Weiss Schnee

Each characters theme title says a lot about their origin- Weiss' "Mirror Mirror": From fantasy to reality, she is constantly comparing her life to others. To see if her life was the right one or not. That if she is/was her own person or the byproduct of someone else; like trying to see your own life through the eyes of someone else. And if broken, is forever cursed.
There's a term for what Kurapika is going through. "The lie your character believes".
We know Kurapika is lying to himself. HE knows he's lying to himself and yet he persists as self-destructive as the lie might be. And that's a key to creating 'well written' characters. Gon has a lie he believes, and it's from that we get the drama of ep 116, but the lie was present even earlier, with lines like Kite's "what would you do if the enemy does show compassion?" or Bisuke's "Gon your perfect nature of yours can be your undoing".
Killua had his own lies he believed, and even Leorio can be shown to have some.
That's compelling writing. By contrast, not to shit too hard on Bleach but the writing is shit... what lie does Ichigo believe? That he can do everything on his own? Well, ultimately, he can, if he just 'believes in his friends'. The series never punishes him for the lie, there's no real drama because he's not lying to himself about anything really. There's no room for character growth.
Togashi remarks about this with YYH too. If the series were to continue, could it really do so with Yusuke as the lead? Hiei had more room for dramatic tension than Yusuke did by the end of the series. Yusuke's character arc was pretty damn complete.
*manga spoilers below*
And if you notice, Gon and Killua are currently not featured. Though hopefully there will be reason for them to come back.
School uniform. Earned it!: http://i.imgur.com/ISU8NDX.jpg
Weiss stared down at the uniform, not quite being able to believe it. Hesitantly, she picks it up as though physical contact will reveal this all to be a dream.
It has to be, she only defeated her fathers test yesterday. The wound on her eye was still fresh and tender. The doctors said it would never heal fully despite her aura. The price of her choice. A price she would pay a hundred times over just to hold this clothing.
But how could it be here? She hadn't even put in an order yet. Who could have ordered it? As much as she would have liked to hope, she knew her father would not have gotten it for her.
Brushing her fingers over the soft neck tie, Weiss frowned as she felt rough string touch her skin. Pulling it gently, a small tag came into view, placed there by whoever had brought her this. Taking it in her hand a smile broke across her face as she read the words.
No more playing house.
Damn, this is actually really good. The pride on her face as she realizes she can finally do what she wants to do with her life...
This is why I love Weiss.
Yes, exactly this! And that's why I think she wouldn't be upset about that scar and probably would be somewhat proud about it.
Aww. Poor Weiss. :(
As much as I like the scar as part of her design, the fact that she had to go through getting it makes me sad.
I LOVE this picture. It shows Weiss' drive and personality so well. Strength through adversity.
How would you give Weiss a confident boost in the next Volume? I'd have a scene where several characters are training outdoors and show the progression of time with the sun. As the day goes on fewer and fewer characters are still training until Weiss is the only one left and its night. The only sounds are crickets and her training, and we get a brief flashback to all the times she's failed. She then attacks the training dummy no longer retaining her usual finesse and just swings wildly until she's left on the ground crying out of physical and mental exhaustion. It'd have Ruby, her partner, confront her.
Ruby would give her encouragement but that's not what Weiss needs at the moment. Confidence can't be instilled in you by someone else, you have to be the one to instill it yourself. She can talk about how her father was right and how she's not cut out to be a huntress, and that Jaune has been a better partner to Ruby than she ever was. Ruby continues trying to talk sense into her but there's a lot of truth to what Weiss says, and eventually Ruby just has to tell her that she's glad Weiss is her partner and that she could've have asked for a better one. She then helps Weiss to her feet and half-carries, half-drags her back to their room.
This plot point would continue throughout the volume and Weiss' family would do her no favors in re-establishing her confidence, but by the end of the volume she'd stand toe to toe with a Maiden using the large repertoire of glyphs at her disposal to at lease hold them off. By this point it would've been discovered that the Schnees are descendants of a Winter Maiden which explains their powerful but peculiar semblances, but learning this is just another burden on Weiss' shoulders just like being a Schnee. She feels like she can never be her own person or live up to expectations, which is why I'd give her small victories that do little to boost her confidence until perhaps Volume 7 where she finally gets a very personal victory against a villain that drastically changes their plan.
Overall I just want characters to discover their character development on their own and without having to be told, or without it coming at someone else's expense. A character getting cheered up or given advice by someone else is perfectly fine, but in my opinion that character should be the biggest reason why they developed. Ruby and whoever else should help Weiss, and inadvertently hinder her at times, but ultimately Weiss needs to be the one who takes an active role in developing.
How not to write: Weiss
Today’s topic is actually going to be divided into two portions: a warning for those who “strike gold” with a concept and further delving into the biggest issue of RWBY, something even I struggled with.
Weiss is not Ruby, she is not lacking in a proper arc. Weiss is not Blake, or Yang, or Jaune; she’s what one could consider a good character, although your mileage may vary depending on the volume. However, there is one concern I should address about the character and those who find themselves with an interesting concept they wish to explore: be careful of oversaturation.
Weiss’ character moment in volume 1 are really just that, moments, like what Ruby has. However, by volume 2, the show begins to expand on Weiss’ family life and this continues into volume 3 and reaches its conclusion in volume 4. I think. By volume 5, Weiss goes on a search for her sister; she doesn’t find her, nor doesn’t she end up doing much beyond being a damsel in distress. Twice.
Now with Weiss heading back to Atlas, it’s likely we’ll see even more family issues. For those who wish to be good writers: do your best to avoid this. Weiss had a good arc from volume 2 and 3 (4 kind of shit the bed but at least it was a conclusion stretching her issue further makes it feel like the writers have no idea what else to do with her.
Sadly, making a character a one-trick pony can be a difficult thing to avoid: on one hand, you want to explore and expand on an idea, but on the other hand you also want that character to be multifaceted and sticking to just one aspect of that character won’t allow for that. The question is, where is the happy medium between underdeveloped and oversaturated?
Unfortunately, there’s rarely -if ever- an objective answer to that question. Reaching the point where you feel a character has explored an aspect of themselves conclusively is something you get a feel for, and it may be something that others disagree with.
That said, after spending 3 years on one arc, I’d say it’s time to move on. And before you bring up her other “arcs”: Weiss was never racist and the summoning arc suffers from the same issue of having a beginning and end without a middle to make the conflict feel fleshed out. Notably both of these suffer from not giving Weiss enough time investment.
This lack of time investment brings us to RWBY’s biggest issue in that there are too many characters and not enough focus. This focus issue is the fundamental issue of the show, with Ruby getting none and even the best written characters having many arcs and conflicts that go nowhere because there isn’t enough time and energy put into them.
One of the best things I’ve learned from college is that constraints can be a positive thing. For reading this, put a constraint on how many main characters you want in your story. Juggling four-six main characters can be difficult for even an intermediate writer if they’re not adept at it. Handling the insane amount of characters RWBY establishes with the limited time that it is allotted is literally impossible.
I think the best comparison I could offer would be the 2003 Teen Titan’s animated series. In Teen Titans there are 5 (later 6…ish) main characters, with each episode only focusing on 1 or 2 unless it’s a team episode. Any character who is not the focus of the episode becomes a supporting character, or comedic relief. While RWBY is more continuity driven than teen titans, the solution still applies.
When I was writing Duology Light (I can’t recommend it), I often struggled to evenly split the focus between five (later 6) main characters. Not only were the main characters bland, some of them were one-note, if that.
In the end, always keep in mind who is/are the main character(s) of your story. Starting out, you should absolutely only have one main character, with the rest being supports. From there, gradually expand, don’t attempt to jump into the deep end and try to juggle four, six, or even twelve main characters…unless your story is an experiment/sacrificial lamb.

Physical Description

Special abilities

Roman’s Dust robberies have made Weiss’ supplies run short and she has to create the Dust herself for the most part. Her perfectionist mindset makes her reject all of her Dust creations until they are the highest grade possible.
Weiss, you fought through an entire lancer swarm, summoned your knight, teleported it around and then used glyphs to slow the descent of an airship. Why the fuck are collapsing from slowing down Ruby. Too many cookies? Has the milk made her grow too much? For fucks sake CRWBY, consistency. Learn it.
What’s the Biggest Plot Hole in RWBY?
Weiss' magical ability to suck really hard even though she should be kicking major ass.
Not really, her fight against trumpet man should've been as simple as don't run headfirst and just bounce around using glyphs so he can't actually stop you. Instead she keeps doing one thing that makes no sense at all. That's the kind of stuff I'm talking about.
This, and using her haste glyph. Or use one of her other glyphs to make him lose his footing to open him up for hits.
Seriously, Flynt shouldn't have been an issue for anyone on team RWBY, and Weiss easily had the most options when it came to dealing with him.
They should've just left Flynt alone, he isn't nearly as mobile as the rest of them and just go fight Neon.
My problem is that there was no reason for her to keep doing the same shit in the FNKI fight. It obviously wasn't working but instead of trying something else or maybe just going to fight Neon she keeps rushing at the guy headfirst. She would've easily been able to get to Neon and help Yang before trumpet man did anything.
It's literally the most basic thing in existence. If it isn't working try something else.
Weiss has clearly shown to be able to do this so it makes no sense why she suddenly can't figure out something that a toddler could do.
It's even worse when you consider that she saw evidence of a non-direct strategy working when she hit him with ice from all sides. That should have been more than enough for her to know how to adapt her strategy.

Specialized Equipment

So, it was a great episode, but I'm really upset that Weiss lost another solo fight. She got knocked out twice, and didn't really do anything significant. She completely lost her fencing skills, her agility and speed - she never tried to dodge anything - which would make a whole lot more sense, because his attacks don't seem to be that fast. But nope, she's just got tossed around like a sack of potato. That's just painful to watch. She also spent an awful lot of time lying down in a cliche "On no, my weapon!" pose instead of doing something smart with a glyph to disorient Flynt and return to fight - she had aura left and she was okay. Glyphs also are useable without a weapon - Winter was even able to summon Grimm without it.
Sacrificial takedown was kind of a great moment to demonstrate what she's willing to do for her team, but her performance just made me sad. I understand "be the best teammate" thing, but why does it have to come with being a bad fighter? The "top ranked in sparring classes" thing looks more and more like an Informed Ability and Weiss herself slowly turns into Faux Action Girl. TVTropes warning!
Summoning powers would not fix this, because that's just doesn't make up for losing her fencing skill and agility. It just was... so bad that I almost feel like Flynt's insult about her skills was justified, especially since he didn't see her when she actually was able fight properly. And now she's probably not getting any solo fights for a long time, because she's not advancing to singles after this. Well, good luck Yang! I hope you'll do better than Weiss did this time... I still like Weiss, and that won't make me like her less, but that's also why I feel so bad about this.
There's also something to be said that Weiss and Yang didn't cooperate during the fight at all - it's just a pair of solo fights.
Then it was a shitty solution. She didn't win all that many fights, and community generally considered her weak. She's got a lot of skill and potentially powerful abilities, but she didn't get to use them much, and now it looks like she completely lost some of them. What pisses me off is that she lost what could be considered the best part of her skill set.
She can be both a support-fighter and melee-fighter. A good chunk of her skills and abilities revolve around close combat fighting. She also can fight very well in melee combat, as she demonstrated several times.
As for her "arrogance" she's far past that, and she already does support stuff in team fights. But that doesn't mean that she should be bad at solo fights.

