RWBYond War

AN: Thank you to all those who read RWBYond War and participated in the pole. This chapter is for you; it will do little bonus takes on the Vile reveal and how it could have possibly changed the dynamic. This is also an essay about RWBYond War and how all the RWBYond stuff came to be.

Bonus Chapter: Beyond the Veil

Roman Torchwick was by far the most popular option on the pole. I can see why; he is a beloved character and fan favorite villain. Ruby would be reasonably shocked at his return and it would have flowed well with the themes of the story. Levi is very much what would happen had Ruby or Jaune given into the darkness and adopted a worldview like Torchwick's. It also helps that we never learned his semblance, so that wouldn't need to change. As for how it's possible, well, I'll just say that Cloak has some powerful abilities. If she wanted Ruby out of the picture, she probably could have crossed dimensions and recruited Roman and molded him into the perfect killing machine.

No one picked Griffon even though I did imply that possibility. August recognized Cipher from the fact his predecessor used to be one of them. But as August faded away from the story, that possibility dwindled. It would also be an impossibility due to the fact we know Griffon died because Necros Faust used him back in RWBYond Vale. But had August donned the mantle of Cipher Commander, it would have probably been a ploy. He's definitely skilled enough to hang with huntsmen the way Vile does. But his motives would be lacking. I can see him doing all this as a test of Ruby's resolve, like one big con.

Which brings me to another possibility, which wasn't on the poll. I did consider at one point, having it be Qrow, or an Arbiter. The whole siege would had just been one big prank to make sure Ruby was prepared for adulthood, parenthood, and whatever challenges may come up next.

The most personal would have been Summer. With all the talk about legacy and parenthood in this story, Summer Rose was a very real possibility. It would have been the same set up as Torchwick with possibly a motive similar to the testing possibility. But Summer is much more important dead than alive. And seeing the beautiful death I gave her in RWBYond Hope, she's staying gone.

An inverse of the Summer hypothesis would have been the time traveler hypothesis. But if that was the case, and it may actually be, Vile would not just be some ass hole from the future. He would be a descendent of Ruby, through Citrine. This is why, he would have defended the baby and kept her close in the last hours of the night. By protecting Citrine, he'd protect himself. Levi, in the RWBYond cannon, is from a rival Argentware clan. But his parents or anyone could have actually been from the future and traveled back. So, if Levi is a descendent of Ruby, he doesn't know.

Adam and Cardin are both impossibilities. I'm surprised people picked them in the poll. Adam had his own roll in this story and I can't think of a motive for Cardin. They were just thrown into the polls for the sake of diversity. I guess Cardin might blame Jaune and Ruby for his teammate's death during the war, but then why kill Russel? Why wouldn't he direct his anger at the Arbiters? It was Avarice that killed Sky.

In the reviews, people brought up Ironwood and Mercury. Mercury makes a lot of sense. Someone even pointed out the similar fighting style, even though Vile's is a shotgun, not a pistol. Ironwood would have to be like the Torchwick possibility. And both would have required some technology to simulate his semblance.

I don't know how I would have pulled in alternate universes. I do like the alternate Jaune though. It would explain his semblance, his powers, his skill. Maybe his Ruby died so now it's one of those "if I can't have her no one will." Maybe Jaune is his end game and he just wants Ruby out of the way. Maybe it's like that movie The One with Jet Li.

There are still some things about Levi "Vile" Seerlivey that haven't been revealed. I look forward to showing him more in RWBYond Generations, coming 2017. Though, it won't have the frequent release date. Most of my writing time will be spent with Guardians of Terra.

So now I'd like to say some things regarding themes. I feel like I laid it on pretty thick. Never stop moving forward. Stay optimistic. Don't give up. The importance of family. Legacy is important to some. All of this was in RWBYond Vale but came to a boil in this fic. Vile is everything Ruby fights about the world. He is every negative emotion she could ever have. With his silver eyes, he is the incarnation of what Ruby fears.

She fears her own legacy; she fears that she's going to die like her mother. And the thing that scares her the most is that she'll gladly do it. That's why I think it was important for Weiss to back her up at the end. Her letting Yang handle Vile at the end was also a moment of great growth. She doesn't have to do everything alone. She has Jaune, her family and friends. Soon Citrine will follow in her footsteps. Ruby is going to have to learn to let go and let her kids handle things themselves if they can. With this long night, she's better prepared for that.

