Jacques Schnee's changes in Fixing RWBY disgust me in the same vein as Cardin's rewrites. He doesn't get a redemption arc but he's a far less awful person than in canon which destroys the foundation of the Schnee family's dynamics
For starters, Jacques is the reason that Weiss went to Beacon instead of Atlas. According to him Atlas has a strong military conscription policy to any student huntsmen and wanted Weiss back at the Schnee company as soon as possible. To which Weiss agreed
This IMMEDIATELY sets up Weiss and Jacques being on friendlier terms than in canon which isn't a good sign. Jacques is still a horribly amoral business man, arguably a bit worse since we actually see the process of Adam's eye getting branded. Weiss is still aware of his unethical business policies, but it kinda runs counter to him being a less awful parent
In Volume 4, rather than Jacque subtly threatening Weiss with his parental authority and saying the concert will "make a lot of people happy," he outright bribes Weiss that he'll pull strings in the Atlas military to give Winter a break so they can spend time together which Weiss happily accepts. This is still manipulative on Jacque's end but seems to be having him act "smarter" by being more aware of Weiss' desires
The rest of V4 plays out more or less the same for him aside from some dialogue tweaks. This includes him slapping Weiss which just feels so limp here due to Weiss' pre-existing animosity being so much weaker than in canon
A nice bit of narrative sleight of hand that CRWBY did is have Jacques make VERY valid points about Ironwood after the Fall of Beacon. But because we the audience are going to dislike him and like Ironwood, we're inclined to dismiss him out of hand. But it doesn't change that Jacques is completely correct on Ironwood playing at dictator with his international and local policies. This fun narrative aspect is weakened by the fact that FRWBY Jacques flatly isn't as bad a person as his canon counterpart
Celtic retained Weiss' heart to heart with Yang about how Jacques only married into the family for the company, but this is pretty much all the focus his abuse of the family gets from V5 onwards
Volume 7 is where shit really starts to hit the fan
Jacques starts the volume trying to take Weiss back home but gets shut down. He also talks down on huntsmen as a profession, in the middle of the Atlas academy's cafeteria. Is Jacques stupid? I thought you were trying to make him "not an idiot" Celtic but you have him say THAT?
Celtic completely removed the election plot from the story. Because of this, every element of this entire plotline was removed. This has MASSIVE domino effects on the story and makes Jacques a significantly less reprehensible person than in canon. In canon he actively took part in a plan to subvert the will of the people in a democratic election, which ends up helping Salem and her plans in the long run, purely to spite Ironwood and line his own pockets. In FRWBY, this is entirely remove, making him a far more reasonable person
This also weakens the parallels between Jacques and Ironwood. Despite the VERY different positions they have within the series' narrative, there's a damn good reason Trust Love has a shot dedicated to a hologram of Ironwood shifting to Jacques. They're both incredibly controlling people that make short sighted decisions in the Atlas arc that only hurt them and end in their deaths
Hell he barely gets ANY focus in FRWBYV7 period. No real focus is put on the damage he's done to his family either. Instead Weiss is given all the shit in the world for leaving Jacques because of poor sweet little baby angel Whitley who can do no wrong needed her there for him
Toward the end of V7 before the Solstice holiday, Jacques leads a meeting between himself, Camilla and Sleet, and about ten other big business tycoons to dress down Ironwood's policies and how he's been running Atlas into the ground. Due to Ironwood being tight-lipped about everything, the only conclusion that he can come to is that Ironwood's planning to go to war. Ironwood then reveals his plans to destroy the grimm pools (not that he mentions Salem or his method though), to which everyone rightfully thinks he's insane, but that's more an Ironwood thing so not focusing on that here
Our final scene of Jacques is him arguing with Weiss during the Solstice before the climax happens but it's so unimportant we don't even hear what they're saying
Now to be the tiniest bit fair here, nobody in the story really likes Jacques. But it doesn't change that him being a stain on the family he married into was heavily reduced either. Making JACQUES SCHNEE into a hatable minor villain is the easiest slam dunk in the world. And yet, just like Cardin, just like Dee and Dudley, and just like Shay D Mann, Celtic felt it appropriate to make him a more "nuanced" character. Noticing a pattern here?
There's a comment Celtic made in his comments section for the FRWBYV7 video in response to someone who didn't really like the series' direction that was drawn to my attention. It has quite a bit of damning evidence against Celtic's direction for the Atlas arc, and here's Jacques' section on it:
"I take issue that Jacques lacks depth, especially compared to canon, where he's much more of a cut-throat business man than he is some greedy idiot. He's smart, understands politics, understands the social unrest, and is himself concerned for the stability of the kingdom at large. His casual racism is only one aspect of his character, and it's much more dismissive than it is active"
Celtic took such a wishy-washy approach to Jacques. He TRIES to make him an unlikable piece of shit like in canon, but removed SEVERAL of the things that make him so unlikable in the first place.
In every piece of official RWBY media he's in, Jacques Schnee isn't meant to be in any way sympathetic outside of the circumstances of his death. The official mangas and Ice Queendom retain this, because him being the villain and abuser of the Schnee family is the foundation of his character. Given the heavy subject matter of familial abuse, of course he isn't going to be treated with any "nuance" because what kind of message would that send? Especially when he's the character the series highlights the most as an abuser
This series is called FIXING RWBY, and this is so much worse than canon. In Celtic's mind, Jacques' rewrites are superior. By taking an abuser who was ALWAYS meant to be a reprehensible human being, and reducing the foundations of his character. I wouldn't be surprised if Jacques either saves everyone from The Hound in V8 or sacrifices his life to save one of his kids and they'll bawl their eyes out because oh he really did love them after all. Assuming he even dies at all. Wouldn't be surprised if Willow or one of the Happy Huntresses takes the bullet in his stead either
