Jacques Schnee/Relationships

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Affiliation

Schnee Dust Company

Jacques was the president of the Schnee Dust Company. He took the position of being its CEO from his father-in-law Nicholas Schnee after convincing him he was perfect for the job when his health began to fail. Since then, Jacques led the company and its operations into a "Moral Gray Area" where he had begun employing cheap labor and inhumane working conditions and treatments for his Faunus miners and workers, forcing them to work under dangerous conditions and doing whatever it took to win and completely destroy his competition no matter how amoral or cruel the methods.

Under Jacques leadership, the company began to prosper at the cost of it's soul

Some of his workers like Ilia Amitola's Parents were forced to work in an unstable Dust mine and were killed when the mine exploded and caved in. While this incident was a major loss for Jacques, he cared more about the loss of profit from the mine rather than the Faunus workers that were killed during the incident. During his time as CEO, Jacques also allowed his human workers to physically brand Faunus workers with the company logo. One victim of this was Adam Taurus who got into an argument with his superior in the company and had the company's logo branded into his face as a result and caused him to join the White Fang due to this inhumane treatment. It also caused Adam to begin hating humanity as a result of the company's treatment of Faunus. While Jacques stated that he was working on the problems involving his Faunus workers, in reality he was apathetic towards the plight of his workers.

Jacques, aware of his actions, had employed only the best for his PR Department to completely hide his actions and keep the company in good standing to the public at large. In order to further cement the positive image on both his company and his family despite their obvious issues and amorality in his business ventures, he had even employed and used his own children in publicity propaganda's in order to maintain the positive public image of both the SDC and Schnee family in order to ensure that he can both maintain control of the company and his children unhindered.

Later in "Alone Together", Weiss revealed that after Jacques didn't celebrate her 10th birthday and her mother confronted him about this that Jacques only married her for the Schnee family name and the company. This showed that he didn't actually care about his family.

Jacques becomes nervous when Weiss plays his speech about his workers in front of the council

After he started to run for the open council seat, he admitted to Arthur Watts that he would lay off all of his workers in Mantle to make up for his company's losses from the Dust Embargo if he didn't need their votes to win. Later when Weiss played back a recording of him saying this in front of the council, Jacques became nervous when she showed them how he really felt about his workers.

After he was arrested, he still believed that Whitley would gather his PR team in "Refuge" to get him out of jail. However, he wasn't aware that he had no intention to get him out or that his company staff had all quit after he was arrested.

Atlas

Jacques' exact relationship concerning his home kingdom was unknown, but Jacques had shown himself as not above using it as an excuse to justify his own personal interests. This was seen in his argument with General Ironwood in "Remembrance", where Jacques tried to cover up his own selfish worry for the amount of money he lost and was losing due to the implemented Dust embargo by the General as worry for the Kingdom's economy and citizens when in truth he simply cared about the severe loss it would cost the Schnee Dust Company.

Due to Jacques running for the Council Seat of Atlas, Jacques attempted to appeal to the Kingdom's citizens in order to get them to vote for him by using the Dust embargo implemented by the General and the severe economic blow dealt to the Kingdom to his advantage. He claimed he would help his fellow Atlas citizens by removing it once he became a councilman, but in truth he was apathetic to the citizens' suffering, as seen in "Pomp and Circumstance" where Jacques stated to Watts that he would have happily fired and laid off every single SDC employee in Mantle if he was not trying to obtain their votes for the election.

Jacques is arrested for his crimes

Later in "Sparks", Jacques did just that in a reckless bid to win the coming election, where he shut down all "Non-Essential" SDC operations all across Atlas, effectively laying off hundreds of SDC employees in Mantle. He also audaciously proclaimed in a live broadcast that due to General Ironwood's "tyrannical" abuse of power he was forced to resort to this action to preserve his business. Jacques promised that once he was elected, he would immediately rectify the Dust Embargo and resume all SDC operations, effectively threatening and holding the entirety of Mantle as an economic hostage if it voted against him. Said broadcast earned him the hatred, disgust and wrath of Mantle's citizens who immediately began a mass riot in the streets in response to his actions. After Watts helped him win the election by rigging it in his favor, the people of Mantle started another riot which attracted the Grimm to the city.

After he became a member of the council however, he showed no attempts to help the people and instead tried removing Ironwood from the council by convincing the other members that he was abusing his power for selfish reasons. While he was doing this, he gave his credentials to Arthur Watts after he gained new privileges by becoming a member of the council who used them to shut off the heat in Mantle and started an invasion due to another riot. After overhearing that his credentials were used to do it and Weiss showed the council a recording of Jacques dealing with Watts, he tried to convince the council that the footage wasn't real before attempting to run away. However, he was caught by his daughter as she and the council arrested him for causing the Kingdom's current issues and the Atlas Military apprehends him.

