RWBY

Interview with Eddy Rivas by Sam P. at RTX 2022 in Austin, Texas

Sam: Welcome everyone to the Game Raven Review Podcast live at RTX in Austin, Texas. I am here doing a little something different: we are not going to talk about games, but an actual show. And I have a very special guest with me today, if you’d like to introduce yourself.

Eddy: Yeah, hi! I’m Eddy Rivas, I’m the writing supervisor for RT Animation and the head writer of RWBY.

Sam: And if you have paid attention to any RWBY news for the last, I dunno, few days, there has been a lot of announcements for RWBY. One I’m very excited for is that you guys have a collaboration with DC Comics!

Eddy: Yeah! Yeah.

Sam: And I…love DC Comics! I am a giant DC fanboy. So when I got the email, I’m just like, ‘Oh! Oh OH oh!’ Like to have RWBY next to like, Batman, you know? It just… It geeks me out to a high level. I know you joined about a couple years ago now from volume seven, correct?

Eddy: Yeah, yeah, volume seven on, yeah.

Sam: Again, now we’re a decade into RWBY. Even before joining, did you think RWBY would get to this level?

Eddy: I mean, it’s interesting, ’cause when it first started airing, I was just watching it from a distance as a fan. I was a Rooster Teeth fan for a really long time, all the way back from beginning Red vs. Blue. But watching RWBY rise and gain a following around it, it’s like… you realized at the moment that it was big, but I don’t think anyone could have looked at it and realized that it would have done all the things that it’s done since, to be the first Western anime imported into Japan all the way back when they started doing the Japanese dubs over there. And then when I joined the team, I was initially brought on as the brand archivist for the show, and it was because we had all these big partnerships in the works. So we knew that we were going to be doing some stuff with DC Comics, Scholastic, video game stuff, we had the RWBY: Ice Queendom anime that’s coming out now. All that stuff was starting to happen, was in the works. So we knew that we had all these really big projects that were coming down, and it was kind of like, ‘OK, how much further can we take this brand and what are some of the other things we can do?’ So it’s really wild to say that not only do we have a DC Comics run with Justice League and with RWBY, now we have this feature film project coming, too. So it’s… wow. Never could have imagined that RWBY would be in all those places.

Sam: Joining—like you said, when you did with volume seven—what were some of the… You’re joining a project that is already kind of big, right? Volume seven, huge fanbase. You’re now joining that team. How did it initially feel? Was it overwhelming, was it one of those like, great opportunity… ‘Oh no’? You know? Where, again, ‘I don’t want to mess this up for millions of people who love this’, to now joining kind of like, again, this big opportunity to have, which, again a great opportunity but, you also get that nervousness of, ‘Oh, I’m joining this big opportunity’.

Eddy: Yeah, it was definitely a little bit intimidating to join the writing staff, you know, especially Miles and Kerry, who were some of the initial creators of the show alongside Monty. They hadn’t really worked with another writer before, and then they brought on myself and another writer, Kiersi Burkhart, in volume seven. And…that was definitely intimidating, but they were really great. They were super collaborative, they wanted to hear new ideas. They had things that in their head, they’re like, ‘Oh, we always thought that this would happen at this point in the show,’ and sometimes were in there saying, ‘Well what if it went a little bit like this?’ and they were always super open. But it definitely, you know, any time you’re stepping into a role like that where there are some expectations and things that people want to see, and there’s also the voice of the entire show, you want to make sure that you’re honoring that and sticking with that. And, I mean, it’s the same thing for any of these big projects, like DC and Justice League stuff, same idea. You want to make sure that whatever it is is honoring the voice and the heart of the show, that is sticking with the things that people expect and what they want. And hopefully you’re kind of checking all those boxes as you go and it’s still something that’s really fun and enjoyable to watch.

Sam: RWBY now is… Again, right up there, like I said, with DC with a feature film coming out. Next decade, where do you see RWBY going?

Eddy: Oh, man, that’s a big question. (laughs)

Sam: (laughs) OK where would you like for RWBY to be?

