Weiss

Weiss Schnee is a titular protagonist of RWBY. She is a Huntress, a former student of the now-defunct Beacon Academy, and former heiress of the Schnee Dust Company. Her weapon of choice is a Multi-Action Dust Rapier (MADR) named Myrtenaster.

As the former heiress of the vastly influential Schnee Dust Company, Weiss made her first appearance in the "White" Trailer. After enrolling in Beacon against the wishes of her father, Jacques Schnee, she becomes a member of Team RWBY alongside Ruby Rose, Blake Belladonna and Yang Xiao Long. Being the middle of the three Schnee siblings, Weiss is the younger sister of Winter Schnee and the older sister of Whitley Schnee.

Weiss is a pale-skinned young woman with pale blue eyes and long white hair that is often pulled back into an off-center ponytail or braid on the right side and pinned with a silver, icicle-shaped tiara. She stands at 4' 11" (1.5 meters), but typically wears heels that raise her height to 5' 3" (1.6 meters). Weiss has a scar which runs vertically down her left eye and face, gained during her battle against an Arma Gigas in the "White" Trailer.

After arriving in Atlas and meeting with James Ironwood, Weiss' hair is now braided, and she has grown out her bangs and styled them to frame her face more closely.

She wears a pale blue sleeveless dress with deep red lining, bow detail fixture, and two diamond-shaped pieces hanging from the corners of the hem, over a white diagonal hemmed strapless dress. Above which she wears a vivid blue shrug with a raised collar, puffy sleeves and the Schnee emblem on the left sleeve, fastened by a blue, silver outlined strap. On her arms are a pair of long navy blue gloves with silver top trim surrounding a red gem at the top.

Over her dress, she wears a light blue, corset styled belt. Around her waist are three white belts with a medium-sized pouch attached to the lowest belt and another pouch attached to the middle belt. The lowest belt crosses over the middle belt. She wears long, pale blue wedge-heel boots with white frill detailing at the top at the front, alongside grayish blue coloring on the toes and navy blue wedged heels.

In addition, she wears a pair of ruby earrings that match her icicle-shaped tiara with a diamond-shaped ruby in the center.

Monty Oum had said that everything has been decided for Weiss in her life and because of it, she is a bit of a rebel. This manifests itself in her physical appearance as she wears her ponytail to the side of her head, disrupting the symmetry of the rest of her outfit. When Professor Peter Port states that Weiss has received everything she wanted in life, she responds that it is not entirely true, thinking of her father's attitude. She takes pride in her name and the company, though, as seen when she first meets Blake, when she discusses it with her team in Mountain Glenn and when she confronts her father over it.

Considering the lyrics of her leitmotif "Mirror Mirror", it is very likely that Weiss has felt lonely throughout her life, which translated into a cold nature. Constant attacks by the White Fang added heavy strain to her life, explaining her often difficult personality. Her strict upbringing has also given her a tendency to keep quiet about her own desires, likely not to be seen as vulnerable. After warming up to people, she places a great deal of trust in her friends and confides in them when she feels the need. While she doesn't abandon her prickly attitude completely, she gradually becomes nicer and more compassionate to people, especially her friends.

According to her voice actress, Kara Eberle, Weiss is "nice but can also be a little bit bitchy." She is irritable and confident in her abilities, though also acknowledges her deficiencies and the need to hone her skills further. Her confidence in her skills and intellect often comes off as arrogance to others. This is also mentioned by Kara, who called her the "know-it-all" type of person who can also become best friends with her acquaintances.

Weiss takes her time at Beacon more seriously than her teammates, taking notes even when the topic is not related to the knowledge she seeks. She equates such dedication in the classroom with dedication in the field. Thus, she is annoyed at those who do not take things seriously, especially when it comes to becoming protectors against the Grimm. Weiss remains calm and tactical during encounters and mentally coaches herself. She is thoughtful and fights with precision and coordination.

After speaking with Professor Port, Weiss' attitude appears to change, as she takes his suggestion to "be the best person [she] can be" to heart. She opens up to Ruby, though she does not halt future criticisms. Weiss' development carries into her whimsical and humorous side as she joins her team in a food fight against Team JNPR and a board game. In "Painting the Town...", Weiss attempts to joke but is met with negative criticism from Yang and Blake. Weiss also enjoys planning and participating in certain events, such as the Beacon Dance.

Weiss vows that as a Huntress, she will elevate the Schnee name from her father's dishonor to it and put her desires behind others' necessities. This solidifies in "Lessons Learned" when Weiss heeds her sister's advice and removes her bindings from the SDC to discover more about herself.