Family

Nicholas Schnee

Convincing Nichloas as the "perfect man" to take over the family Dust Company

Jacques married into the Schnee family, becoming Nicholas' son-in-law. When Nicholas' health began to fail, Jacques managed to convince his father-in-law that he was the perfect man to take over the Schnee Dust Company.

Willow Schnee

Jacques had a poor relationship with his wife, exemplified by the Schnee family portrait seen in "Remembrance". Their unhappy marriage had driven her into drinking. When Whitley Schnee informed Weiss Schnee that Jacques was yelling at someone in his office, Weiss immediately assumed it was her mother, implying that the two fought often.

Jacques only married Willow for the Schnee name and Company

On Weiss' tenth birthday, Jacques snapped at his wife when she was upset with him for missing the birthday party, telling her he only married her for control of the SDC. His wife had long suspected that this was the reason, but hearing it out loud finally broke something inside her. Following this incident, Weiss' mother began a long and steep descent into alcoholism, most likely to cope with the facts that the marriage was simply a tool for Jacques to gain control of the SDC, her family name being tarnished and that many lives have been uprooted in the wake of Jacques' decadence. Jacques himself was unconcerned with his spouses dwindling emotional stability as seen when he simply ignored or indulged due to lack of care in her growing alcoholism to cope with her misery.

Later, in "Pomp and Circumstance", it was even implied that this depression and alcoholism has reached a level where it could now possibly kill her if she was not watched. Jacques himself was not above using his wife's current state to emotionally abuse his daughter Weiss. As stated by Jacques himself when he unconcernedly told Weiss of her mother's refusal to leave her room for days due to her daughter leaving, further proving his lack of concern for his emotionally unstable wife.

Willow set up a security system to spy on Jacques out of fear that he would continue abusing their family

Willow regarded Jacques with paranoia, fear and distrust, as seen in "Cordially Invited" where Willow had placed hidden cameras all over the Schnee Manor in order to have some protection against Jacque, showing that Willow wouldn't even put it above him to physically assault or abuse his own family, showing just how broken his relationship with his wife had become. When he was being arrested by the Atlas Military, his wife just watched as he was taken away without doing anything.

Weiss Schnee

Jacques had a very apparent strained relationship with his second daughter; both held much contempt towards each other as Weiss' inclination for independent thinking clashed with his controlling and overbearing nature. After Weiss attended Beacon Academy against his wishes and she did not respond to his phone calls he cut her off financially in order to force her to talk to him. Several months after Weiss returned to her family home, Jacques subtly coerced her into singing at a charity concert. Jacques had made it clear that he planned on using Weiss' presence at the Battle of Beacon to improve the company and family image.

Confronted and questioned by his own daughter

During the Vale charity event, Jacques wanted Weiss to stay by his side at all times, even grabbing her by the arm when she attempted to move away. He showed a deep disappointment in Weiss after she publicly lost her temper during the soiree and unintentionally summoned a Boarbatusk that attacked a guest. In "Punished", Jacques and Weiss argued, during which he slapped her for questioning his right to the Schnee name and announced that he intends to transfer the inheritance of the Schnee Dust Company from Weiss to Whitley.

Weiss deeply despised her father, considering him little more than a tyrant and a stranger compared to her bonds with Team RWBY and Team JNPR, stating she would do anything for them. She also blamed Jacques for her mother's descent into alcoholism.

Later as seen in "Pomp and Circumstance", Jacques' relationship with Weiss had worsened to the point that he had little to no remorse in bringing up his wife's worsening alcoholism and depression, using it to repay his daughter for defying him and expressed a smug, clearly pleased smile that his attempts to emotionally hurt his daughter for defying him worked.

Later after the events of a "A Night Off" and "Cordially Invited", Weiss' opinion of her father had diminished to the point that she would even suspect her father would even align with Salem in order to win and would actively investigate her father's activities to put a stop to his amoral actions.

Jacques is stopped from escaping by Weiss' Arma Gigas as she arrests him

In "As Above, So Below", Jacques' partnership with Arthur Watts was revealed to the Atlesian Council by Weiss in an attempt to finally put a stop to his abhorrent actions by showing videoed evidence of his agreement with Arthur Watts and showing Jacques' true colors to the Council, effectively destroying her father's reputation and breaking down his calm, arrogant demeanor for good. Weiss herself has shown little to no remorse in doing so despite her father's pleading her to help him, as seen in his attempt to escape from the dining room, where Weiss stopped him with her semblance. She then proceeded to use her new authority as a Huntress to arrest her father and hold him accountable to his actions.

