-SYTO is asked about the calendar and astrology. He says he made the system for a different world. The system is in three groups of four, and it's based on constellations since Remnant is a different world and has its own night sky. He shows a draft of what he had in mind. According to SYTO, each person who was born under a certain sign has certain traits and omens assigned with their birth.
-In terms of designs, SYTO wanted Phyrra's Mediterranean influence and being based on Greek mythology0 to be emphasized, so the skin tone and facial structure was stylized to make her more unique. Also, SYTO says that in the story itself, Phyrra's style goes to more fashionable type clothes as she enjoys things she didn't get to experience in her old warrior culture and enjoys academy life.
-For Jaune, the look was meant to be cleaner and more simplified but also wanting to keep the armor pieces on him and keeping him identifiable as Jaune.
-For Ren, a long time was taken to get right, and eventually the idea was taken to combine the academy uniform with traditional Chinese clothing in terms of his top and his shoes.
-For Nora, SYTO wanted to emphasize that Nora was shorter than everyone else, and that she works out a lot. This was motivated by her backstory that'll come when she's properly introduced, as well as carrying her hammer around. SYTO also likes the lightning bolt that makes up her bangs and he says it may light up when she uses her Semblance.
-For Mercury, SYTO wanted to emphasize a sporty build.
-Ozpin's hairstyle was changed to make him stand out from the crowd.
-The main reasoning for Peter is the fairytale Peter And The Wolf is Russian and SYTO wanted to give him a more Slavic design, and in Remnant, there's cultures centered around Grimm hunting, and hin the main show, Peter Volk (that's his last name now) talks about his Grimm hunting exploits, so the ribcage is from a Grimm that he hunted so he wears it now.
-Professor Peach is based off Momotaro, The Boy From The Peach, a Japanese legend. The design is based on Harajuku fasion, giving her a vibe of "cool aunt" and "the cool one" amongst the teachers.
-When asked of how much of the world has been explored, SYTO says part of the main storyline in Remnants isn't much exploring the world as much as RE-exploring the world, as in the world being more inhabited before the Grimm came around and overwhelmed everything and humanity trying to reclaim things so there are new things to find and maps will have to be updated. The Mountain Glenn arc from the main show is mentioned as something that's cool and underutilized in terms of exploring old and ruined cities.
-For Remnants, Faunus are called "Daimons", and SYTO wanted to emphisize less on their animal nature, and their association with the Grimm, and giving them more relevance in the worldbuilding and the story. What was done was having the Diamons be a race of people with a certain type of corruption from the Grimm aspect of them, giving them a reputation of being "cursed people" and having an affinity with Grimm energy.
-The Grimm in Remnants have more forms than just animals and are more monstrous. So the animal aspect wasn't as emphasized in favor of the shadow aspect, so Grimm and Daimons can be connected, leading to more freedom in regards to what could be done with the Faunus. The working philosophy was "Why just animals? Why not have a Faunus based on an Oni, or any other mythological creature?" So the Daimons can be based on animals and creatures that are viewed as villanous or troublesome and not well liked by humans.
-The Diamons have different cultures since they're scattered around humans. Some live among humans, some don't. Some are technologically advanced, some live off the land, so there could be some beef between different sects.
-The VAs are asked about the best thing about the Remnants version of the characters they're voicing. Answers include:
How terrifying the Grimm are and how they now look like the things of nightmares.
The dives into the character personalities and their inner burdens, where in the main shows, they're brought up once and then ignored. So Remnants gives dives into who the characters are, what they fight for, and seeing their weaknesses.
Doing the accent. And singing, even though it's stressful. (I assume this is Weiss).
Doing Nora's Scottish accent. Nora's VA also enjoys how much more connected Nora is to her source of inspiration, and her Viking/Scandinavian vibe, and she thinks a lot of people agree with her. And that Nora is genuinely funny, where in the main show (in her opinion) a lot of characters try to be the comic relief but the humor doesn't land. As well as another character she's voicing, where she only says she loves "everything about him".
The character designs for everyone in the cast. Another thing is how some in the cast get backstory so more is known about them and they're not just throwaway characters. She calls Professor Peach's character "sickening" and loves how they did something the main show briefly mentioned before not being brought up again.
Only complaint is "more Weiss" (from her VA)
-"Parfait Problems", an old video on the channel, is canon, along with many of the older ones being canon is said to be a safe assumption, although only one thing has to be retconned (Blake mentioning the Faunus by name instead of Diamons).
-In terms of Dust, Aura, Semblance, and how the three are related and how they work, SYTO says this was a large topic of discussion, since there's a lot to unpack, like how Emerald and Neo having similar Semblances, or how characters were given to one character when it was originally meant for another (such as how Fiona's Semblance was meant for Roman). SYTO says that the thing done with Remnants is a deep task since it's not just rewriting V1 with a few tweaks, but instead a holistic rework of everything in RWBY so it's one big thing so nearly every aspect has to be reworked so it all works together, so not everything is changed, but it's something that has to be talked about for sometimes hours so it works together, and that it's easy to make changes, but to have changes be authentic to the viewer where they work is another thing.
SYTO says that Aura and Semblances and Dust are basically core to RWBY and people will assume that for a RWBY project, those have to be featured. As for each individual person, he says (without saying too much) that the idea is to probably have it where it is in V1, where there's no shimmer or shatter or visual effect, since people have said that having the effect ruins fight scenes since the effect shows where people should start paying attention, instead having it where who's winning the fight is more of an educated guess.
-When asked what's the most fun part of working on the project, everyone is asked. Here's some of the answers:
One person says "everything"
Another says doing Weiss' intro where Ruby acts as the cameraman.
