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The Vytal Festival Tournament is the ultimate battle of skill, pitting the world's most powerful Huntsmen and Huntresses in training against one another... and it's finally here! Ruby, Weiss, Blake, and Yang are back for a season of over-the-top action, and they're not alone. New fighters from around Remnant are ready to bring glory to their Kingdom, but there are those among them with a far more sinister goal in mind.

Volume 3 is the third season of RWBY. It premiered on October 24th, 2015 on the Rooster Teeth website. It featured 12 episodes of around 16 minutes in length. It was preceded by Volume 2. It was followed by the first season of RWBY Chibi and Volume 4.

The volume featured a slightly different release schedule to previous volumes, with Rooster Teeth FIRST members (formerly Sponsors) being able to watch the episode a full day earlier than the public. The weekly release time was also moved from Thursday evening to Saturday morning for FIRST members (Sunday morning for the public). Short 30 second previews for each episode, entitled "Coming Up Next on RWBY Vol. 3" were also uploaded on the preceding Wednesday of the week of an episode's release.

Every third episode was followed by an episode of RWBY: World of Remnant, along with other week-long breaks, including the Rooster Teeth Extra Life Stream for charity on November 8th, 2015 and the RWBY Livestream on December 9th, 2015. A RWBY Volume 3 Hype Stream was also streamed on the Rooster Teeth website on February 12th, 2016, in which the cast and crew watched and commentated on the released episodes of Volume 3 in the lead-up to the finale.

Volume 3 was released on DVD and Blu-ray on May 3rd, 2016. This release featured a movie version of the volume. This "Complete" version would be released to the Rooster Teeth website and YouTube in parts starting on October 7th, 2019.

Overview[]

The third Volume of RWBY is dedicated to the Vytal Festival Tournament. Fighters from throughout the Kingdoms compete for victory while Cinder Fall and her people put their plan into motion. A plan that will change the balance of the world. During the tournament however, the Headmaster's of the Huntsman Academies reveal they are part of a brotherhood that secretly protect Remnant while keeping certain people safe. Pyrrha Nikos later learns that she has been chosen by them to help become one of them.

During the course of the tournament, family members of Team RWBY like Qrow Branwen, Winter Schnee and Taiyang Xiao Long are introduced for the first time.

Characters[]

Major Characters[]

Other Characters[]

Minor Characters[]

Episodes[]

Main article: Episodes
Chapter Episode Title Original Air Date Run Time External Link(s)
Trailer / Volume 3 Trailer October 22nd, 2015 1:47 Rt-favicon Volume 3 Trailer
Yt-favicon Volume 3 Trailer
RC3 / "RWBY Volume 3 Complete- Part 1" May 3rd, 2016 1:27:00 Rt-favicon Volume 3 - Part 1
RC4 / "RWBY Volume 3 Complete - Part 2" May 3rd, 2016 1:31:05 Rt-favicon Volume 3 - Part 2
1 29 "Round One" October 24th, 2015 17:03 Rt-favicon Round One
2 30 "New Challengers..." October 31st, 2015 14:36 Rt-favicon New Challengers...
3 31 "It's Brawl in the Family" November 14th, 2015 16:34 Rt-favicon It's Brawl in the Family
4 32 "Lessons Learned" November 28th, 2015 14:21 Rt-favicon Lessons Learned
5 33 "Never Miss a Beat" December 5th, 2015 13:08 Rt-favicon Never Miss a Beat
6 34 "Fall" December 12th, 2015 18:20 Rt-favicon Fall
7 35 "Beginning of the End" January 2nd, 2016 17:01 Rt-favicon Beginning of the End
8 36 "Destiny" January 9th, 2016 17:38 Rt-favicon Destiny
9 37 "PvP" January 16th, 2016 12:28 Rt-favicon PvP
10 38 "Battle of Beacon" January 30th, 2016 16:35 Rt-favicon Battle of Beacon
11 39 "Heroes and Monsters" February 6th, 2016 17:21 Rt-favicon Heroes and Monsters
12 40 "End of the Beginning" February 13th, 2016 28:05 Rt-favicon End of the Beginning

Development[]

Main article: RWBY Development
RWBY Vol3 Crew 2

A gathering of members of the RWBY Volume 3 crew

On January 22nd, 2015, series creator Monty Oum was hospitalized following a severe allergic reaction during a routine medical procedure, rendering him comatose. Monty was unable to awaken from the coma and passed away on February 1st, 2015, at the age of 33.

