Winter Schnee

Race: Human

Gender: Female

Winter Schnee is a character in RWBY who first appeared in "It's Brawl in the Family". She is the elder sister of Weiss and Whitley Schnee and formerly a part of the Special Operatives Unit in the Atlas Military. In "Amity", she was made the leader of the Ace Operatives.

Despite being the eldest child, Winter's right to inherit the Schnee Dust Company was abdicated upon her decision to become a Soldier and join the Atlesian Military.

Winter is a tall and fair-skinned young woman with slate-blue eyes, black eyebrows, and long white hair. The latter of which tied back in a bun that is high on the left side of the back of her head, along with bangs along right side of her face and a small, curled lock of hair down the left just above her shoulder. From the Volume 5 Weiss Character Short onwards, her eyes are given a light blue shade.

Her outfit consists of a white long-sleeved coat with a single dark blue clasp around the center waist holding it shut alongside a red jeweled brooch on the collar. The coat's length runs down to her ankles and the sleeves are split from shoulder to elbow. She wears a white pleated sleeveless blouse with a dark blue waistcoat. A pair of white trousers with dark blue garters alongside a pair of gray thigh boots with black detailing around the knees. She also wears a pair of black forearm length gloves with gray trimmed cuffs.

At first glance, Winter appears to be a cold, serious and distant person who prefers to keep her emotions subdued, speaking in a very stoic way. She is fiercely committed and loyal to the military and acts as Ironwood's second-in-command. She does whatever it takes to protect her kingdom, even going so far as to detonate a bomb with Yang's group still inside.

However, when interacting with Weiss, she smiles and shows that she cares about her younger sister's life and well-being, based on how she inquires if Weiss has been eating properly, gained any new hobbies and made any new friends in "It's Brawl in the Family".

Winter is very intuitive towards her younger sister's emotions. With that said, she is not afraid to raise her hand at her younger sister whenever she is annoyed or act cold towards her as shown in Weiss's Volume 5 character short.

Overall, she truly loves Weiss and wants her to succeed in life. Later, it was revealed that due to the Schnee Family's broken family life and their mother's descent into alcoholism and their father's controlling personality, Winter had to effectively take a maternal role in her sister's upbringing, as seen in "A New Approach", when she momentarily lost her composure and began reprimanding her sister and expressed clear worry for her when she learned about her willingly putting herself in danger, where she genuinely panicked and worried for Weiss and her safety when learning about her escapades in stealing a Manta airship in Argus.

Winter can be very harsh as well, as shown in "Lessons Learned". When she attempts to teach Weiss how to Summon old foes with her Semblance, only for her sister to fail. Winter fiercely rebukes her younger sibling's excuses, citing her lack of resolve will not help her in the tournament, or as a Huntress.

Although she strives to keep her emotions in check, she can be rather hot-headed at times. Once she becomes angry, she drops her military bearing and dignified demeanor and loses all restraint.

This is shown when she attempts to attack Qrow Branwen when provoked. She also snapped at her father during the dinner he held, saying that trust has to be earned, not bought.

She is initially fiercely loyal to her superior, James Ironwood, and would become infuriated whenever his judgment was questioned. She was also equally faithful to his authority, however, and respectfully deferred to him when at odds with an order. This loyalty caused her to go along with many of his actions, even sometimes suggesting her own, such as wanting to declare martial law when the Amity Project was stalled.

Winter's weapon of choice is her Swords. She shows great skill when wielding them, displaying above-average speed, agility and reflexes in combat. She is able to both start moving and stop in an instant, as shown when she aborted her final attack on Qrow at the last second upon hearing Ironwood's voice. Her skills with her weapon are impressive, and although she was unable to land any serious blows on Qrow, she was able to parry and match all of his attacks for the duration of their fight.

Winter has the Schnee family Semblance of Glyphs. Her glyphs have many of the same effects that her sister's do, most notably including the ability to exert forces on herself and objects, which Winter uses to increase her speed to superhuman levels and boost jumps. Like her sister, she is able to use her Semblance in a supportive manner with other allies, such as enhancing Nora Valkyrie's power by using a Lightning infused Glyph on her.

Like Weiss and other members of the Schnee family, Winter can also Summon versions of her past enemies to fight for her. Unlike Weiss at first, she displays great mastery of this aspect of her Semblance. Her Summons are known to include dozens of small Nevermores and full-sized Beowolves along with a Manticore which she can use as flight transportation. Her Summons take on a translucent white-blue coloration and emit a soft glow.