#everything about this scene is perfect and what I love about rvb | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

adinosaurnamedmittens · 4 years

Text

Alright so I can’t stop thinking of RVB Zero and how much potential it has so I wanna rework it a bit to work better.

So first I’m gonna talk about the new characters and what I’d change before breaking down the individual episodes for critique and suggested rewrites. At this point, I’ve only seen up to episode 4, Encounter. So spoilers till that ep.

West - Honestly great! He doesn’t have a ton of character, but what he has is solid. He works very well as the gruff, no-nonsense leader who’s a tiny bit of a dad.

Raymond - Also great! He’s the most classic RVB character, as he’s an underdog who’s not the best at fighting, but has a lot of heart. My fav new character, right next to Tiny.

One - I want to change her to 2nd in command and drop the whole “can’t work within a team” thing. Keep the confidence and slight rudeness, but drop all the lines referencing anti-teamwork. It hasn’t factored into the story so far, One has been successfully working as part of the team for all the episodes. This would make her dynamic with Axel more interesting, being in a higher position of power. Especially considering how her healthy relationship with her dad contrasts with East and West’s relationship. This would reinforce the tension with East, since One now has an actual position of power over her. Also, she should have the exact same powers as Zero, but maybe less powerful. This would help foreshadow that reveal, and help us understand how the enhancements work. While One is a bit of a shit, and thinks she knows best, she’s willing to take the fall when her ideas fail or get them in trouble.

Axel - Imma be honest: totally forgot he was One’s adopted dad until I rewatched the episodes prepping for this. You could drop it totally, as it gets a bit redundant with West and East’s relationship, but I think there’s more fun in working with it. Also, if One’s 2nd in command and Axel isn’t insecure about it at all? Instantly makes him a more likable guy. I also think he parallels to Wash very well (bit of a kid at heart, weapons guy, team dad, emotional heart) so we’re gonna expand on that too.

East - Her and One’s relationship is the driving force of conflict within the strike team. With the changes made to One, East can stay pretty much unchanged. Before they were too similar. Now, with One being abrasive but willing to work together, and East being more reserved and distant, they’re great foils for each other. Also she parallels early Carolina, which I love (speed is her ability, prefers working alone, competitive as hell, dad runs team)

Villains: On characterization, they’re all good! Villains are allowed to be a bit more shallow, and they all seem to have understandable motives for what they’re doing: Zero wants revenge and power, Phase wants revenge especially against West, and Diesel just seems like he’s having fun. I do want to change Zero’s power tho, with Phase already having a teleport with a cool gimmick, and Diesel having a strength/tank ability, Zero should have a unique ability. Maybe gravity because of the sword? It would allow him some cool movement tricks while still being visually distinct from Diesel and Phase’s abilities. Or something inspired by his “ghost” line from Duo.

EP 1: Viper

The Good: The introduction to the villains and their abilities was amazing. I love Phase’s knife and it’s honestly one of the coolest things I’ve seen in the show. And the intro to the Strike team? Hilarious. Great character work. You can tell that One and Axel are close, that Raymond is hesitant and new, East and One have a very competitive relationship, and West is the tough love dad.

The Bad: Don’t violate the 180 camera rule. The intro fight scene was cool, but the camera moved way too much and made it hard to keep track of everything happening. And with the new, shiny art style we need a bit more time to absorb what’s happening since the detail level went up. Also y’all healed Wash’s brain damage with a throwaway line, and then immediately fridged him? Not cool. I mean, if you wanted to show how tough the villains are, you already had them beat up Carolina.

Story Changes: - Zero gets name dropped this ep so we get a scene next ep where Axel recognizes his name. - Either replace Wash with a high ranking soldier and completely scrub him from the episode, or give a different reason why he can’t help, maybe exactly Carolina’s reason of “you’re recovering”. I’m not committing to totally removing Wash bc in Recovery Carolina’s line of “That I-that we thought was a medium risk asset” hints that Wash knew exactly what they were carrying and I’m excited to see where they take that. - Mainly I want scenes of Wash talking to Axel and expanding on his characterization as they are both Nice Boys Who Have Been Through It. - I also think a scene after we meet Strike where Axel asks Raymond “You like riding with East?” and Ray goes “You two stuck me with her on purpose!” and One goes “Yup!” all cheerfully. Just reinforce those team dynamics and friendships before it goes to shit!

EP 2: Recovery

The Good: The garage scene was perfect. Tiny is amazing, love her so much! And Axel got such great characterization during this ep. What a dork. West and Raymond also work super well together, their interactions are great.

