Snowbird

Snowbird is the het ship between Qrow Branwen and Winter Schnee from the RWBY fandom.

Volume 3
Qrow and Winter both make their first appearances in the show in Volume 3. Qrow's dislike of Atlas, Winter's birthplace, is brazen enough for him to immediately get into a brawl with Winter upon encountering her and personal enough for him to back down at the last second just for the chance to humiliate Winter in front of her superior, James Ironwood. He also shows a level of cockiness when he baits Winter into attacking him. Winter, although lady-like and dignified, loses her restraint when provoked by Qrow. While in battle, they did not have any malicious intent towards each other but rather, is shown to be more of on how the two tend to tease each other. Upon closer inspection, the two seem to be enjoying themselves as they can be seen smirking throughout the altercation. It is also worth noting that Qrow and Winter are close enough to be on first name basis.

Winter only makes a short appearance in Volume 3, and exits from the story after the fourth episode, Lessons Learned, after tutoring Weiss in her summoning. Both Qrow and Winter were framed as role models for their respective relatives; Qrow being a role model for his niece Ruby Rose and Winter being a role model for her younger sister Weiss Schnee. The episode shows the audience the parallels between Qrow and Winter as respective role models for their younger relatives, advising them about why they (Ruby and co.) should keep training to be stronger. Both Ruby and Weiss idolize their older family members to an extent and try to mimic them in appearance and behavior.

Volume 7
As Volume 7 is the season that reunites the two within their four years of separation throughout the series, it is revealed that Qrow doesn't necessarily disrespect Winter and is actually quite terrified of her when necessary.

In the episode "A New Approach", Winter quickly addresses Qrow regarding how he chaperones the kids to which he replies that they are uncontrollable once they have their minds set on something. This scene parallels the skit from the Chibi episode "Monsters of Rock" wherein the two are portrayed as the group's parental figures.

It is revealed in "Sparks", that the only reason why Qrow wanted Ironwood to dismiss Winter was because he did not want her getting involved with The Inner Circle's dangerous mission albeit not knowing that Winter was already in the know regarding The Maidens and was Ironwood's personal candidate to be the next Winter Maiden.

As of the end of Volume 7, Team RWBY and co. have decided to leave Qrow and Winter behind in Atlas since the former is under arrest while the latter was heavily injured during her battle with Cinder Fall.

RWBY Chibi
In RWBY Chibi, Qrow and Winter have a lot of moments together. In Season 3, Episode 3 - Mortal Frenemies, Qrow amuses himself at the expense of Winter over petty squabbles. Professor Ozpin reminds her that the two are on the same side, so Winter proposes a truce, which does not last long. As they continue to fight, Ozpin remarks that "flirting was a lot less destructive" back in his day.

In "Battle of the Bands", Qrow and Winter are seen sitting next to each other as judges of the contest alongside Professor Port and Doctor Oobleck. Even though Winter could have sat away from Qrow (if she truly despised him), she still chose to sit beside him, lightly nodding her head to the beat of the music.

In "Monsters of Rock", Qrow and Winter take the kids to the local escape room facility wherein Winter took charge of looking after Qrow's nieces, whereas Qrow took charge of taking care of the boys. This shows the characters present in the skit as a married couple taking their kids out for fun. Winter also expresses her concern for Qrow after Yang breaks the wall of the room they were in.


 * Coincidentally, the first time Qrow and Winter are seen interacting with each other on-screen on both the main series as well as on the Chibi spin-off was on the third episodes of their third seasons.
 * The Chibi episode "Mortal Frenemies" aired a few days after The Valentine's Day of 2018 (since at the time, new Chibi episodes are only scheduled to air on Sundays).
 * In the episode "Mortal Frenemies", Winter is shown to be a fan of erotic novels and fanfiction, which is one of the many suggestive things that Qrow is familiar with. Which makes him offer to highlight the "good parts" for her once he was done with the book.
 * It is also hinted that Qrow and Winter's relationship is of a sadomasochistic nature. As Winter proposed "a leash with electric shocks" as Qrow's punishment for getting on her nerves whereas he doesn't really mind, and actually quite enjoys, the squabbles he has with Winter no matter how ridiculous they would seem.
 * The erotic novel Qrow and Winter were fighting over, titled "Cold Heart | Hot Love", is also a hint towards the two's relationship.