Mental characteristics

Personal history

“She couldn’t summon at all in V3 but in V4 she can summon by accident. How?! And here in comes the raging comments telling me that she learned how to summon off-screen in the ‘half a year’ between volumes, and...Okay, granted- But this goes into a whole other tirade that I’ve wanted to bitch about for a really long time.
When you constantly only show the very beginning of Weiss’ character arc and the very end of her arc, and you don’t show any of the in-between...it really becomes hard to see how much she’s actually grown. V3 was setting up a story for her, that being her practicing to summon, but it went for only two episodes and magically got resolved at the end. When you want to show character progression, you have to actually show character progression. You can’t just skip to when they’re better, you have to actually show them trying to get better. They don’t do this with Weiss. And the only reason that I can think of for this, and not necessarily for the other three protagonist is...the writers hate writing Weiss. Her character has just been reduced to the Butt Monkey for the jokes of the team and also for being nothing but an object of lust for Jaune fucking Arc, a character who- if it weren’t for Felix- would be the sole focal point towards my hatred of every character voiced by Miles Luna.
And you can’t even make the excuse that I just don’t like Weiss because of the four titular girls Weiss is easily my favorite. In fact, of the show she’s the one I keep coming back to, and most of that is due to how she was written in V1. She was a tsundere from a rich family, who would one day take over the company from her father, suffering from clear signs of abuse from her family- and as it was later revealed by her family’s history with the White Fang. She’s bossy, she’s a bit of a brat and she’s self-centered, but she’s also the one who would think things through before rushing in, as opposed to her teammates. She gives reasons for why she dislikes things and more often than not I find myself agreeing with her assessments, or at the very least understanding how her reasoning got that way. This was the character that they set-up in V1 and I wanted to see how she developed. But unfortunately the writers have not handled her with the grace she deserves, as her storylines have been more or less abandoned in favor of either barely and/or inconsistently writing Blake or Yang, and spending an ungodly amount of time on Jaune. In the hands of a better writer Weiss could’ve been one of the deepest characters in the show, but now, she may get a good moment here or there, but there’s nothing really defining for her character to stand on, and that makes me really sad.”
I wholeheartedly agree with you of how badly the writers are treating Weiss. My only guess to the reason why is because she's suppose to be the "Rich Evil Racist White Man" kind of character that Hollywood often like to use for their villains. It honestly feels like the writers went, "Well, everyone hates those kind of characters so let's have Weiss be that character!".
Hey, remember when Weiss said her family was at war with the White Fang and she said that because of it her relatives disappeared and board members were executed? Back when it was implied that the whole blake, faunus and white fang situation would heavily involve her character just as much as Blake's. Weiss honestly should have been the one to be more involved with Blake, Adam and the White Fang. It would have made more sense narrative wise. Also why did Adam never target Weiss despite the fact that everyone knows that she is a Schnee? He said he'd attack those closest to Blake and Weiss is not only her teammate but apart of the family/company that has supposedly wronged Adam personally. Why so much focus on Yang?
Actually, Weiss never says that she doesn't like faunus. She's says she doesn't trust the faunus, which is very different in my opinion. The only people in Volume 1 that Weiss immediately liked and/or trusted were those with authority (Pyrrha, Port, Ozpin, and the two cops). And to be honest I think she liked about as many faunus as she did humans. To me Weiss was hurt and understandably so, and the writers glossed over all that in my opinion to focus on Blake's self-inflicted hurt.
Yeah, and her father being the former leader of the White Fang and the current chief of Menagerie living in a mansion doesn't really help, but especially when nobody not even the Schnees recognize the Belladonna name. Weiss blamed the White Fang for her difficult childhood, but she would've already been about twelve when Ghira left. Either there's a bit of an inconsistency there or Ghira wasn't as peaceful as he appears. You could argue that the White Fang was violent against his discretion, but for years it seemed he did little to stop them, and Kali's rather flippant quote about what happened to Vale didn't really help in my opinion. Personally I think Blake either being an orphan or her parents being villains she ran away from makes more sense and is more sympathetic than what we got.
And again she had to be told what her character development was. She didn't learn to stop being selfish and hurting her friends for herself, but much like Yang she had to be told...
Ah, right. My point was that I'm not sure Weiss was ever intended to be truly racist, because in those early episodes her ire is almost always directed at the White Fang. I think if she did hold any resentment towards faunus in general, it was more because of association as opposed to genuine prejudice.
Personally, I can't say that I've seen a whole lot if any of people hating Blake for being fearful, Weiss for crying, or Yang for battling depression. However I have seen many people dislike how the writers portrayed them, and if you already had a negative opinion of Blake then I can especially see not being a fan of her selfishness and constantly hurting the people she's supposed to care about (Sun's own words and her character development four years in the making).
I think a lot of the dislike for a characters' "less than awesome", "angst-y" moments stems from a lot of people already knowing the punchline so to speak. They've seen this kind of storyline before and want to get it over with as quickly as possible, and if you're not fully invested in a character then it can be easy to resent them for slowing the story down and steering it toward a resolution they can see coming a mile away. And if the character isn't well-written or particularly interesting/likable then these "less than awesome" and "angsty-y" moments can feel more egregious to people who feel the development that the character is currently going through is something they should've went through or learned a long time ago. There are aspects of all this in Blake, Weiss, and Yang's character developments as I believe they should've already known before being told what their "lessons" were supposed to be, but Blake's was about three times longer (literally) and her development involved hurting several of her friends for selfish reasons, all for a punchline people saw coming since Volume 1. Even combined Yang and Weiss didn't get anywhere near Blake's screen time despite Yang's story in my opinion deserving the most amount of screen time to resolve her struggles.
I'm glad I could open your eyes a bit, friend, to the reason why some including myself aren't the biggest fan of Blake these days. Thanks for hearing me out, I really appreciate it.
Guys what do you think about this piece of criticism?:
At the end of the video he touches on I think the biggest reason I don't like Blake as much as the other three, and can definitely understand other people's frustration with her: she faces no consequences. She faces no consequences ever. In fact, worse than no consequences, others face the consequences for her. What has she ever actually lost? What has she had to sacrifice? Everything she has for her is handed over on a silver platter, every problem she has gets legions of people lining up to fix it for her, she even has three people pining over her(four if you're a Bumblebee fan), she's rich, she's influential, everything is ripe for the taking for Blake.
And she, out of all people, out of all the main four with their own inherited problems, has the nerve to be the cynical, bratty, moody, angry one. Has the gall to act like she's the most mature and above the other three.
No? No???
Okay, so Vexed Viewer brings up some good points on why Blake became one of the most likeable characters to the one of the more controversial characters like her attitude towards Sun. I don't think the writers intended for Blake to irritable and irrational and I get they were trying to make her sympathetic in the sense that Blake is still haunted by her past. However, the fact they made her mean-spirited towards Sun, revealed her (somewhat) comfortable life, and never apologized to her parents or Sun or anyone for her behavior made me lose respect for Blake more and more. With that being said, I won't hate Blake but I hope she realizes her errors and becomes more supportive towards the people that love her.
I suppose but I still want to have her make an actual apology to Yang for running away, to Weiss for hating on her because she's a Schnee, to Sun for being ungrateful for his help, and to her parents for being a brat. But you know she's still afraid of Adam so everyone will forgive her. Weiss was also afraid of her father but she's her own person now so she doesn't need to be forgiven.
You know, I'd never actually thought about the fact that she doesn't want to stay with her friends out of fear of endangering them but then proceeds to go right to her parents, endangering them.
More than that - she seems to effectively arrive at the Belladonna mansion unnoticed by the White Fang yet she deliberately goes out of her way to reveal herself to them the moment they come knocking at the door, instantly alerting them to her presence and putting her family in danger when she likely could have laid low there for a while, relatively safe. And there isn't really a compelling excuse for her to do it.
It's infuriating to me that the writers had her do the exact thing she left Vale to avoid, not by accident or through something outside of her control, but by her own volition and to literally nobody's benefit.
The scene that got me was when she says:
“I'm not here to fight the White Fang.”
Then later:
“Who says I'm done fighting?”
The same character says both these lines. It's just... ugh. This is the sort of shit any decent writer/editor should have caught because #1 it's cliche and #2 it sounds contradictory.
I still find it strange that Ghira stepped down from being high leader of the White fang roughly five years prior to Volume 1, meaning Weiss' difficult childhood started around the age of twelve. It's also more than a little odd to me that Weiss (as well as her family) wouldn't immediately recognize the Belladonna name, or anyone else for that matter...
While Volume 1 did its best to make me feel sorry for Blake I always sympathized with Weiss more. She talked about friends and family members being killed by the White Fang, and she blamed them for her father coming home in terrible moods and whatever happened after. Blake however felt sorry for herself, not that a girl that had lost family and friends as well as her childhood. She went so far as to justify the White Fang and her own actions, and shortly after being accepted/forgiven by her friends she refers to them as a separate species and continues blaming humanity for the faunus' troubles. There's just a lack of empathy there in my opinion, and it's difficult for me to sympathize with a character like that whose only guilt in my opinion comes in the form of "self-guilt".
Would the deaths of the civilians during her trailer outweigh Blake's own self-guilt? It's a fair question in my opinion. Was Blake feeling more upset that her best friend lost an arm or was it more self-guilt that she believed it was her fault? The girl who lost her arm and was battling depression certainly got less focus than her, and I think some people are just tired of certain characters getting "punished" for their actions while Blake's are seemingly always defended/rewarded by the writers.
No character is perfect, and I think everyone is glad for that. I'll go so far as to say that many of Blake's actions are understandable given her history. However just because her actions are understandable that doesn't necessarily make them "likable". Blake abandoning her best friend(s) might be understandable, but that doesn't necessarily make it likable. Slapping her comedic love interest might be understandable, but that doesn't necessarily make it likable. Using civilians as human shields might be understandable, but it doesn't necessarily make it likable. Calling your best friends a separate species after they've accepted you might be understandable, but that doesn't necessarily make it likable. Not trusting your best friend after she has given you everything might be understandable, but that doesn't necessarily make it likable.
Out of left field we discover that Blake has two loving parents she abandoned, something Ruby, Yang, and Weiss don't have. She was "abused" by Adam, but in my opinion this comes out of nowhere as it's not the impression I got from her in their first onscreen interaction together and Blake's first three years on screen. And after all the terrible things Adam has done and supposedly done, to be told suddenly that he isn't important is more than a let down. Especially if you thought she should've tried getting revenge for her best friend's sake.
A lot of Blake's problems are self-inflicted, and while I understand that's the point it can get a little old seeing a character you enjoy make the same mistakes for years and continually hurt other characters you enjoy. Characters you perhaps enjoy more. It also doesn't help that after you look at everything Blake had been through, abandoning her friends, coming home, seeing her love interest nearly die, she still had to be told to stop being selfish and to stop hurting the people she cares about. She didn't learn it, she was told. And the fact she couldn't learn this from Ruby, Weiss, or even Yang...
And lastly another problem I see is that Blake's character and story have usually taken precedence over the other titular characters, with them even being used as supporting characters at times. Her two main subplots revolve around an abusive relationship and racism. Those are two very, very real subject that some people here have dealt with. And if a viewer feels that the writing isn't treating racism or abusive relationships with the gravity they deserve, then it can leave a bad taste in their mouth.
I thought I'd just share my two cents for whatever they're worth. If you disagree and/or like Blake's portrayal that's perfectly fine, but from Volume 1 I've had trouble sympathizing with her character. Again, there's nothing wrong with a character being imperfect, but in my opinion her character just comes across as self-centered and not all that likable, and seemingly treated with kid gloves by the writers.
I really like what you pointed out about Blake's perception of guilt; is it guilt for the people who were hurt, or guilt for herself for being involved? If this was a better written show, I would like to see something done with that idea, but through the course of the show, Blake has easily proven to be the worst written character in the show, since there seems to be a general lack of self-awareness from the writers on what she says and does. You're also right when you say that "understandable" is not the same as "likeable"; even though I understand Blake's thought process at the end of V3, it dosen't change the fact that abandoning her friends at a time when they needed her most was an incredibly shitty thing to do, and it looks like the narrative won't treat it like that.
EDIT: I was just thinking it, but there's another reason I don't really care much about Blake: she's a terrible friend. Ruby, Weiss, Yang and Sun have all been there for her at multiple times through the course of the series, always making the effort to get involved in issues, to help her, but she's resistant to that. However she never shows that same dedication to them, never returns what they give her, and because of that all he relationships feel terribly uneven to me.
You make a good point, friend, that I don't think the writers themselves are aware of there being a problem. I also think they assume that the majority of fans don't have any problems with Blake's characterization and sympathize with her through all her troubles and tribulations...which she brought on herself. After how Yang was treated the past three volumes, and all the mean spiritedness involved, I really don't think they're aware of an issue. If they are I personally think they've misidentified it as they did with Yang's portrayal.
Something else I think the writers misidentified is who it is that has a realistic and idealistic worldview in Volume 1. Blake tells Ruby that life isn't a fairy tale, something that Ruby quickly agrees to, but her answer is simply that people like them are there to make it a better place. I know the writers view Blake as the one with a shades of gray "realistic" worldview, but I'd argue she sees more black and white than anyone else and is much more idealistic compared to Ruby. And I think that's another problem that the writers don't see.
I would be alright with Blake's friends making more of an effort if it hadn't been as one sided as it was, and if Blake's reason for not wanting to get too close is because she doesn't trust her own judgement. We saw a little of that in Volume 3 after what happened to Mercury, but Blake never apologizes and even goes out for drinks with Weiss thinking either her best friend is lying, has become a danger to herself and others, or is being manipulated. And the next time they see each other Yang loses her arm trying to save her... But again, I would've wanted Blake to make more of an effort and for issues to have made some progress after three years.
In my opinion Blake's problems are mostly self-inflicted, and that's just hard to sympathize with after awhile, but especially when all your favorite characters keep getting hurt because of her and the writers keep defending her. I feel like all the other titular characters have been called out by the writers on much less egregious actions and philosophies than Blake but she continues to get a free pass.
Personally I don't think it's the audience that's disconnected from the writers' portrayal or that the audience is missing their context for doing what she does. I don't think the writers are necessarily "confused" in what they're trying to say, as I think they're saying exactly what they believe, only mixed with poor writing and inconsistency.
They saw Ruby's worldview as childish when I'd argue she was childlike. They saw Weiss as being in the wrong in Volume 1 when I'd argue she was understandably untrusting of others not in authority. And they saw Yang as being overly aggressive/reckless and poorly trained when I'd argue everyone in RWBY is overly aggressive/reckless and that she should be the best trained of the main characters. Blake however in my opinion gets free pass while everyone else gets punished for their actions and beliefs.
The disconnect isn't with the audience in my opinion, it's with the writers. I don't agree with a lot of their writing philosophies surrounding Blake or the worldviews they've used Blake's character to uphold while everyone else's are deconstructed. And to be honest I don't think the writers really see any issues with her portrayal. I think they view her as the most interesting, sympathetic, and best written character in the show, which couldn't be further from the truth in my opinion.
I'm trying to understand why I started to get disinterested in Blake and don't have an opinion on her- I don't hate her and yet I don't like her.
As her story progressed she wasn't "likeable" so I couldn't get invested in her and her arc - she was just there. Like...she's boring...like for me, that's all it was..
Like seriously whenever the Blake eps came out in vol 4-5. I was just like oh please hurry up and get over with her arc. Go back to everyone else. The only thing that made me not HATE her arc was Sun, Adam(I like yanderes- though they did botch him up in the last vol), and the environment cause, d**n, it was very well done
At this point, and keep repeating myself, I wouldn't mind if they pushed her down to supporting character. Just let her get with whatever love interest she is supposed to get with and just push her down to supporting character...

