Why the Pandemic Couldn't Break RWBY's Heart

It's always darkest before the dawn. If the saying is true, then the sun cannot be far away for RWBY, as Volume 8 of the Austin-made animated smash comes to a close this weekend in as bleak a place as the show has ever been.

"It's a pretty intense season," series writer/director and Rooster Teeth studio mainstay Kerry Shawcross warned when he talked to the Chronicle before Episode 1 dropped. But that intensity was a reflection of the real world, at a time when the drama within the world of RWBY is reaching its most perilous heights.

Yet even in the bleakness of its the sprawling sci-fi fantasy has been a respite for its dedicated fanbase. "I sympathize with that," said Lindsay Jones. The voice of Ruby Rose, the central figure in the show, she said she had received a lot mail telling her how much her story has meant to people, in the midst of the pandemic. "I'm sitting here going, 'I need this show,' and it's really cool that other people feel the same way, and that we can give back to them."

Now the entirety of Volume 8 has arrived for free on Roosterteeth.com, here's our conversation with Jones and Shawcross about how the show has evolved over the last eight seasons, and how Ruby's positivity is no longer naiveté.

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Austin Chronicle: In Volume 7, you built out a lot more around the City of Atlas and the people Mantle, after spending the opening seasons mostly around the much smaller environment of Beacon Academy. Now they're very much the center of the story. How do you go around world building without getting dragged down into minutiae?

Kerry Shawcross: It's definitely a balance. When we were first developing the show, we always knew we were going to go to Atlas, and we were always thinking, "Well, what does it look like? How are we going to do this?" Every year, it's a challenge.

The thing we have to keep in mind is that a: the story is still good. We can't just go, "Look at these cool buildings" and forget about character development. And b: everything costs. We can't just write anything we want, so it's been a very difficult balance to make sure that we get in what we want from these places. But, honestly, the amount of care and effort, from writing to the end of production, to make sure that this is a place that feels lived in, this is a place that has history. I love that part of the show. We have a ton of documentation and references that people don't see unless we do another table companion book. "Here's what gutters look like in Mantle." We've got that down, because it's important, and it helps us save time.

AC: The show has definitely developed across the seasons, technically. No more greyed-out background characters. One day they'll give you the money to remaster the early episodes ...

KS: We've talked about it before, but the first seasons are always going to have those aspects, a charm to them, and they're always going to mean a lot to us. But because of everybody's continued support across the years we've been able to make the show look better because we have more resources, and because we've grown, and got more notoriety. We've been able to get more people who have more experience, and the people we do work with have grown and are able to get more experience on their own.

But those early seasons, they're still special in their own right, but there're shots I want to redo, and Lindsay, I know a lot of you have lines that you wish you could do over.

Lindsay Jones: Oh, yeah.

AC: Lindsay, you face some of the biggest challenges out of anyone in the voice cast, because Ruby has grown so much over the run of the show. It's rare to see a character grow up in animation, so how have you approached that in your vocal performance?

LJ: It's kind of weird to say, because I think it reflects a lot of the nature of Ruby as a whole. It's a very unique journey. It's not like a lot of other characters that I've done before because I've literally grown up with Ruby. Every character that you play, I feel you have to find a piece of you that connects you to them, so there is going to be some kind of journey that you go on with this imaginary person - but with Ruby it's so much more than that.

That was the first role that I ever had. That was the special bond I had with Monty [Oum, series creator], that was literally the start of my career as a quote-unquote voice actress.

AC: I think that, after eight seasons, you get to take those quotes off.

LJ: Ha! I think, though, for all those reasons there's an added level of intimacy with Ruby herself. I think that's how I approach the character when I have a different storyline moments, or different challenges. Even though I'm not fighting Grimm in the real world, I'm trying to tackle some element of my personal life, whether it be internal or external demons - and does life imitate art right now. I'm a mother of two, I'm way more protective of the people in my life - not that I wasn't before, but I can't explain how that increases tenfold when you're a mom. So that plays into Ruby now, and her taking the lead in a lot of her decision-making, and having to find faith in herself because there's a lot of misinformation, and confusing things and people around her. So she has to trust in her instinct and her gut. I feel that's a lot of growing into an adulthood, and growing into my 30s myself.

AC: The story of RWBY is often one of betrayals, and not being sure what the motivations of characters are. At the same time, the show has always had an inner optimism.

KS: That's very important to me - that just because you can't trust some people, that doesn't mean you can't trust anybody. Aspects of that and ideas of that, I think we find interesting to look at through different lenses, and see how it fits different situations.

JL: I've had people ask me at conventions, "What do you take away most from Ruby, and what do you enjoy most about her?" and honestly it's her positivity. Especially as you get older, it's natural to become more cynical and jaded about the world around you, and I am certainly a victim of that. But I go, "OK, Ruby would be positive." So I'm very WWRD.

KS: And early a lot of that positivity came from being naive, and being younger than a lot of the characters in the school. But as she's grown, and the world's grown, and more has happened, it has morphed into an actual belief. I wish we all just loved each other a little bit more, and Ruby exemplifies that.

AC: Production-wise, you faced the ultimate pipeline challenge this year with no one going in to the office. It's been tough for all animators, but you've always used a lot of motion capture: how did you adapt?

KS: From a tech side, it has been and continues to be an incredible undertaking. Over the course of a week we went from "We might have to work from home if you travel" to "Everybody go home, and you're going to start working from Monday." Our tech team, every artist, every producer, has just put so much effort to make that work, and in some areas we're back to normal, while some areas are definitely slower. We're learning how to collaborate better, but we have yet to find that perfect balance like being in a room together, but we also haven't let that stop us from getting as close as humanly possible. We'll do more draw-overs now, we're trying out more software that lets us do digital whiteboard rooms. I can't go to somebody's desk and look over their shoulder, but they can share their screen with me.

Everything is undeniably different. Most things are harder. A few things are impossible. [When] Lindsay comes in to do some VO stuff, there will be one technician there. She and Lindsay are going to be super-safe, masked up, apart from each other. They have a sterilization checklist they do, and then a bunch of us are just going to remote in and talk. In some ways, it's not too dissimilar to how we would record somebody who's in LA or Dallas, but it is weird, and the energy is a little different. So many of the best comedic lines we've had in the show have been from ad lib'ing and it's still happening, but it's undeniable that the energy's different when you're across a camera.

LJ: For sure. And people are more serious and that's are reflected in the writing of RWBY, so I think this is the time for less ad libs. When we go in to do things, especially with Covid regulations, it's very, "Let's get down to brass tacks, let's keep it to schedule." It's so nice to see each other, but it feel very much more - I hate to say official, but a little less happy than it used to be but that's life, and that's life for Ruby as well.

KS: So many sessions are basically, "Hey, how are you doing? We're all terrible? Well, we're here now, so let's have fun."

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Volume 8 of RWBY is available now at Roosterteeth.com.