User blog:The Devil's Advocate WP/Weiss is actually the nicest member of Team RWBY

Some may find the title to be a bit of a mind-scratcher, but when you closely examine the situation it should become clear that Weiss is actually the nicest member of Team RWBY. All of the characters are nice to an extent, for sure, but she is the only one who always seems justifiably upset and even then reacts far less severely than others would. Yang has an obsessive and irrational love of her hair. Although it is good for a laugh, it also points to her being overly sensitive about something that is really not a big deal. Blake is a bit cold and we see this most plainly when her initial reaction to Yang and Ruby is to quietly dismiss them. Only when Ruby taps into her interest in books does Blake's attitude change. Ruby is pure-hearted and happy to seek out friendship, but she is impulsive to the point of needlessly insulting anyone who upsets her and let us not forget that she came up with "vomit boy" for Jaune.

You may be thinking that Weiss has been mean plenty, but look at the situations in context. Her first interaction with Ruby is Ruby knocking over cases of Dust, a volatile substance that can explode if agitated. Initially, her reaction is not even one of frustration, but is simply normal shock over her dangerous behavior. She only becomes rude as Ruby displays an apparent ignorance of what happened, though we know Ruby was just disoriented. Only after Ruby sneezes and actually causes an explosion does Weiss become truly mean, but at that point it was completely within reason. Her reaction to Blake is completely different and while one can say it is because she was one-upped, it seems more that she is simply not one for inter-personal conflict, which I will note later.

At the point she walks up to Ruby at the assembly she is clearly still agitated over it, but consider her behavior. Unless we presume Weiss has those pamplets at the ready and suddenly stumbled upon Ruby then it means she actually got the pamplet explicitly to give it to Ruby and then sought her out. When sarcastically responding to Ruby's reintroduction, she motions to Jaune as a boy they can talk about, the only boy Ruby knows there. One has to conclude that the whole "Weiss finding Ruby" thing was not coincidental and that she saw Ruby come in with Jaune only to hear Ruby seemingly bad-mouthing her to Yang when she got close. Her little legalistic rant about the dangers of Dust was essentially her awkward way of trying to mend things. The sarcastic quip in response to Ruby is the typical reaction of someone who is protesting too much. For Weiss, simply going back to Ruby and being all nice would amount to losing face when she was essentially in the right. That night when Ruby and Yang disrupt her efforts to sleep she is rightly annoyed, but even more interesting is that her reaction is to Yang, not Ruby. When Ruby agrees with Weiss, Weiss complains about Ruby "now being on her side" suggesting that Weiss felt as much under attack by Ruby before as Ruby felt the reverse.

In the locker we do see Weiss being a bit calculating with regards to Pyrrha, but she isn't being mean to anyone. Even when Jaune shows up to hit on her she expresses restrained annoyance at his persistence and eventually just seems intimidated by him. Her reaction is not treating him rudely as though he were some detestable person, but one of completely reasonable objection to his behavior. Similarly, when Jaune sort of talks down to Pyrrha, she calmly indicates that he is treating someone quite deserving of respect poorly and arrogantly.

What really shows the difference between Weiss and the other characters is her behavior in the forest. Consider just her reaction to Ruby stumbling upon her. One would think she would show even the slightest sign of displeasure or at least indifference in her face, but her reaction is pure, unassuming innocence. She promptly walks off, but this goes back to what I said about her not having a thing for inter-personal conflict. No complaining, fuming, or even a "no way", but a simple turn and walk. Only point when she shows annoyance is after she realizes her only other choice is to partner with Jaune, who she had far better reason to avoid at the time. Then we have the point where they are interacting afterwards and her only issue is presuming Ruby is not very capable, which she had no reason to doubt at the time given her previous interactions with Ruby.

Once we see them partnered it becomes even clearer. Weiss in battle is measured and precise, while Ruby is impulsive and pays little attention to what her teammate is doing. Ruby is, of course, trying to prove herself, but comes off more as a self-confident show-off who keeps messing things up. Although Weiss attributes it to them needing to be coordinated and rightly faults Ruby for her impulsiveness, Ruby just bad-mouths Weiss. It is largely Ruby's fault for trying so hard to prove her ability that she tries to hog the battle, but she cannot accept the criticism. When they are trying to figure out where they are going Weiss is being a bit of a know-it-all, but what would be a normal argument over being lost quickly gets worse because Ruby decides to just lash out and start acting like a rotten brat. She calls Weiss a "stupid jerk" and when Weiss tries to shrug it off by saying to "keep moving", Ruby starts acting even more like a brat by mocking Weiss. In spite of this, Weiss does not explode or react in kind.

So then we get to Episode 8, where Weiss was somehow convinced of the absurd plan to hitch a ride on a giant Nevermore. Think about that. No sane person would go along with such a plan unless that person was a total pushover when it comes to interpersonal relationships. Although being annoyed right when Ruby jumps off, she is only distraught later on about being left behind. When jumping in to save Ruby from the Death Stalker she goes into a classic, "Here are all the problems I have with you, and I am guilty too, but we should try to get along" speech. When Ruby says she was just trying to prove herself, Weiss tells Ruby she is "fine" without any apparent basis for believing that. This was not an observation, but an attempt at reassuring Ruby.

The next day is when people act as if Weiss suddenly reverted, but the situation is still one where Weiss is largely justified and restraining herself all the same. Ruby blows a whistle right in her ear as she is waking up, pushes her into doing a lot of work in their dorm room that could wait until after class and makes them late. Then, during class, Ruby acts disrespectful to the professor, goofs off, and generally acts like a rotten brat. Rather than make a spectacle of herself as Ruby would, Weiss simply tries to prove she is more worthy in class. So, imagine her annoyance when Ruby won't even let her act for herself, shouting out how to stop the Boarbatusk. When she talks to Port about her reasonable belief (given Ruby's behavior) that she is more deserving of being a leader than Ruby, he flippantly dismisses this as "preposterous" and insults her attitude. Even then she is persuaded and makes a flawless effort at being nice to Ruby. Rather than being uncharacteristic, one could say this is more representative of the normal Weiss.

Unlike the other team members, Weiss doesn't seem to get mad or rude over minor issues and even when mad she is more restrained than the others would be in the same situation. Note how in Episode 3, Episode 8, and Episode 10, she is the one making the first effort towards reconciliation often without any immediate need. Any time she is faced with the potential of personal conflict, her first resort is to try and walk away from it. Contrast that with how Blake walks into the middle of Ruby and Weiss arguing to badmouth the SDC so as to rankle Weiss or how Ruby needlessly provokes Weiss in Episode 7.

Again, all of these characters are fairly nice, but I think it is hard to see Weiss as being the mean girl in the group. Her greatest fault would be having a sensitive ego and being strict about getting things right. These do not make her mean or confrontational, though it can annoy people. I suspect it will become even clearer in time, but when you examine the situation up to this point closely, it does seems Weiss is actually the most reasonable and kind person on Team RWBY.