembering it and treating Yang to pleasant dreams re-stabilizes the previously troubled relationship.
Yang's jealousy/relationship development is the focus of Season 4, but Taiyang and Yang are only chasing after Raven during it. The catch-up and confrontation would occur during Season 5, which would address Raven's kidnapping of Summer, abandonment of Yang, and the big honking spoiler I dropped last chapter, the reveal of which shakes Yang to her core.
Yang is a homunculus- a body without a soul of its own.
'Yang,' as we know her, isn't the 'real' Yang- from now on called 'Yang'- who's soul was conceived by Taiyang and Raven. That Yang had her soul stolen during pregnancy, leaving Yang born as a soulless husk of a baby. That was why Raven left, and what she's been doing ever since then- chasing after and trying to save the soul of her 'real' daughter. Raven doesn't acknowledge Yang as her daughter, just the body, because 'Yang' is a different entity entirely. Raven eventually found 'Yang', and rescued her soul, but something else was possessing 'Yang's' body when she came back- Yang.
When a homunculus is unpossessed, it can still respond to stimuli and instincts, but it's mostly a shell. If a homunculus is unpossessed long enough, however- a year or two- it can start to develop a pseudo-soul of its own. Homunculi souls, rare as they are, are considered 'lesser' souls- they are echoes of the original soul that should have developed, they have a weaker grip on their body, and are more vulnerable to spiritual corruption. They don't even produce residual aura, 'proof' that they aren't 'really' alive in the first place. They were never supposed to exist, and other ghosts tend to see them as an obstacle to be ejected from a body that should go to more worthy spirits.
This is what happened to the Yang we know. The Yang we know was born an almost brain-dead baby, but was protected by Summer until she could grow her own pseudo-soul. In terms of soul-age, Yang is really only as old as Ruby, as before then she was an almost vegetative husk who only slowly grew awareness thanks to Summer's ministrations. Because Yang had developed awareness and a soul, Raven couldn't put 'Yang' back in 'her' body. Raven left, looking for some other solution to save her 'real' daughter, because Yang is just a placeholder. She's just a body in search of a spirit, and being a homunculus is why she likes Jaune as much as she does- at an instinctive level, Yang's homunculus nature wants a 'real' spirit, and lets Yang's soul go so easily in hopes of getting a real soul in its place.
Raven revealing this once finally tracked and cornered is an emotional haymaker to Yang. Yang enters a crisis of identity, especially when faced ghost-to-ghost with the 'real' 'Yang'- who looks and acts a lot like her, but with different life experiences and a jealousy of Yang living 'her' life for her. A lot of Yang's sense of self is undercut by the harshness of Raven's position- that she was abandoned because she wasn't a daughter, that she was an accident and an abomination who should never have existed, that even her interest with Jaune is just a product of her form and not her own choice. Yang struggles to grapple with whether she's 'real'- really Ruby's sister, really a person, really herself- as she's knocked out of her own body and spiritually overpowered by 'Yang.' 'Yang' is the better ghost than Yang, spiritually stronger than even Jaune for having had to fight to survive her afterlife for all this time, and 'Yang' wants to live. 'Yang' wins the fight, and exorcises Yang from her own body, dooming her to wither and die without any aura of her own, like any homunculus soul should.
Except, of course, Jaune.
While Yang loses the fight for her body, badly, and even Jaune is knocked away by Raven and 'Yang,' the Arc Aura Reserves provide a life-line for Yang. Jaune helps Yang rebalance her soul and get her head on straight, and affirming her place in the Coven and their awkward ghost relationship as 'real enough.' With another go at it- and exploiting some things like 'Yang' being unfamiliar with living in a real body and letting down her guard due to the pleasures of flesh, and a loophole where Jaune and Yang can invade 'Yang's' dreams when she's asleep- Jaune and Yang are able to overpower and reclaim Yang's body from 'Yang.' It'd include some quips and puns, but also Jaune making a claim of his own on Yang's body. Quasi-romantically-possessive, and the sort of affirmative commitment Yang's been wanting. Yang's triumph in reclaiming control of her body would include the rule about how 'the only body one can possess is one's own,' proving that she has as much right to it as anyone.
