History WhatCouldHaveBeen / RWBY

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* [[https://rwby.fandom.com/wiki/Cinder_Fall/Behind_the_Scenes?file=Cinder_spy_suit_concept.jpg Cinder's spy outfit in Volume 2 was far more conservative in design,]] being full body and exposing no skin below the neck. In the series proper, it's made to emphasise Cinder's sexuality, in particular her clevage and behind.
** [[https://rwby.fandom.com/wiki/Cinder_Fall/Behind_the_Scenes?file=CinderArmCA.png Her Mistral outfit also underwent several modifications regarding her Grimm arm]] and its length, how much of Cinder's arm it had consumed and how Cinder hid it.

* Nora was originally meant to have a sash that wrapped around her waist, and ended in two long tails. Monty scrapped the idea because he thought it would be too hard to animate.
** Volume 3's commentary also mentioned that Nora was meant to get spikier hair when using her Semblance as an homage to anime characters hairs spiking up when they power up, but it wasn't worth the effort/time to make a new model just for it.

** CFVY weren't the first choice for the book's protagonists, with early considerations including covering Roman's background and focusing on Team STRQ. Neither story was very fleshed out before CFVY were chosen to be the leads.

** The book series was initially going to feature the return of [[spoiler: Penny Polendina,]] which was shot down because of the character's return in Volume 7.

* The commentary for Volume 5 revealed that large chunks of RNJR's plotlines in Mistral were cut due to the Volume's troubled production making it easier to just have RNJR stay in the Mistral house. In particular, two plotlines were salvaged and repurposed for Volume 6:

* Volume 6 was originally meant to have 14 episodes like Volume 5, but due to unknown production reasons (commonly suspected to be the cost of producing the extra-large episode "The Lost Fable" and the cost of making all the new Atlas sets for just one episode) it lost an episode and had its contents merged with the 13th episode and Volume 7's premiere. The Volume 7 commentary later elaborated on this and had the crew saying that the finale would have been an extended version of what was seen in episode 1 up to Penny's return.
* Salem was originally meant to have her full TaintedVeins appearance in "The Lost Fable," during the flashback, but Miles suggested that she not have the veins so as to make her more conventionally attractive and look less like the Antichrist.
* While the series never reveals what Ruby got for Yang in "Argus Limited," Miles revealed during C2E2 2020 that the plan was for Ruby to have bought matching friendship bracelets for the team that, during the Apathy arc, would have granted the team a second wind to let them escape. This got scrapped for being too corny for the intent of the episode.

* Starting with Volume 3, we can only wonder what the series might have been like had Monty Oum lived to keep working on it. He was reportedly more of an ideas man who preferred to work on the animation, but given what [[RuleOfCool kind]] of show this is and several instances of Monty inserting ideas into the show just because he thought they would be cool, it's sadly a major creative loss.

* Monty's earliest doodles of Yang give her pants and some highlights of her clothes were yellow and she had a different style belt. Her promotional art still has her skirt with a more pleated/segmented look as well.

* Early art for Ren implies that he was originally intended to be a more androgynous or even female character wielding a sword.

* [[http://roosterteeth.com/archive/?id=8850&v=comments RWBY Volume 2: Production Diary 1]] describes Velvet as simply having been created for the sole purpose for demonstrating the discrimination Faunus face, but fan response to her was so positive that she was further written into the story for Volume 2.
-->'''Kerry:''' It's a good thing we didn't go-we almost went with a dude with an elephant trunk. Probably wouldn't have turned out--\\
'''Miles and Kerry''': Not as good.
* Velvet's Hunter outfit's design had several options, ranging from a hood with holes to let her ears through, a lengthy raincoat plus a variant with rolled coat tails, and even a back ribbon that was considered for Nora's outfit. Most of these designs were scrapped for a simplistic model.
* Russel Thrush was originally [[Creator/RussellCrowe Russel Crow]].
-->'''Monty:''' I had to slap that one out of the air.

* Originally, the Atlas Cargo Pilot was going to have a line about his boyfriend back in Atlas, but the writers realized that having their first LGBT character be a morally ambiguous bit character who [[BuryYourGays died in the second episode]] he was in would be in poor taste.

** Ruby in the storyboards for "Gravity" was depicted as furiously activating her Silver Eyes after Salem taunted her by mentioning Summer Rose, while in the show proper she's crying.

** [[https://rwby.fandom.com/wiki/Winter_Schnee/Behind_the_Scenes?file=Winterv7thumbnailconcepts.jpeg Winter's Volume 7 design]] went through many different editions, including one that gave her a half-cape.

