Shaft’s new anime,RWBY: Ice Queendom, takes Rooster Teeth’s iconic monster-hunting quartet andboldly makes one of them the antagonist. Among Team RWBY’s members, there is no member more complicated or broadly powerful as Weiss Schnee, making her the ideal choice for a corruption/redemption arc.
Weiss Schnee is the heiress of the Schnee Dust Company, a family business selling the planet’s precious energy propellant, Dust, based out of her home country of Atlas. From a complicated relationship with her family to internalized prejudice against the discriminated Faunus race, there is a lot going on with Weiss, and that’s to say nothing about her powers.
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Family Legacy
Weiss' ability is especially interesting, as it possesses far more capabilities under the umbrella of a single power. Her semblance passed down through generations allows her to create glyphs that appear in the air and on surfaces, and whichcan be used in tandem with Dustto change what the glyphs do.
For the moment, let’s focus on what the ability does on its own, absent of external stimuli. First and foremost, the glyphs appear to be able to hold objects into place and even move objects. Across the series, she uses glyphs to propel her across distances and hold herself in the air. Additionally, she can use glyphs to alter the flow of time to those within it.
However, the main event of her family’s power is that of summoning. Her family uses glyphs to summon familiars to aid them in battle. In the first few volumes of the web series, Weiss is incapable of accessing this part of her ability and only taps into it at the end of Volume 3. Interestingly enough,the summoned familiars take on the formof previously defeated enemies. As such, Weiss typically summons familiars in the form of creatures of Grimm that she has killed, but they appear white as snow compared to the dark look of Grimm normally. InIce Queendom, Blake is surprised when Negative Weiss, the nightmare version of Weiss, summons Grimm, asIce Queendomtechnically takes place before Weiss unlocks this ability in the real world.
The Cylinder Sword, Myrtenaster
The true versatility of Weiss' fighting capabilities comes from the symbiotic relationship between her semblance and her rapier,perhaps the tamest-looking weapon in Team RWBY’s arsenal. Myrtenaster is first and foremost a pristine piercing weapon requiring precise technique to wield effectively.
Weiss' fighting style is akin to ballet, incorporating spins and flourishes to the effect of dodging and lining up counterattacks. Despite Weiss' comparably lower strength, her dexterity and situational awareness have allowed her to hold her own against far stronger opponents, though not without some difficulty.
Inside the sword lies a revolver-like cylinder loaded with various cartridges of Dust, each one imbued with a different elemental property that she can channelthrough her sword like a wand. Glyphs summoned can then exude certain elemental properties. The handle has a release switch to open the sword to replace cartridges and there is a trigger to imbue the blade with the elemental property.
The basic elemental capabilities include fire, ice, lightning, and wind abilities. More unique is the use of “Hard-Light” Dust, which is introduced in the series as a force-projection type. It effectively can create a barrier to protect Weiss from certain attacks. This same type of Dust can also be used to create energy projectiles.
Finally, Weiss uses purple Dustto create gravity-manipulating glyphsthat allow her to anchor her or her allies to a specific surface, handy for when the terrain becomes unstable. It can be used in tandem with her movement-type glyphs to rocket allies such as Ruby up a cliffside, such as in the climax of Volume 1, Episode 8.
While most characters' abilities can evolve as the series goes on, they are typically evolutions of a single concept. For Ruby, it’s speed and for Blake, it’s creating a decoy. But for Weiss, her power is incredibly diverse, to the point that her family hasalmost a monopoly on a form of spell casting.
Weiss' power arguably gives her an unfair advantage through the sheer number of abilities she possesses, but she is limited by her reliance on Dust, far more than the rest of her team. She has had to compensate by honing her combat skill and digging deep to find new ways to utilize glyphs.
An abundance of options, yet hardly overpowered. Seemingly complicated, yet easy to read once you start to see the scope of the abilities. Undeniably flawed, yet capable of great change. That couldn’t be more like Weiss Schnee, and it’s not surprising that as she’s grown as a character,she’s become a fan favorite.
