Review: RWBY Beyond “The Adventures of Somewhat; Boba”

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

In the Ever After, Somewhat and their trusted steed Juniper are given a task to give leaves to the Red Prince, who has become much less malicious since his run in with Team RWBY. After leaving Somewhat sees a portal open in front of them, recognizing whoever steps through. Meanwhile, in Vacuo, Yang and Ruby finally get a moment to breathe after everything that’s happened, so Yang takes Ruby to get Boba tea and reminds her that she doesn’t need to carry everything on her shoulders and can ask for help. Ruby admits to still struggling with this, so the two decide on a word that can signal when they need help: Boba.

OUR TAKE

And with that, Rooster Teeth has released the last animated content that will be available on their site before it shuts down. Red vs. Blue: Restoration is still on the horizon, but that will come out other ways, and even had to forgo releasing on RT like they planned. This week was pretty much a wrap on the company, even if it’ll be ostensibly around for around another week or so, with them even releasing these last two RWBY Beyond shorts at once so people had longer to watch them. In a sense, it’s fitting to end on something with RWBY, the one property of theirs that has a chance to survive all this. Although, now that all four of the shorts they were able to complete are out, it seems right to say…that the word “BEYOND” sure did a lot of heavy lifting, since three out of the four ended up focusing on characters that already got a ton of focus in Volume 9. Only that first one ended up actually being about what other characters were up to in Remnant while Team RWBY were gone, and it was the goofy comedy episode that, oddly enough, added more new stuff and teases for the future than the other three. I realize that came down to them needing to prioritize episodes with characters who were voiced by people who still worked in the building, but still.

The third short, surprisingly, even takes us back to the Ever After from V9, giving a bit of a coda to Somewhat/Little’s story much like last week did for Jaune. And much like V9 as a whole, it ends up actually being my favorite of the four for the same reasons and backhanded compliments I could give to that season. It’s fairly self-contained, feels clean of all the baggage and frustrations happening in Remnant and the seasons taking place there, and feels mostly coherent in its theming and what it’s trying to say. Which then leads back to the inherent issues with that because we already got a whole season set in the Ever After, so why are we going BACK there when we could be focusing on any other character? Well, regardless, that’s what the episode is about, and it’s by no means a bad story, so I guess it’s good we got to see it and check in with Somewhat one more time, again much like with Jaune. As for the mirror and/or portal at the end, my guess is that it’s a hint at a later plot point where RWBY will have to go back to the Ever After to either get something or hide or do something that Salem wouldn’t expect. And hey, at least then it’ll shut some people up on V9 being filler.

That just leaves the final short, which several people that are not me predicted would be Team RWBY related in some way. I honestly thought it wouldn’t for the above stated reasons that they’re among the group that we already got plenty of in the main show, but obviously I got that wrong. However, I will admit that, as a bookend to RWBY as a Rooster Teeth show, it makes a lot of sense to leave off on an episode ABOUT Ruby. And heck, it’s about Ruby spending time with YANG! JUST Yang! The fact that these two spending time alone together AS sisters is so rare truly makes this short a lot more special and significant on its own…while also highlighting that the show kinda stopped really giving them these moments early on, which opens up another can of worms about its issues that I’m choosing to NOT get into right now. It’s just a nice moment between the two where Yang reassures Ruby that she doesn’t need to feel alone like she did before. While there’s no confirmation on this, I’m gonna choose to believe this takes place after the second Justice League movie just for my weird obsession with trying to fit every piece of media into the timeline, but it also shows that Ruby’s message across Remnant in V8 has gotten her some recognition. Admittedly I’m wary of them adding a “getting famous” subplot to her character at this stage, much like the seeming hints at Weiss and the Schnees having some reckoning from Jacque’s actions, but we’re not gonna know how any of that pays off until when and if the show comes back.

As this is the final piece of official RWBY media made by Rooster Teeth as a company, there is a non-zero chance that the last we will see of these characters is Ruby hanging with her sister and getting boba. We have heard some recent optimistic hints regarding the brand being taken on by another company with further news apparently coming in the following weeks, but for now it’s just hints. Rooster Teeth will shut down early next month, with the final RVB season set to come out soon after, and that could very well be it. Thankfully, some fan efforts to archive all of RT’s existing library have more or less completed, but it’ll still be a sad day to see it all go. If it all has to end this way, then I think this last short of RWBY Beyond, the unintended epilogue to the RT Era of RWBY, has a meaningful lesson to leave us. Whether we’ve got special skills or normal knees, we’re never alone. Hopefully we’ll see you back in Vacuo soon enough, but if not, feel free to go out and get some boba tea on me.

And for the record, my ranking for these from worst to best would be Junior Detectives, A Knight’s Journal, Boba, and The Adventures of Somewhat. But I’d say they’re all pretty good overall. A fine makeshift wrap up to the show in its current iteration.