Weiss' Arma Gigas

For general information on this Geist subtype, see Geist#Arma Gigas

Weiss' Arma Gigas is the opponent Weiss Schnee fights in the "White" Trailer where it served as the main antagonist of the trailer. It is an Arma Gigas, a subtype of Geist. It later becomes a summonable ally of Weiss.

Appearance[]

This Arma Gigas takes on the appearance of a medieval suit of armor, made of an unknown, but durable space-gray metal. Its under armor is the same shade of gray, while the internal parts of the armor, namely the helmet's viewing area, take on a jet black color.

The Arma Gigas stands at least twice as tall as Weiss and wields a longsword which appears to be made of the same metal as its body, which is nearly the same height as the Arma Gigas.

When destroyed by Weiss, its under armor and body begins to glow a bright white and dissipate before its armor shatters into multiple clear shards upon impact with the ground.

Nicholas Schnee is shown to wear a suit of armor sharing many similarities with the Arma Gigas, such as the same helmet and designs.

Manga[]

This Arma Gigas also appears in Chapter 3 and Chapter 4 of the manga, which explains the events of the "White" Trailer. Its appearance in the manga is very different from that of the show. In contrast to the featureless blackness of the armor seen in the trailer, the knight that Weiss fights in the manga has a more rounded helmet and two separate openings behind which a pair of glowing eyes are set. The rest of the Arma Gigas also has a widely differing appearance, though both have a medieval aesthetic to them.

Like the one seen in the trailer, the one in the manga was armed with an enormous sword.

History[]

Manga[]

In the manga, the nature of the Arma Gigas is revealed, as Jacques Schnee's Secretary explains that the Schnee Dust Company put multiple specimens of a possession-type Grimm inside of it. It is described as being comparable to a mecha-suit in strength and three times as strong as the original model that, according to Weiss, is standing in the Schnee museum.

When Weiss shows her insistence on studying at Beacon Academy rather than Atlas, the SDC President's Secretary unleashes the Grimm-possessed suit of armor, revealing that Jacques gave the order to have Weiss fight it as a "test" if she continued to insist on attending Beacon. Through her conversation with the President's Secretary, it is made clear to Weiss that this is a battle that her father and the President's Secretary feel she has no chance of winning. When the Arma Gigas attacks, Weiss fights back with Myrtenaster.

In the subsequent fight, the Arma Gigas lands a hit on Weiss' eye, scarring her and causing the President's Secretary to comment that her Aura is at its limit. She continues to fight regardless and ultimately manages to defeat her opponent.

RWBY[]

In the "White" Trailer, Weiss fights the Arma Gigas in the Schnee Training Room. Unlike in the manga, the exact context of the fight is not given. Although Weiss is successful in landing a multitude of blows on her opponent, they do not appear to have much effect on it. In retaliation, the Arma Gigas lands a serious hit on Weiss, causing her to bleed from a cut down her eye. However, undeterred, Weiss ultimately manages to defeat the armor using a combination of her Glyphs and the vials of Dust within Myrtenaster.

Much later, in "Lessons Learned", Weiss is tutored in her summoning by her sister, Winter Schnee during the Vytal Festival. Weiss, who has always had trouble mastering summoning, is apparently unable to summon anything during her training session, much to her frustration and disappointment. However, unbeknownst to her, it is revealed that she was able to manifest a small version of the Arma Gigas' sword.

In "Heroes and Monsters" after Weiss rushes to Velvet's aid, she manages to summon the sword and an arm in their proper sizes, which results in the destruction of an Atlesian Paladin-290.

In "Two Steps Forward, Two Steps Back", after much practice, Weiss is finally able to fully summon the Arma Gigas, causing damage to her room in the Schnee Manor in the process. Despite being a full summon, it is smaller than the sword and arm Weiss summons prior.

In "Dread in the Air" she summons the Arma Gigas in order to defeat the Queen Lancer that attacks the cargo ship taking her to Mistral.

