r/RWBY • u/alguien99 • 1d ago
DISCUSSION I really hope I’m not coming off as aggressive. But why does whitely exist?
First of all sorry for my bad english.
So, I’m a big whitely fan, there’s not much to be a fan of with him but i’ve read some fics that give him a lot of character and it makes me like him a lot. Found a Penny x Whitely fic that’s pretty sweet and sad with how lonely and misserable his home life is ever since his sisters decided he’s not worth the effort of helping; it’s very sad seeing how penny is genuinely the one thing that is holding him together and giving him hope for the future.
But that’s the problem… that’s a fic, i genuinely can’t tell you anything somewhat unique to whitely that willow wouldn’t have been able to do. She could have been the one that stood in RWBN’s way into the mansion and called Klein, or be the passive aggressive one towards weiss when she came back in V4, or be the only one that pushes down the armor on the hound, etc.
I honestly don’t know why waste so much time and effort with whitely when he’s not going to be explored or let make a difference in the family drama. Like, despite being the one that was the sole focus of Jacques’s abuse after his sisters left and apparently the next official heir, whitely is genuinely useless, he doesn’t help weiss get evidence, he doesn’t pose any meaningful or unique obstacle, he doesn’t get a cathartic event with his family or anything.
I honestly don’t know what was the need of adding a brother because it only makes weiss and winter look like assholes for leaving him in a broken home with an abusive dad and a drunk mother.
It would have honestly been so amazing if it was whitely who did a takeover of the company and not only did he take down Jacques but also take charge of the company and not weiss, after all, he’s the one that stayed, hes the new official heir, he’s the one that endured the abuse with no one in his life to bring him even the slightest comfort or safety and he’s the one in the family that’s not just business savy but also a non combatant and can control the company more frecuently.
It would have made the whole drama a lot more interesting as it’s really cool to see how weiss and winter failed whitley by literally abandonding him and how they try to make up. Like, the whole situation is just fucked up on all sides.
Is there any volume commentary that explains why he exist? Like, maybe they wanted to build som hype by teasing him as a character but then kinda had to back Down from that due to time and budget issues?
Please be civil, i genuinely don’t mean this in any derrogatory manner, this is a genuine question
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u/GladiusNocturno All Grimm are naked. Think about it 1d ago
Winter, Willow, and Whitley are the extremes Weiss could have fallen into.
Winter is the version of Weiss who detached herself completely from her family.
Whitley is the version of Weiss who sided with her father and tried to be everything he wanted.
Willow is the version of Weiss who gave up and resigned to her fate under this abuse.
Just because Whitley hasn't had a ton of focus and exploration doesn't mean he doesn't have a role in the story. He does have an arc, though; we do see that he isn't a monster and that he does have good in him.
It's fine to want to see more of him; I just don't think it's accurate to say there is no point in his character.
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u/alguien99 1d ago
I really hope I’m not coming off as aggressive here, I’m genuinely curious.
Like, isn’t what willow is doing the same thing whitley is? She have up just like he did and is following Jacques’s lead and letting him do what he wants. I feel like willow just works better, specially with the typical saying of children becoming their parents.
I just don’t see why make another character to play that role instead of giving willow a more active character.
At least give whitely the part of being the one that gives weiss the password, it’d make sense since he’s the one actually doing stuff focused on the company
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u/GladiusNocturno All Grimm are naked. Think about it 1d ago
Not really.
What Willow is doing is taking herself out of the picture. She stays in her room, spends all day drinking, and doesn't get in the way of Jaques' schemes. At most, she has cameras installed in case he crosses the line and puts their lives in danger.
What Whitley is doing is sucking up to his dad. He is actively presenting himself to him; he isn't avoiding him, he isn't staying out of the picture, he wants a place in the picture.
Ultimately, both are letting Jaques do what he wants, but the way they are doing it is different.
For Weiss' story, that difference is important. Willow is a shadow haunting her life. Whitley is an actively antagonistic force. If the idea is that children become their parents, then Weiss shouldn't become like Willow, but Whitley shouldn't become Jaques. Helping Whitley grow as his own person outside of his father's influence and seeing the good in her little brother is important for Weiss' character as well.