* Monty would have voiced Qrow Branwen had he not passed away. The role instead went to Creator/VicMignogna and later Jason Liebrecht.

** Much of Robyn's subplot would only come together late in production, as scenes including Ruby, Ren and Nora being at the election rally and Blake and Yang's talk with Robyn were both not part of the original scripts.

* During an [[https://www.newsweek.com/rwby-volume-7-interview-release-date-rooster-teeth-ruby-rose-1467011 interview]] talking about Volume 6 in retrospect while preparing for Volume 7, Miles revealed that one draft of the Battle of Haven in Volume 5 had Adam dying.

* Adam and Yang were meant to have a full battle instead of him one-shotting her at the Fall of Beacon, with Monty having already done prelimary work on it before his death. The parts he animated were later [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LsiNIRMilNg repurposed]] in the two's fight in Volume 6.

** Volume 7's commentary had the crew discussing several major deviations in the original script:
*** When discussing Penny's return, several ideas were tossed around as to her mental state, with one possibility being that she would be completely amnesiac and not remember Team RWBY.
*** Ruby and Qrow's scene in the fourth episode was considered a "Low priority" scene for the team to adapt and nearly was cut for time.
*** Much of Robyn's subplot would only come together late in production, as scenes including Ruby, Ren and Nora being at the election rally and Blake and Yang's talk with Robyn were both not part of the original scripts.
*** Much of Ren's arc was entirely cut from the season, including him explaining his more irrational behavior and decision to side with Ironwood that was summarily dropped. His kiss with Nora was one of the above-mentioned RWBY/JNR scenes that was added after initial drafts upon realizing how little the teams did in Volume 7.
*** Marrow was meant to have a scene with Blake where they discussed their Faunus heritages, but the scene was pushed from Chapter 3 to 6 then out of the season entirely.
*** Cinder and Neo were meant to be in the season sooner than they were shown, with a Neo reveal especially being pushed around several times.
*** The original plan for Tyrian and his role in sowing mistrust in Mantle was to stage a scene where it looked like Atlas soldiers were firing on civilians. The idea then became framing Team RWBY for the massacre, before settling on Penny.
*** "Gravity" initially ran for over twenty minutes before it was cut down.
*** During Qrow, Clover and Robyn's fight with Tyrian, the battle was meant to have several chase scenes where only Qrow would be able to keep up using his bird powers. One of the chases would end with him landing in front of Tyrian and saying a one liner, only for Tyrian to ask if Qrow can talk in bird form or if he needs to change back to be able to speak. Tyrian was also at one point meant to charge into an alleyway full of Grimm to show his lack of real self-preservation.
*** Fiona's Semblance "Deep Pockets" was based off a rejected idea for Torchwick's Semblance.

** [[https://rwby.fandom.com/wiki/Cinder_Fall/Behind_the_Scenes?file=CinderArmCA.png Her Mistral outfit also underwent several modifications regarding her Grimm arm regarding its length, how much of Cinder's arm it had consumed and how Cinder hid it.

* Other cut fights from Volume 3 per [[https://rwbyconversations.tumblr.com/post/182371411631/leaked-mocap-for-poser-era-fights leaked test footage]] included a 4v4 between JNPR and CFVY and a full sequence of Neo breaking Roman out of jail, with her encountering Yang again. The test footage also reveals that the cut 2v2 was originally going to be Sun working with ''Scarlet'' instead of Neptune.

* [[invoked]] Originally, the Atlas Cargo Pilot was going to have a line about his boyfriend back in Atlas, but the writers realized that having their first LGBT character be a morally ambiguous bit character who [[BuryYourGays died in the second episode]] he was in would be in poor taste.

!!Plot & Animation

* RTX 2013 revealed that both Ozpin and Glynda were going to have more cape elements in their design, but they were scrapped for the same reason as Ruby's cape-muff.
* RTX 2013 revealed that Roman Torchwick's early designs had a striped scarf.
* Professor Oobleck was originally going to be a boring, lethargic teacher.
* Cinder at one point had incredibly long, flowing sleeves similar to Weiss.
* Volume 3's opening shows Ironwood in a [[https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/407592383224610826/756200841928769596/Vol3op_19.png completely different outfit]] from the one he wore at the time, but for technical reasons the design was cut and Ironwood reverted to his old outfit.
* [[http://roosterteeth.com/archive/?id=8850&v=comments RWBY Volume 2: Production Diary 1]] describes Velvet as simply having been created for the sole purpose for demonstrating the discrimination Faunus face, but fan response to her was so positive that she was further written into the story for Volume 2.
-->'''Kerry:''' It's a good thing we didn't go-we almost went with a dude with an elephant trunk. Probably wouldn't have turned out--\\
'''Miles and Kerry''': Not as good.
* Velvet's Hunter outfit's design had several options, ranging from a hood with holes to let her ears through, a lengthy raincoat plus a variant with rolled coat tails, and even a back ribbon that was considered for Nora's outfit. Most of these designs were scrapped for a simplistic model.
* Russel Thrush was originally [[Creator/RussellCrowe Russel Crow]].
-->'''Monty:''' I had to slap that one out of the air.
* CRDL was originally pronounced something like 'Crow'.