After being retrieved from Beacon and flown home, Weiss is truly affected by the loss that happened during the Fall of Beacon. She becomes increasingly intolerant of the Atlesian lifestyle she grew up in, seeing it as superficial and ignorant. Her change of perspective is demonstrated by her hostility toward Henry Marigold's insensitive and ignorant attitude about the charity event and her public outburst when a couple talks condescendingly about the destruction of Vale.

Weiss has demonstrated the ability to keep a level head in the face of intense and deeply emotional situations. When Ironwood's paranoia begins to spiral in "Gravity" Weiss attempts to regain control of the situation by pointing out that his concerns are not relevant to the current situation. After Neopolitan knocked Yang over the edge in "The Final Word", Weiss immediately attempts to comfort Blake before the latter lashes back at Neo in rage. While Ruby and Blake are preoccupied with Neopolitan, Weiss quietly resigns herself and does her duty by fighting Cinder and drawing the Fall Maiden's attention to keep as many civilians out of harm's way as possible during the evacuation.

Relationships:

Jacques Schnee: Jacques Schnee was Weiss' father. Weiss briefly talked about him in "The Stray", saying that he always came home angry because of the White Fang's action. Her father's anger caused a difficult childhood, causing her to have a poor relationship with him. She also suffered constant abused at the hands of her father, which could explain her reason for how she acted at the beginning of the series.

In "A Minor Hiccup", when Weiss contacted the Schnee Company World Headquarters in Atlas, Weiss refused to speak to her father, despite the attendant asking her if she wanted to talk to him. After the call ended, she stared down from the screen with a sad face. It was possible she was afraid of her father since she brushed off the subject. According to Weiss, ever since her father took lead over the Schnee Dust Company, it had hit a moral gray area. As a result, she decided that she would not let him be the end of her family's heritage, taking up the career of a Huntress to redeem them.

"Round One" further showed how strained the relationship was when Weiss refused to answer a call from him. Her card being declined mere minutes afterwards was a result of her rejecting his call. Her sister, Winter Schnee, gave her two options on what she could do about their father as advice: One, call or answer his call and beg for his money back, under the likeness that the conversation or heated argument would be needless. The other, she can continue to explore Remnant and discover more about herself, intentionally neglecting the concept of calling their father. After her sister left Beacon, Weiss still refused to answer her father's call, planning on following up on Winter's second option.

After the Battle of Beacon, her father arrived in Vale and collected her personally to take her back to Atlas, deeming it far safer. In reality, he only cares about the Schnee family name and how his daughter being in the incident would affect the company. Weiss was seen accompanying him with a morose look on her face.

Several months later, Weiss showed reluctant compliance toward her father's influence despite her dislike of his wishes. During the Vale charity event, Jacques acted controlling of her, not even wanting to let her leave his side to get herself a drink. When she lost her temper in front of all the attendees, she openly struggled against his attempt to get a grip on her. When they argued privately afterwards, Weiss challenged his right to the family name, resulting in her getting slapped in response. Her father also grounded her to the house and decided to remove her claim to the Schnee Dust Company.

Their relationship only continued to plummet due to Weiss' continued and now open defiance, as seen in "Pomp and Circumstance" where Weiss openly insulted her father in front of General Ironwood and her teammates, worsening their relationship further. Jacques retaliated by mentioning her mother's growing instability to alcoholism and depression and claimed she had another depression episode due to Weiss leaving the family again. Upon seeing Weiss' reaction, he smirked, pleased that he had emotionally hurt her.

Later after the events of a "A Night Off" and "Cordially Invited", Weiss' opinion of her father diminished to the point that she would even suspect her father would even align with Salem in order to win and started actively investigating her father's activities to put a stop to his amoral actions.

Willow Schnee: Weiss tells Yang about how, on her tenth birthday, her father admitted that he didn't love her mother. Weiss insinuates that Jacques married her mother for control of the SDC, and she seems to blame Jacques for the Schnee family's currently fractured state, including her mother's descent into alcoholism as a way of coping with her sham of a marriage. Prior to this, it seems that Weiss' mother cared a great deal for her, as she was recounted as angrily berating Jacques for missing Weiss' tenth birthday, which led to the argument during which Jacques admitted his true feelings, after which her mother began drinking. Although aware that Jacques was to blame for her mother's depression, Weiss still clearly felt neglected by Willow after the schism between her parents, describing to Yang how Willow first attended her singing recitals separately, then stopped coming as she descended further into alcoholism.