While the future of the series was briefly in question, it was announced that RWBY would continue, with Volume 3 of the series to premiere in 2015.[1]

In the lead-up to Volume 3, new crew members were brought on board. Dillon Gu, an animator known for creating Project MONTY, a series of fan animations in tribute to Monty, was hired by Rooster Teeth. New production artist Erin Winn designed many of the characters that appeared in Volume 3, including Team ABRN and Team BRNZ. Some fans of the show also received the chance to design their own original characters, Team NDGO, for backing the Indiegogo campaign for Rooster Teeth's new feature film Lazer Team.

As the series gained popularity, it garnered the attention of famous professional voice actor Vic Mignogna, who approached Rooster Teeth to play a role on the show. Vic would be cast as Qrow Branwen in Volume 3. Other famous professional voice actors involved with the show starting with Volume 3 include Elizabeth Maxwell, the voice of Winter Schnee and Yuri Lowenthal, the new voice of Mercury Black. Rapper Flynt Flossy of Turquoise Jeep Records also voiced the character Flynt Coal. Laura Bailey and Travis Willingham also had cameo roles as minor characters. Notably, Jen Taylor reprised her role from the first Volume.

Rooster Teeth would continue to draw from internal talent to voice characters, with Meg Turney, an established Rooster Teeth personality and host of The Know playing Neon Katt, and animator Yssa Badiola as Ciel Soleil, among others. Also joining the cast is Monty's brother Neath Oum, who took over the role of Lie Ren. Some voice actors also provided motion-capture performances for other characters, with Barbara performing Winter Schnee's motion capture and Miles doing mocap for Qrow Branwen.

Volume 3 was the first time RWBY went through a pre-production phase. This allowed the animators to work together and refine the animation style for the show. Volume 3 was also the first time a director, in this case Kerry Shawcross, was present for every mocap session and was also the first time every single scene in the volume was storyboarded.[2]

The first episode premiered on October 24th, 2015. As with previous seasons, production continued during the original run, with animation wrapping on January 22nd, 2016.[3] February 12th, 2016 was the last day of production on RWBY Volume 3.[4]

The volume, especially the sixth episode, entitled "Fall", has been widely noted as being a turning point in the series, adopting a darker tone and more mature subject matter. In response, producer Gray G. Haddock released a statement that viewer discretion was advised for future installments of the series, especially for younger audiences. Gray compared RWBY to Harry Potter, Avatar: The Last Airbender and Star Wars as being a multi-year spanning series that would mature as it continues.[5]

During development of the Volume, the RWBY: World of Remnant episode The Four Maidens was originally planned to be the backstory given about the Maidens in the episode "Fall" before it was cut for time and made into it's own episode. According to Miles Luna, one of the World of Remnant episodes they originally planned on airing during Volume 3 was pushed back to Volume 4 to make room for this episode instead.[6]

In January 2016, midway through the original run of Volume 3, lead animator and long-time member of the RWBY crew, Shane Newville, left Rooster Teeth.[7]

Originally, they were going to do more with Raven Branwen and Yang Xiao Long in this volume, but weren't able to due to time restraints.[8]

According to Miles Luna and Kerry Shawcross, Jessica Nigri was so incredibly busy during the production of Volume 3 that they only had about 2 hours to record the entirety of her lines for the volume as Cinder Fall.[9]

References[]

  1. Haddock's Rooster Teeth Journal
  2. Volume 3 DVD Directors' Commentary Chapter 1
  3. Haddock's Twitter
  4. TV
  5. Haddock's Rooster Teeth Journal
  6. Volume 3 DVD Directors' Commentary Chapter 6
  7. Newville's Twitter
  8. Volume 3 DVD Directors' Commentary Chapter 8
  9. Volume 3 DVD Directors' Commentary Chapter 9
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