Board Thread:Speculation House/@comment-294840-20170719134411

the below is copied and pasted from my amino post.



This is my theory for why Whitley acts the way he does.

To understand anything about the Schnee children we must first examine the Schnee household and what we see is NOT a pretty picture. Jacque Schnee is an emotionally manipulative and controlling person. What's more it is heavily implied that he has driven his wife to become an alcoholic. As a result the children would have no support from her. What's more Jacque is determined to have an heir that lives up to HIS personal standards. In his quest to do so he has raised hell upon his family.

We have already seen evidence of this with Winter and Weiss. Now ask yourself honestly, do you really think Jacque would abuse Winter and Weiss, but leave Whitley alone? I don't think so? (What's more for what it's worth studies suggest both genders are abused in roughly equal amounts. I would provide links but I don't know how, instead google Safe Horizon.)

If Whitley has indeed also suffered abuse under Jacque everything makes sense. The reason he puts on the front of the good son is in an attempt to play along with Jacque and stop the abuse.

Why doesn't he like Winter and Weiss? Well it might interest you to know that one common tactic of abusers is to play their victims against each other. Combine that with the fact that the sisters rebellious attitudes might have led Jacque to focus more attention on Whitley, something he was (according to my theory anyway) trying to avoid, plus the long term psychological damage from the abuse and its no wonder he resents them.

In fact I would say that this is more likely then the prevailing theory that he was trying to get Weiss disinherited, and I can sight three pieces of evidence.

Evidence #1: He attempts to warn Weiss of Jacque's argument with Ironwood. While Weiss and many fans believe he was trying to encourage her to stand up to Jacque and therefore get herself disinherited I'm not entirely sure. First of all them having words in some form or another was bound to happen eventually with or without him interfering it was simply a matter of time. He didn't even need to do anything. You might say "Maybe he wanted to be sure though? In that case wouldn't Weiss blowing her top in public be required?" True, but you have to keep in mind even IF setting Weiss off against Jacque WAS his intent he had absolutely no way to control WHEN Weiss would go off. In short there was no way for him to have planned for the banquet. I suppose you can say his plan succeeded even beyond what he had hoped for, but I'll tell you what the warning far more likely was. An actual warning. As for why my guess is that as while he may resent Weiss, he hates Jacque more. So if he can warn her about potential harm WITHOUT risking harm to himself he has every reason to do so. For those of you who are still not convinced we now come to

Evidence #2: Whitley's shocked face. For those of you who don't know what I am talking about in episode 7, right when Jacque opens the door and leaves Weiss room Whitley has a look on his face that seems to be one of shock. Now by the time time Weiss goes and confronts him again the mask has come back on. But if Whitley really was expecting this like Weiss believes and consequently we are led to believe why would Whitley be shocked. Finally...

Evidence #3: Whitley's Anger

When Whitley tells Weiss "It's foolish not to do what father wants" he seems quite angry. Now ask yourself if the position as heir was really something he has coveted for a long time why is he so mad? The answer? Because he NEVER wanted it. As I stated before Whitley started acting like the good son in order to play along and stop the abuse, and it worked. For a time. But now Jacque has had enough of Weiss rebelling and has disinherited her as a result Whitley has found himself in the hot seat. And. He. Is. PISSED. While he did a good job of hiding it for the most part he let it slip through with that line. "It's foolish not to do what Father wants."

I also want to point out something that adds to the tragedy of his character while Winter and Weiss had each other to rely on for strength Whitley had no one. I am not asking anyone to like Whitley but I would say at least he is more worthy of pity than contempt.

This is my first post. Please let me know what you think and share with others. Also if any of you make videos on YouTube feel free to make it into a video as I do not have the know how to do so, and I would like this theory to be shared. All I ask is credit and a link to the video so I can view it.  