User blog comment:Zathronas/Speculative author, Volume 3: Jaune Arc/@comment-25258408-20141121050739/@comment-25258408-20141122033821

You were right; this is a very controversial blog! And I do understand that Jaune is only winning in these cases due to special circumstances, overconfidence being one and Semblance being another. Yes, Jaune's Aura is powerful and his Semblance assumedly will be so as well, and yes, he does have great potential. I also heard that his weapon has a second form, too. However, I don't think that Jaune is on a sufficient level of skill to be dealing with threats like Emmy and Merc, and I don't think cockiness and a hidden Semblance will be enough to give him a win, or even a close fight. I expect him to take a huge step forward, but I don't think I'm underestimating him when I say that he simply can't handle Cinder's right-hand people, much less win a tournament filled with Huntsmen and Huntresses who have had extensive training. I think he'll do well, but he's not winning, not when he's so inexperienced in battle.

To say that Jaune, who hasn't even had a full year of training and who has no clear fighting style or variety of ways to engage his enemies, can defeat warrios who are much more versatile and skilled seems unrealistic. Mercury, just fooling around, has held his ground against Pyrrha. To assume that Jaune has a skill level adequate enough so that his Semblance can compensate for the gap between him and people like Emmy and Merc is, in my opinion, overestimating him. These are people who will (if you speculate correctly) be taking on Weiss and Yang, two Huntresses who have trained their entire lives (or at least most of them) to get to where they are today. They have refined their techinque and learned to incorporate their Semblance into their fighting style seamlessly (granted, Yang could use some work in that deparment, but she's still very powerful). And, as has been proven in the show multiple times, no matter how badass your Semblance may be, a more skilled opponent will have no trouble taking you down. And a very overconfident Neo has shown this when fighting Yang.

As it is now, the skill gap between Jaune and the rest of the cast is immense, and I think that the show should take its time building him up to their level. He will reach it eventually, of this I have no doubt, and he's clearly made strides already. But he's fighting with allies and against enemies who have spent their lives honing their skills. He, on the other hand, didn't even know what Aura was when he came to Beacon. To assume that he will gain their years of knowledge and technique in less than a year, when the only advantages he has over them are a powerful Aura and an increased drive to work harder seems impossible to me. This is getting really long-winded and I don't blame you for not reading the whole thing (I have a hard time being succinct), but to conclude: I think that Jaune's measly less-than-a-year long training with Pyrrha cannot in any way be compensated for by his Semblance. He needs to have years and years and years of training and battlefield experience before reaching the level of the other protagonists, much less Emmy and Merc.