Winter Schnee

*This article is about the **Winter Schnee** character. For articles that share the same name, see Winter.*

## Winter Schnee

### Alias

Ice Queen (by Qrow)
Ironwood's Top Fighter (by Arthur)

### Inspiration

The titular character from Hans Christian Andersen's *The Snow Queen*

## Professional Status

### Occupation

Huntress
Winter Maiden
Snow Queen

## Relationships

### Parents

Willow Schnee (Mother)
Jacques Schnee (Father)

### Siblings

Weiss Schnee (Younger Sister)
Whitley Schnee (Younger Brother)

### Other relatives

Unnamed Great-Grandfather †
Nicholas Schnee (Grandfather) †

## Voice Actors

### English

Elizabeth Maxwell

**Winter Schnee** (ウィンター・シュニー, *Uintā Shūnī*) is the elder sister of Weiss Schnee and Whitley Schnee and formerly a part of the Special Operatives Unit in the Atlas Military.

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

## Description

### Appearance

Winter is a tall, beautiful young woman with a fair complexion, white hair and slate blue eyes. Her hair is tied up in a bun at the rear left corner of her head, causing her bangs to fall towards the right side of her face, and leaving a small curled lock of hair that reaches below her left ear.

Her attire is blue, white and gray colored. It consists of a white coat with a red brooch, exposed upper arms and black gloves. Her pants have garters incorporated into them.

### Personality

At first glance, Winter appears to be cold, dignified, and distant, preferring to keep her emotions subdued and speaking in a very high-class, eloquent, almost robotic fashion. However, when interacting with Weiss, she smiles and shows that she cares about her younger sister's life and well-being, based on how she inquires if Weiss has been eating properly, gained any new hobbies, and made any new friends, in "It's Brawl in the Family". Winter is very intuitive towards her younger sister's emotions. With that said, she is not afraid to raise her hand at her younger sister whenever she is annoyed. Overall, she truly loves Weiss and wants her to succeed in life.

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

Although she strives to keep her emotions in check, she can be rather hot-headed at times. Once she becomes angry, she drops her dignified ladylike demeanor and loses all restraint, for example when she attempted to attack Qrow Branwen when provoked. She is fiercely loyal to her superior, General Ironwood, and becomes very angry whenever his judgment is questioned; but she is equally faithful to his authority, and respectfully defers to him.

## Powers and Abilities

Incredibly gifted, Winter was one of the most skilled and capable Huntresses in Atlas, having not only graduated top of her class at Atlas Academy, but being hand-picked for service in the Military. She was able to combat Cinder Fall and hold her own for an impressive amount of time and after becoming the Winter Maiden, could fight her on even ground. In combat Winter is shown to be more aggressive and direct with her attacks than her sister's fighting style, focusing mainly on dueling and keeping opponents off-guard with her sword in culmination with her glyphs, able to stop and change direction on a dime, as well as using Ice Dust missiles and Nevermore summons to overwhelm her opponent with sheer numbers if she is at range. As a Special Operative she seems to also have hand-to-hand combat skills, as shown when she knocked Marrow Amin to the ground with a single punch in order to save his life.

### Weapon

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

### Power Armor

Following her recovery from the hospital, Winter wears Atlesian power armor, providing her with increased durability and physical capabilities.This armor allows her to keep up with Ironwood and Cinder Fall in a fight, the former of which having previously bested her.

### Semblance

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

#### Summoning

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

After becoming the Winter Maiden, she gained the ability to boost the power of her summons using them. She first demonstrates this by augmenting her Nevermore summons with ice-based attacks while fighting against Cinder Fall.

#### Winter's Summons:

* Beowolves
* Small Nevermores
* Manticore

Winter summoning a swarm of small NevermoresWinter summoning a single BeowolfWinter summoning several BeowolvesWinter summons a Manticore as a mount
### Maiden Powers

*Main article: Maidens*

Following the death of Penny Polendina, Winter gained the powers of the Winter Maiden. When active, her eyes emit a ice blue fire around them, the color matching her Aura. Despite having only held the Maiden's power for mere moments, she was easily able to match the more experienced Cinder Fall in their subsequent battle. Due to Winter receiving training on how to use the Maiden powers before Fria died, she was able to face Cinder on much more even ground. Her Semblance already functioning like a spell being cast also increased her understanding of her powers.

During her battles with both James Ironwood and Cinder, she displayed numerous feats such as being able to fly by emanating snowy wisps around her body, create a layer of ice capable of reflecting concentrated blasts of Fire Dust and produce powerful blasts of ice and electricity at her targets.

Upon arriving in Vacuo, Winter also showcased the ability to create large gusts of wind capable of blowing away hordes of Grimm.

## Etymology

* Winter shares her last name with the rest of her family, which is German for "Snow," following the color naming convention on Remnant.
	+ Like Weiss, Winter's first name begins with a "W" and she is referred to as "Ice Queen."
* Winter is one of the four calendar seasons, usually characterized by a cold weather, often accompanied by snow, further tying her entire name with her color motif.

## Trivia

* Winter was first alluded to in "The Badge and The Burden, Pt.2", when Weiss told Ruby Rose she always wanted bunk beds as a kid.
* Winter is shown to be ambidextrous or having some skill in wielding two weapons at once, as shown by her unique sword and dagger combination against Qrow Branwen in "It's Brawl in the Family."
* Qrow refers to Winter as a "Specialist" in "It's Brawl in the Family". During the "Huntsmen" episode of *RWBY: World of Remnant*, Winter is heavily implied to be a member of the Atlesian military's Special Operatives unit, enlisting following her graduation from Atlas Academy.