Education

also i hope crwby can actually show that weiss is able to run a company.(let alone one that's the foundation of an entire nation). What. You can take Weiss out of this volume and almost nothing would change - especially for Weiss. She didn't have any meaningful dialogue, she didn't have any of her thoughts, motivations, character flaws or strengths explored or developed. She ended this volume in the same place as she started it. It's the opposite of "major development".
Well, even Weiss is a "background friend" now. She used to have some motivation, some goal... some drastic changes in her life, and how has it affected her? What she thinks about being a Huntress now? What she thinks about protecting people? Upholding her "legacy"? Who knows. Starting with Volume 5 she doesn't talk about it, her actions don't show that either. She wants to be a Huntress, but when she witnessed Grimm tearing down a civilian ship, she... well, got sad a bit, and then forgot about it. I've seen shows that aren't even considered all that well-written having more consistent characters than this.
And I'll say this, I thought this would've been her Volume for some major development since she and Ruby are literally at the front of the opening. And yet, like you said... nothing is really happening with her. She has stockings... and a red scarf. BOOM we're done with her. Maybe have her talk about not really wanting to go back to Atlas despite knowing how important this mission is. Show her a bit relieved when Cordovin turned them down cause that meant she doesn't have to go back.
Yes. She was my favorite, and the prime reason why I watched the show, but what they do with her is pretty disappointing. Even the Atlas negotiations thing where she could have been the most useful, Maria instead takes the spotlight, and Weiss is just a bargaining chip. Oh, speaking of which, I really dislike Atlas portrayal this volume. That's pure incompetence and caricature.
Anyone else want more development between Blake and Ruby and Yang and Weiss? Some more Weiss and Blake would be nice as well. Weiss has been kinda "there" for second volume already, and she doesn't serve any purpose, other than being used as a bargaining chip at Argus. Yang is in there because Ruby, and Blake is... well because Yang I guess? Who knows.
Ah man I get downvoted every time I point this out. But these characters in their current iterations really wouldn't pass many writers' tests if they had to choose protagonists for the current story.
Protagonists really do need to be connected to the plot. It's why half the last two or three seasons were spent finding things for our characters to do. It's why Adam needed to show up out of nowhere for the finale to wrap up Blake and Yang's arc this season even though he cut his way out of plot relevancy a whole season ago.
I totally agree with you. The way these characters are written right now is a big no no in my book. They became a sedated form of their former selves. And on the top of that, writers are adding even more characters.
Weiss gets an award for being the most useless main character in the history of the show, I guess.
I wasn't talking about fighting. She's barely a character this volume. No meaningful lines, no meaningful decisions, no motivation - nothing. She's been used as a bargaining chip for Cordovin and helped in a fight.
I do mind that she's taken a "backseat" for two volumes already, failed to actually demonstrate any of her development (and bitch please, "What's that supposed to mean" is not demonstrating her development.) and actually do anything or be relevant to the story in any way whatsoever. She's a main character, and I find it pretty atrocious that the show cannot find things for the main characters to do but has time inserting new characters every volume, try to develop them and hype them up, and also add scenes that have no impact on the rest of volume at all. It's not just Weiss, it's Ren and Nora, and even Jaune. Blake and Yang get off the hook because they decided to bring Adam for no other reason than have Blake and Yang be somewhat relevant.