The Bad:You know it’s a problem when the villains have a better dynamic than the heroes. The scene where Carolina explains all the strike member’s abilities and personalities? Bad. Also a little OOC for her. And redundant, since we also get Raymond asking West about East, and Axel’s explanation of the girls to Carolina.

Story Changes: - Have Axel, the emotional heart, waiting outside the recovery room for Carolina. Honestly, this isn’t that big, but I think it’d suit his character. - Carolina’s exposition is changed to solely history and abilities, no commenting on their personalities. Maybe East gets a little “has shown difficulty in working with others” but that’s it. The physical acting for these scenes really shines through, so let it stand alone. Even watching without sound, you can pick up that West is a no-nonsense leader, that Axel isn’t a flashy fighter but gets the job done, that East is fairly young and doesn’t take fighting seriously, and that One is willing to leave others behind if she thinks she can do it better. - For Carolina’s convo with One this ep about her “not willing to work on a team” either swap One with East or change it to “you need to listen to your team more. Don’t assume that you immediately now what’s best” - At the end of training, when Axel says “the guards were priority #1″ One should say “I knew you could handle it.” and Axel could respond with “Well, it’d be nice if you let me know that.” to show that One can work well as 2nd in command, but needs to communicate and stop assuming things. -Also should change Axel’s warning line about her enhancements to “Don’t push yourself. Remember what happened last time?” to enforce that this is a habit, and that while he cares about her, he’s not trying to boss her around as much. -Don’t reveal that East is West’s daughter until Raymond and West talk. That way, there’s a bit more emotional weight, and Ray’s line of “I was digging through the team files” makes more sense if Carolina doesn’t drop that info in the previous scene. - When Axel talks about the experiments East went through, he should mention that he was there for some of them. Dropping more foreshadowing for the Axel/Zero reveal! - Carolina drops Zero’s name in their convo, and we get a shot of Axel’s hand tightening on his weapon, showing the audience that the name means something to him, but we don’t know why.

EP 3: Duo

The Good: First 3rd of the ep? Really good. I love One being rude to Carolina, and then gaining a grudging respect. West and Raymond are, again, the best dynamic. How? I honestly have no idea. The car looks so stupid in the funniest way, I hate it but I love it. Also god yes Axel and Zero’s relationship is so wholesome and could be the best thing in this season. One’s warning call to the facility? The funniest shit. And Zero’s dialogue is hella cliched, but it works bc he’s obv such a dramatic bitch.

The Bad: HOLY HELL THE DIALOGUE. First, One and East’s fight? garbage. Very forced. Super hard to believe these two are real people. Carolina and West literally repeat the exact same line, less than 5 seconds apart. The dishwasher joke West makes does NOT at all work, it’s too tonally dissonant.

Story Changes: - Obv. need to change One and East’s convo. End it with “Without your power, you wouldn’t even be on this team!” East should storm off or almost attack One, requiring Axel to diffuse. - It’d also be really nice to get a line where One acknowledges that she went too far with that, but puts off apologizing to East. It’d be a nod that she’s good at reflecting and assessing, but too proud to actually take her words back. - I’d like to make Raymond more panicked when they find Wash. It’d help sell that he’s in bad shape and add more weight to “He’s got a heartbeat!” - Maybe re-work Phase and Zero’s conversation a bit. The dialogue is definitely not this season’s strong suit. - Pull Carolina’s “I’m just trying to help, East.” since it’s more impactful for East to storm off immediately and West says the line a couple seconds later. And change East’s dialogue to “You may be my CO, but don’t try to be my dad. Not after what you’ve done.” Or something similar. - For the dishwasher gag in the meeting, either pull it or double down. It’d work so much better if someone asks “Are you serious about this? Aren’t there more important things to discuss?” and West just deadpans. “This is of the upmost importance. If we can’t keep this base clean, how can we be expected to do anything else?!” and then Carolina clears her throat super loud and West goes “...Right. Rookie? Take it from here.” - Rework the “Carolina stay behind” dialogue. Even just a “Carolina. You’re still recovering. If you get hurt again, it’ll just be longer till you can take these bastards down. Keep an eye on Wash, will you?” I just couldn’t get behind the wording of “we need you here. With wash” It sounds like every cliched “woman must stay behind while the manly men save everyone!” Might be personal preference but just ew. - Add a scene where One notices Axel being a bit off (bc he’s worried about Zero being a part of the bad guy team) and she asks if he’s okay. He brushes her off, says its nothing. She goes “alright, i trust you.” - Maybe make the flashback a bit more apparent? There was a moment in the middle where I questioned whether or not it was a flashback. Again, could be a me problem.