Despite this strained relationship, Weiss still shows evident love and worry for her mother. In "Pomp and Circumstance", Weiss' distress and worry for her mother becomes apparent after Jacques claims that Willow had refused to leave her room for days after Weiss had disappeared again.

Winter Schnee: Winter Schnee is Weiss' elder sister and spent at least one evening training her prior to Weiss' departure from Atlas. At first, Weiss declined to interact with her, indicating a strained relationship, just like with her father. However, at the finale of "New Challengers..." Weiss is somewhat delighted by her sister's arrival, which leads to the conclusion that Weiss actually looks up to her older sister. Their subsequent conversations both in front of Beacon and later when they share tea, show that Winter has something of a mentor role but that there is also affection between the two sisters.

In "Lessons Learned", Winter makes an effort to instruct Weiss on her summoning ability, and Weiss insists that she is unable to summon despite it being a solid aspect of her Semblance. Winter then chides her sister for giving up on herself, leading to her giving an empowering advice about their father and warmly embracing her little sister.

Given their family history, Winter's strong concern for Weiss was a result of their family's fractured state, filling for their mother in seeing to Weiss' well-being and psychological health by inquiring about if she's made any friends upon greeting her younger sister. It is clear that despite the distance in their family that the sisters care very much about one another. Winter appears to serve as a mentor figure to Weiss, teaching her that by facing the challenges of remaining at Beacon and not relying on their father's wealth, that she might be able to learn more about herself and the world around her. Winter's strict demeanor when tutoring Weiss belies the bond the two share, and she genuinely cares for Weiss.

In "The Greatest Kingdom", Weiss was thinking about calling Winter so she and her friends can go to Atlas and meet up with Ironwood until Blake shows her an auto broadcast of her addressing the citizens of Mantle. Weiss becomes sad and distraught on how much Winter has changed in Atlas and she was willing to agree with Ironwood's strict rules.

However despite these circumstances, Weiss still retains the same close and sisterly relationship with Winter, which is requited. In "Sparks", the two confide in and comfort each other regarding the state of their home Kingdom, and Winter even goes as far as showing Weiss the Winter Maiden, Fria, revealing her assignment to become Fria's successor. At first, Weiss was bothered by this, as Ironwood chose this fate for Winter. However, when Winter explained the growing feelings of honor, pride and responsibility she felt at having the chance to make a genuine difference in the world, Weiss came to respect her sister's choice and admires her commitment and selflessness.

In "With Friends Like These" and "The Enemy of Trust", Weiss' relationship with Winter became strained, as seen in Winter's horror and disappointment with Weiss upon seeing her now becoming wanted in Atlas and was later seen worryingly wondering on what she did to anger the General to the extent of making her a wanted criminal.

Whitley Schnee: Weiss initially does not have a good relationship with her younger brother. She states that Whitley never liked her, however, he acts supportive of Weiss after she comes home from Beacon. Although at first suspicious, Weiss appeared to be happy that her brother had changed.

After the charity event, Weiss feels betrayed by Whitley when she comes to believe that the true reason for his kindness toward her was to become the heir to the Schnee Dust Company. Subsequently, their relationship becomes more tumultuous.

In "Two Steps Forward, Two Steps Back", Whitley visits her in her room, offering to pick something up for her while he is in the city with Jacques, due to her being stuck at home. Weiss reacts negatively, assuming that he is taunting her, and she accuses him of being jealous of her and Winter's abilities. He denies it, claiming to find it, in general, to be barbaric. With her glyphs, she slams the door shut on him.

Whitley's emulation of their father's less than savory personality seems to be one of the driving forces behind the siblings' animosity towards one another.

During the events of "Cordially Invited", their mother Willow insinuates that Whitley's spiteful behavior towards his sister may be due to him feeling abandoned and betrayed by Weiss, who left him alone with their abusive father and unstable mother, greatly surprising Weiss.

In "Fault", Weiss has no problem threatening Whitley if he refuses to let her and the others in the Schnee Manor to hide from the Atlas Military. When he asks her what he is supposed to do, she orders him to go to his room.

In "War", Weiss and Whitley's relationship began getting better. When Weiss argued with May Marigold about trying to help protect Atlas, Weiss still retains her care and familial love for her remaining relatives in Atlas, specifically her mother and her brother Whitley, despite everything that happened between them and their issues and attempted to convince her that they also needed to protect Atlas as well. Whitely having overheard their argument, appeared to be touched by his sister's continue care for him.

This act leads Whitley to let more of his kinder aspects surface, as shown when he contacted Klein Sieben asking for his help in treating Nora Valkyrie. This particular act would make Weiss very proud, hugging him in the process. Whitley in turn returned the gesture, finally starting to make up.