Accomplishments & Achievements

Speaking of Flynt, why is his weapon a fucking trumpet. I can’t imagine him trying to fight a grimm with a fucking trumpet. XD it looks ridiculous. It’s almost hard to imagine Weiss lost to him. I mean all he does is he can summon other clones of himself and use his trumpet. That’s stupid IMO. It would have been better if he had 2 pistols that can turn into 2 kunais. That’s would at least have been more practical. Oh no Weiss has been yamcha'd There's always one Yamaha in every anime. It’s one of the sacred laws of animation I don’t know what this yamcha is but it sounds disappointing. The reason why so many people are convinced that RWBY was ever great is because Monty brought the passion, his fights & story contributions were amazing. Miles and Kerry can't write and don't know what to do with any of these characters. I don't like her new fighting style. She uses to much her semblance and she doesn't concentrate on fighting. lightning=time manipulation ...Where can I find what the writers were on. Bad writing, that's why. Character like she should be OP! Weiss always loses even though she has the most OP semblance because RT doesn't want to be accused of having an OP character..... ( I know that doesn't make sense but its RT's world.) Well. apparently it only has so many abilities because the glyphs can be used with dust. but if that's the case, can other people use dust with their semblance? Considering the amount of other op characters that are already in the series, that would be bs, there's nothing wrong in writing op characters/powers if is done right but since RT can't write for shit, there's nothing we can do. Considering she's been hyped up since pre volume 1 to be this badass who wanted to prove herself to her family I find it sickening that they always portray her as a loser. If anyone should be the jobber it's Blake. Weiss has trained her entire life formally and developed a semblance with far more abilities and usages than others, yet she's somehow pathetic. Its not like the people she fights are that strong either. These are the same people Ruby can speed through and Yang can punch around. I don't know man this makes me so mad since Weiss has always been my favorite in the show. It's simple, if she was a competent fighter, the show would've required a bigger budget. If by budget, you mean paying the fight animators to do what they were hired to do. the problem is we never saw her actually carrying any dust or mentioning her reserves. So from a narrative perspective we have to assume it’s near infinite. Similar to how Usopp in One Piece never runs out of ammunition because it’s treated as an ability and not a tool. If RT took its time to explain how much ammo or dust everyone carries and which types we could take this as a genuine reason for getting into trouble. Since they don’t it’s just bad writing. I don't know what this Weiss is, but it sounds.. Disappointing. It's really a shame, because Weiss is my favorite member of team RWBY - best design, least intolerable personality, coolest moveset, and just overall may favorite main protagonist aside for Pyrrha. The writing is a far worse opponent for her. Weiss is like a ballerina when she fights. Nice to watch. I wonder if Qrow and Weiss will bond over constantly being nerfed and forced to job by the writers in order to facilitate the plot. Adam probably feels their pain, too. They should have started a "Nerfed Anonymous" help group. It’s a really REALLY big issue for Weiss because she has one of the most beautiful fighting styles and is constantly nurfed, conveniently forgets to summon or it fails or is just being an idiot. It’s very...underwhelming. Weiss should be the strongest character in the show. She has the most powers, a powerful semblance, expert fencer skills, and a Dust weapon. Can literally call upon ice and Slow time, plus summon boss monsters to assist her. If this was an Isekai anime then she's literally a cheat character. If only they had the ability to write a decent character or story element the story could go in a way that could be unique and interesting but no they would choose to do the same things they have been doing and think this is what everyone wants. Simple answer, the writer/animators can't juggle all the balls Weiss has. Weiss has fencing, glyph's, a multitude of 3 summons, dust manipulation, gravity manipulation, time dilation and acceleration. From a writing standpoint that's a lot, and from the animation standpoint that's also a lot. And really the writers won't put the time and effort into her and the animators don't have the time or the instruction to. If Weiss ever reached her true power, she'd be like the protagonist of Solo Leveling. Go look it up, it's a good webtoon. Weiss is just wasted potential at this point. I would say the bad writing on miles and Kerry and monty. For now let's hope the manga can fix Weiss when it comes to fighting. Manga Weiss seems even more powerful, believe it or not. In Chapter 3 which covers Player and Pieces, she encases the ENTIRE Deathstalker in ice, not just the tail, within seconds, no more than 2 seconds because Ruby was falling through the air. Except I don't want her to JUST be a summoner. I'd rather she goes back to how she was before she used summoning, IMHO. But I guess that would require Monty Oum to still be alive to put thought into her character and choreography again. Weiss abilities can have some limit to them so they're not overpowered. But like you said, Weiss has lost fights even with those abilities. I honestly think that the summoning should be gone because Weiss was fine without it and seems like her fights only got worse because of it. The summon ability is cool but unless they actually have someone cover her or the summoning isn't as slow, maybe use those glyphs as traps so she can buy time? C'mon, Weiss to me seems to have very versatile abilities, let her use them more cleverly. The summoning isn't even meant to fight small fighters like Vernal, it was first used to take on a giant opponent who was too big for Weiss to harm. Miles and Kerry don't even know how to use it. Against Vernal she had no need of it really, maybe against Hazel it would have helped but nobody thought that far, instead they used the hornet for some reason when it shouldn't be as physically strong as a big giant knight, and thus less suited to fighting Hazel. But they just have it basically oneshot him.
If she did need to summon the knight mid battle, Weiss has plenty of ways to get that done even if it is slow, which it wasn't in the past when she first summoned just an arm of the knight. Back then she could even have the summon glyph float around as she ran to allow her to stay mobile while casting the spell. Heck, summoning just one arm and having it slash right away like she did against the mech is incredibly useful, as you often won't need the whole lumbering thing to stay around continuously if it already one shot the big foe you wanted it to deal with. But even if we go with the slow and lame summon sequence she used in the vernal fight, she has ways to make an opening. Making an ice wall was stupid, Vernal could have easily jumped over or gone around rather than show off and slash through it. Unless she had surrounded Vernal or herself it was a pretty dumb move, and gave away her intentions anyways. She created an icy mist smokescreen earlier with Yang's help when team RWBY fought roman's mech, why didn't she do that again? Or just follow the strategy she used against the Chainsaw guy, where she powered up with Time Dilation only after knocking him away so she had the opening to do so, only summon after you actually have a chance. The whole fight against Vernal she jumped AWAY from the enemy for no reason when she was just throwing some boomerangs, you are a melee, why don't you get closer to your opponent where you are at an advantage? Bumping into a wall was a big embarassment.
Here is a video showing how the fight should have gone, lol. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oRv1NAdTUU8 Ikr? Weiss is better than this. And you made a lot of good points. That was a fight not suitable for summoning and Weiss was pretty much not even fighting at all in that scene. Like I said in my comment, she's a very versatile fighter. What she might lack in strength can be made up by her clever use of her abilities in different situations. She could've had a better fight if it was thought out better. Also love lightning-in-my-hand's video, it's hilarious. XD Yeah, they misused her pretty badly. It's not like the knight is weak, but if anything, rather than learn to summon the dumb hornet which should be impossible to create and it's just way too op in general since it means weiss can probably fly now, she should learn to summon something smaller and more agile so she has an option that helps more against enemies who are quick.
Weiss seems like she could get much stronger too if she learned how to use the abilities she has. Even if bullets suddenly began being as dangerous as they are in real life, what if she combo'd the icy mist with her wind dust techniques to create a mobile smokescreen for herself to approach enemies with? Boom, ranged attacks become useless, at least until she has to get up close and melee, but she would probably do things like use the person she stabs as cover so it's hard to aim for her. She could probably blow forward two different streams of icy mist at angles to the sides of an enemy, so that as she approaches, their buddies don't try to shoot her as she combo's the enemy to death, still being able to see them. Even if she needed Yang's help to create mist it would be completely worth it, as Yang is a good teammate for Weiss anyways, she can tank enemies Weiss can't and beat up ones that are too tough for her to stab away at, while Weiss has a more versatile skillset that could make up for Yang being a bit predictable in her fighting style sometimes.
There are a lot of other things she could do but if she worked with Ruby, it is game over, there is a death combo they could do which would kill pretty much any enemy if they pulled it off. What you do is find an opening for Weiss to cast Glyph platforms around the enemy like she did against Chainsaw guy, probably after momentarily immobilizing them with ice or knocking them back with a fire enhanced slash. Then you cast Time Dilation on Ruby and let her just bounce between the glyphs of the cage of doom at such a speed that they are dead no matter what they do, as they get slashed 100 times by her scythe combo and can't block, evade, or do anything else but be infinitely comboed to death. No ally could even help them out since Ruby would be moving way too fast to shoot at, and Weiss could replace the Glyphs if they were destroyed, while nobody could really predict which Glyph Ruby jumps to at any given time due to the superspeed. The best they could do is try to attack Weiss, but she is more than capable of defending herself while sustaining the spell, and Ruby would only need maybe 5 seconds to beat the enemy. Basically it's the same move Weiss uses on Chainsaw man but much scarier since Ruby has perfect synergy with Glyphs, they give her much more speed by letting her bounce off platforms for rapid follow ups, her weakness with speed has always been that her own speed works against her in preventing her from repeatedly attacking the same foe, this totally makes up for that. Even if not used as a death combo, Weiss placing glyphs around the battlefield could greatly assist Ruby in making her less predictable and harder to hit, even when her superspeed makes that hard sometimes for her when she's on her own. That would look awesome animated!! And does more for RWBY's teamwork. Shows that Weiss has a lot more potential with her abilities, as well as compatibility with her teammates' skills. Yeah, she could do a lot of cool things. I'm glad you liked my idea.For the other idea besides the super combo, the smokescreen wind thing, I think it would serve her friendship with Blake well if Blake was the one to come up with the idea that Weiss can and should use subterfuge and etc with her ice dust. Weiss would then have more respect of Blake after realizing she is smart unlike what Faunus stereotypes would say.
In exchange, maybe Weiss helps Blake learn to cast her Aura at a distance from her body, so she learns to conjure a body double with dust that isn't right next to herself. Weiss can't exactly do it herself, but she could try to describe the process of how to send aura at a distance to cast ranged magic beyond just throwing magic. Maybe Weiss is able to do so because she had privileged training from youth that nobody else got, and all older and experienced hunstmen do in fact know how to use it. Qrow may avoid relying on it due to his Bad Luck semblance making fire dust particularly dangerous. I'm sure making others able to use dust could introduce plotholes but it would make sense for the story, Ozpin should be fully capable of teaching them how to do it with all his infinite knowledge and they are going to Atlas right now where they could easily stock up. Blake being able to conjure clones at range would be a game changer for tricking opponents, it would be so much easier to confuse them about where she is if the clone does not have to appear right next to her body. Even if there is a sign, like she has to send out dust towards the area, she could make a smoke bomb of dust and then have multiple clones emerge along with the real her, or something.
It's not like Weiss is the only one who can get stronger. Yang has a simple semblance and somewhat simple style, but she could get more options through dust. I doubt she's the type to go all magician like Weiss, but having dust containers in her gauntlets could add new options for her melee. She'd probably go for fire dust to cause explosions with punches or something, or maybe shoot out a fire dust grenade instead of just bullets, so she has a long range option that does more kinetic damage, like Nora's grenade launcher hammer. Some sort of defensive dust infused in her gauntlets could help her overcome the weaknesses of her semblance to some degree or another. Maybe she could even use lighting dust crystals in the gauntlets that let her take damage at her own pace. So let's say someone isn't doing enough damage for her to power up to super saiyan or whatever on demand, she just activates the lightning dust by moving her arm a way that triggers a button, and electrifies her arm, making her take more damage and activate the ability at will. Best case scenario, the Aura Transfer technology is copied into her Robot arm at Atlas as a gift from Ironwood or something, so she can cheese her own semblance and transfer aura into a robotic arm rather than directly lose it by taking damage. Then she can power up at will without having to waste the aura by getting hit more than she normally would if she dominated her opponent. Win-win solution right there that makes her Semblance OP.
Ruby could use lightning dust or something to take advantage of her superspeed and electrify the weapons in people's hands. Although what she really needs is a way for her sniper rifle to be dangerous.
This might seem like a weird idea, but it would be interesting if they could learn more offensive aura applications. Blake already does energy slash waves(at least she used to be able to), and Ren can make a snake's head explode by grabbing it. What if Ruby could infuse her bullets with Aura so her sniper shots have actual potential to be deadly, and let's say pierce through someone's aura if they fail to block/dodge the attack? Maybe she has to charge up the shot with energy first or something. Then you give her some kind of cool red laser targeter to match the red theme, although, obviously she wouldn't use it if it was a stealth shot they aren't supposed to know about. But even then, since it's imbued with Aura, maybe it leaves a dissipating red laser trail of her Aura, which unfortunately and inevitably gives away her position if anyone survives after she fires, but should look a lot cooler. And then if she uses her Silver Eyes, her body and weapon will glow with a silver aura instead of a red one.
In my headcanon, Silver Eyes would only automatically one shot or petrify the weaker Grimm with a look, but strong Grimm would be mostly unaffected, they would just sense the danger. Instead, she'd need to hit them with a bullet or hit them physically whether with Crescent Rose or just physical attack. When she does hit, the wound gets petrified or just violently destroyed by the energy. In my headcanon, strong Grimm would all have regenerative abilities which make them very difficult to kill, and wouldn't die even when hit in many of the usual vitals, even if they were normal sized(not all ancient powerful Grimm would be giants). However, if hit by a Silver Eyed Warrior they are unable to ever regenerate the petrified wound and the damage would sometimes spread, and if she gets a severe enough hit she can make the silver eyed warrior power just rip through them internally and basically make them explode like Ren did once to the snake, only with a lot more effectiveness. If Blake teaches her how she does sword waves she could probably even unleash ranged energy attacks of silver light from her scythe, rather than just using melee hits and aura-infused bullets.
The other charas could also get stronger with just using dust. Nora is the most obvious one. Why doesn't she use lightning dust? Seriously, it would be so much better if she could just power herself up with her semblance at will. Jaune could be better if his aura boosting actually had visible effects, like letting him go faster or hit harder. Maybe he becomes an expert at using ranged aura abilities and can shoot explosive ki blasts like in DBZ due to his extreme levels of aura compared to a normal human, that would make his abilities seem less stunted compared to the others. He'd probably be like a real life tank, and have strong ranged blasts that can disperse a crowd, and even stronger melee, along with good speed, as he needs it to get into melee without using gunshot recoil and all that as everyone else does. He would retain his shield sword and armor. Guns would end up being a hinderance even if he tried to use them, since they are weaker for him than using his raw aura levels in either his weapons/shield or tossing big explosive blasts of energy. Something like 'a bullet can't handle his level of aura', so it would be a waste for him to infuse aura into bullets and shoot at range. Unlike most people, he would have a constantly visible aura when he is in combat, since it is just that strong.
Ren should straight up learn to turn Invisible. It makes sense if his semblance will be any good, it will just turn out that his Semblance is "Concealment", not "Emotion Concealment", and they had the wrong idea assuming it was only emotions. Meanwhile he can turn his weapon invisible even in high speed combat unlike his body, so nobody can ever properly react to parry his thrown invisible knives, or properly block his weapon when the whole thing is invisible. Or his 'emotion concealment' is so strong against Grimm that they are unable to sense him even if he is in plain sight. Something like he directly hacks their brains so they can't process his presence. He should at least be able to do that if he isn't attacking or moving really fast or anything.
Qrow would be fine if they just treated him properly so he was of some use. And had his semblance have at least some ways of realistic usability. Like if hitting an enemy physically exponentially increases the chances of them suffering bad luck the more times he hits them, or just the closer he is to them physically.But even without his semblance he would be fine if they just let him be fast and strong like he used to be and show that he is on a higher level than the others in other areas too. For example it would be nice if Blake's sword wave technique she used on the mech was just really basic level in compared to the types of stuff Qrow could do with his Aura and attacks if he wanted. Maybe he could create giant sword waves, manipulate the trajectory of a ranged aura blast he sends from his scythe at will, or if he's using the scythe mode, he could catch an enemy with the blade like how Ruby caught the Nevermore's neck, and just launch them flying into the air with a swing. Then they are hit by some devastating lightning strike midair because of their exponentially increased bad luck on a rainy day, which would not be that uncommon of a situation for him to use bad luck with.
There is a lot else they could do to make him stronger other than just drawing him as moving way faster. The 'danger sense' abilty of Aura could also be much stronger for him and other experienced huntsmen, so that he can actually sense the exact physical positions of enemies even when they're behind him, and predict their actions to some extent, similar to Observation Haki in One Piece. That way he could be fighting multiple enemies at once and still manage to outmaneuver them with better reactions. Anyway that's basically all the character upgrades I could think about right now, hopefully these changes are good ideas. Ok, thanks. I won't say too much more stuff since it seems like i posted a long wall that takes a while to read, but I will add just one little thing about something I said before. I didn't have space in my comment to clarify what i meant with Ruby due to the text limit. However, the idea behind her using lightning with her scythe is to literally just be like Thunderblight Ganon from Breath of the Wild, go whoosh-whoosh-whoosh-whoosh-slash at the enemy with speed semblance, and make them drop their weapons through electric conductivity cheese, forcing them to dodge her attacks instead of parry them. Basically, putting people in the most unfair situation, when the easiest route against her speed rushes would almost always be blocking. Basically it's like this is her new theme lol: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J21hyL_92Ew Although if they were good at using Aura like Qrow or Winter, I think they could coat their weapon in Aura and stop it from conducting electricity, but lightning dust would still work on a lot of enemies who use metal weapons to defend. If it is too OP there would be an ammo limit mechanic so that she can only do that trick a few times or something. But yeah that's basically all i thought of right now, glad that you enjoyed reading it. Well actually i thought of something else related to Ruby but it wasn't about her direct abilities, just the silver eyes backstory, but it didn't fit in the text limit. But yeah I do enjoy theorizing improvements for this sort of thing. Another way to nerf weiss is to make it so that since she is estranged from her family( for the most part) she has ration her use of dust, since she doesn't have a job to buy it, and it is no longer given to her due to her families connections. Lmao some idiot from the RWBY Wiki literally said that people should be happy that Weiss never met Adam (despite the fact that he has a fucking brand-scar on his face) because she's the most fragile member of Team RWBY, meaning Adam would've killed her almost immediately if they encountered each other. Do people seriously forget that Weiss, who is actually the strongest member of the main four since she has a shit ton of abilities, could actually put up a decent fight against Adam?

