Weiss Schnee

Weiss Schnee (ワイス・シュニー, Waisu Shūnī; pronounced Why-ss Sh-nee), is a fictional character and protagonist from the Tales of RWBY series created by Monty Oum and Yoshiharu Gotanda. She is a former student of Beacon Academy and former heiress of the vastly influential Schnee Dust Company. Her weapon of choice is a Multi-Action Dust Rapier (MADR) named Myrtenaster.

Weiss made her first appearance in the "White" Trailer, facing the original "Arma Gigas" in battle. 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. She is the younger sister of Winter Schnee and the older sister of Whitley Schnee.

"I'm not siding with anyone. I'm doing what I feel is right, and that does not include wasting my time up here with these clueless people in Atlas. The Schnee family legacy isn't yours to leave. It's mine, and I'll do it as a Huntress."
 * —Weiss, to her father.

Appearance & Biography

 * Voice Actor: Kara Eberle (English), Yōko Hikasa (Japanese), Not Known (Albanian), Not Known (Arabic), Not Known (Basque), Not Known (Brazilian), Not Known (Cantonese), Not Known (Catalan), Not Known (Chinese), Not Known (Dutch), Not Known (Finnish), Not Known (French), Not Known (Galician), Not Known (German), Not Known (Greek), Not Known (Hebrew), Not Known (Hong Kong), Not Known (Hungarian), Not Known (Indonesian), Not Known (Isralian), Not Known (Italian), Not Known (Korean), Not Known (Mandarin), Not Known (Norwegian), Not Known (Polish), Not Known (Portuguese), Not Known (Romanian), Not Known (Russian), Not Known (Serbian), Not Known (Spanish), Not Known (Swedish), Not Known (Tagalog), Not Known (Thai), Not Known (Valencian), Not Known (Brazilian Portuguese), Not Known (European Spanish), Not Known (European Portuguese), Not Known (Latin American Spanish), Not Known (Latin Spanish)

Appearance
Weiss is a pale-skinned young woman with pale blue eyes and long white hair pulled back into an off-center ponytail on the right side and pinned with an icicle-shaped tiara and bangs. In Volume 7, her ponytail is braided and her bangs are longer and more neatly parted. A crooked scar runs vertically down her left eye and face, gained during her battle against the original "Arma Gigas" in the "White" Trailer.

Original (Volumes 1–3)
She wears a thigh-length strapless dress with a faint color gradation from white to pale blue at the hem. A small piece of black lace sits in the front of her neckline and the hem of the dress is scalloped and stitched to resemble snowflakes, with layers of white tulle under the skirt. Over this she wears a bell-sleeved bolero with the same color gradation as her dress from shoulder to wrist, lined in red and with a ruffled collar. On the back of the bolero is the Schnee Crest.

She also wears a small apple pendant on a silver chain and thin, rectangular silver earrings. Her boots are white, wedged heeled and higher at the back than the front. They have a small silver decoration across the top of the foot and are lined in red. A thin white sash is tied around her waist with a pouch attached to the back.

In her character short for Volume 5, she wears the same outfit except her ponytail is centered.

Pajamas
Weiss' pajamas consist of a faded blue nightgown with short sleeves and white trim and display the Schnee Crest on the upper-right chest. She also wears her hair down.

Alternate Outfit (Snowpea)
During the events of "A Minor Hiccup" and "Painting the Town...", Weiss wears an alternate outfit codenamed "Snowpea".

This outfit consists of a white, double-breasted jacket with black piping, cuffs, and buttons over a white, pleated full skirt with black lace trim. She also wears a pair of white, thigh-high boots with black heels and lace-topped black stockings.

Dance Outfit
During the Beacon Dance, Weiss wears a short, white, sleeveless dress with cutouts on both sides of her waist. The yoke of the dress is translucent mesh and she also wears white pumps.