Designs

 * Winter's character was modelled after his wife, Sheena Duquette, while Qrow was Monty's long-time OC even before he started working on RWBY. By the time Volume 3 had wrapped up in production, Monty had already fleshed out both the respective characters as well as their supposed faith to end up together, with him voicing Qrow while Sheena would voice Winter. But after Monty's passing, CRWBY has since then rewritten both characters' stories and changed their voice actors to (at the time) Maxwell and Mignogna, respectively.
 * Their color schemes heavily compliment each other. With Qrow's color scheme being black, red, and gray whereas Winter's color scheme being white, blue, and gray.
 * Winter and Qrow's post Volume 7 timeskip outfits also compliment each other. With Winter's being heavily white/navy blue whereas Qrow's is heavily black/dark red.
 * Winter's new outfit seem to have taken inspiration from Qrow's old outfit's lapels, whereas Qrow's new outfit seem to have taken inspiration from Winter's old outfit's vest which overlapped her long-sleeved shirt.
 * As shown in one of the reference sheets for Winter's potential Volume 7 outfits, Outfit C has her have a red cape on, matching Qrow's.

Show Lore

 * Qrow is the only one who's capable of cracking Winter's cold exterior in public by teasing her and by trying to get her to lighten up a bit and see that having fun in life won't hurt her.
 * Winter is prim and proper whereas Qrow is laidback and carefree. Qrow grew up poor and was raised by a tribe of bandits alongside his twin sister whereas Winter and her siblings grew up with the absence of their mother and the abuse of their father.
 * Despite their many contrasting traits the two share some things in common, such as being their former headmasters' right hand/most trusted ally, their tendency to put their lives on the line to protect their loved ones, as well as the fact that they both grew up with bad childhoods.
 * As of "The Enemy of Trust", it is confirmed that Winter also does not value her own life and would put it on the line for her loved ones instead, another trait she and Qrow shares.
 * Some more traits these two share in common is how they're both skillful sword wielders and that both Qrow and Winter have birds as the respective animal they are usually affiliated with. With Qrow's being (obviously) a black crow, and with Winter's being a white dove (which is inspired by the first bird-like creatures called Nevermores she summons during her battle with Qrow).
 * As of Volume 7, both Qrow and Winter are now on negative terms with their respective former headmasters. As Qrow has lost faith and trust in Ozpin after finding about the truth in Volume 6, whereas Winter has failed to become the next Winter Maiden as per Ironwood's demands as well as having failed to protect Atlas from foreign evil forces, and in addition to that, losing custody of Penny Polendina, the current Winter Maiden.
 * The nickname "Ice Queen" which Qrow uses to call Winter also means "a woman who's beautiful but is cold".
 * Volume 7 is the season wherein the two are seen together again in the opening as well as the series.
 * In "Cordially Invited", Ironwood suggests that Winter should smile for the cameras, which she responds that he would have to pay her to smile. Although she can easily be seen smirking throughout her battle with Qrow in "It's Brawl in The Family".

Behind The Scenes

 * Qrow's voice actor, Jason Liebrecht, and Winter's voice actress, Elizabeth Maxwell are currently in a relationship.
 * Maxwell was the one to encourage Liebrecht to audition as Qrow's new voice actor, he then later succeeds in landing the job.
 * Qrow's previous voice actor, Vic Mignogna, is also an avid supporter of the ship and would frequently make skits with Elizabeth during panels which has both their characters flirting quite suggestively with each other.
 * During the AMA on the official Rooster Teeth Facebook page, Miles Luna, one of the main writers of the show, was the one to give this ship its name.
 * In the Volume 3 Cast and Crew commentary, the voice actors of Team RWBY as well as Miles and Kerry themselves comment on the not-so-subtle sexual tension between the two.
 * Their fight was made to be in-sync with the solo verse in "Free Bird", the signature love song by the band, Lynyrd Skynyrd.
 * According to Maxwell, Winter's type of men are those who are "Tall, dark, handsome...and avian."
 * Both the main writers of the show, Miles Luna and Kerry Shawcross, are avid supporters of the pairing.

Promotional Material

 * The two are always paired together in advertisements for cons that both Maxwell and Liebrecht would be attending.
 * The cover of the official Volumes 1 to 6 DVD features Qrow and Winter facing each other.

RWBY: Amity Arena (Mobile Game)

 * Putting their cards together side-by-side makes it look like the two are giving the other their signature look.
 * Both Qrow and Winter are excellent chip cards and can take down a turret with little to no effort if used together and left unattended.
 * During the February 2019 update of the mobile game, Qrow was given a Valentine's Outfit called "Dandy Qrow". A year later, during the February 2020 update, Winter was given a matching Valentine's Outfit called "Queen Winter" with the following caption: "Winter can fight with Qrow all day as mortal frenemies!".
 * On Valentine's Day of 2020, The title "Mortal Frenemies" is distributed to players that logged in during that day. RWBY_AA_Valentines_2020_Title.png
 * The notification for the title reads "Cold Heart | Hot Love: We'll underline all the...'good parts.'".

Fanon
On AO3, Snowbird is Winter's most written for pairing and Qrow's second most written.

Fandom
FAN FICTION


 * Qrow/Winter tag on FanFiction.Net

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