EP 4: Encounter

The Good: The fight scenes continue to be absolute standouts. The varied environments, the movement, the dynamics on point. Wish we could’ve saw a bit more from Axel, but as is the scene worked well. The framing of the ep was good too, cutting between the mission and the fallout. And Ray, resident coward, immediately squaring up without a thought after West got injured? *chef’s kiss*. THAT is good character development. THAT is an amazing way to establish their relationship without telling us outright. Go feral, my boy! And Tiny and Raymond’s convo was so cute. I love how, despite what he says, Ray is there for his team and always willing to help. Carolina and One’s convo was also pretty decent. It got a bit long and over-explainy on Carolina’s end, but there were some pretty good moments.

The Bad: The fight after the mission failure was SO over-acted. Too much motion, to many camera angles. It changed what should have been tense arguments to hilarious melodrama. This has been a consistent problem, but it REALLY affects this scene in particular. And the second Axel enters the scene it just immediately goes downhill.

Story Changes: - Add a line from West in the beginning scene like “I’ll cut them off!” to explain why he isn’t in the car too. This also means it’s not as out-of-nowhere when West shows up to trash the car. - One should call out Axel instead of East. If she’s his daughter, she should be able to tell when he’s acting off. And she would have an easier time connecting the dots between Axel and Zero. - Instead of “I trusted you.” One should say “You lied to me.” 1) He’s her dad. One lie isn’t gonna break her total trust. 2) This would imply it’s the first time he’s lied to her, adding more weight to the whole situation 3) It’s way more accusatory and less cliched (if only a bit) - Add in a “One, wait!” bc I am a sucker for it and we could hear the guilt in his voice, rather than the weird scene where the girls make him spin around by bumping into him. - It’d also be nice if Ray stayed back for a bit before leaving, so we got a bit of his feelings on the matter. I mean, obviously he cares a lot about West, but does he blame Axel for not being there to help? It’d be nice to know!

TL;DR The best parts of the episodes are the fight scenes, and when they focus on the fun team dynamics. The worst parts are dialogue (mostly the serious bits) and over-animating, as this takes away from the drama.

I don’t mind the cheesy villains, but that may not be the case for everyone.

The best part of RVB has always been the rag-tag found family dynamics. While the fight scenes are cool, they have always been supplemental to the real meat of the show. The writers are trying something new with the whole “actual family” but you have got to focus on and develop these relationships if you want fans to care.

Mostly, I see a lot of potential in these characters, but there are GLARING issues in this season that are holding them back.

#rvb #rvb zero #rvb zero spoilers #rant #long post #criticism #might add on to this when new eps release bc i am invested #though not entirely for the right reasons #i just see the POTENTIAL #and i physically cannot hold myself back

32 notes · View notes

calliecat93 · 4 years

Text

Top 5 Things I Liked About Red vs Blue: Season 2

(Top 5 Dislikes)

One post down, one more to go… and then twenty-six more to go for the rest of this series. Why did I decide to do this again? Meh, whatever. Let’s just get on with it as we resume looking over Season 2.

#5. Machinima

Okay, this might sound weird, but hear me out. The machinima last season was… basic. Not bad mind you, there is only so much that you can do without a lot of creativity and resources. Resources that RT didn’t have at this point in time. But mostly, they just went through the default motions. Nothing really stood out. It had some cool stuff, like them somehow managing to blow the Warthog on top of Red Base. I think they even said in the commentary that trying to replicate it for the remaster was a pain in the ass. Still, it just didn’t stand out, though the humor made you not notice.

Clearly, the RT guys wanted to push themselves a little more now that they knew how Halo operated and they could machinimate better. Which they did. I noticed a lot of little things when watching the season. Like having Caboose jumping up and down during the opening gunfight while behind a rock, or even Doc just pretending to fire his blaster. Or having Simmons more or less trembling in the finale when his… ugh… fax parts act up and you can tell what Grif is staring at when he questions it. Or adding in things like Lopez’ note in the finale, and even having it written in binary. Heck, we even have smoke come out of Grif’s helmet when Simmons catches him in the act.

