Board Thread:Episode Discussion/@comment-4010415-20170717151617/@comment-14909251-20170719051252

WC-83 wrote: I'd say that's true, but for different reasons. Jacques is cold, but it's genuinely because he doesn't (or at least stopped at one point) care about Weiss' wellbeing and desires, while Winter is cold because she wants Weiss to be self-reliant so she herself can fufill her dreams.

Weiss breaking out of her house and expecting to stay with a no doubt overworked Winter, who might be more prone to snapping at her due to the stress of being stationed in a country that doesn't trust them (and is also practically the White Fang's capital).

I still think it's foreshadowing Winter's death or motal wounding, supported by Winter saying she won't always be there to save her, and we can probably assume Winter was the major mother figure in Weiss' life, guiding her from her own experience for the day she'd rebel on her own. I didn't say it couldn't be both. Should she pop up in Mistral and cause Winter some grief then they fight, her getting killed off protecting Weiss would be a pretty intense issue. However, I don't think Winter's coldness is really about wanting Weiss to be self-reliant. Some part of it is probably just how she was raised. Her interaction with Qrow is somewhat indicative of her being a generally harsh personality.

Although she shows a bit of tenderness we don't see from Jacques, I don't think this means she was necesarilly a great sister. She was probably still the best role model Weiss had in the whole family. When you think about it, this short is somewhat similar to the White Trailer as it shows her going through rather intense and life-threatening training pushed by a harsh older family member.

What we can really take away from this is that Weiss had no healthy emotional relationships in her family. Her older sibling was like a Spartan tiger mom, her younger sibling seems to be a tad deranged, her father is psychotic, and her mother is a drunkard. The fact her relationship with Winter appears to be the healthiest one is not a good thing.

Partly because of that, the prospect of Winter dying makes it all the more serious. If the only family member she had any kind of decent relationship with ends up dead then the implications for Weiss would be harsh. Especially bad would be if Winter's response to Weiss fleeing to Mistral results in a fight or two between them over time that leaves their relationship strained. Incidentally, if Weiss was impacted by a serious loss in the past of someone she cared about then it would be far worse.