Board Thread:Speculation House/@comment-68.9.104.186-20150101031449/@comment-108.28.57.216-20151111032533

It's been theorized Neo's also somewhat based on Napoleon.

Aside from similar sounding names, he was commonly thought to be short (although in reality, this wasn't true).

Her semblence seems to be illusions, and he was the master of battlefield illusions, making it appear his forces were retreating, before crushing his enemy.

She bases her entire fighting style off countering her foes, something that Napoleon was a master at.

She clearly has one heck of an ego, something else Napoleon was famous (or rather infamous) for.

The voice actor was asked on a stream/panel if she could do a french accent by one of the makers of RWBY, does that one need explaining?

I like the idea, and it makes sense to me, hopefully you've got a satisfactory answer to your question.