Uniform
Weiss wears the same uniform as every other girl attending Beacon, consisting of brown shoes, red tartan skirt, white blouse with maroon trim and thin red bow, a brown vest with gold buttons and maroon blazer with gold trim, alongside black socks reaching to mid-calf.

Post-Timeskip
After the two-year time-skip following the Fall of Beacon, her new design includes a glittering dress with a color gradation of blue to pale blue at the hem, a sweetheart neckline, a floor length skirt and split to her thigh on one side, and she wears chunky heels. She no longer has a ribbon on her waist and she wears her hair and earrings in the same style, albeit her ponytail has grown out, now roughly reaching her knees.

Mistral Outfit (Volume 4–7)
She also has an alternate outfit, which follows the same design as her standard attire except for the skirt, which is short like the dress she wore two-years ago, and a white, tulle petticoat.

A white ribbon is wrapped multiple times around her waist, and over the outfit is worn a slightly sheer long-sleeved blue shrug fastened at the collar with a large sapphire broach that has three pendants dangling from it. Printed on the back of the shrug is the Schnee Crest. Completing her attire are dark blue wedge heels and sapphire drop earrings.

In Volume 6, she wears a red scarf with white design at the ends and pale blue tights with her outfit.

Atlas Outfit (Volume 7-Current)
After arriving in Atlas from Argus, Weiss gains a new outfit. She wears a pale blue and white v-neck top, above which she wears a vivid blue shrug with a raised collar, puffy sleeves, and the Schnee emblem on the left sleeve. On her arms are a pair of long dark blue gloves. For her bottoms, she wears a long white tulle skirt that splits in the front. Over her skirt, she wears a light blue, high-waisted article that matches the skirt's cut. Around her waist are three white belts with a medium-sized pouch attached to the lowest belt. She wears long, pale blue wedge-heel boots with white frills coming out from the top at the front.

In addition, she wears a pair of matching ruby earring that matches her icicle-shaped tiara with a diamond-shaped ruby in the center. Weiss's hair slightly changes: her ponytail is now braided and she has grown out her bangs, framing her face more closely.


 * Hair Color: White
 * Skin Color: Not Known
 * Eye Color: Pale Blue
 * Age: 17 (Volumes 1–3), 19 (Volume 4–Current)
 * Birthday: Not Known
 * Height: 5'3" (1.6 meters) in heels
 * Weight: 50 kg (110 lbs.)

Friends/Allies

 * Klein Sieben
 * Beacon Academy
 * Ozpin
 * Glynda Goodwitch
 * Peter Port
 * Team RWBY
 * Ruby Rose
 * Blake Belladonna
 * Yang Xiao Long
 * Team JNPR
 * Jaune Arc
 * Nora Valkyrie
 * Pyrrha Nikos
 * Lie Ren
 * Team CRDL
 * Cardin Winchester
 * Zaveid
 * Team SSSN
 * Sun Wukong
 * Neptune Vasilias
 * Team CFVY
 * Fox Alistair
 * Velvet Scarlatina
 * Yatsuhashi Daichi
 * Team STRQ
 * Qrow Branwen
 * Brave Vesperia
 * Yuri Lowell
 * Karol Capel
 * Judith
 * Atlesian Military
 * James Ironwood
 * Penny Polendina
 * Oscar Pine
 * Maria Calavera
 * Jinn
 * Magilou's Menagerie
 * Velvet Crowe
 * Laphicet
 * Rokurou Rangetsu
 * Magilou Mayvin
 * Bienfu
 * Eizen
 * Eleanor Hume

Family

 * Nicholas Schnee (grandfather)
 * unnamed mother
 * Jacques Schnee (father)
 * Winter Schnee (elder sister)
 * Whitley Schnee (younger brother)

Neutral

 * Branwen Tribe
 * Raven Branwen
 * Caroline Cordovin
 * Van Aifread
 * Silva
 * Morgrim