These are small things, but it helps make the world and characters feel a little more alive. Clearly, machinima has its limitations, and we’re a long way away from them adding in animation. But creative people will find a way to work within their limitations, and even use those limitations to their advantage. Considering how long this show has been going, I’d say that they succeeded.

#4. Caboose’s Mind

One of the most memorable parts, and one with some actual effects on the characters, is when Church and Tex go into Caboose’s mind to kill O’Malley. It’s one of the weirdest, yet funniest parts of the season. We get to see how Caboose views everyone, with Tucker being stupid and Church being obsessed with being Caboose’s best friend. He gets them wrong, but it makes sense because it’s how /Caboose/ interprets these individuals. They aren’t supposed to be accurate. It’s especially funny when we see the Reds and only Simmons is close to right Grif is Yellow (which they outright did to prove that he was Orange to viewers), Donut is a girl since that’s what Caboose thought at the time, and Sarge has a pirate accent instead of a Southern one.

It’s just funny to see Caboose, who at this point had been portrayed as the most dim-witted, and how he views these people. It kinda reflects what he wants with Church being his best friend and the Reds fearing him and his greatness. His ideal version of himself is pretty much a cool version of himself, though otherwise not too different. Church’s reaction and frustration at all fo this, especially Caboose!Church, only makes it funnier as is Tex being unfazed by all of it. It did kinda throw me off when I watched it the first time, but God it’s funnier on rewatch now that I know what’s going on. It’s a nice look into Caboose’s mind, and we got to see glimpses of the others int he S14 episode Head Cannon.

I think the biggest things though were for one, we got a location that wasn’t Blood Gulch finally. Sure it’s pretty much a standard video game map with a bunch of cubes, but after having the only setting be a canyon, it was refreshing. We also have some major impact with this since due to all the chaos, Caboose’s character becomes what it is now. We can debate all day how we should view Caboose and his intellectual level, but I do think that this helped endear the character to people and allowed him to stand out much, much more. Even now I know very few people, if anyone, who dislikes Caboose so while maybe they should acknowledge that he was more or less brain-damaged, the character himself has become better due to this. Which is nice~

#3. O’Malley Subplot

Speaking of Caboose’s mind, the O’Malley plot was by far the standout in this season. At first, it wasn’t too much since only Tucker cared about Caboose’s sudden murderous behavior. But once Tex came back, things picked up. While the backstory wasn’t totally accurate, it would certainly lead to more ahead. The fight in Caboose’s mind was fun. Tucker got to show some genuine competence when he came up with the plan to make the Reds turn their comms off and even using Lopez as a backup plan. With how much more competent Tucker grows later once circumstances pretty much force him to, this was an early sign showing that he is capable. He just needs to be pushed into doing it.

O’Malley himself didn’t stand out too much, just being kinda murderous. Then he escaped into Doc. I’ll go more into this next season, but this was the best decision ever. Doc is a whiny goody-two-shoes while O’Malley is gleefully, over-the-top evil. The contrast of the two personalities works super well and is just really funny to watch, though again it applies more for the next season. By the end, O’Malley makes his move and firmly sets himself up as the first proper Big Bad of the series, and he’s the perfect villain for the Blood Gulch Chronicles.

Overall, the whole subplot was really fun even though it did kind of have a slow start. It brought back Tex, had some really funny moments like the Reds' reactions to Lopez’s horrible love song. At least Donut liked it, haha~ It gave us our first proper villain, which led to one Hell of an insane finale. Even everything in between with Donut getting captured by the Blues and them trying to use this to make Sarge build them new bodies was fun to watch. The first half of S2 s super fun, but the second half is, without doubt, the best part for me. O’Malley was the catalyst, and to this day is one of my favorite villains. Love it~

#2. Improved Production Standards

Season 1 was good but flawed. It was clear that the RT guys weren’t really sure what they were doing. Audio quality was meh, jokes could drag, and the pacing was rather slow. It makes sense though when you read about what the original plans were. RvB was meant to be a miniseries, and nothing more. But pretty much a combination of them not getting to what they planned as soon as they thought (Donut was supposed to be in pink armor much sooner for example, and they realized how long it was taking to get there) as well as just coming up with more ideas extended things to a nineteen episode run. So there was no long term plan and things like writing and machinima were done in mere days in between releases. Plus there were only two main machinimators, Burnie and Geoff, and if you listen to the original S1 commentary they are both clearly exhausted. Burnie even said on a one-on-one podcast with Geoff on how they had pretty much had every conversation ever and they’d be like some old married couple just staring at each other. You can find it here if you’re interested, it’s a fun one~