Mental Trauma

Weiss suffers from night terrors. The other three take turns comforting her. Weiss never remembers this in the morning.

Morality & Philosophy

Weiss is actually the nicest member on team RWBY. Some may find the title to be a bit of a mind-scratcher, but when you closely examine the situation it should become clear that Weiss is actually the nicest member of Team RWBY. All of the characters are nice to an extent, for sure, but she is the only one who always seems justifiably upset and even then reacts far less severely than others would. Yang has an obsessive and irrational love of her hair. Although it is good for a laugh, it also points to her being overly sensitive about something that is really not a big deal. Blake is a bit cold and we see this most plainly when her initial reaction to Yang and Ruby is to quietly dismiss them. Only when Ruby taps into her interest in books does Blake's attitude change. Ruby is pure-hearted and happy to seek out friendship, but she is impulsive to the point of needlessly insulting anyone who upsets her and let us not forget that she came up with "vomit boy" for Jaune.
You may be thinking that Weiss has been mean plenty, but look at the situations in context. Her first interaction with Ruby is Ruby knocking over cases of Dust, a volatile substance that can explode if agitated. Honestly, who wouldn't get pissed about this? Initially, her reaction is not even one of frustration, but is simply normal shock over her dangerous behavior. She only becomes rude as Ruby displays an apparent ignorance of what happened, though we know Ruby was just disoriented. Only after Ruby sneezes and actually causes an explosion does Weiss become truly mean, but at that point it was completely within reason. Her reaction to Blake is completely different and while one can say it is because she was one-upped, it seems more that she is simply not one for inter-personal conflict, which I will note later.