Rivals

 * Vernal

Enemies

 * Salem's Faction
 * Salem
 * Tyrian Callows
 * Hazel Rainart
 * Arthur Watts
 * Cinder's Faction
 * Cinder Fall
 * Emerald Sustrai
 * Mercury Black
 * Roman Torchwick
 * Alexei Dinoia
 * Blood Alliance
 * Barbos
 * Ragou
 * Cumore
 * Abbey
 * Artorius Collbrande
 * Innominat
 * Oscar Dragonia
 * Teresa Linares
 * Shigure Rangetsu
 * Melchior Mayvin

Summoning
With mastery, a Schnee also has the ability to summon avatars of the foes that they have defeated. While these avatars have the appearance of Grimm, they do not possess the same weaknesses. For instance, they are unaffected by the light from silver eyes.

In "Lessons Learned", Winter Schnee specifies that the summoned foe had to have caused the Schnee to push past who they were and become who they are now. In that same episode, Weiss only manages to summon a tiny version of the sword wielded by the Arma Gigas she defeated in the "White" Trailer. Later, in the episode "Heroes and Monsters", Weiss unintentionally summons the arm of said Arma Gigas to protect Velvet. Nevertheless, she struggles to demonstrate this ability at first, and she tells her sister that "it's the only thing [she's] been having trouble with".

She can also summon the Boarbatusk that she defeated in Professor Port's classroom, as demonstrated when she involuntarily summons it to attack a party guest who offended her in "Tipping Point". After being grounded following the incident, Weiss devotes her time to mastering the ability, eventually learning to fully Summon the Arma Gigas in "Two Steps Forward, Two Steps Back". She can also cause her summons to teleport and use her glyphs as surfaces to jump off, as demonstrated in "Dread in the Air". In the same episode, she defeats a Queen Lancer and gains it as a summon.

Weiss' Summons:

 * Arma Gigas
 * Boarbatusk
 * Queen Lancer

Dust
Weiss frequently utilizes Dust and occasionally uses her Semblance to direct the movement and manifestation of it, such as in "Players and Pieces", where she does this to create a curved wall of ice between Ruby and the Death Stalker's stinger.

Weiss has shown a preference for Ice Dust, only switching types if it provides her with an advantage, such as using Wind Dust against sonic based attacks, or to create certain types of glyphs such as black or Time Dilation glyphs. She has used Ice Dust to trap enemies, create a trail to push enemies from a height, create a slippery sheet of ice and form pointed ice chunks to use as projectiles.

Semblance
One of Weiss' most notable abilities is her Semblance, Glyphs, which allows her to create glyphs that can be used in a variety of ways: create a slippery platform to skate on at high speed, generate midair platforms to manipulate her trajectory in the air and perform limited Time Dilation that can speed up actions, to name a few.

In the series, Weiss' glyphs have appeared in a variety of colors for unknown reasons. Blue and white normal glyphs have been shown with the base ability to push whatever is within their influence. Black glyphs have the ability to pull whatever is within their influence, and they appear to involve the use of Gravity Dust, evidenced by Myrtenaster's Dust chamber revolving when Weiss makes the first black glyph in the "Volume 5 Weiss Character Short". The Time Dilation glyph has a gold-colored clock design and involves the use of Lightning Dust. Summon glyphs are white and have their own unique designs. In Volume 5, using fire Dust with her glyphs make them become a red-orange color.