So yeah… when you look back you can kinda tell that S1 was a bit of a rush job, and a tiring one at that. It’s still very good and like I said, they found ways to use so much you barely notice things were made up on the fly. But clearly, they needed a better system. Enter Matt Hullum. He had already been voicing Sarge, but he ended up stepping in to play a larger behind the scenes role. He joined Burnie on writing and directing, and thus they started planning things much farther ahead. As such, they knew the general plot and thus things could be tightened. The pacing is much better with episodes feeling faster, but having plenty of things happening. I already talked about the machinima improvements, which having Matt as well as Gus coming back from Puerto Rico also helped there. The voice acting, while still amateur, improved as well as the audio mixing. The filter is still a little distracting, but it and the general audio mixing is greatly improved. Pretty much every aspect of S1 was improved big time. It wasn’t perfect, but still, they clearly put a lot in creating a more quality product.

Season 2 had a hard job. Season One had to prove that this was a show worth watching. Season 2 had to prove that it could keep going and wasn’t just a one-hit-wonder. And ho boy did they. It’s funnier, it’s more ambitious, and even starts adding in some story. This season got the viewers from last time to come back, and probably brought in some new ones. It proved that this was a show that was sticking around and that RT had staying power. If this season failed, RvB would probably just be remembered as this funny Halo show. But it succeeded because they wanted the show to keep succeeding and be good, and that effort shows.

#1. Improved Characterizations

The thing that I enjoyed most about Season 1 was the character interactions. They just had natural chemistry and their interactions were funny. The characters themselves though were a little one-note. They had personality, but they didn’t really stand out when you compare them to other comedies like The Simpsons or South Park. I guess that RT realized this as well because this is where the characters really begin to become the same ones that we know now. Not all of them mind you like Simmons and Tucker are the least fleshed out here, but even then the signs of who they would become are there with things like Simmons clinginess to Sarge and the joke about Tucker’s rock, as well as the previously mentioned show of competence when pushed.

Donut and Grif show more of their personality, with Donut expressing his hobbies like home decor and growing to like his lightish-red armor. Grif shows his more lazy slacker attributes, like sleeping during meetings and forgetting the ammo, and his unhealthy habits like smoking and his constant eating. Which he’s pretty much doing intentionally to annoy Simmons and mess up the parts that he got from him. Lopez also got a lot of personalities now that he can talk. Namely, after the Reds nearly kill him and the Blues use him for their own means, he hates them all and his apathetic personality has stuck ever since. Poor guy has had such a hard time, haha. And I already went into Caboose, so there's no need to repeat myself. Even Shelia got sassier this season~

The one I think got the most improvement though is Sarge. In S1, he was just kind of a standard sergeant character you could find in just about any military movie, and the voice reflected it. Here? Matt just goes off the wall. He said in the S2 commentary that Sarge is pretty much the combination of various 50’s character tropes, like the grumpy old guy and the mad scientist. It shows. Sarge’s hatred of Blues and love of warfare are much more evident, especially in the finale. His hatred of Grif is also much more played up. We see that he is absolutely insane with his conspiracy theories about Lopez being brainwashed by the Blues instead of reprogrammed and turning Simmons into a cyborg instead of just getting a new robot. Sarge is the opposite of sensible, and having this guy be the leader and forcing everyone to follow his plans due to it is freakin’ hilarious. Matt exaggerating the accent from this point on only adds to this characterization and is much, much more fitting.

The characters, in my opinion, are the best part of Red vs Blue. This season demonstrates that very well. Unlike S1 where there were only shades of their later portrayal, this one uses broad strokes. I think some of the better voice acting can also be due to this since the cast now has more of a character to fool around with instead of just having to more or less act like their everyday selves. The characters were stronger, and as such the interaction and humor were even better. As such, it is my favorite part of Red vs Blue Season 2. Can they keep it up in Season 3? Well… we’ll find out soon~

#rvb #rvb reviews #top likes/dislikes

6 notes · View notes

edanablack · 5 years

Text

RVB AU - Felix After Chorus

Hey hey, just posting some more Felix AU. This time, it’s After Chorus, though only up to the end of the 15th season (i think?). Mostly because I’m not that creative, and also because Locus didn’t do many things in the new season, other than have a few fantastic lines. No hate to Locus, he’s awesome. There’s a lot more brackets in this one. I wasn’t trying to be as careful as I was with the Arc or with the seriousness of the moment. Let’s get going.