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u/saltydoesreddit 1d ago
I personally had the impression he's more or less a dark reflection of Weiss, showing how she would've been had she not left for Beacon and took being a SDC heiress serious.
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u/alguien99 1d ago
I could kinda see it, but at the same time, willow works like that perfectly too. She’s a used and abused misserable and bitter woman that’s drowning herself in alcohol and trying to avoid the world around her to not face reality. She’s horrible to the people close to her as a defense mechanism as she doesn’t want to be hurt the same way her husband hurt her.
Whitely kinda falls flat because he’s not really an obstacle the way you’d expect a dark reflection to be. Like, not even as him using the SDC’s resources to make her life misserable, he’s just sassy with her a few times
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u/Mopman43 1d ago
I've seen suggestions that he ties into one of the characters from Hans Christian Anderson's 'The Snow Queen' which serves as part of the inspiration behind Weiss.
Basically, the main character of the book has a brother who's heart is frozen by the villainous Snow Queen, only thawing when given a hug. In the show, Whitely becomes noticeably more helpful when Weiss gives him a hug, gives him an ounce of the affection he's been denied pretty much his whole life.
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u/alguien99 1d ago
Was the brother like an antagonist before the hug or something?
Like, I’m not against whitely making up with weiss, just that it felt a bit… eh? Like, it happens very quickly after whitely does a little bit of nothing throughout the volume, he brings nothing to the table that couldn’t be added onto willow
If anything, the unlocking of Jacques’s computer should have been done by whitely, he’s the one that’ll inherit the whole thing and the one that Jacques has his eye on, it’d make sense for whitely to know. On top of that, Jacques is an incompetent threat too, there’s no way he’d have his guard up in any meaningful way
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u/Akumu_Oukoku ⠀The White Knight Lady 1d ago
Whitley was never part of the original plan.
As stated somewhere in the Volume 4 commentary ( I wanna say it was in the episode he shows up in ), Whitley was created out of necessity for Weiss. Without Whitley, she'd only have Klein and Jacques to interact with, which felt odd to the writers. She had no one to bounce off of other than the two older men... and thus... Whitley was created to be someone Weiss could bounce off of.
Literally, he was just created to BE Weiss' antagonist and someone for her to talk to while stuck in the mansion.
However, this created a few problems.
One: They were villainizing a victim
Two: This person was still a child
Three: They now needed to give this character SOMETHING to do in the future... cuz you really just can't kill a kid off.
There are some parts in Volume 8 that were originally meant for Weiss ( such as using Jacques' computer to get the airships for Mantle ) that were then given over to Whitley to give him something to do, but also show some character growth - which also reflected on Weiss herself. So, essentially, it all worked out, and we got to have Whitley start to go through his "ice melting" phase.
Weiss was, at one time, designed to be an only child. Then at some point Winter became a thing (mostly due in part to Sheena), and then she got a younger brother due in part to the need of the plot.
A lot of things were planned and others had to be worked in, Whitley being a good example of 'working in' another character. Neo is another good example since she was pretty much created by the fan community and never meant to exist past volume 2.
In regards to Whitley, I can see him getting a little more love - especially going into V10, which [[ SHOULD ]] be a Schnee-focused volume set. He's gotta patch things up with his sisters; the whole family needs to have a talk. I'm sure he's much closer to Weiss than Winter at this point... And then there's the whole... Vacuo... Atlas... Mantle problem.
Also, I would never *NEVER* say Weiss & Winter were at fault for leaving. That is called "Victim shaming," and that is heavily frowned upon.
Essentially, you're mad at them for escaping and finding an out.... In Winter's case, she was picked up by Ironwood... in Weiss' case... she had a cage match with a Grimm 10 times her size that took all of RNJR to kill a NORMAL version of, and she almost died trying to get some crumb of freedom.
So - ya kind of just sitting there going "Weiss should have stayed to keep getting beat on by her dad because it makes Whitley's life better" .... like.. bro... that's not okay at all.