At the point she walks up to Ruby at the assembly she is clearly still agitated over it, but consider her behavior. Unless we presume Weiss has those pamphlets at the ready and suddenly stumbled upon Ruby then it means she actually got the pamphlet explicitly to give it to Ruby and then sought her out. When sarcastically responding to Ruby's reintroduction, she motions to Jaune as a boy they can talk about, the only boy Ruby knows there. One has to conclude that the whole "Weiss finding Ruby" thing was not coincidental and that she saw Ruby come in with Jaune only to hear Ruby seemingly bad-mouthing her to Yang when she got close. Her little legalistic rant about the dangers of Dust was essentially her awkward way of trying to mend things. The sarcastic quip in response to Ruby is the typical reaction of someone who is protesting too much. For Weiss, simply going back to Ruby and being all nice would amount to losing face when she was essentially in the right. That night when Ruby and Yang disrupt her efforts to sleep she is rightly annoyed, but even more interesting is that her reaction is to Yang, not Ruby. When Ruby agrees with Weiss, Weiss complains about Ruby "now being on her side" suggesting that Weiss felt as much under attack by Ruby before as Ruby felt the reverse.
In the locker we do see Weiss being a bit calculating with regards to Pyrrha, but she isn't being mean to anyone. Even when Jaune shows up to hit on her she expresses restrained annoyance at his persistence and eventually just seems intimidated by him. Her reaction is not treating him rudely as though he were some detestable person, but one of completely reasonable objection to his behavior. Similarly, when Jaune sort of talks down to Pyrrha, she calmly indicates that he is treating someone quite deserving of respect poorly and arrogantly.
What really shows the difference between Weiss and the other characters is her behavior in the forest. Consider just her reaction to Ruby stumbling upon her. Is this how a mean girl would react to having to work with someone she greatly dislikes? One would think she would show even the slightest sign of displeasure or at least indifference in her face, but her reaction is pure, unassuming innocence. She promptly walks off, but this goes back to what I said about her not having a thing for inter-personal conflict. No complaining, fuming, or even a "no way", but a simple turn and walk. Only point when she shows annoyance is after she realizes her only other choice is to partner with Jaune, who she had far better reason to avoid at the time. Then we have the point where they are interacting afterwards and her only issue is presuming Ruby is not very capable, which she had no reason to doubt at the time given her previous interactions with Ruby. Once we see them partnered it becomes even clearer. Weiss in battle is measured and precise, while Ruby is impulsive and pays little attention to what her teammate is doing. Ruby is, of course, trying to prove herself, but comes off more as a self-confident show-off who keeps messing things up. Although Weiss attributes it to them needing to be coordinated and rightly faults Ruby for her impulsiveness, Ruby just bad-mouths Weiss. It is largely Ruby's fault for trying so hard to prove her ability that she tries to hog the battle, but she cannot accept the criticism. When they are trying to figure out where they are going Weiss is being a bit of a know-it-all, but what would be a normal argument over being lost quickly gets worse because Ruby decides to just lash out and start acting like a rotten brat. She calls Weiss a "stupid jerk" and when Weiss tries to shrug it off by saying to "keep moving", Ruby starts acting even more like a brat by mocking Weiss. In spite of this, Weiss does not explode or react in kind.
So then we get to Episode 8, where Weiss was somehow convinced of the absurd plan to hitch a ride on a giant Nevermore. Think about that. No sane person would go along with such a plan unless that person was a total pushover when it comes to interpersonal relationships. Although being annoyed right when Ruby jumps off, she is only distraught later on about being left behind. When jumping in to save Ruby from the Death Stalker she goes into a classic, "Here are all the problems I have with you, and I am guilty too, but we should try to get along" speech. When Ruby says she was just trying to prove herself, Weiss tells Ruby she is "fine" without any apparent basis for believing that. This was not an observation, but an attempt at reassuring Ruby.
The next day is when people act as if Weiss suddenly reverted, but the situation is still one where Weiss is largely justified and restraining herself all the same. Ruby blows a whistle right in her ear as she is waking up, pushes her into doing a lot of work in their dorm room that could wait until after class and makes them late. Then, during class, Ruby acts disrespectful to the professor, goofs off, and generally acts like a rotten brat. Rather than make a spectacle of herself as Ruby would, Weiss simply tries to prove she is more worthy in class. So, imagine her annoyance when Ruby won't even let her act for herself, shouting out how to stop the Boarbatusk. When she talks to Port about her reasonable belief (given Ruby's behavior) that she is more deserving of being a leader than Ruby, he flippantly dismisses this as "preposterous" and insults her attitude. Even then she is persuaded and makes a flawless effort at being nice to Ruby. Rather than being uncharacteristic, one could say this is more representative of the normal Weiss.
Unlike the other team members, Weiss doesn't seem to get mad or rude over minor issues and even when mad she is more restrained than the others would be in the same situation. Note how in Episode 3, Episode 8, and Episode 10, she is the one making the first effort towards reconciliation often without any immediate need. Any time she is faced with the potential of personal conflict, her first resort is to try and walk away from it. Contrast that with how Blake walks into the middle of Ruby and Weiss arguing to badmouth the SDC so as to rankle Weiss or how Ruby needlessly provokes Weiss in Episode 7.
Again, all of these characters are fairly nice, but I think it is hard to see Weiss as being the mean girl in the group. Her greatest fault would be having a sensitive ego and being strict about getting things right. These do not make her mean or confrontational, though it can annoy people. I suspect it will become even clearer in time, but when you examine the situation up to this point closely, it does seems Weiss is actually the most reasonable and kind person on Team RWBY.
Weiss the innocent victim. A month ago I happened to write up a post saying Weiss was the nicest member of Team RWBY, though I feel I made a somewhat inadequate case of it at the time. I figure now is as good a time as any to revisit the subject and get around to what I neglected. Obviously, the most recent episode is a sticking point for people and that is something I will get to, but the point I feel does not get driven home enough is exactly how innocent Weiss is compared to her other teammates. That is what is most important to understand about Weiss to get a real grasp for her character.
Suffice to say, Blake has the least compelling claim for innocence and victimhood of the bunch. Whatever the reasons, being part of the White Fang meant Blake was fighting a war and at least assisting people who she knew were killing other people. Not fighting Grimm and not injuring people, but killing people. Yang was not killing or aiding people in killing others, but she clearly does not bat an eye at the thought of using excessive force on a whim whether it is necessary or not. Even Ruby, for all her pure-heartedness, has fought and killed monsters and clearly enjoys fighting like her sister as we saw in the first episode.
Weiss? All indications are that her first experience of real combat was during the initiation. She was spooked in the fifth episodes when the Beowolves started showing up and in the next episode we hear Weiss mentally preparing herself, reminding herself of her training. Weiss did not think of how she had done this before, because she had not done this before. The only indication we have of her having any prior battle experience if her trailer. Only problem is that it was not a real battle. Her fight is with a giant suit of armor in the middle of an expansive area in a compound that belongs to her family as indicated by the snowflake symbols on the walls. It was a classic training exercise with the armor being some sort of expensive autonomous equipment. That giant suit of armor swinging a Greyhound-length broad sword at her? Training dummy.
There you have it, Weiss is the least battle-hardened of the team. It is pretty easy to see how she could be self-assured in training and then get uneasy during combat. Her lack of experience in real conflict is important. Even more important is how her attitude changes when it comes to real conflict. Outside training, she gets weak-willed and somewhat sloppy when fighting alone. You see it in the confrontation with the Beowolves in the forest and again when she is fighting the Boarbatusk. In a sense you see it when she is on the Nevermore after Ruby jumped. The moment she is alone she loses all composure.
Weiss breaks that pretty quickly, however, whenever someone is in danger. She leaps in to save Ruby from the Deathstalker without a moment's hesitation and in Episode 14 she seems to be the only one ready to jump in for Jaune's sake until Pyrrha calls her off. It is in the moments when someone needs to be protected from danger that she most often shows the composure she has in the White Trailer. All the others are quite capable of being composed and resolute in real combat, even when they are alone. In other words, she is not someone who is good at fighting when it is only her own life at stake. She is only a decent fighter when fighting for someone other than herself.
Now we tie back into a point I raised in my previous post that Weiss herself is conflict-averse. As odd as it may seem for someone wanting to be on the frontline of some never-ending battle with the Grimm, Weiss just does not seem to have the appetite for confrontation. Ruby, Yang, and Blake, all show some enjoyment from fighting and one-upmanship. Whether it is Blake needling Cardin for his ignorance, Ruby smirking at the people trying to rob her before curb-stomping them, or Yang getting a guy to lean in for a kiss and then sucker-punching him 20 feet, they all seem to have no trouble enjoying confrontation. On the other hand, in the rare circumstances we see Weiss smile it is safe to say it is not because she is in a fight.
That she seems to always be arguing with someone is more a product of her being the focus of events rather than her actually seeking out conflict. Ruby fell on her suitcases and blew her up and Jaune shows up to invade her personal space and make unwanted advances. Yet she always starts out handling the situation calmly with each response she gets only escalating the situation. Even in the most recent episode Weiss starts out simply saying the White Fang are an awful bunch of degenerates. Her attitude is not exactly abnormal and "degenerate" would be a suitable fit for individuals such as Adam. Then Blake acts as though there is something wrong with that and begins minimizing the White Fang's actions and increasingly radical views so the situation escalates. Weiss is still agitated over that when she begins badmouthing Sun Wukong and Blake interjects with the conversation escalating further as a result. It is Blake's initial minimization of the White Fang's actions and ideology that agitates Weiss to the point where she makes her later comments. Discrimination against your kind aside, you don't suggest that genocidal intentions are merely misguided. However bad getting your ears pulled may seem, rest assured that genocide is far worse.
So what of the attitude Weiss exhibits towards the Faunus? Even if she was aggravated by some rather "misguided" apologetics for the White Fang does it not still mean her attitude is too much? Well, this is partly where that stuff about her being conflict-averse and not battle-hardened comes into play. The thing about not being one for conflict and having never been in real combat herself until going to Beacon is that she was all the same not living a safe and comfortable life beforehand. Ruby and Yang seem to have lived relatively happy and secure lives as they grew up and likely had little contact with the Faunus, except maybe encountering some in school. Not the kind of environment that breeds racial hostility. For them it is easy to be accepting and trusting of the Faunus and less upset about the White Fang. They also seemingly had a constructive and loving home environment.
Yet for Weiss she was always part of the conflict, but never a participant. Throughout she would have to process people she knew and loved dying or vanishing and only really knowing that the people responsible were Faunus. Situation being as it was meant her entire life involved being under tight security, with any Faunus individual being a potential threat to her life and the lives of her family. How far they want to insure her personal security is another point. It is presumed that Weiss may have only been tutored and this is implied from how she often talks of training and studying yet never mentions going to combat school. One could assume this was simply because she was rich, but it could just as much have been about her personal security as any outside education would leave her more exposed. Then there is the fact the White Trailer seems to take place in a family-owned building. Perhaps this castle-like building was part of the sprawling Schnee estate large enough to accommodate a concert hall?
Given that Weiss never mentions having friends of her own and that her song in the trailer was all about being lonely and cold, it seems the most likely conclusion is that most of her life was spent as a sort of prisoner in a large estate with only the help to keep her company. Such isolation on its own would be bad enough, but having to grow up with people close to you being killed, or simply not being seen again, as part of a conflict in which you were not actually involved would be maddening. Any time off the estate would mean being kept constantly vigilant in case the White Fang attack as any Faunus could be a White Fang member acting the part of an innocent civilian to get close. Having her home life involve a constantly furious father going on about the latest violence committed against their family or company aggravates it further. As if all that was not enough, she was undoubtedly also being pressured into becoming a suitable heir for the company.
Blake at some point presumably chose to join the White Fang and had comrades to support her during that time. Yang and Ruby had each other and their own large group of friends. For Blake conflict was about her choosing to no longer be a victim, while with Ruby and Yang it was because they loved it in some fashion whether it was the romance or just enjoying a good fight. Weiss lived through a conflict by no choice of her own and had no option to defend herself. It was not about romance or personal enjoyment, but imprisonment. Yet, it seems unlikely that her family would push for her to become a huntress if they were so set on keeping her safe, so it seems this was most likely her own desire. Perhaps that giant armor was being rough on her because her father made it treat her rough in an effort to convince Weiss that becoming a huntress was not a good idea.
Weiss seems intent on protecting people and that she wants to be a huntress is telling on its own. She shows little interest in personal conflict and is only truly resolved when she is protecting other people. During all her talk of the White Fang and the Faunus, she always makes clear that her harshest words are for the White Fang. With the Faunus she merely talks of having trust issues. Yet, her choice to be a huntress makes it seem that she has no real desire to even fight the White Fang. The Grimm are soulless monsters after all, and thus not earning much sympathy. Upon learning Blake was in the White Fang her words are essentially to question Blake's loyalty and nothing more. Despite how plainly she expressed her hatred for the group it does not show in how she speaks of Blake. A group that has had her living in fear for her entire life and yet she cannot muster a truly cross word for Blake upon learning of her being a member.
To contrast her with Cardin, he is but an ignorant bully who enjoys hurting people and goes out of his way to confront people in a cruel manner. All of Team RWBY save Weiss show that same capacity for happily stepping up and confronting others yet Weiss can only seem to get annoyed with the people right in front of her after they do something to personally confront her. Weiss is not going to seek out and bully some other Faunus. She is probably too conflict-averse to actually do anything more than give a criminal Faunus a lecture about breaking the law if she even had the will to confront the individual. In fact, she only chased after Sun when Yang prodded her. Her words for Faunus in general are rather mild given the circumstances of her life and even on the White Fang she does not exactly show as much hostility as she claims to have when actually confronted with a member. It seems more likely that her talk is but bluster and bravado from someone who is simply too soft-hearted to actually act the way she talks.
What makes anyone think she is racist against the Faunus at all? If you listen, she only ever talks bad about the Faunus of the White Fang, and says Sun Wukong will probably join them because he was committing a crime. Never does she say anything about Faunus in general, just the Faunus of the White Fang. And to be quite honest, the Faunus of the White Fang are horrible people. Blake left because she realized this. It's like the KKK, or any other hate group that started out trying to protect people, but became violent. She even said that they would never work with a human in the latest episode, proving they are also racist. Which makes them a definitive hate group, even if one that is just getting started.
That aside, great article! Loved it, and was a great read. Keep it up! I'd love to read more of your ideas. Yeah, that has always been kind of a stupid complaint. Honestly her hatred for the White Fang is even more understandable once we see how Jacques treats her. She said so herself that every time the White Fang caused trouble for the SDC her father always came home angry and who do you think he took it out on? Yep, he took it out on the family. This obviously explains why Weiss doesn't like her father and why she left to Beacon to escape the constant stress and abuse her father put her through all those years.
You are missing so much perspective in this comment XDex. When you talk of Blake joining the White Fang and then leaving it as a mark against Weiss, you are missing the part where she never had either option. Blake gets to choose to join the White Fang when they just killed the "deserving" humans and then gets to choose to leave when they begin killing innocent humans. Not only that, she can cut ties so completely that she gets treated like a human girl at school by simply wearing a bow, not bearing the burden of being a Faunus and certainly not carrying the stain of the White Fang.
Does Weiss have that luxury? She could not have simply left her family and even if she could have gotten away from her family, the name Schnee would follow her around and she would not be able to protect herself from anyone who might hurt her because of her family. Even if she changed her last name, she would still be likely to get recognized. For her, escaping would require a lot more than separating a train car and wearing a bow. Really, it would be impossible for a teenager acting on her own.
Even then, I think you are assuming too much to assume she simply believes what her father and the company say. The only times the SDC has been mentioned is when Blake cites the company's record as a personal slight against Weiss and when Weiss mentions the White Fang targeting the company. None of that tells how much she knows or cares about the company.
In fact, we can suggest that her being rebellious and wanting to be a huntress makes it likely that she is not exactly pleased with the company. She likely knows her company's reputation and, being well-learned, is aware of the difficult history of the Faunus. Her disdain for the White Fang and trouble trusting the Faunus is understandable given her personal experiences and does not require us to believe she is ignorant of the SDC's actions. The SDC being an abusive company would not change what Weiss experienced or change that she never had a choice. I suspect she does not wish to be distrustful of the Faunus, but simply cannot help it given her circumstances.
Lastly, the claim that she was playing the "victim card" and expecting to get off for her behavior because of it is missing some important context about her character. Weiss only says she is a victim when Blake says people "like her" are why the White Fang are so violent and hate humanity, which was actually kind of cruel since Blake was not ignorant of the history (the look she has as Weiss begins explaining it is a pretty good indicator that she knew she stepped in it with that one). However, Weiss does not let Ruby take pity on her. She may be an innocent victim, but she does not want to be treated like one. That is a matter of her being a rather proud individual. Her pride may itself be a product of growing up in an environment where she was constantly living in danger yet sheltered from it, while also being pressured into becoming the future leader of the company. That is, she wants to prove herself worthy of respect and being pitied as a victim is not part of that.
That she wanted to get close to someone in school in the hopes of being popular is not exactly untoward. It is more a sign of what I said about her being conflict-averse. She is, as a result, not a very sociable person since socializing is fraught with risk. While Blake is more accurately seen as an introvert by choice, Weiss does not socialize because she is not very good at it rather than having a lack of interest in forming meaningful social bonds. Her isolated upbringing would be a part of that.
Weiss isn’t “entitled” or a “victim”. Weiss only blurted out that she was a victim when Blake made the "people like you" comment that was way over the line. It was not about flaunting her weakness as she wouldn't let Ruby pity her, but about explaining why Blake's statement was wrong. When Weiss gives the reasons why Ruby should not be the leader it is not anything about her own social status or name. She cites her skills and dedication in contrast to Ruby's seeming disregard for the responsibility accorded to her position. Granted, Ruby was literally born and bred for this job but Weiss didn’t know that. I imagine that at least part of the reason she often gets what she wants is because she works for it rather than just due to her social status. None of that makes her entitled as her reasons are sound and it is not as though she expects to be favored over others simply due to her status.

