#RWBY ever after

[bonnibellexox]

“We’re All So Happy For You”

A redraw of a piece I did at the end of Volume 9, this version is wayyy better. What do you think?

[maxiemumdamage]

I also love that we’re seeing how the Ever After was positively impacted by Ruby and Co’s presence. The Genial Gems are working to build a stable society and support others. The night market is even more of a thriving community. The Herbalist is doing their job properly and guiding others. And with a little help, the Red Prince grows and learns too — not because the Gods forced them into a new role, but because a fellow Afteran told him he was capable and still had worth without the constant expectation of victory.

[foldingfittedsheets]

Little Somewhat Red Riding Hood

I can’t even say how precious I found this character and their arc, so I had to make some art. If you’re a RWBY fan you can find it here on Rebubble, or here on Teepublic.

If you’re not a fan and just wanna say “wow pretty” you can drop me a Ko-fi here.

[aspiringwarriorlibrarian]

I like how the Herbalist has been gone for 5 episodes and is only now hatching out of his cocoons but the Paper Pleasers were so ready and so sure of what they wanted they came back almost immediately. Imagine the Blacksmith coming to them and they already have little sketches of their new bodies and a new name picked.

That, or they asked to come back soon so that their hero would know they were okay which is just...heart-meltingly sweet.

[bluearc009]

Jaune and crescent rose in the void

You know something in volume 9 just kept bugging me, how did Jaune see crescent rose in the void when it fell long before he did?

Then in dawns on me, he didn't it wasn't crescent rose he saw it was Ruby or at less her soul/spirit in the form of crescent rose.

This is just a theory, when Ruby ascended her body become part of The Tree but her soul/spirit went where the Blacksmith was and when Ruby choose to be herself she and crescent rose both fell back into the void.

crescent rose started to emitting petals as they both falling through the void and the way back to Ever After and who just happened to be falling in the void at that time...

You guest it Jaune.

Jaune: It was the first thing I saw when I was falling.

Since Ruby is only a spirit Jaune only saw her as crescent rose and the petals as flames, and he try to get it but he didn't have it with him when landed in the Ever After.

And that because Ruby soul/spirit return to her body.

Witch also means that Jaune arrived at the Ever After in chapter 10.

What do you guys think.

[short-wooloo]

OK so, RWBY Beyond is definitely implying a return to the Ever After with that portal opening in front of Somewhat and Juniper, and there are so many implications and points of speculation on that...

But that's not what I'm here to talk about

I want to talk about what that means out of universe, one point in particular

Returning to the Ever After, Somewhat and Juniper returning, are yet more proof against the dumbass "vOlUmE nInE iS fIlLeR" take from the shit for brains

[anthurak]

So I’d like to talk about one small part of Volume 9 that was never directly addressed or even noted by the characters, yet feels like it is EXTREMELY significant going forward:

This infuriatingly CURIOUS Blue Butterfly that for SOME reason keeps showing up around RUBY.

As we all know, this butterfly first showed up in Volume 6 during Ruby’s conversation with Maria about the nature of their Silver Eyes. At the time, it seemed like a pretty vague bit of symbolism that we probably didn’t understand the full context for yet.

THEN that Blue Butterfly showed up again in the Ever After. Multiple times, and seemingly CLOSELY associated with Ruby.

First it showed up during prior to Ruby’s game with the Red Prince.

Next, and far more interestingly, the Butterfly shows up flittering around Ruby herself after she runs away from her team and Little. Again clearly establishing some kind of connection with Ruby.

And the funny thing is, this Butterfly is not explained or even acknowledged by the characters this volumes. They’re just... THERE.

Then we get to this Butterfly’s final appearance in Volume 9, which also happens to be massively consequential when you start thinking about it:

They appear in the Blacksmith’s flashback as the first being shown to be ‘awakened’ by the Brothers.

Implying that this Butterfly is not just a denizen of the Ever After, but may well have been one of, if not THE first Afteran to have been created by the Tree after the Brothers.

A Butterfly which again, seems to have a close connection with RUBY and others with Silver Eyes.

At this point, I’m wondering if Maria was actually wrong about the Silver Eyes coming from the God of Light. But rather somehow through this Afteran. Like what if the Brothers weren’t the ONLY denizens of the Ever After to come to Remnant?

Either way, there is clearly SOMETHING important about this Butterfly and how it connects to Ruby and the other Silver Eyed Warriors.

And as a final note, I thought I’d point out that while Volume 6 was the first time we were introduced to a specific Blue Butterfly in relation to Ruby, it wasn’t the first time we had butterfly imagery associated with a character. But it wasn’t Ruby...

...It was WEISS back in Volume 3.

Connection?

