Jacques Schnee

Jacques Schnee "If you think I’m one to forget anything, girl, then you’ve misjudged the man your father is." Gender: Male Type: Greedy Parent Age: 40s - 50s Species: Human Portrayed by: Jason Douglas (English) Madoka Shiga (Japanese) Status: Deceased Media of origin: RWBY First appearance: End of the Beginning Last appearance: Worthy

Jacques Schnee (formerly Gelé) is a major antagonist and the CEO of the Schnee Dust Company (SDC), the largest dust-mining company in Remnant. He is the son-in-law of its founder Nicholas Schnee; father of Winter, Weiss and Whitley Schnee; and the husband of Nicholas' daughter Willow Schnee.

Why He Sucks

1. He's a very generic "evil powerful corporate man" villain who's only driven by his own greed and benefits.
2. On top of being a terrible husband, he's also an abusive father towards his children, being perfectly willing to emotionally and physically abuse them.
3. He's also a gold digger, as he married Willow not because he loved her, but so he could take control of the Schnee Dust Company.
4. Furthermore, on Weiss' 10th birthday, he snapped at his wife when she was upset with him missing the birthday party and outright tells her he only married her for the SDC, which broke her so badly it led her into alcoholism.
5. He never shows any empathy for anyone.
6. When Weiss questions his right to the Schnee name (and rightfully so), he announces his intentions to transfer the inheritance of the Schnee Dust Company from Weiss to Whitley and slaps his own daughter!
7. He gets absolutely no character development whatsoever.
8. On top of his greed and egotism, he's also a coward. After Weiss showed videotaped evidence of him agreeing to Arthur Watts' proposal to the Atlas Council and General Ironwood exposing his extreme arrogance, short-sightedness and contempt for both the people of Atlas and Ironwood, he starts attempting to run away from the other councilmen, rejecting and denying his involvement, and finally begging for Ironwood and his daughters' sympathy.
9. He’s basically a human anime version of Big Tex Arkana from Buddy Thunderstruck:
   • They're both greedy businessmen who teamed up and committed serious crimes with the other antagonists.
   • They're both terrible fathers.
   • They've both treated their children poorly.
   • They both hate the main protagonists just because they're more popular than them.
10. He's more of a minor plot device than an actual character, since the only significant role he pretty much plays is the reason Weiss is separated from her team after the events of Volume 3, which concluded with Team RWBY being sundered.
11. Aside from driving the plot of Weiss being separated from Team RWBY mentioned above, has little to no real impact on the story, and can basically be removed without much change. Though he unknowingly assisted Arthur Watts, that wasn't a major event in the plot.

Redeeming Qualities

1. He gets his comeuppance in Volume 7 when he gets arrested for working with Watts, and later in the Volume 8 finale, where he's disintegrated to death. However, the latter might be considered karmic overkill.
2. As much as an awful person and husband he is, at least he draws a line at murder.
3. To his credit, despite working with Watts, he wasn't aware of the latter's true intentions.
4. His design is passable.

Trivia

• Jacques alludes to Jack Frost. For more information on this allusion, as well as other choices the creators made for this character, see Jacques Schnee/Behind the Scenes.
• His first name is the French equivalent of the name James, which originates from Jacob. This name means "someone who grasps at the heels" or "supplanter", which fits him well given his backstory.
• His pre-marriage surname, Gelé, means 'frozen' in French.

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