Weiss Schnee

"I'm not perfect! Not yet. But I'm still leagues better than you."

- Weiss, responding to Ruby's criticisms of her

Weiss Schnee (Why-ss Sh-nee) is one of the main protagonists of the American web cartoon RWBY and its Japanese manga adaptation/prequel. She is a seventeen-year-old girl who is training to become a Huntress and defender of the world of Remnant.

She is voiced by Kara Eberle in English, with her singing voice provided by Casey Lee Williams. In the Japanese dub, she is voiced by Yōko Hikasa.

Appearance
Weiss appears as a young woman, dressed primarily in light blue, white, and some red. She wears a pale blue bolero jacket over a similarly colored thigh-length dress with a piece of black lace making up the neckline of the dress. The inside of the bolero is red and the sleeves turn blue as it gets closer to her wrists. It has a crest on the back that bears a resemblance to a snowflake. The same design seems to appear when she uses her magic, which could be a possible connection.

Weiss wears a necklace with a single jewel or bead and thin, rectangular earrings. She wears white, wedge-heeled, mid-calf boots (also lined with red on the inside) and a small tiara that resembles icicles. Her long hair is white and pulled back in an off-center ponytail. She has a pale complexion and ice-blue eyes. She bears a crooked scar down her left eye. In her logo, she appears as tall as, if not slightly taller, than Ruby. In the possible flashback sequence in her trailer, Weiss also wears a small bag on the back of her dress, wrapped around her waist with a ribbon. Its possible contents may be crystals or vials, respective to the colors on Myrtenaster.

Pajamas
She has a faded-bluish sleeping gown with short sleeves and white trimmings, and her logo on the right upper chest.

Volume 2 Alternate Outfit
In A Minor Hiccup, Weiss wears a pure white dress with black edging and two columns of four black buttons on the abdomen. The inside of the skirt portion of the dress contains black frills. She also wears thigh-high white high-heel boots with frilly black thigh-high stockings that come up slightly above the top of her boots.

Personality
In her trailer, Weiss is portrayed as quiet and maybe even lonely, seeking happiness. Monty Oum has said that everything has been decided for her and because of this she's a bit of a rebel. Notice this manifests itself as her ponytail not being symmetrical (unlike everything else she wears). Her voice actor, Kara Eberle, described Weiss as being "Nice, but she can also be a bitchy". This high-strung nature is shown when Weiss continuously scolds and insults Ruby for knocking over her luggage and continues to antagonize her even after she had apologized. Weiss is also quite proud of her status and certainly plays the part of the pampered princess without difficulty. Coming to Beacon Academy, she has a bellhop transport her luggage. She is also pleased when Blake names her as heiress to the Schnee Dust Company. Of course, her reaction goes sour the moment Blake mentions the company's "controversial labor forces and questionable business partners." Weiss has a large ego and is not above manipulating people for her own gain. After determining that she is indeed the smartest girl in the class, Weiss proceeded to try and persuade Pyrrha with flattery to join her team. Her reasoning was that if she had the strongest girl in class on her side, she could be one of the stars of the school.

However, it's possible that this cold and harsh personality is just a cover she puts up in front of other people to hide how she really feels. In her trailer, Weiss is portrayed as quiet and possibly even lonely. In The First Step, Pt.2, after Weiss and Ruby are paired together in the Emerald Forest, Weiss quickly loses confidence and is visibly scared when Ruby vanishes, even exclaiming Ruby's name in fear when Beowolves begin to emerge from the bushes around her. She is also shown mentally coaching herself before attacking the Beowolves in the following episode, demonstrating how thoughtful she is during battle. Unlike Ruby and Yang, Weiss is analytical when in battle, waiting for the right moment to strike and retreating when circumstances are not favorable. This greatly contrasts with Ruby's style of fighting as she is impulsive and rushes in to attack. This, coupled with her condescending attitude is a source of conflict between the two.

In Episode 9, Weiss is shown to lack a humorous side, as she was annoyed by Ruby, Yang and Blake's humorous acts on saying "Banzai!" She also seems to get upset when things don't go her way, as she was outvoted by the three girls in making the beds bunk-beds, even when she said it was dangerous. It is also seen when Ruby makes a drawing of Professor Peter Port, where he is fatter, and seems to be annoyed by Ruby's childish antics.

In The Badge and the Burden Pt. 2, Professor Port reveals that Weiss has received everything she has ever wanted in her life. He mentions this after witnessing Weiss's hostile behaviour towards Ruby's being chosen Team Leader instead of herself. Also, Port mentions that Weiss was never grateful for anything since she was given anything she asked for, yet another implication as to why she has such a poor attitude, remarking that her vanity was equal to her skills in the battlefield. However, after speaking with the Professor, Weiss's attitude changes as she takes his suggestion to "be the best person [she] can be" to heart. As a result, she decides to become more friendly with Ruby and to open up to her more, going so far as to bring Ruby a cup of coffee in the middle of the night and even to mention to Ruby that she had always wanted bunk beds growing up, contrasting greatly with her original outward opinion of the beds.

Abilities & Powers
Weiss is proficient in handling her weapon, the Multi Action Dust Rapier: Myrtenaster. It appears to have a revolving chamber where various settings channel her magic in different ways.

Red appears to enhance strength or create an enhanced shield, Light Blue conjures a wave of ice and Yellow seems to enhance her agility. Violet increases attack power for a split second dealing high damage with a slash attack while Blue appears to make a repulsion effect as well as the ability to bind the opponent. She dons white again just before she delivers a finisher attack (which makes the weapon glow with runes on the blade and possibly turns enemies into ice shards when defeated; which references Red Like Roses' lyrics "

White is cold..."