In "Creation", Jacques was surprised to learn that it was Weiss' decision to have him saved after Atlas falls on Mantle.

Winter Schnee

Jacques' relationship with his eldest child was similar to the strained one of that of his other daughter. According to Winter, he was not pleased by her joining the Atlesian Military when she graduated from Atlas. When hearing that Jacques cut Weiss off from the family fortune due to her ignoring him, Winter implied he had done the same to her when she began her career in the military, Winter urged Weiss to persist in her studies in Beacon Academy and self-discovery, which would have to exclude communicating with Jacques. In "Punished", Jacques stated that he considered her to have "run off", blaming Ironwood for it.

This relationship between them seemed to be bad enough that Winter would willingly choose to avoid having any kind of direct contact with him without having a valid enough reason, as seen in "Pomp and Circumstance" where it was implied that Winter waited for her father to leave before appearing.

The full extent of their negative relationship was shown during the events of "Cordially Invited" where Winter angrily shouted at her father that he could not buy trust like he has bought everything else and that it had to be earned. Showing that like her sister, Winter was also disgusted by her father's behavior and actions and held him in contempt.

Jacques, in turn, had shown to be completely unaffected by his eldest daughter's resentment towards him and had shown that he was even not above manipulating her negative feelings of him for his own benefit. As seen when he smugly smiled upon Winter's outburst, clearly having expected it to happen and then proceeded to further twist her words around for his own benefit to further degrade and ostracize General Ironwood from the Atlas Council, which caused Winter to react in anger, shame, and disgust due to the sheer depths of the pettiness he would go to to win and his obvious emotional manipulation and abuse of her.

Winter angrily telling her father to shut up.

In "As Above, So Below", where Jacques' actions in illegally winning the Council Election were revealed, Winter had aimed a clear hostile look of disappointment at her father for the sheer depths he would go to to win. She later expressed contempt for him due to his ignorance for inadvertently giving Arthur Watts his high-level clearance into the Atlas systems and giving him the chance to run rampant and create mass chaos all over Mantle.

Winter shows how little she cares about Jacques

As seen in "Creation", Jacques was not above groveling towards his oldest daughter to save him when the news of Atlas falling was revealed, showing complete shamelessness for his previous emotional abuse and manipulation towards his daughter if it meant saving his life. Jacques would later be silenced and horrified when Winter implied that she has no reservation of leaving him to die on Atlas once it crashed into Mantle, whilst making it clear that it was Weiss who persuaded her not to leave him.

Whitley Schnee

Whitley was Jacques' son. It was originally uncertain if his relationship with Whitley was the same as how he treated his daughters, although the photo on his desk seemed to imply Whitley to be his favorite. Evidence of this was seen at the charity event, as Whitley was always by his father's side, whereas Winter and Jacques' wife were nowhere to be seen. In "Punished", Jacques goes as far as transferring the inheritance of the Schnee Dust Company from Weiss to Whitley.

However, even Whitley was not safe from Jacques' authoritarian and controlling attitude as when Watts entered the Schnee Mansion and Jacques' private room, Jacques ordered his son to immediately leave him and Arthur alone and brutally reiterated his order when Whitley did not obey him immediately.

Jacques angrily tells Whitley to shut the door to his Office

Whitley's Paternal love for Jacques was fully shown in "As Above, So Below". As seen when Jacques' partnership with Arthur Watts was revealed and the subsequent reveal of his father's true character to the Atlas Council and his justly arrest by Atlas Authorities, Whitley was the only one of his family to express genuine sadness and grief over his arrest and fall from grace, as seen where he had a look of pure sorrow and barely controlled tears as his father was detained, showing that out of his daughters and even his own wife, only his son harbored a genuine positive view of him.

However as seen in "Fault", despite having a slightly better relationship with his son than his daughters, its evident that Whitley himself did not care as much for Jacques as he thought. This was evident where Whitley himself was no rush to come to his father's assistance after his arrest despite Jacques being confident that he was making all the necessary arrangements as fast as he can to release him from prison. Hinting that Whitley himself also possessed secret resentment or dislike for his father like his two older sisters.

Atlas Council

James Ironwood

An unstable connection between the General and the Schnee head.