1: Finding Lopez flying through space, Felix goes to see if the Reds and the Blues are in danger, and subsequently, are going to die. He's hoping it's true. (Felix can’t speak perfect Spanish, *though he certainly understands it,* and doesn’t pretend to. He swears at Lopez mostly.) A: Finding Grif there, Felix plays along to the dementia, shooting the volleyball Sarge, before complaining that it's just not the same. B: He explains to Grif how he found him (Lopez in space), and that his friends are in danger. Grif plans to walk there. C: Felix, conflicted by his want to let the Reds and the Blues die, and his need to finish up his mission, reluctantly agrees to take Grif there, though he doesn't plan to help.

2: Grif and Felix go on a road trip to the Desert Planet, and although Felix tries to go along with Grif's weirdness at first, it quickly becomes frustrating to him. (He handles it with much less grace than Locus. It almost ends in death.) A: Grif asks why Felix even showed up, and Felix responds that he was doing it for a friend. (Wonder who?)

3: Felix and Grif sneak into the base, Felix unable to resist the idea of seeing them die or helping them win. Felix meets up with currently trapped Washington and Carolina. A: Amused by the situation, Felix celebrates a little. Washington and Carolina react as expected. (Badly.) B: Once Felix releases the two of them, he gloats some more, as he prepares to go into battle. Carolina irritates him by mentioning that they've already defeated him once, and could probably do it now. He doesn't respond. (CAUSE HE’S PEEESSED!) C: When they ask Felix what he was doing before, he explains about the power generator that the Blues and the Reds stole from a refugee colony. He tells them that everybody died, and that he decided to see what kind of people could do something like that. Rather expectedly, it was people just like the Reds and the Blues. D: Felix is about to leave, but Carolina says that they're coming as well. Felix laughs her off, and tells the two of them to sit tight. Carolina again states that they're fine, and Felix tells her that he can either wait here with them while her friends get killed, or that he can shoot them now and tell her friends that the two of them died. They end up coming along anyway.

4: Felix meets up with Sarge, Dylan, and Jax, none of whom are happy to see him. (Though Felix does attempt to charm both Dylan and Jax at first. Dylan wants none of this. Who knows about Jax?) A: Sarge, attempting to seem like the better person, says he has personally forgiven Felix for everything he did wrong. Felix figures out that Sarge has recently betrayed the team, and he congratulates him, expressing some jealousy for how easily he took his own team down. B: Felix wins the rock paper scissors match and gets to be leader, and is excited for a moment, before becoming angry at himself. (that’s your only real victory, bro.)

5: They enter the cell room, and release the bois that are trapped in there. A: Tucker complains about Felix being there, but Caboose tries to hug him - as he does. Felix avoids the hug at first, but is taunting Tucker at the same time, saying that if it wasn’t for him, he’d still in prison. While mid-taunt, Caboose manages to hug him, which shuts Felix up, as he is now too irritated to talk. B: Tucker is still upset about Sarge, and wants to leave him behind. Felix encourages them to take Sarge along as a meatshield, and they all agree. (Including Sarge, who is still going away with it all.)

6: After getting Carolina and Washington back on their feet, Felix encourages leaving them behind, saying that they aren't their usual helpful selves, and will just be a liability. No one else agrees.

7: They make it to the outside of the base, where the Zealots are patrolling. A: Felix is nervous, and wants to bow out on this mission, saying he could probably find a way out of here on his own. Carolina, upset by this, says that nobody on their side is getting left behind. And if he wants to win, he needs to stick with them. Several members of the team find this funny, which only riles Felix up more. He suggests that someone else comes up with a plan, to which Tucker responds with charging in. B: Tucker's actions frustrate everyone, and they have to reposition themselves. Felix shields Tucker, although it’s immediately unnerving, and they start to argue. Tucker yells at him to take care of the machine gun, but Felix can't move without putting most of the team at risk.

8: Washington walks out into the line of fire, and gets shot. The team manage to fight off the rest of the Zealots. A: Felix orders for Washington to be put on his ship, so he can get him to the Chorus hospital, but refuses to take Tucker along, saying that there isn’t any way he can help Wash right now. He can help the rest of his team. B: Felix promises to get there safely, reminding the Reds and the Blues that they have to win, before leaving in his ship. He also avoids meeting Grey, but actually manages to sneak Washington into the hospital lobby, just because.