Personality Characteristics

Motivation

Weiss just wants to have friends. Her song mentions that she is the one "loneliest of all" of them. Ruby's song mentions White is "cold and always yearning," so it's probably both. She's distant and standoffish but wants to have friends, which she probably has trouble with due to said standoffishness because she can't make friends. If she made friends with someone, *bam*. They're dead. She calls the White Fang members "criminally insane" because that is what they are. They target people simply affiliated with the Schnee family, whether those people are innocent or not.
Weiss just wants to be normal and have friends( “White is cold and always yearning, burdened by a royal test”). Given the White Fang's feud with her family, it's likely she'd want to be 'normal', simply because that's the only way she can imagine being truly safe. Having an entire terrorist group devoted to killing you and your family has got to suck( An example is that even in Beacon Weiss has one of the Seven Dwarf bodyguards watching her using Zetsu at all times, in case of an emergency). Plus that rather Adorkable moment from Episode 10 where she tells Ruby that she always wanted a bunk bed as a kid. Work this to where when they finally get to Beacon, Weiss considers Ruby a friend, and even though she doesn’t have to be a huntress and fight unholy abominations, she still stays as one because even if she won’t admit out loud yet Ruby is worth hell to her. Because this isn’t truly an ambition( staying with her friends is more of a desire and running the SDC isn’t what she truly wants but is something that she knows that she has to do) she will be desperately searching for a purpose in life, which will lead her to learning that there is a middle ground between her grandfather’s amiable but blockheaded approach to the company and her father’s logical yet cold-hearted approach to the company. An example of how hard the WF have made Weiss’ life, even in Beacon she needs someone else to taste test her food in case an enemy put poison in it.

Savvies & Ineptitudes

SO MUCH of Blake's story should've intertwined with weiss. But they forced it to be more involved with yang instead. When weisses LITERAL backstory has to do with the white fang and vice versa. (And Blake rejoining the white fang to be a bad guy as like a double agent to help take them down might've actually been a cool plot line.)Basicaly I'm very sad we didn't get an Adam vs weiss, or a confrontation, or him even mentioning her and her family. Weiss could've been his target all along, and he was just following blake to get to her. And with illa, same thing. Weiss. Have her fall in love with weiss. Boom. Easy. She's a human from Atlas who represents everything she hates but isn't anything like what she thought changing her world view. You don't even need to make a new character. Edit: (have her fall in love with her singing or some sh*t. Idk, SOMETHING.) 
No consistency in RWBY villain mindsets? Imagine my surprise.
Emeralds backstory really doesn't add up, you want to know why she was homeless? Because she was too stupid to use her semblence effectively despite being able to use it to easily steal valuables like jewels right out of stores. With her semblence she could have easily procurred enough funds to live a comfortable life but she doesn't because the plot demands she get with cinder who, apromises, and I'm quoting directly here "Join me and you'll never go hungry again." And emerald's answer makes it sound like she's relieved, because again she was too stupid to figure out the semblence she had been using to steal could be used to steal and make profit, therefore she shouldn't have gone hungry.
Mercury's isn't much better but at least the show hints enough where he would likely either join cinder or be left to die from his injuries so it makes sense why he would join her.

Social

Contacts & Relations

Ruby falls off her bed in the middle of the night. Constantly. But she sleeps like a stone and never notices. Weiss feels bad for her and lifts her back into her bunk and tucks her in. This used to be Yang's job, but she thinks it's sweet and hasn't told Weiss yet.
Weiss should be pissed at Blake for not keeping her promise of not running away whenever they reunite. I'm confused as to why people say Blake owes Yang an apology. Because Weiss gave Blake her trust. She made it clear that whenever something serious happens Blake needs to turn to her team. I'd imagine it's not easy to just let go of the fact that Blake was once part of a group that caused Weiss and her family so much grief. And Blake went against that trust by running away again.
Weiss and Ruby have a parallel life, they both lost their mothers in combat. Ruby from (currently) unknown reasons and Weiss's from a dust accident when protecting a workers (faunus and human) from an exploding mine that was caused by unknown circumstances. Jack is more adiment about Weiss and winter becoming a CEO of the company rather than huntsman and soldiers because of his personal experience. He doesn't want them to die like their mother. Making it more harsh and heart breaking when he slapped her in that argument.
much like the kurta clan, the schnee family were hunted down by an enemy group for their special abilities. for the schnee family, it was for their grimm summoning semblance, which sells for a lot on the black market. the white fang used similar tactics as the phantom troupe to force the schnees to activate their semblance, using friends and loved ones as hostages and forcing the schnees to activate theirsemblance. since a semblance is the manifestation of a person's soul, the white fang have to get creative in keeping the summoned grimm long enough to sell them.
a theme that could be shared with ruby and weiss and what ciuld ultimately be the theme of the show is "fight for the living, not for the dead", as ruby fights in honor of her late mother, and weiss fights to avenge her lost loved ones that the white fang killed.

Family Ties

Whitley is born during the events of the series, after Weiss' stepmom is defeated and prosecuted. show Weiss holding Whitley after he's born and her being happy that she's no longer lonely.
Weiss has an entire drawer devoted to things Winter has given her. (A set of rounds for Myrtenaster, a handkerchief, a red bow to go with her dress that she's too embarrassed to wear.)
Weiss wanted bunk beds as a kid because it would give her a chance to spend time with her sister.
Considering her father is heavily implied to be abusive, there doesn't seem to be much she can get away with that wouldn't result in him getting upset. She rebels in more passive-aggressive ways (tying up her hair asymmetrically) to avoid a beating, verbal or physical - maybe even then…
Her characterization is a mess, but damn are her songs so emotional and relatable. They're the reason I like her. Jeff and Casey working their magic as usual.
We see the first failed assassination attempt on Weiss when she was 6 years old. Winter was the one that stopped the assailant.
Focus on how Winter leaving Weiss with their abusive father has affected their relationship. Make Weiss bitter at Winter for abandoning her and leaving her alone to put up with abusive parents. When there's domestic disputes between parents and children, sometimes a quieter child attempts to play it safe and avoid conflict by staying out of the way or attempting to please the parent in question - this is Weiss with Jacques. As we've seen, Winter is more confrontational and cause conflict with their father, which would turn Weiss against her as Winter indirectly foils her attempts to not cause conflict with his parents. Weiss could be portrayed as selfish, but instead of being a piece of shit it could be out of fear of the repercussions. She sucks up to her father so that her father isn't at her throat - particularly while Winter is away. It should be made clear that Weiss is a victim just as much as Winter, she just has a different way of coping/dealing with it.
Weiss has always struggled with feeling inadequate and dissatisfied due to the concept of “perfection” being ingrained since childhood. Winter assumed the motherly role with it’s responsibilities, providing guidance and solicitude. Her harsh and strict demeanor is only intended for motivation or encouragement, as it’s the required inducement to remedy Weiss’ lack of faith. The more she strives for perfection, the stronger the fear. The higher she aims, the stronger the anxiety. It is this unattainable state and impossibility that misguides her; a false hope. Naturally, siblings will admire one another, however Weiss does so in an unhealthy manner with Winter. Even in her faults, Winter’s level is seen to be unreachable. Little does she know that her ideal image of perfection that is her elder sister, has yet to achieve this. They both walk the same path and Winter must remind the girl that it’s completely fine to be herself rather than having a detrimental aspiration.
Personally I think that by the way Winter treats Weiss was that she had a mother who was drunk with an abusive father. Think about it they couldn't turn to their father as he was abusive and they couldn't turn to their mother as she was constantly getting drunk. In some way I think Winter could be a parentified child feeling like she had to take care of her younger sister because if mother wasn't going to step in she was. Think about it, the strict way she treats Weiss in terms of manners and other things but at the same time being encouraging her could almost be that of a mother taking care of her child. Add that with the fact that she is standing up for her/ acting like a middleman for her seems to say the same thing. In many dysfunctional families the eldest sibling tends to care of the younger ones due to having mature from a young age thus why she is so strict especially to Weiss. As for why she didn't protect Whitely I guess may she felt enough pressure with dealing with Weiss's problems or he was the quiet one or something your guess is as good as mine.