[king-mac-xiii]

The Ever After once had a grand protector in the form of the Rusted Knight. A figure that inspired as though they were a storybook figure. A man who stood tall to defend those in need, who guided the young Alyx across the mad, mad world.

But life is often more cruel than those old stories. The Knight could not protect everyone. Could not live forever. During a flood among the Paper Pleasers, the Knight was caught in the wash and was lost to the Ever After.

But no one is truly lost in the Ever After. For a new figure stood tall to defend them. Rise, Great Knight and be recognized. With your three Helpful Heralds.

Stand.

He is called the D'arc Angel.

(Just a little thing I realized I did while I was painting the Knight. Writer brain never stops.)

[jayz4dayz]

RWBY Volume 9 Was A Total Missed Opportunity:

Putting this out there right now. Volume 9 is by far my favorite volume of RWBY for many reasons which I will not be addressing in this post, but there are a few things that have been on my mind since it's been released where I feel the storyline went wrong and could have been something so much more meaningful for the character's story arcs and development.

Starting off with our main man or should I say our old man Jaune Arc. His presence throughout Vol. 9 felt out of place not just for his character, but also the way his development was handled didn't feel right in the slightest. Becoming a crazy old crackpot because he foolishly made bad decision after bad decision, completely altering and undoing a lot of his character's timeline, and turning into this sort of secondary antagonist for Team RWBY made no sense to me. The way he said so many out of pocket things throughout the different episodes, including completely crossing a line with Ruby and being insensitive towards her mental and emotional condition instead of showing genuine concern like he normally would have, made me cringe to where I wasn't enjoying what I was watching anymore. Not in a good way!

Here's how I would have done it:

Going back to the very end of volume 8 where we see Jaune running towards the portal and barely missing it by mere inches, followed by seeing him fall into the dark abyss and joining the same fate as Team RWBY and Neo. Instead of that, we see him jumping through the portal at the very last second and making it to Vacuo by the skin of his teeth. The others see him and question why he's alone and where Team RWBY was, only for him to go "Uh..." and then the screen cuts to black and the credits start rolling.

We're gonna skip the three year hiatus and jump right into the beginning of Vol. 9 where only Team RWBY and Neo have fallen into the Ever After. For the first few episodes leading up to the reveal of the Rusted Knight, I don't think much needs to change except for the fact that they won't ever encounter Jaune, but they will still encounter the Rusted Knight who, in this version, is someone that would have had the entire fandom shook to their core when the big reveal of the Rusted Knight's identity happened: Pyrrha.

Now, how would she get to this point, you might ask? Well, remember when she got pierced by Cinder's Arrow and her body seemed to disintegrate? This scene:

This death compared to all the other characters who were killed off was unique in the fact that there was no body left behind and it almost appeared her energy was transported to another place. Hmm, perhaps another realm such as the In Between or the Ever After? Why this happened, in my opinion, was because of the use of someone else's semblance. We know very little about Pyrrha's family and have only seen her mother on screen once, so we don't know much about her backstory or semblance either. However, if her semblance worked anything like Raven's to where she needed to be attached to someone in order for her semblance to work and transfer her loved ones to a safer location to escape a deadly threat, now we have something. What if her mom's semblance transported the body to another realm of her choice right before the moment of death? (I like to call it a "divine intervention" semblance.) If that's the case, then why wouldn't it make sense for a mother's love to send her daughter somewhere familiar and (relatively) safe and still accessible to Remnant? The Ever After was based on a children's tale that everyone knew growing up and Pyrrha being as smart as she is would instantly recognize where she was transported to. Maybe she had knowledge of her mother's semblance and knew this might have happened one day, or maybe not. I find the one scene her mother is in to be very interesting because while she was talking to Jaune, she had a very bitter-sweet attitude about it and almost talked as if she knew more than she let on, but I digress.

In the story's timeline, when Team RWBY arrives in the Ever After, Pyrrha would have been there already for a couple of years. That would have given her enough time to establish herself and explore the different acres because let's be real here, Pyrrha wouldn't have stumbled upon the time travel fruit and messed around with it like Jaune did, nor would she have focused all her energy into the people of the land even though she would protect them with her life if she had to, but at the end of the day, she was just trying to figure out a way home. Once she stumbles across Team RWBY, it would all make sense why the Tree didn't let her return to Remnant yet. By this point, I'm sure she would have encountered Alyx, Lewis, and the Curious cat, probably handled the situation a lot better than Jaune did, and give Team RWBY a cautionary tale about the Curious Cat in a way that wasn't bitter or vengeful. The bee's having their special moment still would have happened, the team's fallout with the Curious Cat still would have gone down, and then we get to the scene with Neo's Jabber Walker clones and Ruby has her mental breakdown and identity crisis. I don't see Pyrrha blaming Ruby for what happened to the Paper Pleasers despite her immense sorrow for the loss of her only friends she had during her time in the Ever After. Her experiences with the Paper Pleasers would have been way different too because there's no way she'd be a gold-hearted tyrant like Jaune was painted out to be. I do see Ruby blaming herself and still running off anyway because she feels like a burden and a failure as a leader. I didn't enjoy the way Jaune was the center of focus when Ruby was very clearly in a dangerous state of mind and I'm positive Pyrrha would have picked up on it right away and address it to Ruby's team after the fact and not go off on her for not doing enough.