The battle ends with Yang victorious, but having mercy on 'Yang.' Yang and 'Yang' are pretty similar, like twins brought up under different circumstances, but they aren't so different as they appear. 'Yang' has been trying all her life to live, watching from afar as Yang had a sister a family and a life that 'Yang' tried but failed to be a part of. 'Yang' was even one of the ghosts besides Summer haunting them at one point, trying to take part from afar, and was responsible for lost toys being found and such- her attempt to 'play.' 'Yang' was one of Ruby's imaginary friends as a child, before Yang inadvertently pushed Ruby away from engaging with her 'imaginary' friend and played with her instead. 'Yang' is basically Yang if Yang had been locked out of her own life.
Yang has pity, and rather than let 'Yang' die or kill her they would join on a spiritual level. Yang becomes 'The Woman with Two Souls' – one homunculus, one real- as she and 'Yang' become sisters-in-spirit and share the body. Yang is dominant, but 'Yang' gets turns and is in charge whenever Yang goes berserk, and so 'Yang' is brought into the Coven. (And into the spirit-marriage with Jaune- who 'Yang' develops her own crush on/envy of Yang over seeing Jaune rally to Yang.) Yang is stronger, 'Yang' is a new character with a twist on Yang's developed persona (a new 'outsider' for the group, and sadly getting her sense of 'normal' from the Coven), and
And that's about as far as any Yang-specific plots went. After learning to share her body with herself, and affirming that she and Jaune are in a committed relationship no matter how odd it is, Yang returns to the Coven. It'd be unusual, with Yang greeting Ruby about bringing her a new sister, and 'Yang' being brought out. Having learned to share her own body, sharing Jaune with the rest of the Coven becomes much easier.
The Summer and Raven plot… Raven's disgruntled and defeated in 'Yang' have to settle for body-sharing, but Summer and Taiyang contain her. Summer actually knew of 'Yang,' and the two know eachother from mutual ghost days, but Summer never had a good time to speak of her to Yang before kidnapping. If Raven didn't run off to swear vengeance/plot to reclaim 'Yang' and dispel Yang's soul for good, she'd be taken away by Summer and Taiyang as the three of them go to mend burnt bridges and address some other plots, the implicit polyamory Raven/Summer/Taiyang also had way back when. Summer is rescued, but she and Taiyang have to go with Raven to address some bigger plot or danger, leaving the Coven to continue. Ruby and Yang's parents promise to return at some future point, which wasn't even close to planned.
Yang's Coven-name is Sister Will-o-Wisp, aka fool's fire. When Yang is a ghost, her ghostly aura looks like a faint fireball to Ren, and she occasionally uses fire dust for that purpose.
Yang's relic is a ring which is totally not a wedding band. The ring gives Yang the 'touch' ghost sense with her ring-hand, allowing her to punch ghosts… or touch Jaune. The ring also acts as a seal that keeps her soul inside her body, protecting her from being possessed even when berserk. When Yang wants to become a ghost, and later on when she's changes personas with 'Yang,' she takes it off and puts it on a chain around her neck.
Yang's relationship with Jaune just got spelled out, so two shorter points. First, Ruby and Yang in season 4 serve as foils for eachother in terms of being 'jealous' characters- wants a monopoly of Jaune's attention, and Yang wants to be his priority. Both girls compromising for the Coven's dynamics is what allows the Coven to adapt and evolve. Secondly, 'Yang' becomes the catalyst for Yang entering the polyamory upon rejoining the coven. Upon the union, Yang and 'Yang' share dreams when the sleep which means Yang has an audience for her Jaune Dreams. The only way for Yang and Jaune to get privacy is to go ghost. Unlike Yang, who is heteronormatively monogamous by nature, 'Yang' is both far less committed and far more open to bisexuality. With an intent to 'live a lot' now that she has access to a body, 'Yang' is open to broadening the Coven into a polyamory that includes her. This drags Yang in, and would likely provide the post-unity character plot for them.
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Author Note:
So. Apologies for the delay. I got caught up in stuff, and then things, and then there was a major hangover for something I can't quite remember...?
Probably unimportant. Anyway- the first part of the character arcs. Team RWBY had the most romance arcs planned, which led to the most being written. Add some typical over-planning stuff as well, and more writing went into ideas than actual writing. It's just one of my quirks.
Anyways- the dirty secret is out. This was a, gag, harem fic in the making- my own dirty concession to a cheap idea. Although it would have been so atypical I'm not sure how much the label really applies, especially since Jaune's role is more like 'actor in dreams' than romantic interest for most. Very atypical, at least.
JNPR tomorrow, and then finishing up with the misc. characters and a few last things.