User blog:ChishioKunrin/The manga's coverage of the White Trailer

So, this is quite a late blog, but I read through some of the manga's chapters again, and I have to say, the absolute most helpful chapters are 3 and 4, which cover the White Trailer. I really, really wish that Miles and Kerry would include some of the stuff from those chapters in the show, in a flashback. It gives a much better perspective of what Weiss had to go through just to get to Beacon.

The White Trailer itself doesn’t really explain much, aside from: There are still people out there who say "She definitely did not get her scar in the White Trailer" because they think that Weiss already had her scar throughout the whole fight, but the scar being visible next to the blood is actually an animation/editing error. If you slow the video speed down to 0.25 and watch from 1:07 to 2:07, there are multiple shots where you get a clear view of where the scar should be, and it isn't there. In fact, when she first starts bleeding, there is no scar beside the blood, but then it appears as the blood flows down her face.
 * Weiss is a great singer
 * That fight is how she has a summon of a suit of armor
 * That fight is most likely how she got her scar

The Manga Chapters
Anyway, as we know, Kerry said that the manga is canon, aside from any parts that conflict with the show. So, it's highly likely that chapters 3 and 4 are, at least mostly, accurate. There's also the fact that, in the Volume 4 Director's Commentary, Kerry says something that aligns with chapter 3.

So, chapter 3 begins with Weiss narrating that she has always been showered with praise from everyone around her, except for her father, no matter what she was doing (it even shows someone saying she’s amazing at both piano and singing). The manga then switches from Weiss’ childhood to showing her training as a teenager. And… she has no scar.



Jacques’ secretary gives her a lot of praise and then segues into telling her that she should continue her training at Atlas Academy. Weiss reminds him that she has already decided to attend Beacon, and when asked why, she states that it is because Beacon is far away. She continues to insist on attending Beacon, so the secretary has someone let the Arma Gigas begin entering the training area.

The secretary says that the Schnee Dust Company put multiple specimens of “possession-type Grimm” inside the armor. This is what the Volume 4 Director's Commentary matches with. In the commentary, Kerry states that the armor is possessed by Geist Grimm and that this form is called an Arma Gigas. He also explains that the origin of their idea for the Geist is that they wanted Weiss to fight a giant suit of armor in her trailer and had to figure out how to make that happen.

The secretary reveals that Jacques had given the order to make a bet with Weiss if she continued to insist on attending Beacon: If she can defeat the Arma Gigas, he will let her go to Beacon. Weiss points out that the armor looks familiar, and the secretary says that it has about three times the strength of the original version of the armor. '''Weiss’ response is very telling; she says that the secretary is basically telling her that she has no chance of winning. This is a bet that Jacques expects her to lose.'''

Chapter 4 begins with another flashback to Weiss’ childhood, with her crying in front of her mini piano. Winter asks if she’s going to give up and if that means she’s okay with staying at home. The chapter then cuts to the Arma Gigas punching Weiss, and blood begins streaming down the left side of her face, just like in the White Trailer, minus the error of the scar being visible.

The secretary notes that Weiss’ Aura is at its limit, but she continues fighting anyway, using Dust. While she fights, the secretary tries to convince her to stay home, talking about how Jacques loves her and her singing, how Jacques has been busy because of the White Fang and his employees, and how she has more responsibility since Winter left. Weiss accuses the secretary of trying to manipulate her and tells him to stop.

She narrates that she used to think she was special, but Winter showed her the truth that the constant praise people gave her was only because she is a Schnee. She used to carry a distorted view of Schnee family pride, and because of this, she didn’t have a sense of self. She intends to gain a sense of self that she can be proud of, just like Winter did. While she narrates, she defeats the Arma Gigas.

The manga cuts to another point in time. Weiss has scheduled a sudden charity concert, and she tells the secretary that, if her father truly likes her singing that much, he’ll find a way to hear it.

In Conclusion
So, basically... the whole reason she had to fight the Arma Gigas is because Jacques wanted her to stay home and she wanted to get far away from home. The thing is, Weiss' comment that the secretary was basically telling her she had no chance of winning is pretty important. If the odds were really that against her, then Jacques was trying really hard to get her to stay home. But she wanted to leave so badly that she actually pushed her Aura to its limit and was injured. She saw a chance to get Jacques' permission to leave home, and she wasn't about to give that up without pushing herself as far as she could. Could she have died in this fight? Probably, if she was too stubborn.

This also sheds a different light on her behavior, both in The Badge and the Burden (Parts 1 & 2) and in Volume 4. In The Badge and the Burden, she was upset that Ruby was her leader because, while she had endangered herself just to set foot on Beacon's campus, this girl who acts like a child and doesn't take things seriously just strolled right in two years early just because she stopped an everyday criminal and his weak hired mooks from committing a robbery. As for Volume 4, just think about it. She endangered herself in order to win her father's permission to leave home, only to be dragged back after only a year. It must have been frustrating. Does that warrant snapping in the middle of a charity ball and yelling at the people who were going to donate to Vale? No, but it does help explain why she snapped.

Side Note
As I mentioned above, the beginning of chapter 3 mentions that, not only is Weiss a talented singer, she is also said to be a talented pianist. We haven't actually seen this in the show, nor have we heard it mentioned, but... there's a piano room in the Schnee manor, and the RWBY Chibi episode "Girls Rock!" has her play piano. Just thought that was interesting. It's possible that pianist Weiss could also be canon.