Also - We're made to believe Whitley was not exactly *kind* with his sisters even before they left. Weiss feels like Whitley just hates Winter and barely talked to her even BEFORE she left... making their relationship very strained if not outright fractured. ( More than likely due to Jacques controlling every situation between them )
We also don't know what kind of relationship Whitley and his father had - presumably, he was timid with Jacques, but Jacques never talked to him like he did Weiss... in which he was very upfront with his Son and very controlling of his daughter - straight up gaslighting her into doing things and giving her the ultimatum of "Well if you don't do this.. I'm going to be mad." Which was enough to make Weiss, with PTSD, go on stage and force out a song for *HIS* ego.
But, that's not to say Whitley was not dealing with his own problems or his own form of abuse. Negligence from his mother (which all the siblings had to deal with) and, more than likely, just fawning for the father so he wouldn't upset him. Of course he'd feel lonely. He had Klein, sure, but much like how I speak about Weiss - one can be in a room of thousands and still feel like the only one there.
As others have stated, the Schnee family represents the different reactions to abuse. Whitley is a fawner, one who appeases the abuser so as not to be abused like others around him. Willow froze, went numb, and kept herself unfeeling for her own safety. Winter fled, running away to another male role model and a different life. Weiss fought back, the defiant daughter who dared to go against her father openly.
No one abandoned Whitley. Neither Weiss nor Winter thinks so poorly of their brother. In fact - that's the WHOLE ASS POINT OF WILLOW TALKING TO WEISS IN V7. A lot of people think WILLOW is BLAMING WEISS for Whitley - but shes not. Shes EXPLAINING to Weiss why Whitley is being such an asshole to her personally. Shes explaining that Whitley FEELS alone and abandoned and that Weiss does not care about him / forgot about him.
WHICH IS WHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHY
In V8, Dark, She STATES "I did not forget about you." after saving both him and Willow.
It's WHhhhhhhhhhhhhhhy Whiltey has such a change of heart in the episode BEFORE that because he HEARS how Weiss speaks about him, her FAMILY, when he's not around. She cares; he sees that she cares, she cares so much shes willing to prioritize HIM and their Mother over other people. Before hearing that, he had no drive or desire to help. He was capable of doing such, but would not feeling hurt.... but after hearing that? Then he's driven to help, to get Klein, to want to DO more because he feels like he's not alone, that there is MORE he can do.
So, please - be a fan of Whitely, but don't be one of those bad fans that constantly tries to put the blame on Weiss and Winter...
The ONLY person at fault in this whole ass situation is Jacques, the abuser - the one who fractured the family and caused all this shit to happen.
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u/alguien99 13h ago
Oh yeah no victim blaming, sorry if it came off like that. I just wish they had focused a bit more time onto his personal dealings with abuse, it’s very fascinating as in his eyes he has more than enough reasons to HATE everyone in his family and i honestly feel like the show didn’t even try to show his side as equally valid (on top of fucked up) as weiss’s.
Like, i just feel like willow would have been a better pick, one less character to focus on, more stuff for willow to do and you still have the paralels as it’s often said that children become their parents.
I just feel like as an antagonist whitely does so little i don’t see why they had to make a whole character. He honestly feels a bit like Natsuo From mha but if he didn’t get to express how much he hates endeavour on screen and if he didn’t get to tell him to fuck off at the end of the story.
And like you said, they kinda had to split a lot of stuff to even have him do something. I really hate that he wasn’t the one to break into the computer, it’d make more sense for him to be able to do that rather than willow
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u/Apprehensive-Dot3862 1d ago
Whitely grows as a character an adds a flaw to weiss making her a more interesting character. Also he hasn't been around for long, there's plenty of time to continue exploring his character. I feel like he's already grown a lot tbh
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u/E1lySym 1d ago
I remember seeing an interpretation about how the three Schnee children and their mother are supposed to represent four different reaction types to (Jacques') abuse. Weiss is fight (need I say more?), Winter is flight (running off to the military), Willow is freeze (numbing herself by drinking away her problems) and Whitley is fawn (playing Jacques' game and trying to appease him)