Eddy: Um, you know, I’d love to see… There’s still the matter of the main series, right? I don’t think it’s any surprise to say, the way the show is structured, we’re hitting all these different points in the world of Remnant, and then at a certain point where everything’s gonna culminate, we’re gonna be looking towards the end of the series at some point. And probably not the too-far-off future, because of all that, trying to see about closing the story that started. I’d love to see more of these big partnerships like, the RWBY: Ice Queendom anime, has been super amazing, the launch has been really great… to see kind of more partnerships and more side stories and… there’s a whole lot to be done in the world of Remnant and it’s such a cool world that’s been created, and I think lots of people—I mean, we’ve already seen with these things that a lot of people love playing in it, and we love playing in it. And so hopefully we can kind of find other ways to play in that, you know, and keep having fun with these characters for as long as people want to watch it. (laughs)

Sam: Again, I have a separate podcast where I do movies and TV shows, and one of my biggest things is always knowing where the track ends, where… Certain shows where you’re like, ‘Hey, this has been’—I’m not gonna say any shows, but like—‘Hey, this show’s been on for like fifteen seasons, and I don’t know where it’s going, and then it just ends.’ I think it’s awesome to have an idea of like… Again, one of my favorite shows: The Last Airbender.

Eddy: Uh-huh.

Sam: Beginning, middle, end.

Eddy: Yeah.

Sam: I know the plot, where we’re going. Season one, and to season three, we got there, story ends. I think with RWBY having the idea of like, ‘Hey, this is where we wanna go,’ that to me is awesome, ’cause I… One of the worst things is to have a story, love that story, and then when you get to the end of the book, it’s like: ‘This is where we got?’

Eddy: Yeah, yeah.

Sam: Like, ‘Oh! Well, it ended.’ You know, and the fans make their videos and get upset, like, ‘How dare you?’ So, on a less serious note: favorite RWBY character, personally?

Eddy: Personally, I’m super partial to Weiss. I just really love the character arc that’s there, so I’m, like—my inner Weiss fanboy is very happy, especially with some of the Ice Queendom stuff that we’ve been doing lately that’s a lot more focused on Weiss, that’s been really great. And then apart from Weiss, probably Qrow. Qrow is probably my other favorite, yeah.

Sam: And for the last question here I have for you—again, super serious. Our podcast has a thing with Pokémon—

Eddy: OK.

Sam: —where I bring someone on and I have to ask: do you have a favorite Pokémon, and if so, what is it?

Eddy: So I don’t play a lot of Pokémon, but my kids do. And their favorite Pokémon, I’m totally blanking on the name of it… I can see it in my head. They like made me go, when I went to Japan, I had to go to the Pokémon store and buy it, a very specific Pokémon that I had to get. Oh, what are they? They’re the… there’s like a whole buncha different ones of them… that’s not helping. (laughs)

Sam: Are they Eevees?

Eddy: Yeah, it was one of the Eevees!

Sam: OK.

Eddy: Yeah, yeah. It was the… what are some of the Eevee types?

Sam: Uhh, oof. (laughs)

Eddy: Flareon!

Sam: Flareon! Fire type, yes.

Eddy: Flareon is like, that’s the one. Flareon and Leafeon. One of them wanted Flareon, one of them wanted Leafeon. So yeah. Those are the only ones I know even a little bit about.

Sam: I appreciate the answer. Again, thank you so much for being on with me. Again, everyone check out RWBY. It’s going to be a great year for RWBY, man.

Eddy: It’s going to be a very, very, very exciting year for RWBY. There’s a whole lot to come, yeah.

Sam: Anything you would like to just share with the audience then about that?

Eddy: (laughs) Nothing that we haven’t already said: we’ve got volume nine coming next year, we’ve got this Justice League film coming sometime next year, and then yeah, throughout the rest of the summer we’ve got more Ice Queendom, we’ve got the rest of the Japanese episodes coming out, we’ve got the English dub coming later this year, we’ve got RWBY: Arrowfell coming out in the fall, our big video game that we’ve been working on… So it’s going to be a very nice year to be a RWBY fan for a little bit, yeah.

Sam: And where can they find you?

Eddy: You can find me on Twitter @eddyrivas. That’s where I’m at.

Sam: Eddy, thank you so much for joining me. I hope you have a great rest of your RTX!

Eddy: All right, thank you so much!