Thank you for your long post, it was absolutely delightful to read!
Can people give him titles, and if so are there limits/requirements to them? Do titles affect him? On a related note, does how people refer to him in relation to themselves matter, such as if Cinder were to name him her enemy or say he was a bane to her existence, does the Narrator take note and affect how he can respond/try to lead him to fulfill that role for the person? (Making it clear, not trying to make it romance related at all, more so roles like Friend, Rival, Bane and similar).
We have seen the King and the Poet come up and be relevant as roles, but what has changed for him since he became the Soldier? What binds him by that title, since a King is a proper host and a Bard speaks truth?
Which of his enemies know about part of or fully about his state? What gives it away the most when it comes to him, other than his glamor dropping?
And finally - how annoying is it for him/others with him to enjoy a movie or book since their tropes and likely story is revealed to him? (Since you like to make him suffer, I thought this 'benefit' was fitting :p)
Holy shit dude. Okay, gonna answer this in pieces
People can give him titles, yeah, but they only really matter if they actually mean them. A goofy nickname or something said as a joke isnât gonna do much. The Narrative doesnât care about the words themselves, it cares about the intent behind them. A title only sticks if someone is treating it like itâs true
The more weight behind it, the more the Narrative pays attention. How seriously itâs said, how often itâs repeated, how strongly the person believes it, all of that factors in. And if multiple people start calling him the same thing, that matters a lot more. At that point it stops being one personâs opinion and starts looking like a role the story expects him to fill (That's where King of the Story came from, the Afterans called him that)
On the flip side, how people define him in relation to themselves can absolutely matter too, especially if theyâre someone whoâs already tied closely to him in the story. The Narrative pays more attention to those connections
So if someone like Cinder calls him her enemy, or a bane to her existence, thatâs not just a label itâs her defining a relationship, and the Narrative LIKES relationships
It doesnât force him to act a certain way, but it does start to nudge things in that direction. Itâs less âyou are this nowâ and more âthe story is going to keep trying to make this true.â The more people believe it, and CRITICALLY the more he acts like itâs TRUE, the harder it is to break out of
The Soldier is a little different from the King and the Poet, because itâs less about rules and more about purpose.
The King is about structure. The Poet is about truth. The Soldier is about intervention.
The Soldier exists to stand between harm and other people. Not to win. Not to look impressive. Not even necessarily to succeed. Just to be there, in the way of it.
So for Jaune, it shows up less as new abilities and more as a shift in instinct. He moves to cover people without thinking about it. He puts himself in the path of things. He takes hits he probably shouldnât survive, not because heâs invincible, but because the story expects him to hold the line.
He still feels pain. It doesnât get dulled or ignored. It just⌠stops being a stopping point. Pain becomes something he goes through, not something that makes him stop.
In combat, especially against Grimm, he doesnât really fight like a duelist anymore. Itâs less about skill expression and more about removing a threat, direct, efficient, almost clinical in a way thatâs a little unsettling if you know him. He fights like a knight slaying a monster, they're things to be REMOVED not fought
It has limits. It doesnât override exhaustion, it doesnât make him invincible, and it doesnât let him ignore damage forever. And it behaves very differently depending on what heâs fighting. Against Grimm, it leans all the way in. Thatâs a clean story: monster, threat, removal. Against people, it pulls back unless someone else is directly threatened.
The Soldier isnât there to win the fight. Itâs there to endure and make sure people survive it.
As of where I've written up to, Cinder knows the worst of it (mostly the name/titles and circle stuff). Mercury knows, too, but THE PLOT has given him a tail switch and he's not a baddie anymore (good for him). Salem suspects some stuff, cause she's been around a long enough time to recognize fairytale logic, but she doesn't know much of anything (mostly because he's not excatly a priority lol). Thank fucking CHRIST Tyrian doesn't know anything cause he'd be a DISASTER
The stuff that gives it away the most other than the glamour slipping (which is yeah, pretty obvious lol) is probably the stuff with names. Mostly because it's a pretty normal thing for Jaune to encounter (it's not like people are sut carrying around cold iron with them). But someone casually saying his name and him straightening and the sunlight highlighting him like "this is someone to pay attention to" isn't exactly SUBTLE
There are other little things too. He falls into patterns without meaning to, conversations land a little too cleanly around him, people notice him at the exact right moment even if they werenât before. None of it is super obvious on its own, but once you start putting it together, itâs⌠noticeable
Jaune cannot watch anything normally anymore. Like heâll sit down, get maybe ten minutes in, and then just go ââŚoh that guyâs gonna betray them.â And everyone else is like JAUNE PLEASE-
Itâs not even that heâs trying to figure it out, itâs just⌠obvious to him now. Heâs not analyzing the story, the story is just lining itself up in a way that makes sense to him. Setups feel like setups. Foreshadowing feels loud. Character arcs are basically wearing name tags.
The worst part is heâs not always right in a âplot summaryâ way, but heâs right in a story logic way. So heâll say things like: âThatâs not gonna work, itâs too easy.â âNo one important has paid for anything yet.â âThat promise is going to come back later.â And everyone else is just sitting there like >:|
Movies are bad, but books are worse. Mostly because books rely on more old-fashioned tropes/themes than movies do. Heâll just stop mid-chapter like ââŚtheyâve mentioned that ring three times.â
The only time he actually enjoys something is when the story doesnât follow the rules he expects. Plot twists donât get him anymore. But something that breaks structure? Thatâll get him to sit up like âWait hold on-â
Also he has to be actively banned from saying anything during movies now
Heâs not allowed to comment. Heâs not allowed to "just one thing-" Heâs not allowed to pause the movie. He is, however, allowed to be physically threatened if he starts going âokay but NARRATIVELY-â
On the bright side, heâs incredible at guessing endings. On the downside, he canât turn it off lol
So yeah. Great skill. Super fun. Definitely not ruining his ability to enjoy literally any story ever
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