Ruby is an inspiration to those around her. Which can be a good thing, so long as they want to be like her instead of dependent on her. This is why I gave Jaune his own string of battles. He's emotionally the closest to her. He's the one Ruby chose to spend the rest of her life with. Yet this story, he stands on his own. He even defeats Tobi and pushes him to a desperate move.

Tobi's role is sort of a "last enemy that shall be destroyed." He is directly attached to a lot of character development in RWBYond Vale. He's a rival to Jaune. He is the spearhead that orchestrated the Battle of Haven. He is, in a way, Kurome's father, thus enforcing the legacy themes. The whole thing with the Isle of Storms, thematically link him to Vile's team. It also links him to Akagi, whose death is still one of the darker memories in Ruby's mind; evidenced by her appearing during the hallucination. His death represents an end of the old regimen. He was the last remnant of Salem's ambition, now that Cinder is finding her own lonely path.

The one reference I wanted to point out is the powers of the villains. No one noticed it in their reviews, but they're all based on Infamous Second Son. Ashford is smoke, Phos is neon, Terra is concrete and Vile is video. In fact, Phos' name was originally going to be Neon, but then we got a Neon in canon. Terra's name is a play on the anime Terra Formar, as well as being primarily based on Teen Titan's Terra. Phos is a play on Phosphorus. Ash is linked to Cinder with both his first and last name. Vile was based on the Arkham Knight.

Vile's name was originally going to be Vimeo, after the video streaming service. But I thought that name was silly. When I decided, his name should be Levi, I thought up his codename Vile, which is an anagram for Levi. Seerlivey as well is an anagram for Silver Eye. I think it was clever but worried about it being too obvious.

The original story for this, was thought up long before I even conceived Necros or the Grimoire. At first, I had a hundred-chapter outline that would have team ARRN's introduction (there working names being AMRC, MARN, and ARGN before settling on ARRN) and school time. Then a mission to catch Glas. A tournament in Mistral, then the battle of Mistral and all the stuff with the Isle of Storms. Ending with the declaration of war, with my OC team being a year younger than the main cast.

Then it was going to cut to this. Ruby was going to be much older and married to Jaune. They weren't going to have a kid yet, that was going to be part of the character arc as well as something Tobi would give them the ability to do with his dying breaths. In this version, Vile (or Vimeo in this outline), was going to be a war orphan that Ruby failed to save. There was going to be numerous flashbacks to the war and the fact Ruby ultimately killed Salem (who was simply called Queen in this outline).

A lot of those flashbacks took a life of their own and eventually expanded into a seventy-chapter Tales of the War Front. That continued expanding with the conception of the Grimoire and Necros Faust, into what would become the last three arcs of RWBYond Vale.

Volume 3 changed everything. Beacon was no more and RWBY was splintered. Pyrrha was dead, so anything my original outlines had for her was cut out. Team ARRN was aged up to be full-fledged huntsmen. The tournament was cut and the Glas' stuff was rolled into the Battle of Haven. The Isle of Storms went about the same, with the added stuff about the maidens and Ozpin needing to be rescued. The third arc was comprised of a lot of those old flashbacks. Then there was an arc for Necros and an arc for the Grimoire and Salem.

RWBYond Vale, was a story about revelation. All the secrets being brought into the forefront. RWBYond War, is a story about peace and how it is achieved in this new world. I don't think there will be another war in the RWBYond verse. I want to do something entirely different with the next generation. I don't want them to be copies of their parents. I want them to be their own characters with unique dynamics that we haven't seen in the series or in RWBYond.

As one last thing, here is a list, in alphabetical order, of the eight heroes that will lead RWBYond Generations. Ariadne Glasgorm is a repurpose of a character I made for what will be my magnum opus. Citrine Rose, the daughter of Ruby and Jaune. Eisenhertz Schnee, the daughter of Weiss. Johnny Clay, another repurpose from Light Bringers. Nephrite Ren, the daughter of Nora and Lie Ren. Nova Wukong, the daughter of Blake and Sun. Scotland Yard, the third repurpose from Light Bringers. And lastly, Topaz Azul, the daughter of Rio and Natalie.

AN: Hope you enjoyed these ramblings about my stories. I hope to see you all again for RWBYond Generations and the other stories I have planned. My next big one is a Violet Rose story taking place about fifty years before the events of RWBYond Vale. Stay classy.