Thanks to some Twitter discussion tonight it made me think more deeply about Winter Schnee, the eldest of the Schnee children, daughter of Willow & Jacques. We know from her backstory that she abandoned the Schnee family hierarchy, abandoning her claim as Schnee Company Heiress, which then fell to her younger sister Weiss, one of the 4 chief protagonists of the web series RWBY. From a character design standpoint, I've always thought Winter's Eyebrows are something she paints black with thick mascara as part of her military grooming practices, e.g. are not naturally black. But I never stopped to think WHY until tonight.....then it HIT me....she wears her black mascara because consciously or even unconsciously she's trying to emulate her surrogate father figure, her commanding officer, General James Ironwood, and his naturally black eyebrows and facial hair. His head of hair betrays some grey, salt and pepper on the sides, but it was once solid black. He probably dyes his beard and eyebrows so they remain solid black leaving only the sides of his head with a bit of grey showing. In Winter's complete rejection of Jacques, she altered her appearance to be more like the new father figure she replaced him with, James Ironwood. This is probably an uncomfortable truth that would come up if Winter ever had time to go to therapy, but alas, with a war to stop the End of the World on, that's sadly unlikely. But if Winter did take a moment to reflect on it, I think in that case it would mean if we see Winter again in RWBY Volume 10, we might see her revert back to her natural white eyebrow color, like her sister Weiss and the rest of her family. Or maybe, even if she does recognize what she's doing and why, she'll ultimately decide to keep them black as the new head of what remains of the Atlas Military chain of command in exile. She was Ironwood's right hand, after all. Atlesians are going to have a hell of a time with their Vergangenheitsbewältigung nach der Untergang (Wrestling with the past after the Fall of Atlas), especially those who made it to refuge & exile in Vacuo....but also the remaining outpost of Atlesian culture and technology, aka Argus Base. Hopefully Caroline Cordovan will read the writing on the wall and throw her support behind Winter and not try to become a rival in a power struggle for who leads the legitimate Atlas government after Ironwood. Though given her proclivities, she just might.