Strength level

 * Incinerated a tree with fire dust.
 * Overpowered soldiers from the White Fang.
 * Overpowered a Boarbatusk-class Grimm.
 * Capable of slashing through AK-2000 androids.
 * Her summoned sword was able to cut through a large mech.
 * Froze a giant robotic elephant, which was large enough to cause people to crane their necks just to see the top of it
 * Created several shockwaves during her battles in the Vytal Festival
 * Flung a ton of ship cargo with the use of her glyphs
 * Killed a Grimm summoned by her older sister Winter
 * Staggered the Arma Gigas with strikes from Myrtenaster
 * Catapulted the Arma Gigas into the air with her glyphs before destroying it with a powered up strike from Myrtenaster
 * Overpowered a sword strike from the Arma Gigas using Myrtenaster enhanced with fire dust
 * Easily killed a group of Beowolf Grimm at once
 * Catapulted her partner Ruby Rose at high speeds towards a Nevermore Grimm before boosting her speed to help her decapitate it
 * Queen Lancer summon was able to impale Hazel (who enhanced himself with Dust crystals) with its stinger and pull him from a distance.
 * Blocked another sword strike from the Arma Gigas with Myrtenaster (which wasn’t enhanced with Dust)
 * The Arma Gigas is stated to be as strong as Atlas’ mech suits, which are capable of smashing through several concrete pillars.
 * Hit Nora Valkyrie hard enough with a swordfish to create shockwaves
 * Blocked a strike from Vernal
 * Arma Gigas summon was strong enough to kill this powerful Queen Lancer
 * Nearly toppled the Colossus with her ice dust.

Speed

 * Easily dodged blows from the Giant Armor.
 * Can keep up with Ruby Rose.
 * Capable of moving and slicing faster than the eye can track.
 * Blocked plasma-based attacks.
 * Reacted in the timeframe of a lightning bolt.
 * Blitzed a White Fang lieutenant using her Glyphs to propel herself while attacking.
 * Sliced at FTE speeds
 * Dodged missiles
 * With the use of her glyphs, Weiss moved around an arena while deflecting bullets and dodging bladed projectiles.
 * Shot fire projectiles hundreds of feet within a few seconds
 * The speed of Weiss’ sword strikes are at the same level as Ruby’s gunfire.
 * With the use of her glyphs, Weiss jumped backwards hundreds of feet into the air within a short amount of time.
 * Dodged a sound attack from Flynt Coal.
 * Destroyed a swarm of robots so fast, she appeared as a blur.
 * Ran past Yang Xiao Long fast enough to appear as a blur and froze a Deathstalker Grimm in time to prevent it from stabbing Ruby with its stinger
 * Jumped up a collapsing stone structure
 * Propelled herself at superhuman speed
 * With the use of her glyphs, Weiss propelled herself to her opponent from multiple angles along with ice projectiles.
 * With the use of her glyphs, Weiss blitzed the Arma Gigas and dodged its sword strikes
 * Queen Lancer summon dodged fireballs from Hazel
 * Intercepted a cannon blast from a giant robot by creating an earth wall to block it.
 * Summoned a Queen Lancer to evade a barrage of missiles from a close range.

Durability

 * Took a hit from Nora Valkyrie that broke the speed of sound and crushed a large stone pillar.
 * Can take hits from Boarbatusk-class Grimm.
 * Tanked a dust explosion.
 * Took hits from the Giant Armor.
 * Used black Glyphs to defend against sonic attacks
 * Ice barriers are tough enough to save the team from a train crash.
 * Tanked a gunshot from an Atlesian Paladin-290 prototype
 * Took a blast of fire and magma at point blank
 * With the use of her glyphs, Weiss survived a fall of hundreds of feet high
 * Got kicked through a large fire Dust crystal
 * Used black glyphs to defend against sonic attacks
 * Withstood a punch from an Atlesian Paladin-290
 * Took a hit from Vernal’s blade
 * Survived being impaled by a fire spear
 * Weiss’ Queen Lancer summon (before it became her summon) tanked this large Dust explosion, which was calculated to be at city block level
 * Queen Lancer summon can tank blasts of fire
 * Took a blast from a Manticore Grimm
 * Earth wall was durable enough to tank an ice blast from a giant robot’s cannon.