Doing the "Parfait Problems" video
Doing the background lore
One person enjoyed being in a call and having what's described as "a goddamn university lecture" for background lore and backstory context for a character. SHe felt it was interesting and funny that she felt like she was in a fun lecture. She also says "Nora. Everything that Nora does is perfect and fun and beautiful".
Working with everyone.
Seeing all the progress made on the project, when she's been part of projects that don't even make it past the concept phase before dying out.
Talking with everyone, especially when SYTO asks people in the project for suggestions.
One talks about working closely with SYTO and Dazco, along with releasing things and getting feedback. He says he loves the team and is excited to see where everything goes.
One person talks about how this is the most streamlined and smoothest projects he's ever worked on. And that SYTO is one of the most patient project leads he's ever worked with, calling him a saint. He also enjoys the story, and that SYTO is created a very compelling narrative.
-When asked about the Remnants demographic, SYTO says he wants it to appeal to returning fans of RWBY, as well as the age of its current audience and how they grew with the show, and SYTO mentions being 19 and in college when the show started in 2013, and also mentions wanting to appeal to new viewers. He says the actual rating would be akin to PG-13 and there'd be swearing. There's also talk about making the Grimm more scary, similar to the Apathy in V6.
-The crew is asked about Ice Queendom.
One likes the character designs and is curious about Blake since she seems out of character in terms of how she's dressed, and that it's awesome Japan has picked up the show.
Another was interested by the animation and the style and wants to check it out.
One says it's complicated because the director is someone he feels to be very hit or miss in terms of story, judging by Baka Monogatari and the rest of his portfolio, but it'll be entertaining in some way.
One of the guests says that Ice Queendom has the benefit of hindsight and hopes someone that can see fan reaction and knows what to change and how to not make the same mistakes the main show made, so there's a sense of optimism.
One person on the stream says they're not MurderOfBirds.
SYTO's thoughts is that there's a chance the rug could be pulled from under us since Gen Urobuchi could be subversive, and that there was a push to get their update video out before the reveal trailer to avoid being called copycats. His actual thoughts after the reveal was that he was first excited, but that later on he felt it's just retreading old RWBY side material, namely that it's always covering the same events in V1 (the initiation and Ruby's rivalry with Weiss). SYTO hopes the familiar is done quickly so there's new content and different character interactions and storylines rather than milking something old since it's most likely the only new RWBY material until V9. He feels the designs lack a theme and are all over the place. He also says to take his comments with a grain of salt, and that Phyrra is copying Weiss's V4 outfit.
-When asked about LGBT characters and shipping, there will most likely be some LGBT representation, but not saying what. In terms of shipping, it'll take a backseat to character development and worldbuilding.
-When asked about the floating academy cities, SYTO says that they're sort of the pinnacles of human achievement, with the best of technology and security, and is facilitated by the surface cities that they have a symbiotic relationship with and it's the safest place in the world for a person to be. There's food and resources and manpower sent there, as well as sending kids to train, and in return, the surface gets the best Grimm hunting force on the planet. The dynamics between them are something that's wanted to be explored and focused on, and is a large part of the plot, which makes the headmasters the most powerful people on Remnant.
-The other cities and headmasters will be seen eventually, but V1 will focus on Beacon and Vale.
-When asked how deep the changes from the main show runs, SYTO says that RWBY is something where you have to fiddle with every aspect, and it's hard to define what it's based on because elements are taken from everything we know about RWBY and adapted into something new. SYTO says that things can't go too close to canon to keep things from becoming too much of a task which happened in RWBY: Cherish, a previous version of the project. He says Remnants will be its own thing from the start, with the knowledge of RWBY fans to know what feels the most correct or authentic about that experience. An example given is Jaune and his character evolution from underdog to a strategist. instead of just having a checklist of things they have to hit with his character.
-The academies and the kingdoms were absorbed into one, and the emblems were meant to communicate the identity of both into the same thing.
Vale has heroic imagery with the laurel wreaths and the sun rays, and the torch, which represents Beacon.
For Atlas, SYTO wanted to go with a more authoritarian look, and harkens back to Cherish, when it was called The Atlesian Empire. While Atlas isn't an empire now, it still has that imagery with the two headed dragon with a lance and the Omega symbol, which is a call back to the Greek influence of Atlas.
Mistral has the Yin/Yang symbol, denoting the Eastern influence of Mistral, along with the horizon line representing the sun rising or setting.
For Vacuo, SYTO wanted to go with a rough tribal imagery, to show it's not as organized as the others, but it has its own philosophy. Rough and tumble in nature, but also strong and stable.
-SYTO says that the first episode will be released soon after it's completed. Dazco says the work process is a sense of "take time and figure out what they want to do, hit the grindstone, pump out content, take a break, repeat". The idea is "prep themselves, sprint". The crew is currently planning Volume 1, mostly the pre production so once the first episode is done, the next may come out at about a month, but the rate will be something faster than "one episode a year".
-SYTO says that the style that's being aimed for is "animatic" or "motion comic". The long term goal is to have some 2D animation if there's enough support.
-Each kingdom has their own cultural influences in their designs. Vale is toward English, Atlas is more Greek and Germanic, Mistral is East Asian, and Vacuo is the Middle East. For the academies, Vale/Beacon is influenced by the game Destiny.
-SYTO says that there won't be a Great War, but that there will be a massive Grimm attack called The Great Siege that engulfs the entire world, and much of the story is dedicated to investigating what caused it and if there'll be a second one.
-SYTO says that Semblances will be reworked for those who had Semblances that overlap (such as Emerald and Neo with illusions), are ambiguous, don't make much sense, or aren't as cool to look at or don't make much visual impact. And Ironwood's Semblance of Mettle doesn't exist.
-SYTO says Shopkeep will be in Remnants