Although Jacques stated him to be a trustful friend and ally of his family, he appeared displeased with the General, specifically in regards to his "role" in the fall of Beacon and the recently imposed Dust embargo.

Jacques also resented James, believing he "stole" Winter from him. When alone, Jacques showed his true contempt for Ironwood and anger over having his business ruined by the Dust embargo ordered by the general. He presented himself to the elections for a seat on Atlas council only to put an end to the embargo and restart his business.

Despite his own bullheadedness, Ironwood appeared to consider Jacques little more than a greedy and selfish man due to his attempts to get past James' dust embargo. While Jacques, in turn, had lost much of his remaining respect for Ironwood, considering him to have become increasingly paranoid and unhinged since the Fall of Beacon. He even considered him to be abusive of his own authority, given that Ironwood held two seats on the Atlas council. Given that both men had put the focus on consolidating their own power for their own interests, it was likely that they had come to mistrust one another for their similar actions despite their vastly differing motives.

In "Pomp and Circumstance", Jacques considered Ironwood to be his enemy, claiming he would hang James by a noose for claiming his former property.

In "Cordially Invited" Jacques had begun making his move to completely discredit and remove Ironwood from his position of power, as seen when he had begun turning the members of the Atlas Council against him.

As seen when, despite inadvertently allowing the massacre to occur and now knowing what Arthur Watts was planning, he had little to no shame or remorse in capitalizing on the massacre for his own gain. As seen when he had shamelessly smeared General Ironwood and further alienated him from the Council by using the suspicions the council harbored for Penny and insinuated that Ironwood had something to do with it.

As of "As Above, So Below", General Ironwood had lost what little respect he had for Jacques after his treachery in accepting Arthur Watts' proposal was revealed in a video shown by his own daughter. Ironwood expressed immense anger at Jacques' selfishness, short-sightedness and petty vindictiveness due to learning that a large part of him accepting Arthur's deal was due to his petty anger at the General. Showing that Ironwood had initially still held a small amount of respect for Jacques and had not suspected he was capable of such a gigantic blunder. He now held Jacques responsible for allowing both Arthur Watts and Tyrian Callows a chance to create mass chaos in the kingdom due to gaining access to Jacques' authority clearance as a council member.

Ironwood kills Jacques after he asked if he would help free him

By the time of "Worthy", James, having lost his patience due to the myriad of failures in his effort to protect Atlas his way, as well as having lost any good will towards Jacques due to him contributing to Atlas's destruction, decided to execute Jacques once his cell had opened. Sarcastically replying that he would open Jacques' cell too before shooting him through the cell walls.

Sleet and Camilla

Jacques' exact relationship with the councilman and woman was unknown. But given that fact that he invited them to his dinner party in "Cordially Invited" and had Sleet sit close to him during the private meeting, it could be guessed that Jacques had either convinced them to take his side in taking down Ironwood before the party or the CEO was already aware of their growing suspicions and frustrations with the General, which he took advantage of for his own gain.

However in "As Above, So Below" when Jacques' true colors and illegal manipulation of the Council Elections with Watts were revealed, Sleet and Camilla lost all respect and trust for Jacques, with Sleet saying Jacques should be tried with treason and accessory to murder for inadvertently allowing the massacre of Robyn Hill's supporters during her victory rally by Watt's associate Tyrian.

Team RWBY

Ruby Rose, Yang Xiao Long and Blake Belladonna

Jacques meeting Weiss' friends with open scorn

Though they've had little interaction, Jacques was shown to have little interest or respect for Weiss' teammates, due to him not even having asked his second daughter regarding her time at Beacon. It can be assumed that he had little to no interest in getting to know about them or their relationship with his daughter.

During the events of "Pomp and Circumstance" the rest of team RWBY, in turn, had displayed blatant hostility and contempt for Jacques upon first meeting him. As seen during his vicious argument with Weiss and General Ironwood where the three girls aimed clear looks of dislike and hostility at the Schnee family patriarch, which showed that despite never having actually met Jacques, they already had a low opinion of him due to Weiss having shared her miserable childhood under her father with them and in Blake's case, already disliking him due to knowing and seeing the effects of his severe amorality on Faunus laborers and illegal operations with the SDC.

Jacques, in turn, regarded the girls with clear contempt, as seen when he discretely insulted them when he asked Weiss if they were the "little friends" she "threw everything away for", sarcastically blaming them for ruining Weiss' future as the Schnee Heiress. He was even further angered upon Weiss wholeheartedly defending them and stated her happiness at the fact that she saw them not as friends but as her family. This earned her father's contempt due to her happily displaying that she expressed no regret at her choice of leaving and abandoning both him and the SDC to be with her friends.