Klein Sieben: Weiss shows kindness toward the butler, as seen in "Remembrance". Klein cheers her up after she has an unhappy conversation with her father and calls her his "happy Little Snowflake".

In "Two Steps Forward, Two Steps Back", Klein comes to her room and asks if she is alright after hearing her window break. When he sees her summoned Arma Gigas, he is impressed. Weiss asks him a favor, and he nods, another indication that he is more loyal toward her than her father.

In "Taking Control", Klein shows his loyalty to Weiss by helping her escape the Schnee Manor. Before she leaves, both Weiss and Klein acknowledge that, including Winter, they are and always will be each other's family. This declaration of devotion is sealed with a goodbye hug. Based on Klein's more friendly and amicable disposition towards Weiss, it can be assumed that he held similar loyalty to Winter due to her and Weiss' shared ambitions of serving the public good and selfless personalities. Klein often treats Weiss with an extremely familial tone, using humor to ease Weiss' burdened mind, being there with a quip and a concerned voice, giving Weiss a stalwart confidant to go to. Based on their relationship following the Fall of Beacon and Weiss' return to Atlas, it can be inferred that the two have been close friends for many years.

In "Cordially Invited", Weiss shows sadness and guilt upon learning that Klein was fired after helping her escape the Schnee Manor.

In "War", Weiss looks happy to see Klein again after Whitely calls him to check on Nora. She apologizes to him for getting fired because of her, but Klein doesn't blame her. Following this, he helps out Weiss and her friends with helping Nora and Penny and later their plan to use the Relic of Creation to evacuate the citizens of the Kingdom to Vacuo.

Ruby Rose: Ruby is Weiss' partner and team leader. The two get off to a bad start when Ruby knocks over her expensive luggage and nearly blows them off the cliff from a Dust accident. Weiss initially considers Ruby beneath her, due to the latter's younger age, childlike behavior, and her apparent lack of knowledge about Dust and herself. When Ruby offers to try and make it up to her, Weiss tells her she can start by leaving her alone.

When the two meet up in the Emerald Forest during "The First Step, Pt.2", Weiss' first instinct is to walk away, leaving Ruby behind. She only decides to partner with Ruby after seeing that her other option was Jaune Arc, which delights Ruby.

At first, Weiss doesn't think much of Ruby's abilities, seeing herself as vastly superior in combat. Weiss is surprised by Ruby's speed but considers her to have bad form, and initially the two don't work well together due to their lack of communication and coordination. At one point, she gets upset when Ruby attacks a Beowolf she herself was about to attack, causing her to set off a small forest fire when she redirected her attack away from Ruby. However, Ruby's mistakes are largely a result of Ruby constantly trying to prove herself to Weiss.

Because of their vastly different personalities, Weiss and Ruby normally have different opinions and argue on various points. Weiss tries to always be correct, which conflicts with Ruby's somewhat carefree approach to things. In "The Emerald Forest, Pt.2", Weiss refuses to admit she is lost and then criticizes Ruby for doing nothing, despite Ruby stating that at least she can admit they are lost. This leads to another blowout, with Ruby calling Weiss bossy, and the latter calling Ruby childish, also stating that she is leagues better than Ruby, who is shown to be visibly hurt by the comment.

Despite Weiss always feeling the need to be right, Ruby has been able to talk her into doing things, such as riding on the talons of a Nevermore, which Weiss later regretted. Ruby also managed to talk her into turning the beds in their dorm into bunk beds to save space, which Weiss initially thought would be dangerous. Additionally, Weiss didn't agree with Ruby being made the leader of their team, seeing her as too immature for the role, while Weiss has trained for years to become a Huntress.

At times, however, the two are able to get along. When Ruby was about to be killed by the Death Stalker and Yang Xiao Long couldn't reach her in time, Weiss rushed out and saved her. Weiss then tells Ruby that they are a team and she will be nicer if Ruby would stop trying to show off; with Ruby saying she was only showing off to impress Weiss and prove she could handle herself. Later, after getting some advice from Port, she acknowledges that Ruby at least has the potential to become a good leader and tells Ruby she will be the best teammate she can be, even going so far as to get her coffee.

It was then that Weiss and Ruby get on friendlier terms, though she is still stern when correcting Ruby's misunderstanding of Pyrrha Nikos' Semblance, as Ruby thought of "polarity" as being able to control poles rather than magnetism. Along with Ruby, both smile in agreement with Pyrrha in keeping her assistance during Jaune's fight with the Ursa a secret. In "The Stray", both girls show some camaraderie regarding their "combat skirts" after Blake quips about Weiss fighting in a dress.

