Jimmy Vanille is an antagonist in the novel RWBY: Roman Holiday. Jimmy Vanille is the abusive father of Trivia Vanille later known as Neopolitan and a corrupt politician and counsel in the Kingdom of Vale that is willing to do anything to keep achieve his desires.
Appearance[]
Jimmy Vanille is a clean shaven and pale man with short dark brown hair. Jimmy also had dark brown eyes and always described as wearing a black suit.
He's implied to have lost most of his hair since Neo was twelve; since he looked different from the family picture.
Personality[]
Jimmy was a short tempered and abusive man who had no issues berating or even shaking his daughter for the slightest mistake. Despite his short temper he is however shown careful and observant as he was quick to realize when his daughter would disguise herself with illusions merely looking at her body language. Throughout the book it is made clear both parents refuse to accept that their daughter is truly mute even saying that if she speaks they will forgive her but if not she will be locked in her room until she does everything they want, they also would force her to hide her heterochromia by wearing a brown contact over her pink eye. A primary focus' of his was repaying his debts to Hei Xiong and keeping a good public image.
He later is shown to be a hypocrite even later called out by Roman Torchwick when he said he couldn't harbor any criminals even though he was one himself and working for the gang. He claims he started out small on taking the bribes but quickly started to take more, due to his expensive tastes he started to go into debt and became desperate to get out of it while keeping his lavish life. He goes on to claim he's doing it for his family but after stealing Dust to start monopolizing it he decided to hide it in his daughter's room despite the dangers. Jimmy is fully aware Carmel and Hei Xiong think lowly of him but is determined to eliminate competition so he can make a fortune off selling the illegal Dust. The only person Jimmy shows even mild hints of genuine affection is Carmel but ultimately it is not shown how well they actually get along with one another.
He's clearly a fool who doesn't know his mistakes until it's too late or know when to use real advantages. Keeping Neo confined to her room with expensive locks to keep the Dust hidden inside safe was a foolish move as it made her grow hateful of him; not to mention he didn't see the use in her illusions semblance for future help.
History[]
Jimmy Vanille's past remains mostly unknown outside he was a politician that became powerful in Vale and at some point married Carmel resulting in their daughter Trivia Vanille. At some point he started to take bribes of Hei Xiong allowing him to own a private mansion filled with extravagant furniture and decorations, obsessed with his image he refused to let his daughter be seen in public. Jimmy had hated his daughter not being "normal", he demanded to her to speak even though unable to and would force her to wear contacts whenever he needed to show her off for publicity. Jimmy had her only tutored at home as he refused to let her go to school due to seeing her as disgrace, when she created an imaginary friend she called Neo, he demanded she grew up and after she broke an expensive stress he started to shake her demanding she answered him. Eventually Jimmy started to realize his daughter had a Semblance after she was able to sneak out, refusing to accept this he demanded she never use it but later hired a disgraced Huntress to teach her. When his daughter eventually drugged said Huntress and was able to sneak out to go shoplifting, Jimmy was quick to cover it up and pay extra just to keep good publicity and even told her when disguised he could tell it was her before then berating her. When she retaliated by throwing a parasol because of her doing it so she could have something her parents couldn't hold over her head, Jimmy decided to increase the security of her room even further. One night he decided to leave his daughter locked in her room while he and his wife enjoyed the night out, when they arrived home he found that Trivia had unintentionally started a fire that nearly killed her but instead of worrying about her he merely yelled at her for the damage. Having had enough of her rebellion Jimmy had Carmel arrange for her to be sent to an academy to avoid her ruining his reputation.
Over the next few months Jimmy had the room rebuilt as he had been hiding a large stash of Dust he had stolen from Hei Xiong there. His goal of using his contacts to eventually monopolize Dust to start gain control of the criminal underworld and becoming rich but first he wanted to find some means to payoff his debt so he'd no longer be able to be blackmailed. Eventually he learned his daughter was with the criminal Roman Torchwick, were being chased by two gangs so when the two had arrived at his house he quickly formed a plan. Deciding that Roman could be a bargaining chip or that he must have something that Hei Xiong wanted o. Jimmy quickly arranged to have Roman drugged so they could deliver him in return his debts would be forgiven. Having Carmel drug some tea and give it to both their daughter and Roman, he did some small talk even telling them they could stay for the night but then Roman would have to leave first thing in the morning but his daughter couldn't leave. As Roman called him out Jimmy watched as both were paralyzed, deciding to have his wife tie up Roman as he dragged his daughter claiming how he did everything for his family and that he knew Carmel didn't think highly of him but it would change. Jimmy ranted about all his work and admitted both to his connections to the criminal underworld and how he had hid Dust in her room, paranoid they found out he asked his daughter. When she didn't respond he told her soon they could go back to being a family before locking her in her old room that had been upgraded to the best security system money could buy. As Jimmy goes back to the living room expecting Carmel bragging on how soon he'd be turning a massive profit and be forgiven of all debts only to be attacked by Roman. It didn't take long before he was overpowered, Roman would take is unconscious body and use it to free Trivia/Neo before then throwing him inside and locking the door. Eventually Jimmy would die with Trivia/Neo and Roman would trick another crime lord into firing at the house causing the Dust that Jimmy had stolen to explode killing all in the house including Carmel, Hei Xiong along with his gang and some of The Spiders.
Trivia[]
- His death is darkly hilariously as it comes in the form of karma. He ended up locked in Neo's bedroom with the Dust he stole from Senior; unable to ever leave as only he could open the door from outside. The Dust exploded shortly afterwards, meaning all his plans "blew up in his face" and "went up in smoke".
- Ironically, Jimmy helped open Vale up to Roman and Neo's crime spree and weakened the Xiong family; while also repelling the Spiders back to Mistral.