You could say that Winter was "The light that showed the way" from Path to Isolation and her leaving the house was that "light" going away and letting the "Darkness" (Jacques) take control and effectively destroy Weiss's dreams with his controlling behavior, leading to Weiss feeling lonely and isolated.
When the songs become a manga.
I just got this anthology in the mail today and I absolutely fell in love with it. The non-comedic character-focused pieces were absolutely amazing. Honestly, I wish all of them had been these sorts of pieces. I get why they weren't; there needed to be levity with the heavy themes Weiss' character expresses. Plus, some people just aren't good at serious things or character analysis/development. But, god for the ones that were good, they were absolutely stellar so I'm not too mad at the comedy ones. They got a legit laugh out of me. Especially the boob one. That one was gold. My favorites were definitely the ones where Winter was heavily involved/talked about because Winter is one of my favorite characters to write from a fic/RP perspective. Otherwise, the Blake one is really top tier too.

Religious Views

It would've been cool to see Weiss's reaction to knowing that Blake helped Adam raid a Schnee dust company train. Adam probably would've made that slip in hopes of destroying Blake's relationship with her (a human). Correct me if I'm wrong, but as far as Weiss goes, she doesn't know the exact details of Blake's White Fang activities. Like you said though; wasted opportunity all around. I doubt Weiss will ever know as that would actually test their friendship as opposed to the blind trust they all share.
The heroes and villains need to have some sort of relationship with each other in order to push the plot forward. The best way to do this is to give them opposing ideals, with Ruby's relationship with Torchwick being a good example of this. They knew each other,they were actively thinking of each another and trying to stop one another, and most importantly: they had opposing ideals about the world. Ruby is an optimist, she wants to do good and always do the right thing. She doesn't let herself become jaded because of how shitty the world is. Torchwick is a pessimist. He sees the world as a cruel and violent place, and believes that the only way to live in a cruel world is to be cruel and violent back. His last words revealed how much of a defeatist he was. Their rivalry lead to natural conflict and gave them something to actually discuss whenever they stopped the combat to talk. Their conversations lead to a natural discourse between them. Unfortunately with Torchwick's death, we've lost this aspect of a natural rivalry for all of our characters, and it's something that's kinda been missing for the other girls anyways. Ruby has yet to have a rivalry with any character since Torchwick's death, Blake's supposed rivalry with Adam was woefully absent for the first two-and-a-half volumes - and then when he was there to facilitate their opposing viewpoints, all it did was distract Blake from the real plot of the show - and Weiss and Yang have never had anything even close to a relationship with an antagonist. The most they've ever had was their own personal problems with their own family members.
Notice how when Cinder stops to taunt Jaune they have nothing to say. The dialogue during that encounter lacks any nuance because these characters have nothing to talk about. Now, there is a way to fix this. Team RWBY and Team WTCH both have four members. It's pretty easy to find things that each member could have opposing opinions on. Let's start with Ruby and Cinder. Cinder already hates Ruby for what she did to her at Beacon. That's good building blocks for the two to have a better protagonist-antagonist relationship. Give Ruby something to resent Cinder for: Maybe she blames her for the deaths of Pyrrha and Penny, maybe she just wants to stop Cinder because she's doing things for the forces of evil, anything that will give Ruby a reason to want to actively fight Cinder and want to stop her. Next is Weiss and Watts, who are both are upper-crusts from Atlas. While we don't know too much on Watts, we could use what we know about Weiss to help come up with something for this example. Weiss wants to make a better name for the Schnee family. She wants to change people's opinions on the rich population of Atlas. Maybe Watts wants to get back into a position of the 1%, to get rid of his disgraced status and become wealthy. Weiss wants to get away from it, Watts wants to get back in. Blake could have something with Tyrion. Blake still wants equality for the faunus. What if Tyrian undermined her fight for faunus rights? What if he didn't really think there was much of a problem, and that her efforts were pointless? No one seems to discriminate against him in Salem's forces. What if his idea was that all faunus could find equality if they just became loyal to Salem, and Blake going against that is blasphemous to him. This could lead to a fun and interesting dynamic between them. Finally we have Yang and Hazel, who are both berserkers. What if they had opposing opinions on how to use their anger to fuel their attack power. The show does an absolutely terrible job with Yang " learning to control her anger", but if that was well-written then it could oppose Hazel's demeanor of controling his anger in casual moments but lets it get the better of him in combat. This could be the starting of something between them that could escalate into a rivalry. Then , importantly, after setting up these relationships the characters have to be actively thinking about it. These are just some basic ideas, and I'm sure you could find some ways to incorporate the other heroes and villains into rivalry relationships.
Tbh I was pissed when Hazel was made a berserker. Several times since his introduction, he talked about how no one needed to die, and I loved the idea of a villain who was also a pacifist. That’s almost unheard of in an action fantasy. But the second he sees Ozpin, he does a complete 180. I could see a pacifist being a berserker power type, more in the sense that he's a pacifist BECAUSE he tries not to use his abilities. Granted, like TAW mentioned, the execution was shit, but I could see it working on paper.

Social Aptitude

In the Emerald Forest, when Ruby speeds past Weiss and says, "I wanna be your friend" a Grimm almost immediately shows up right after that line, partly because the prospect of having friends genuinely frightens her and partly because she was distressed by Ruby’s powerful Semblance and felt insecure because she might not have been the superior out of her and her new partner. This made her nervous, thinking that her family would resent her because of it, causing her to miss her strikes and immediately blame Ruby, who was fighting perfectly fine. Her father drilled into her that she doesn't need friends and that precise performance and getting people to know their place is the only thing that matters. Weiss feels like she might want to be friends with Ruby for a split second, and that immediately causes her distress. This is also why her fighting was sloopy in that scene, she is trying hard to remember the discipline and training, subconsciously to status quo to avoid the small swell of panic of which she doesn't really know the source. ('Right foot forward, not that forward'). The first part is why she froze and kept looking at Ruby when Ruby came sliding out of the woods. If she didn't want Ruby as a partner she could of just turned around before they made eye contact. But based on their conversation the day before she might actually want Ruby as a friend and hesitated before turning away.

Mannerisms

Weiss uses her glyphs to reach stuff on the upper shelves. Yang caught her doing it once. She still uses it as blackmail material.
Weiss is a massive dust nerd.

Hobbies & Pets

There's this one coffee shop that Weiss always insists on going to whenever the team spends a day in Vale. The coffee isn't too special and the service can be pretty crappy at times, but that isn't what Weiss comes there for. If she can grab a seat outside, she has a perfect view of the puppies and kittens in the window of the neighboring pet shop - she can spend hours watching them play, dreaming of one day owning all of them and giving them all her love.
Bonus: She's even named a few of them and feels conflicted when they're gone - they've got a new home, sure, but it will never be her home.

Wealth & Financial state

Usually one of the pros of having an aristocratic character is that they have enough power/influence to move the plot forward. guess what they don't write Weiss doing?! doesn't help that they almost had this idea right where they originally build dust up like it's this big important macguffin that can stop the oh so terrifying Grimm( oh so terrifying) but all of that meant less than a wet-fart and now the macguffins that the plot revolves around are the relics, which are macguffins which are important to Ozpin's character( and Salem's). no member of team RWBY have an organic stake to the plot, so they slap artificial stakes, if they even bother to put them there at all.

Honorary & Occupational Titles

Weiss and Pyrrha are chosen as the leaders in the beginning because the fanon explanation that Ruby and Jaune were picked for leader because it would help their growth the most doesn’t make any sense. Instead, have this be Ruby( and Jaune to a lesser extent) growing to show leadership qualities on their own and Weiss willingly giving the leader role to her, believing that Ruby will do a better job. I never understood fan’s reactions to Weiss talking to Port as “going behind Ruby’s back”. All she did was speak her mind. Until Ozpin spoke to her, Ruby was being a terrible leader, so Weiss said she thought she would be better. The fact that she used Ruby's tactic to beat the Boarbatusk is exactly why she should be angry at getting that advice. Regardless of whether she would have done it herself, she'll be judged as having done it just because Ruby told her to. Also, she didn't get upset with Ruby until the repeated talking, where Blake and Yang only said anything once.
She didn't get upset with Ruby for being the leader, she got upset with her for being a bad leader. She never actually said to Ruby that she should be the leader, just that she deserved better than having Ruby for her leader. And up until Ozpin spoke with Ruby, she was absolutely right. Ruby was being a terrible leader, but the talk seems to have fixed that.
Further, even if I'm totally wrong about all this, there's the fact that she was clearly in a bad mood already. The fact of the matter is that in order to snap at Ruby, she needed to be pushed to a breaking point, and Ruby was the one who did that. I am so glad a person like you has posted this! People have to learn how to identify emotions within the characters through dialogue and actions, as well as their interactions. I like how you dissected each episode in varying situations where Weiss is stressed together. Certainly, I agree that she is the most considerate of the group (This may be biased; she's my favorite character!), and is justified in being ticked off by the other characters, especially Ruby. Said character has been acting immature lately, and Weiss is there to put her in her place
I have read the previous comments, and I can take to that. Weiss has displayed a caustic attitude around times, but she's a high-strung person. I think she likes to be recognized for her abilities, and have this professional appeal. I actually limited it to Team RWBY because of Pyrrha, who does seem to be the nicest character in the series as far as I can tell, though since her interaction has mainly been with Jaune I cannot say for sure. Jaune, however, would not be someone I would classify as nicer since he is basically an excessive flirt. Most we see of him being "nice" is him hitting on girls even when they repeatedly reject his advances as Weiss did and that is most definitely not being nice.
Generally, you seem to be disregarding most of what I said. Was Jaune being respectful of either Pyrrha or Weiss up to the point when Weiss started talking down to him and was she not just telling him the facts when he was clearly ignorant of them? Look at her treatment of Ruby and consider whether anything she said about Ruby was really not justifiable given their interactions up to that point. She was not mean or rude about it unless Ruby provoked her, while the same can hardly be said of Ruby.
Blake and Yang haven't been given any decent reason to be quarrelsome with anyone, yet have still shown themselves to be a bit rude or irritable. Weiss is generally calm and unassuming, until someone starts bothering her. Ruby is impulsive, which means that when she dislikes someone for even a moment all that displeasure spews out of her.