She is extraordinarily fast like Ruby and seems to almost teleport from place to place. She also appears to be quite durable, having taken a full-blown punch from said assailant. She fights gracefully, as if she were dancing on ice, and uses her powers to their full effect; however, Weiss appears to be less confident than Ruby while battling, briefly hesitating after being knocked aside by the Armor. One of her earlier and more noticeable abilities is to cast a technique unofficially called "Air Step" in which she creates a tangible platform in midair, enabling her to engage in aerial combat with no need to return to ground level. If she uses the same spell while on the ground, it greatly enhances her speed for a short period of time; however, that may be another spell entirely and only visually similar. Both, seem to be triggered by a specific hand motion. One may notice throughout the battle that, at times, Weiss will faintly glow white. This seems to indicate that the power is due to Aura. In the trailer, the glyph used to create Air Step is white and has something similar to her emblem on it, but in Episode 5, its design changes.

She also appears to be much weaker in physical strength compared to Ruby, since her legs buckle inwards as she slides whereas Ruby keeps them bent and strong. She gives the impression of being as weak as ice, though the impact she receives demonstrates otherwise. Even if it is true that physically she is weaker than Ruby, Weiss is noticeably faster. At the very beginning of her fight, even without using any particular Dust ability, Weiss can move at speeds rivaling Ruby's. Weiss' speed was first seen in the episode Players and Pieces when she dashed forward to save Ruby from the Death Stalker's tail with a ice attack. Weiss also seems to have the weakest endurance when in comparison to Ruby, Blake and Yang, whom after the fight with the Nevermore, the three girls showed no signs of fatigue, while Weiss herself was exhausted, but it was possibly contributed due to the amount of dust used, if dust does use or require any human energy to successfully use it. However, 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 still seems to be fully energized. However, she seems capable of lasting long enough in a battle and when running at a high speeds, such as when she saved Ruby from the Deathstalker, where Weiss herself was at a long distance from Ruby, where both were half a field apart.

Trivia

 * Weiss is the second character of RWBY introduced, appearing in her trailer that was released on February 14th, 2013.
 * She fights primarily with her left hand, and uses her right hand mainly in conjunction with magical attacks, transferring and directing enhancements from the weapon.
 * According to Monty Oum, Weiss fights with fencing because he studied fencing.
 * She appears to be related to Snow White as her theme sings about a mirror, although Monty Oum said that his characters would not be based off of fairy tale characters. This is supported by her name, when translated from German to English is 'White Snow', which is 'Snow White' with the first and last names exchanged.
 * Fitting her title, "White", white light is composed of all colors. Her usage of multiple colored spells and abilities may allude to that trait.
 * Her first name, Weiss, is German for white while her surname, Schnee, is German for snow, thus combining to 'White Snow'. Her last name is also a nickname for someone with white hair and/or a pale complexion.
 * It's accepted that the fight took place before she sang. Evidence of this is usually cited by the scar she supposedly gained when the Giant Armor punched her. However, up until that moment, a clear view of her face is not shown, and when her face is revealed covered in blood, you can still make out her scar having already been there. Though this does not disprove that the fight took place before she began singing, it does disprove that she gained the scar from fighting that particular Giant Armor.
 * However, frame by frame comparisons give conflicting results, as many frames do not show that she had this scar before the fight started. Before the battle begins, we see a brief glimpse of her eye, bearing the scar. This may be still a moment when she's on-stage and realizing the flashback. Whether this is a rendering error where the wrong texture was used, where the lighting hides the scar or whether the blood is purposely off centered is unclear.
 * She is the first character introduced to have her surname revealed.
 * The same symbol on Weiss' back also appears multiple times on crates in the "Black" Trailer. This may indicate that the said crates were supplied, belong to or manufactured by Weiss' family.
 * Weiss is the only main character who doesn't use conventional weapon ammunition in her fighting style, instead she uses magic and an unknown energy source to augment her swordplay.
 * Despite her name being words in German, the W is not pronounced as it would be in German.
 * Weiss is the only main character who did not have speaking lines in any of the trailers; her singing excluded.
 * Because of the lyrics in Mirror Mirror, many fans have deduced that she feels lonely.
 * After lecturing Ruby about Dust in her series debut, she is dubbed 'princess' by her, possibly as a nod to the pre-series speculation that Weiss was royalty.
 * She is the only main character not to have spoken lines before appearing on the show.
 * Many consider Weiss a "Tsundere" because of her initial attitude towards Ruby. This is a form of Japanese character development in which the character is initially cold and even hostile, but gradually becomes warm and loving.
 * 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 and Yang.
 * Weiss could have been ignored by her father. Her father is in charge of Schnee Dust Company, which had been successful. Weiss's father now has no time for his daughter, therefore Weiss feels lonely. This is further shown by the lyrics of Mirror, Mirror.
 * Also, Weiss could be angry at her father. This anger could be the cause of her bossy, bitchy nature at the start of the series.
 * The line "I'm not perfect", said in Episode 7 by Weiss, might be a slight reflection of her lonely past. However, she then goes on to say, "Not yet... But I'm still leagues better than you." Note that she says this before she sees Ruby fight (She has seen Ruby fight, but it was only one blow, and that scene is a not a true representation of Ruby's fighting style), therefore judging Ruby on what she has currently seen of her. This could be more evidence of her past once more, as she belittles others to numb down her hidden feelings.
 * In RWBY Volume 3 Episode 11: Heroes and Monsters

Similar Heroes

 * Raphael (TMNT series)
 * Rainbow Dash (My Little Pony)
 * Knuckles the Echidna (Sonic the Hedgehog)
 * Snow White