Okay, that’s probably it for now. I’ve been thinking about some of the scenes from the newer seasons, but I love Locus too much in them to think about Felix. Although, I can tell you this, I don’t think Felix would fight Wash too much if he wanted to get shot. *just saying* Thanks for reading!

#rvb #rvb au #rvb felix #rvb isaac gates #rvb chorus

6 notes · View notes

larksinging · 5 years

Note

also to be self indulgent, what are some of ur fav moments in rvb so far?

OKAY LETS SEE

to start off my favorite seasons are probably... 8, 10, 13, and 15. thats not surprising but like. i dunno 8 is just nice because it wraps up some of the tech stuff and i love meta as a villain, 10 is just.... i love the freelancers and the closure on that is so good, 13 is just SO cool and such a perfect and bombastic but nuanced end to the chorus trilogy, and then i love 15′s thematics and character arcs

lemme think of a few actual moments uhhh

i always really loved church and tex’s... tragic story, so the parallel scenes between tex and trapped alpha in the flashback and then epsilon and tex (is that epsilon tex? or the remains of beta church?) paralleled to that in season 10 is. so good. fuck that one tex fight too. how can i say no to the first iconic monty fight

oh god how could i forget “i forget you” (haha yeah). i also have a lot of feelings about “it’s your job to remember me” and in general how much caboose loves church. oh and lets not forget both alpha and epsilon’s deaths. epsilon’s takes the cake because how can you top that monologue, but alpha’s denial is still good

carolina and york’s breakup....... and then carolina seeing york’s last messages (and his clear heartbreak when he realizes the rogue agent is tex!). also carolina and epsilon’s discussion at the end of 10! season 10 was the first season i watched a while back and even then i loved carolina’s “we might find better is good enough” speech. also basically everything in her season 10 arc but

okay enough fucking freelancers its chorus time. felix’s heel turn, even knowing it’s coming, is SO GOOD and shocking that im still shook to this day. and then in return locus turning on HIM and the “no more killing” is just! so good. oh also the... whats the nickname for that fight... felix & locus vs wash and carolina fight is gorgeous.

i also really adore tucker’s arc in the chorus trilogy. i liked tucker before but that really got me to love him

the absolute shock in 14 when the club reveals its about locus and felix is amazing too.

i could talk a lot about 15 and how i love all the little things that go into the narrative cohension but my favorite moment, HANDS DOWN, is caboose saying goodbye to church. nothing else tops that

THATS A START OKAY BYE

#thanks jay!!!#im weak for this space melodrama #transrobro

2 notes · View notes

callie-the-snarky-geek-blog · 6 years

Text

RvB16 Episode 1 Review: The Shisno

(Old Blog Repost)

Season 15, to put it lightly, has had mixed reception. Some liked it, some didn’t. Some like parts of it, others like different parts. Regardless of where you stand, I think we can all agree that it wasn’t a perfect season. Personally I enjoyed it, but I was also a newcomer to RvB so… you know, I’m biased. Regardless, Joe did well enough to be given the reigns once again and it looks like he has some MASSIVE plans.

So finally, here we are with the sixteenth season. With only one episode, it’s still too early to determine if this season will be an improvement or a disappointment. But the first episode is supposed to draw us in. Did it succeed in doing so? Lets find out.

Overview

The introduction is… weird. We saw the medieval scene on Twitter.. well the first few seconds anyways. It being a medieval version of the famous ‘ever wonder hwy we’re here’ scene can’t be for no reason. I guess it MAY be a hint at the time travel aspect coming up, but for now it’s just baffling. What is even mroe baffling is the vortex and the voice following it. We now know that the voice belongs to a being named Muggins as he speaks of things being provoked by humble actions and briefly going over the end of S15. Some kind of prophecy has been triggered due to the time drill thing and even with it gone, it still fulfilled it’s purpose. Which leads us to…

Fighting over food! So first, Joe wasn’t kidding about this whole thing beginning as a quest for pizza. I need to rewatch that tease later to see what other hints are in it. But regardless, with the Blues and Reds defeated and Dylan offering to talk to the cops since they’re still wanted (and I imagine this leads to her and Jax’s final scene in S15), our guys have earned some R&R. It was honestly a nice welcome back to see them just bickering over something as ridiculous as where to go out to eat. It fits them so well and feels like a very nice welcome back after all the insanity last season. Things are slowly tingeing back to normal… at first.

