Talk:Weiss Schnee/@comment-26306690-20180407011026/@comment-24113789-20180427201105

Weiss's whole journey involves freedom from her family, which will be followed by taking back the Schnee name. She doesn't want to separate herself from the family legacy; she wants to take it back. She can't do that while she's being stifled by her father's dominance; thus, running away was a necessary step, but it was never her end goal. Her family is still, as 73 pointed out, an obstacle. Now, Winter dying is a bit of a different question; but it would have a totally different effect on Weiss, one that would be too similar to effect of Pyrrha's death on Jaune or Penny's on Ruby. That doesn't rule it out by any means, but it would serve a different purpose in the storyline than what you seem to be proposing.

I think Weiss's storyline will necessarily be affected by the Atlas plotline, but not in the way you're theorizing. I don't really see an Atlas civil war in the future, because of the nature of Atlesian culture and society. I think we can expect more political tension, heightening to dangerous levels; but Atlas is like a pressure cooker, and the conflict is cold in its rage.

The Schnees aren't exactly political figures, so their place in the storyline will be in a different role. Jacques has no apparent influence over the Atlas government (hence Ironwood's Trump wall despite Jacques's objection), so the Schnees will be more victims of political strife than players in it, except for Winter. In other words, the Schnee family is living in their own world, in a sense.

Basically, we have to consider two things in regard to the Schnees: their role in the story, and their role in Remnant (which are related, but separate). Jacques and Whitley's role in the story is as antagonists to Weiss, Willow's is purely as a piece of Weiss's backstory, and Winter's is as a mother figure to Weiss. Thus, Jacques and Whitley can't die for story reasons; because that, tragic as it may be for Weiss, would actually solve most of her problems without her doing anything. Willow's death would make Weiss sad, and that'd be it. If they die, it would have to be for reasons of plausibility (that is, they die simply because, realistically, they would); and the only people who would want to kill them would be the White Fang. That could very well happen as an act of terrorism; but since it wouldn't serve the story very well, it's not very likely.

Winter's death would be devastating to Weiss. Now, she's less of a target for the White Fang, since she's not part of the company anymore; but she's extremely valuable to Ironwood, which makes her both a political and a military target. Given that the White Fang seems to be doing whatever Salem wants at present, and given the way Winter is sitting right in the middle of a Venn diagram of conflicts, she's in a pretty dangerous place. We'll have to see more of Winter before she can be killed off in order for it to have its full effect, but it's quite a possibility.