In "Unforeseen Complications", Weiss summons a miniature version of the knight while held captive inside a cage. Later, in "Lighting the Fire", she has the miniature version grow in size, destroying the cage. It follows her across the bandit camp and prepares to assist her and Yang Xiao Long in battle before they are interrupted.

During the Battle of Haven in "The More the Merrier", Weiss summoned her Arma Gigas during her fight against Vernal but it was defeated by her instead.

Weiss later used her Arma Gigas in "Ace Operatives" to help slow down her descent in the sky. She later shows her Arma Gigas to her sister Winter in " Sparks" to let her know that she mastered her Glyphs summoning ability. After this, Weiss' Arma Gigas fights against a Beowolf summoned by Winter and is destroyed with it. Later in "A Night Off", Weiss managed to get the upper hand against Winter during another training session by summoning a small Arma Gigas to attack her side.

In "As Above, So Below", Weiss uses the summon to prevent Jacques from escaping arrest for election fraud and accessory to murder.

In "Out in the Open", Weiss used her Arma Gigas to kill Grimm that were about to attack Marrow Amin and saved his life during the Battle of Mantle. Later, she uses her Arma Gigas to help her fight against Marrow in "With Friends Like These". After Marrow uses his Freeze Semblance on Weiss, it is revealed that the Arma Gigas can still move without her direct control. This caused Marrow to use his Freeze Semblance on the Arma Gigas after it attacked him, freeing Weiss in the process and allowing her to defeat him.

In "Rude, Red, and Royal" Weiss summons the Arma Gigas' sword, which Yang uses to defeat the Pawns. Weiss later summons the Arma Gigas fully to assist against the Jabberwalkers in "The Perils of Paper Houses".

Abilities and Powers[]

This Arma Gigas appears to have a high degree of swordsmanship and is rather swift for its size, being able to leap high above Weiss' head for a downward slash with minimal effort.

It appears to prefer using the momentum of its long sword in motion to execute wide swings, and often chains together blows. It is also quite durable, being slashed multiple times by Weiss with no visible damage taken, as well as being resistant to various Dust techniques.

It can also seemingly wield its longsword one-handed without any difficulty, while still maintaining the force of a two-handed blow, demonstrating a massive amount of physical strength.

Its unarmed attacks are very powerful, as they have been shown to make contact with and injure Weiss. However, they are slow, predictable, and were shown to be this Arma Gigas' downfall, as it wasn't able to strike Weiss through her series of rolls and dodges. This suggests that it was trained primarily in swordsmanship, rather than unarmed attacks.

During the fight against the Queen Lancer, the Arma Gigas seems to disappear while falling, only to reappear on a glyph that was created under it, attacking it several times in this manner before defeating it.

In both "Unforeseen Complications" and "Lighting the Fire" it was revealed that the Arma Gigas can be summoned in a miniature form, and can increase its size from that stature.

Trivia[]

• Arma Gigas means "weapon giant" in Latin.
• The Arma Gigas from the "White" Trailer is first mentioned to be possessed by a Grimm in Chapter 3 of the manga. However, it is described as being an artificial amalgamation of multiple specimens rather than a single Geist.
• Monty Oum, Miles Luna and Kerry Shawcross created the Geist type of Grimm because they wanted Weiss to fight a giant suit of armor in the "White" Trailer and had to find a way to make that possible within the show.^[1]
• Some pieces used in Remnant: The Game appear to resemble the Arma Gigas, as seen in the episode "Welcome to Beacon".^[2]
• In "Breach" and "Sparks", Weiss uses Ice Dust to create an ice version of this Arma Gigas' sword.
• The Schnee family manor possess numerous statues, portraits, and paintings of the Armor used by the Geist during Weiss' test.
  • Weiss has a portrait of the armor from which this Arma Gigas was made in her room in the Schnee family estate.
  • In the main entrance hall and grand stairwell of the Schnee Manor, there are two marble stone statues of the Arma Gigas statues in both sides of the stairs as decorations.
  • Additionally the statues and armors of the Arma Gigas seems to be based on the armor used and worn by Nicholas in his portraits.

References[]