Team RWPY would go on the search for Ruby and still find her in Neo's torture dungeon, which would have been just as painful to watch, especially from Pyrrha's point of view. Ruby having to watch Pyrrha die in Vol.3 and now she had to witness Ruby "die" in Vol. 9 is kind of a trippy coincidence that fits so well. The only difference being Pyrrha immediately taking the initiative to find Ruby before the cat does and the final battle being way more epic. Jaune certainly gained a lot of battle experience throughout the series, but Pyrrha was always ahead of him in that respect and without a doubt would have sharpened her skills to perfection while she was on her own in the Ever After. Ruby emerges as a new version of herself, they defeat the Curious Cat, Neo ascends, and all of the girls finally get to go home together, hand in hand.

I can even go as far as to say this would have made Vol. 9 Beyond so much better too. Picture it, Team RWBY and Pyrrha leaving the portal and the first person to see them is Jaune. The potential for Arkos here is so strong it kills me inside! They'd have a raw moment between each other, there'd be lots of crying on Jaune and maybe even Pyrrha's part too, a long hug, and most definitely a romantic kiss that would have tied their relationship arc together in such a perfect way. It would have brought Pyrrha back and that's honestly all I want.

Of course, this is all just for shits and giggles, but I'd love to hear what y'all think or if you have something else to add! ^-^

[aidendruid25]

Somewhat of a Hero ~

[protagonistprime]

Crossover albeit controversial to some Meme:

I mean. Look at this:

Blond/Yellow Hair. Check Blue Eyes. Check Sword and Shield. Check Lives with regrets. Check Has rusty armor, sword and shield by the time of his old age. Check Time Travel. Check Magic lady changed his body to younger one. Check Younger outside, older inside. Check Yellow magic hand. Check

if there is more, let me know

[bonnibellexox]

Here’s a little behind the scenes collection for this drawing. Unfortunately, Procreate corrupted the original file so I had to draw over the handless screenshoot :((( but I think I pulled it off.

Would you guys be interested in a break down of the design elements I used to improve the piece? Let me know

[maxiemumdamage]

I mean we’re screaming but we did get confirmation that the Ever After was sort of a prototype Remnant huh?

“I need to know why my makers left me here. Only to leave and make all of you.” That’s what the Cat was going to say. It’s what they wanted to know.

The Brother Gods created a world so sectioned and divided and rigid that even they deemed it a failure. And then abandoned it to it’s dysfunction while they created Remnant.

[penny-weiss]

Everything is a play on words in the Ever After.

For example, there are blades of grass.

[aspiringwarriorlibrarian]

Okay there is a lot to unpack from A Knight's Journal but as a small aside, the mere concept of "Splaturday" warms my heart. Like, the Market Acre making a special day for these humans? The "Farmers" Market? They made little magic automatons for these kids, every day at first, because they didn't quite get this whole "farmers market" thing or this "days of the week" thing but they wanted their protector and his charges to be happy and fed and have a holiday just for them so they went along with it.

[rocknroll7575]

Here's a quick thing: I'm thinking of expanding Jaune's time in the Ever After, we saw his map what's to say there weren't any other dangerous entities there.

Volcano acre: Salamanders or fire spirits

Swan lake: Actually is more like a ocean....and holds sea monsters (he got swallowed whole once)

Triangle acre: He explored a pyramid or two, and in one, he had go go through a gauntlet of fights to leave

Blob acre: Expecting slime beings....encountered a hostile acidic one left a mark on his arm.

Tldr: Dude is probably hiding a canvas under his armor, and even becoming young again, the scars are still there.

Honestly, they could write a whole book about Jaune's time in the Ever-After and so many unexplored places.

I'd say go for it because there are many possibilities. Could even still have the JabberWalker following him into certain areas or the Cat continuously appearing and trying to break him down but he keeps on going.

Hell, perhaps in that Triangle Acre, he could find Juniper, because I think Jackalopes are a bit of a desert thing(?)

And for sure Jaune has a lot of scars hidden! at this stage, he hides how he feels both emotionally and physically.