!! Dialogue

* Jaune's original line after Ruby killed the Nevermore was going to be a quiet, awestruck, "[[BondOneLiner Bye bye, birdy.]]"

!!Grimm Design

* The Apathy was one of the first Grimm designed. However, the creators realized that they'd be too strong for Team RWBY in the early volumes, so it took until volume 6 for them to appear. There was also discussion of whether other Grimm would be affected by the Apathy, with an emaciated Beowolf too weak to hunt humans being in concept for a while.
[[/folder]]

!!Plot & Animation
[[folder:General]]

[[folder:Others]]

* Starting with Volume 3, we can only wonder what the series might have been like had Monty Oum lived to keep working on it. He was reportedly more of an ideas man who preferred to work on the animation, but given what [[RuleOfCool kind]] of show this is and several instances of Monty inserting ideas into the show just because he thought they would be cool, it's sadly a major creative loss.

!!!Team RWBY

!!!Team JNPR

!!!Others

[[foldercontrol]]

[[foldercontrol]]

* Team RWBY
** RTX 2013 revealed that Ruby's hair was originally going to be gray, because Monty wanted to evoke a kind of wolf-like appearance for her. He mentioned later that Ruby's current hairstyle still looks kinda "wolfy". Her cape was also originally going to have a muff-like thing around her neck, but animation issues restricted that.
** Team RWBY wasn't supposed to have hair colors that matched their theme colors, and everyone but Yang was a brunette. So, Yang was the only one who ended up keeping her original hair color.
** [[https://twitter.com/montyoum/status/349795637824466944/photo/1 Early designs]] for Ruby and Weiss were discarded for those two characters, instead becoming the basis for Melanie and Mitia's designs.
** Early art for Blake gave her heterochromia and two differently colored cat ears.
** Monty's earliest doodles of Yang give her pants and some highlights of her clothes were yellow and she had a different style belt. Her promotional art still has her skirt with a more pleated/segmented look as well.
** Monty's earliest doodles of Weiss' clothes weren't as detailed, her jacket lacked it's red collar, is missing her black undershirt and had a different ponytail. There was also a few early designs for her snowflake emblem.
** Different production art that was released showed that Weiss originally had a beauty mark instead of a scar, and that Myrtenaster's hilt was built more a complete gun rather than just the revolver mechanism.
** Something that mistakenly made it into the White trailer in a few shots was that the Dust in the mechanism in Myrtenaster was all red, as opposed to the multicolored seen in the series proper. Each would still have had different properties, but Monty initially disliked the idea of having a rainbow used on the design before deciding that it would make things clearer overall.
** Crescent Rose was originally ''much'' more sniper-like, looking almost like a Barret Sniper rifle with a scythe blade added onto it.

* Team JNPR
** Nora was originally meant to have a sash that wrapped around her waist, and ended in two long tails. Monty scrapped the idea because he thought it would be too hard to animate.
** Early art for Ren implies that he was originally intended to be a more androgynous or even female character wielding a sword.
** Monty's earliest doodles of Pyrrha give her some armor covering her sash instead of a belt, extra armor on one leg, and no tiara or ponytail.