Later the three girls, together with Weiss were among the Huntsmen and Huntresses present when Jacques was interrogated by General Ironwood among the Atlas Councilmen and women on Jacques' failed scheme in rigging the elections to his favor. They later expressed horror at the severe consequences of Jacques' deal with Watts.

Schnee Manor Staff

Klein Sieben

Much like his children and presumably his wife, Jacques relied on Klein heavily whenever he was home within the Schnee Family Manor due to him being the head butler for the family. This was seen when Jacques primarily called upon Klein to cater to his needs while within the Manor and seemed to trust him as one of his staff in order to obediently carry out his orders without question.

This was seen during his punishment to Weiss of confining her to the Manor and him having ordered all the staff to keep her there against her wishes, hinting that Jacques assumed that Klein would follow his orders without question.

However despite Jacques perception of Klein being absolutely loyal and obedient to him, it was evident that Klein himself was not all that loyal to him at all outside of his duties as his butler. This was seen where Klein himself had little actual respect for Jacques and was shown to make fun of him behind his back when he wasn't present in order to cheer up Weiss whenever she felt depressed or saddened by her father's demanding and abusive treatment of her.

Later after Weiss made her choice to finally run away for good, Klein was shown to be more than happy to help her escape from the Manor despite Jacques's orders to forcibly keep her confined within the Manor.

Later, Jacques himself would learn of Weiss's escape and somehow figure out Klein's involvement with helping her, he would fire Klein from his place as Head Butler of the Schnee Manor despite the years of faithful service to him and his family and kicked him out the manor.

In "War", it was shown that Klein himself did not blame Wiess for having lost his job and instead solely blamed Jacques, with him now having no problem openly showing his contempt for his former employer.

Other

Robyn Hill

Because of his selfish actions, Jacques earned himself both the rage and hatred from Robyn

Jacques exact relationship with Robyn was originally unknown, but Robyn herself was shown to be both disgusted and repulsed by his underhanded methods to win the elections. She was shown some suspicions on just how far he would go to win, as seen in "Sparks" and "A Night Off".

Jacques, in turn, had little to no shame in using Robyn to accomplish his own goals. As seen when he invited Robyn to his dinner party with Ironwood and the Atlas Council for the sole reason of maneuvering her to go against Ironwood and to use her suspicions and distrust for the General to remove him from power.

Upon the true culprits of the massacre being revealed and Jacques' true personality being exposed, Robyn was shown to now possess immense contempt and hatred for Jacques. For not only depraving her of winning the council elections fairly by hacking into and changing the ballots results, but also due to inadvertently assisting Watts and Tyrian in their plans to destroy Atlas and mass murdering her supporters. As seen when Robyn was barely able to control herself from venting her frustrations and took immense insult and anger when Jacques displayed little to no remorse on capitalizing on the massacre for his own benefit.

After they were both put in cells next to each other in "Refuge", Robyn blamed Jacques for everything and that happened to them recently while Jacques claimed that he was a victim himself. After Jacques gloated about how he thought Whitley would get his PR team to get him out of jail, Robyn told him to shut up in anger while punching his cell and scaring him.

White Fang

As mentioned by Weiss, Jacques was known to have been under strain and embitterment by the SDC's bloody conflict with the White Fang. The White Fang's reasoning for targeting the SDC was for the questionable practices that occured under Jacques' leadership such as abusing Faunus workers or even branding them with his company's logo. Jacques was shown to shrug it off, claiming he payed Faunus miners the same wages as humans. While Jacques attempted to put himself off as a benevolent industrialist and businessman, in reality, he was quite apathetic if not malevolent towards others when their interests differ from his own. It's unknown if he knew or cared that the White Fang were disbanded after their defeat at Haven.

Arthur Watts

Jacques having a private conversation with Watts

Not much was known to Jacques' relationship to Arthur Watts, but when Jacques received an unexpected visit from Watts in "Pomp and Circumstance", he mentioned about the supposed "death" of the Atlesian disgraced scientist. Watts was aware of Jacques' issue with General Ironwood and made a dubious offer in order to aid his Dust Company and for Jacques to win the election.

Because of Jacques' connections to Watts, he was arrested despite not knowing Watts' true intentions.

After they were both arrested and placed in cells next to each other in "Refuge", Jacques blamed Watts for getting him arrested and causing the current situation in Atlas to worsen. While he blamed him for what happened, Jacques was horrified when Watts was knocked unconscious by two Atlas Soldiers and dragged out of his cell.