#the schnees only earned that title when nicholas married into one of them through his wife

[rwby-redux]

In Redux, do any of the main/supporting casts have any of their families expanded upon?

(Resubmitted.)

To an extent. It depends on the character in question. When it came to developing the main cast and their families, I tried to leave things relatively intact.

That being said, there are a few characters who I took some interesting liberties with, for plot and worldbuilding purposes.

Ruby and Yang haven’t had their families changed much. They’re still half-sisters that share the same dad. Summer was Ruby’s biological mother and Yang’s adoptive mother (and as far as Yang is concerned, her only mother). Yang has no interest in looking for Raven, as she doesn’t feel a need for closure, nor a desire for answers not already provided to her. Which, as you can imagine, is a relief for Tai and Qrow—since there’s quite a bit about that side of the family that neither of them has told her.

Blake, like Kali, was born in Menagerie, whereas Ghira grew up in a city called Akepont, located in Central Mistral. Her parents met when they were much younger, well before Kali assumed leadership in Menagerie, and back when Ghira was leader of the White Fang. The first time they ever had a face-to-face conversation, it was in a jail cell, of all places. The two of them had been among a handful of civil rights protestors that were arrested by Mistrali law enforcement (a somewhat regular occurrence, due to Mistral’s ongoing issues with systemic racism and police brutality). They had plenty of time to talk over the next ten hours as they waited to be released—which they eventually were, thanks to a very pissed off Leo, who used his councilor status to spring them. Several years later Kali and Ghira married and settled in Menagerie. As such, Blake has lived there for the majority of her life.

Nora’s parents haven’t really been developed much, in part because the canon itself doesn’t give us much to go on. Her backstory (pre-Kuroyuri) is similar to Emerald’s in the sense that Nora has lived on the streets for as long as she can remember. She has no recollection of her relatives—who they were, what they looked like, where they came from—and she’s spent the entirety of her early childhood stealing and begging to survive. The only thing she’s relatively certain of regarding her ancestry is that she’s Matsu. Copper, auburn, and burnt-orange hair are considered one of the defining characteristics of Northern Anima ancestry.

Which brings us to Pyrrha, the second redhead on Team JNPR (and the second person of Matsu descent). Pyrrha’s upbringing hasn’t changed much from the canon, in that she was born in Argus and was a fairly prodigious fighter. The only difference here is that both of her parents are present in the story—her mom and her dad. During the Redux’s equivalents of Volumes 1, 2, and 3, Pyrrha regularly keeps in contact with them.

Ren’s childhood has been largely shaped and informed by the way Kuroyuri was redesigned. Unlike in the show, Kuroyuri isn’t some half-built political investment by a handful of Mistrali bourgeoisie. Instead, it was a fairly old village with its own endemic ethnicity. Ren grew up in a multigenerational household with his parents (Li and An) and one of his grandparents. With the death of not only his relatives, but all of his neighbors, Ren became the sole survivor of his culture. This is reflected in his accent, which is noticeably Mistrali in origin, but characterized by a distinct otherness that not many characters can place. Over the years, Ren has tried to keep alive the legacy of his family and his heritage in any way he can, most notably in the recipes he cooks (which are unique to Kuroyuri). Unfortunately, he’s had to improvise quite a bit because there’s a lot he doesn’t remember (a recurring source of frustration for him). Nora’s done a lot to help him by letting Ren teach her what he can, and in doing so, ensuring that there’s one other person in the world who shares his burden.

Jaune’s family is the only one I can’t talk about to any significant degree because it would spoil too much of the story—why he forged his way into Beacon, where his sword came from, why he has such a natural abundance of Aura, and so on.

And last but not least, Weiss. The character whose family tree is, to put it nicely, complicated.

Before I can get into who is part of her family, however, I first have to explain how Atlesian society works.

Remember how in Harry Potter, most of the UK pure-blood wizarding families were all related to each other?

Well, there’s a similar cultural phenomenon going on here, in a sense. During the prelude to the Great War, the people of Old Mantle ended up dividing themselves into two distinct groups, based on their political affiliation and their stance on the government’s austerity measures. The dissidents were those who opposed Old Mantle’s censorship laws, while the adherents were those who willingly embraced them. Families that cooperated with the government (and even turned in their neighbors) were rewarded by being elevated to positions of wealth and authority.

In the post-war era, many of Atlas’ upper class are descended from Old Mantle’s adherents (or “the old families,” as they’re better known). By contrast, the majority of modern-day Mantle (the middle and lower classes) either descended from the dissidents, or immigrants who arrived within the last eighty years.

The Schnee family is considered one of the “old families” of Atlas—a bit of a misnomer, really, since they technically share the same genetic lineage with a good chunk of the population. There’s a sense of elitism unique to the old families, along with a rigid enforcement of certain cultural values, like xenophobia, pronatalism, and cis-heteronormativity. What this means in practice is that the old families typically arranged marriages amongst each other, partly to keep their wealth internalized, and partly out of a belief that such unions would beget loyalty and obedience in their offspring.

Hilariously enough, adultery is a semi-regular occurrence, especially in arranged marriages. Members of old families will sometimes have flings with each other, or, if they really want to avoid getting caught, they’ll visit brothels in Mantle. It’s considered one of Atlas’ worst kept secrets, to the point where “heading down to Mantle” is a euphemism for having an affair.

Of course, no one would ever admit to this. Not out loud, anyway.

After a few generations of a handful of families marrying each other and having kids out of wedlock, you can see where the problems start to come in. There’s a nasty stereotype in Vacuo that Atlesians are nothing more than frostbitten inbred zealots. Most foreigners tend to laugh it off, but depending on who you ask, there's potentially some truth to it.

Which brings us back to Weiss. Nothing within her immediate family has changed—she still has Winter and Whitley as her siblings, Willow and Jacques as her parents, and Nicholas as her grandfather.

However, she now also has quite a few relatives through several other families, including, but not limited to, the Soleils, Marigolds, Gelés, Wistiers, Hastings, and Watts.