Skill

 * Became a member of Beacon Academy, one of the most prestigious academies for hunters, and a member of Team RWBY.
 * Defeated the Giant Armor, which she later managed to sucessfully summon.
 * With her team, defeated a Nevermore-class Grimm.
 * Killed a Boarbatusk.
 * Fought against members of the White Fang.
 * Killed a horde of Lancer Grimm and their Queen by summoning the Arma Gigas.
 * Defeated an Atlesian Paladin-290
 * Participated in the Vytal Festival tournament alongside Team RWBY (Defeated Team ABRN); she and Yang represented their team in the doubles round against Team FNKI and won
 * Helped stop the Breach
 * Managed to escape Atlas
 * Survived the Fall of Beacon
 * Helped prevent the Fall of Haven
 * Defended the town of Argus
 * Fought countless Creatures of Grimm, members of the White Fang, and Atlesian robots
 * Create 2,082 tons of ice.

Weaknesses
Weiss seems to have limited endurance and stamina, as seen in "The Emerald Forest" after Ruby and Weiss are forced to retreat from a pack of Beowolves after a forest fire; Weiss is shown to be panting in exhaustion while Ruby is still fully energized.

The biggest sign of her lack of endurance, however, is her inability to take heavy hits. Out of everyone on her team, she has been knocked out the most, such as by Nora Valkyrie with her watermelon hammer during the food fight, and the White Fang Lieutenant smashing her head into the ground.

Despite her glyphs' durability, they have been demonstrated to be breakable, such as when she summons three black glyphs in an attempt to stop the cargo ship's crash. The ship falls far too fast or is too heavy for her, causing it to rip the glyphs apart as it falls through them.

While Weiss may be becoming more familiar with her Semblance's Summoning ability, larger summons like her Arma Gigas apparently take greater time and effort to manifest, as shown in her duel with Vernal, who kept interrupting Weiss' attempts to bring forth the sword-wielding warrior. This weakness was heavily exploited by Vernal.

Other Weaknesses

 * Aura has its limits.
 * Lacks experience when it comes to summoning.
 * Works better as a support team member.

Weapons

 * Main article: Myrtenaster

Weiss' weapon of choice is Myrtenaster, a Multi-Action Dust Rapier. The rapier has a revolving chamber inside the guard, which has six slots in total, each of which contains a vial of Dust. The revolving chamber is constantly stocked with red, cyan, violet, white, yellow, and blue Dust.

Weiss utilizes the Dust in combat, either in raw form or in conjunction with her Semblance to create various effects that suit the situation. When not using Myrtenaster as a Dust supplier, Weiss utilizes her speed to dodge attacks and her sword to deliver damage through quick thrusts that leave little room for counters.

Past
Weiss was born as an heiress to the Schnee Dust Company, which her father currently controls. However, due to the company's mistreatment of Faunus labor and the resulting escalating backlash targeted at both the company and her family by the Faunus Civil Rights Protest and the White Fang, her childhood upbringing was a "very difficult" one.

She accounts multiple times greeting her stress-ridden, aggravated father after the workday, which produced a very uneasy family lifestyle when Weiss was a child. She also recalls several hardships within the company, such as the disappearance of family and friends, as well as the execution of company board members at the hand of the White Fang extremists. As a result, her frustration and hatred were directed towards Faunus as the cause of her family's troubles.

On Weiss' tenth birthday, Jacques missed his daughter's party and Weiss' mother confronted him. It is here that her father admits that he married his wife only for the Schnee family name. Weiss bore witness to the fractured family as her parents had separate meals and sat on different balconies during her recitals. Eventually, her mother descended into alcoholism as a way of coping with a marriage to a cold and uncaring man.

"White" Trailer
Weiss is a singer, as shown in the trailer. She also has a history with the Schnee Training Room, with it serving as the place where, in a flashback sequence, she fights the Arma Gigas.

Volume 5 Weiss Character Short
Weiss was on a training session with Winter Schnee. Weiss is shown facing off against numerous white Beowolves in what is presumably the Schnee manor's frozen courtyard. With the use of her Semblance, Weiss manages to successfully hold her own against the Grimm until they manage to disarm and overwhelm her. As Weiss calls for her sister, Winter stops the Beowolf summons, causing them to disappear into the falling snow. After striking Myrtenaster into the ground, Winter informs Weiss she must be able to save herself, and Weiss promises to get better. Walking away, Winter reminds her sister that improving will be necessary if she wants to leave.

