Winter Schnee | Strict and cold

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.

After being wounded in "The Enemy of Trust", Winter chooses to stay with James Ironwood rather than go with Weiss and her friends, but she allows them to escape in order to give them a head start. She served as an antagonist in Volume 8, before turning on Ironwood in "Creation". As of "The Final Word", she is the current Winter Maiden.

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.

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.

After Winter learned her career had been chosen by Ironwood to make her the next Winter Maiden, she was upset at first, but eventually came to accept the destiny which had been chosen for her, making it her own and taking great pride in it. She is gentle and caring with Fria, patiently waiting for her time to pass and grant Winter strength. Winter was waiting her whole life to become the Winter Maiden, but in a split second she ended up giving it all up when Penny Polendina becomes the one to take Fria's powers instead.

Winter consistently wrestles with her emotions, never letting them overpower her. While she feels guilt over having to end Fria's life before her natural passing to obtain the Maiden's powers, her dedication to the Atlas Military is greater than her feelings on the subject. She was upset when she saw that Ironwood had declared Team RWBY and Team JNPR fugitives. When Penny unexpectedly inherited Fria's powers, despite knowing the Winter Maiden was vital to Ironwood's plans, Winter "suggested" that Penny leave with Weiss and Ruby, telling them she was giving them a head start. She later appears visibly disturbed when Ironwood shoots Councilman Sleet dead.

Later when Lie Ren uses his newly evolved Semblance, it is shown that she is repressing her true emotions just like the other Ace-Ops. When Ironwood orders her and the Ace-Ops to deliver a bomb to Monstra, she instead allows Yang's Group to try and rescue Oscar Pine, stating that they will still detonate it whether they are still inside or not. After Marrow Amin asks her if she would really detonate the bomb with her sister's friends still inside, she is hesitant, but ultimately steels herself and replies that she will do so as her duty as a soldier. While she first replied with a cold "yes" like Ironwood would have done, she makes the choice to turn around and address Marrow with more warmth to show him that she wasn't thinking like Ironwood was which delays his betrayal against the military for a little longer.

By the time of "Creation" however, she realizes that Ironwood needs to be stopped after he threatens to destroy Mantle unless Penny returns to him, saving Marrow from being killed by him by acting like she was arresting him for treason and then collaborating with Ruby's Group to ambush him, saying she should have done it from the beginning. Later in "Worthy" when Ironwood confronts her in the Vault, she tells him that she has never hesitated fighting against the enemies of the Kingdom and now sees him as one of them.

Once she realizes what has happened to Penny in "The Final Word" when she receives the powers of the Winter Maiden, she is saddened that Penny has died and states that Penny was the actual Maiden while she was just a machine following Ironwood's orders. She regains her composure after Penny states that she won't be gone, but now a part of Winter. Because of this, she considered the powers she received as a gift and used them to defeat Ironwood in the process.

Even when Weiss is thrown into the void by Cinder, Winter refuses to let her emotions overcome her sense of duty; despite her visible rage and grief, she does not waste time attacking Cinder, knowing that her priority is to reach Vacuo and protect the civilians. Once she arrives, she channels her feelings into a violent attack against the Grimm.

While in Vacuo, Winter expresses that she should have died and regrets staying by Ironwood’s side for too long and being blinded by loyalty to the late General.