Blake Belladonna: Blake is one of Weiss' teammates. When the two first meet, Weiss is angry with Blake for insulting the Schnee Dust Company. However, they seem to make up to some extent afterwards; Blake cheers on Weiss in her fight against the Boarbatusk that Peter Port had her fight in class when she volunteered to do so.

Toward the end of the season, however, Blake becomes angered by Weiss' racism toward the Faunus. After an incident in which Blake accidentally implies that she was a member of the White Fang, Weiss' trust in her is completely shattered due to an ongoing conflict between her company and the Faunus organization. During this same incident, Blake accidentally reveals herself to be a Faunus and flees, further increasing the gap between the two. When Ruby mentions Blake's two days of absence, Weiss seemingly shows no interest in finding her teammate, saying she is a big girl and criticizing her for being a former White Fang member.

The trust between the two girls may have shattered after Blake's revelations, one of which has Weiss questioning Blake's true loyalty. Despite this, Weiss becomes concerned about finding Blake; she notes it took twelve hours to find her. In the end, Weiss says she does not care if Blake was a former member of the White Fang but is glad to know she is safe. Through this, the trust between the two is seemingly repaired, ergo, possibly even their friendship. Weiss also mentions if any major incident occurs, Blake should call on her team instead of someone like Sun Wukong.

By "Welcome to Beacon", the two seem to be on friendly terms, as also shown when Weiss shows concern for Blake's recent behavior, saying it is unacceptable and that she made a promise to her team to tell them if anything is wrong, which implies a high amount of mutual trust. After Blake brings out her worries about both Roman and the White Fang and proposes they fight their enemies, Weiss agrees, commenting it might be fun. Trust between the two has increased to the point both are able to work well together, showing good team coordination in their fight against Roman when he pilots the Atlesian Paladin-290.

As time passes, Weiss' trust in Blake increases. She even goes as far as to hand her a cartridge of Dust for her weapon.

Before Pyrrha's fight against Penny, Blake and Weiss decide they have seen enough fighting and get drinks together instead.

Later on, the two exchange worrying looks when Cinder Fall addresses the whole of Remnant in "PvP". In "Battle of Beacon", they fight together, Weiss defending Blake from a group of White Fang fanatics. When they are torn between stopping a Grimm and saving civilians from an Atlesian Paladin, Weiss tells Blake to "stay safe", indicating how far their friendship has come.

Yang Xiao Long: Yang is one of Weiss' teammates at Beacon Academy. Their early interactions contain some hostility, triggered by Weiss' initial dislike of Yang's younger sister Ruby. However, the hostility does not last between the two in the passing months. Still, Yang is disturbed by how Weiss deliberately states that the White Fang are a terrorist group, that one of them robbed the Dust store and that they cannot be trusted.

By "Welcome to Beacon", Weiss and Yang seem to be on friendly terms; Weiss does not seem bothered or annoyed when the latter places her arm around her shoulder and helps her learn how to play Remnant: The Game. Despite this, Weiss loses to Yang—it was a plan to take out her armies. Weiss has also tried to make puns thinking Yang would like them, only to get negative feedback from her.

During their battle against Team FNKI, Yang defends Weiss after Flynt Coal insults her. Weiss later sacrifices herself to save Yang after Flynt attempts to sneak up on her.

During the Vytal Festival, after Yang gets their team disqualified for injuring Mercury Black, Weiss is one of the teammates who still trusts Yang.

In "Lighting the Fire", Weiss unexpectedly reunites with Yang when the latter comes to the Branwen tribe to meet with Raven Branwen. She is shocked to find the bandit leader who kidnapped her is Yang's mother. After everything calms down, Weiss leaps into a tearful embrace with Yang and tells her she missed her, a sentiment Yang returns, gently holding the back of Weiss' head. When Yang loses her temper in "Known by its Song", Weiss tries to calm her friend down and later tells her "it's okay if you're not okay".

However, despite their reunion, the two seem to possess some friction regarding Blake's abandonment of the team following the Fall of Beacon. Weiss makes it clear to Yang they are her family and that despite all they have endured she would do anything for them, even if it means defending Blake's actions despite the hurt Yang feels. The two come to terms with their differing feelings on what has transpired following the cataclysm. In addition, despite Weiss admitting she is not as close to Yang, their friendship has strengthened significantly since their reunion as Weiss promises to be there for Yang as family.