Canon

 * Weiss Schnee vs. Arma Gaigas (Won)
 * Weiss Schnee vs. Winter's Summoning (Lost)
 * Weiss Schnee and Ruby Rose vs. Beowolves (Retreated)
 * Team RWBY vs. Nevermore (Won)
 * Weiss Schnee vs. Boarbatusk (Won)
 * Team RWBY vs. Team JNPR (Won)
 * Team RWBY, Sun Wukong, and Neptune Vasilias vs. Roman Torchwick (Draw)
 * Team RWBY vs. Grimm (Won)
 * Team RWBY and Dr. Oobleck vs. White Fang (Won)
 * Weiss Schnee vs. White Fang Lieutenant (Lost)
 * Huntsmen vs. Grimm (Won)
 * Team RWBY vs. Team ABRN (Won)
 * Weiss Schnee and Yang Xiao Long vs. Flynt Coal and Neon (Won; Team, Knocked Out; Individually)
 * Students vs. Grimm, White Fang, AK-200s and Paladins (Won)
 * Weiss Schnee and Atlas Pilot vs. Lancers (Won)
 * Weiss vs. Vernal (Lost)
 * Weiss Schnee, Ruby Rose, and Blake Belladonna vs. Hazel Rainart, Emerald, and Mercury (Won)
 * Argus Limited vs. Manticores and Sphinx (Won)
 * Ruby's Party vs. Caroline Cordovin (Won)

Canon

 * Beacon Academy Initiation
 * Beacon Dance
 * 40th Vytal Festival
 * Battle of Beacon
 * Battle of Haven
 * Airship Heist

Theme songs

 * "White" Trailer: "Mirror Mirror" - Casey Lee Williams.

Etymology

 * Weiss alludes to Snow White from Snow White and the Seven Dwarves. For more information on this allusion, as well as other choices the creators made for this character, see Weiss Schnee/Behind the Scenes.
 * Weiss' voice actor, Kara Eberle, compares her to both Hermione Granger and Draco Malfoy from the Harry Potter series.
 * During an "Ask Me Anything" question and answer session on the Rooster Teeth website, Kara said that Weiss' favorite season is winter, her favorite color is baby blue and her favorite ice cream flavor is blueberry frozen yogurt.
 * Also, if given the choice between fighting one horse-sized duck or 100 duck-sized horses, she would rather fight one horse-sized duck.

Notes & Trivia

 * It was stated by Miles Luna and Kerry Shawcross that Weiss prefers drinking coffee over tea. In "Destiny", Weiss suggests that she and Blake get coffee, but Blake opts for tea instead. It was also mentioned in the Fan Service Podcast.
 * Despite her name being German, the 'W' in her first name, as well as the 'nee' part of her last name are not pronounced as they would be in German. Monty stated that this is because real-world countries, such as Germany, do not exist in Remnant.
 * In the official artwork shown at the end of each trailer, she is holding Myrtenaster in her right hand, despite being left-handed. This is because the drawings in the Team RWBY composite are early concepts.
 * She has her own official Twitter account at RT_WeissSchnee, like Ruby, Yang, and Jaune, all of which are currently inactive.
 * Weiss is often addressed by nicknames, being called "Princess", "Snow Angel" or "Ice Queen" by Ruby, Jaune, Neptune Vasilias, Sun, Yang and even Roman and the White Fang Lieutenant.
 * The "Ice Queen" nickname is also given by Qrow to Weiss' sister, Winter.
 * Weiss is a playable character in BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle.
 * Weiss also appears in the 110th episode of Death Battle, where she had faced off against Mitsuru Kirijo from the Persona series but lost.
 * On July 19th, 2019, a limited event collaboration between RWBY and in Other Media#SMITE SMITE was announced. Team RWBY is confirmed to appear as voiced skins with Weiss as a skin for Freya.