* Others
** RTX 2013 revealed that both Ozpin and Glynda were going to have more cape elements in their design, but they were scrapped for the same reason as Ruby's cape-muff.
** RTX 2013 revealed that Roman Torchwick's early designs had a striped scarf.
** Professor Oobleck was originally going to be a boring, lethargic teacher.
** Cinder at one point had incredibly long, flowing sleeves similar to Weiss.
** Volume 3's opening shows Ironwood in a [[https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/407592383224610826/756200841928769596/Vol3op_19.png completely different outfit]] from the one he wore at the time, but for technical reasons the design was cut and Ironwood reverted to his old outfit.
** [[http://roosterteeth.com/archive/?id=8850&v=comments RWBY Volume 2: Production Diary 1]] describes Velvet as simply having been created for the sole purpose for demonstrating the discrimination Faunus face, but fan response to her was so positive that she was further written into the story for Volume 2.
--->'''Kerry:''' It's a good thing we didn't go-we almost went with a dude with an elephant trunk. Probably wouldn't have turned out--\\

** Velvet's Hunter outfit's design had several options, ranging from a hood with holes to let her ears through, a lengthy raincoat plus a variant with rolled coat tails, and even a back ribbon that was considered for Nora's outfit. Most of these designs were scrapped for a simplistic model.
** Russel Thrush was originally [[Creator/RussellCrowe Russel Crow]].
--->'''Monty:''' I had to slap that one out of the air.
** CRDL was originally pronounced something like 'Crow'.

* Miles revealed during the Reddit AMA post-Volume 5 that had "Jaunedice" not gotten such a cold reaction, Volume 1 may have included more character-centric episodes like it.
* By the original plans, Jaune was actually on the right track in the cave in Players and Pieces, because the relics were going to be inside assorted Grimm, including the Deathstalker stinger.
* Penny's curbstomp of the White Fang forces, where she clearly shows signs of being a robot (weapon popping out of her back, inhuman strength even by the standards of what had been shown, firing energy beams in a very mechanical fashion), was not intended to be in Episode 16, and was added by Monty without prior knowledge. This is clear in the DVD commentary, where Miles Luna makes it clear he had intended Penny stopping the van to be the first indication of Penny's true power and identity.
* During Mercury and Emerald's EstablishingCharacterMoment of their assassination of Tukson, the crew considered adding an extra shot of some of Tukson's blood on a wall.
* During ''Best Day Ever'', the first food Yang caught was going to be a cherry with stem, then she reveals the stem with a knot tied in it (you can see her 'hold small object' hand pose when she does the 'with a Yang' pun), but they decided that was a hair too risque.
* Ren originally grabbed a pair of cucumbers during the food fight, but they were changed to leeks after a lot of "Is he hitting Yang with a pair of green dicks?" reactions.
* There was going to be a Nora and Pyrrha vs. Sun and Neptune fight during the Vytal Festival Tournament, but it was cut due to not having any real relevance to the plot and being short on time.
* Other cut fights from Volume 3 per [[https://rwbyconversations.tumblr.com/post/182371411631/leaked-mocap-for-poser-era-fights leaked test footage]] included a 4v4 between JNPR and CFVY and a full sequence of Neo breaking Roman out of jail, with her encountering Yang again. The test footage also reveals that the cut 2v2 was originally going to be Sun working with ''Scarlet'' instead of Neptune.

* [[invoked]] Originally, the Atlas Cargo Pilot was going to have a line about his boyfriend back in Atlas, but the writers realized that having their first LGBT character be a morally ambiguous bit character who [[BuryYourGays died in the second episode]] he was in would be in poor taste.
* Before the show premiered, Corsac and Fennec Albain were going to be the villains of Volume 1. Then came Roman Torchwick, who stole the show beyond anyone's expectations. The Albains would later become the [[ArcVillain overarching villains]] of Blake's story in Volumes 4 and 5.
* Miles during the Volume 4 commentary mentions that his "Favorite Grimm" was left on the cutting room floor. With the knowledge since then that the Apathy were this Grimm, it means RNJR nearly encountered them on the way to Mistral.
* Volume 6 was originally meant to have 14 episodes like Volume 5, but due to unknown production reasons (commonly suspected to be the cost of producing the extra-large episode "The Lost Fable" and the cost of making all the new Atlas sets for just one episode) it lost an episode and had its contents merged with the 13th episode and Volume 7's premiere. The Volume 7 commentary later elaborated on this and had the crew saying that the finale would have been an extended version of what was seen in episode 1 up to Penny's return.
* During an [[https://www.newsweek.com/rwby-volume-7-interview-release-date-rooster-teeth-ruby-rose-1467011 interview]] talking about Volume 6 in retrospect while preparing for Volume 7, Miles revealed that one draft of the Battle of Haven in Volume 5 had Adam dying.
* Adam and Yang were meant to have a full battle instead of him one-shotting her at the Fall of Beacon, with Monty having already done prelimary work on it before his death. The parts he animated were later [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LsiNIRMilNg repurposed]] in the two's fight in Volume 6.

** The Ravager Grimm were originally going to be called the Camazotz, an allusion to the Mayan bat god of the same name