Simmons notices that Donut is missing, so Grif sends Caboose to go find him. Honestly the fact that SOMEONE realized that Donut wasn’t there is a sign of improvement since it’s always kind of been a running joke that no one. Sure, sending Caboose probably wasn’t THE best idea, but it’s a sign of improvement! Then we get the… body horror scene… dear God that looked painful. It was still funny due to how oblivious to it Caboose was, but still… MAN. It wouldn’t have been as bad if it weren’t for Donut’s screams of pain. Man, Dan Godwin nailed it… and I imagine that had to HURT so kudos! So yeah… Donut vanishes to I assume the same place the time drill went since they use the same sound effect. I guess Donut will then ascent not Godhood since he is beyond the plain of space and time now. We’ll see~

So Cabosoe comes back empty handed and at first everyone considers going to find him… except Grif. He wants to get the Hell off the island before the cops get there. We’ll talk more about this in a little while but man do I have thoughts! So the Reds and Blues all agree on pizza with Sister tagging along. Carolina and the lieutenants meanwhile head for Chorus, Carolina to go check on Wash and the lieutenants to get back to what Jensen calls ‘interesting things’. So I assume that we’ll get some kind of B Story involving Chorus hijinks. Maybe if we’re lucky, a certain green mercenary will show up… I can dream!

This is where things get interesting as we then see two tiny balls of light. Muggins, who we already heard, and a female-voice done named Huggins. He is apparently a rookie as Muggins sends her to keep watch over the Reds and Blues and to both not lose them and to not be spotted. He meanwhile shoots across space and we get a REALLY cool intro sequence showing all the cast and the main crew members… though they forgot Geoff’s name for some reason (the Youtube version has it, so I assume it’s an error). Oops. They also don’t have Becca listed, though Sister isn’t technically a main character so I guess that’s why. Maybe in the future. But it’s really cool and the alien-esque soundtracks sounds so perfect.

Muggins arrives at what we can assume is the villains lair. IDK if this is an original set piece designed by RT Animation or if it’s an actual Halo map. Either way, it looks awesome. Dark, with a lot of red and black, but epic in scale. A proper villain lair. We get a glimpse of a green-armored soldier with a British accent golfing… weird. Anyways, Muggins reports to their leader who we only see partially. They have black armor and while they only say one word, it’s a… pretty damn intimidating voice. Muggins informs the leader that the ‘pizza quest’ has begun and therefore triggered the last part of the prophecy, ending the episode.

Review

While the episode is only nine minutes long, BOY HOWDY did it leave PLENTY to talk about. I guess we’ll start with Donut though. I have no idea what the Fuck just happened. It’s clear that the blast from the drill caused… whatever the Hell happened and we can assume form the earlier narration, that this was meant to happen. So this is definitely going to be important. Going off the promo material, where Donut’s in a kind of meditative pose, it seems like he’s going to become a God-like figure. My guess is that he now exists outside the realm of space and time, which is where I believe the drill now is. What will this do to Donut? I have no idea, but this is definitely going it be a lingering plot thread. And hey, Donut deserves the focus.

Something I also liked is how the Reds and Blues DID notice that he was missing. Look, they do not have a good track record of remembering either Donut or Doc. So the fact that Simmons relied it is a massive improvement. And I do like how after Caboose said that he was gone, Sarge and Tucker DID want to loo for him and not leave him behind. Grif convinces them not to, but still it is a HUGE sign of improvement compared to normal. And while they DID ultimately leave, I think it’s good that they at least recognized that Donut was gone and considered looking for him. It’s a good sign that they are growing.

Next lets talk about Carolina and Wash. So it looks like, at least for now, they won’t be in on the main plot. I assume that they’ll be given a B Plot revolving around Chorus, considering Jensen’s line about the going-ons there, but it’s too soon to tell. But yeah Carolina and Wash will likely be on the sidelines at least for now. Honestly… I an good with this! I love them both, don’t get me wrong. But lets face it, both have had a LOT of focus and attention ever since their respective introductions. Freelancer has been running the series for a long time now, and for good reason. But I really want to see the Reds and Blues on their own for once. S15 showed that, when they get their act together, they can operate and be formidable on their own with minimal Freelancer help. I want to see them have to deal with a massive situation without just having Wash or Carolina deal with it for them. I did like that Tucker plans to get Wash his own pizza though, just showing how much he cares for his teammate. You’ve grown up Tucker!

The biggest thing I want to talk about before we get to the villains though is Grif. Because his lines here are… interesting. It is clear that he wants to avoid any adventure, insanity, and dramatics as much as possible. When Jensen starts talking about Chorus, he says he wants to avoid the subject before trying to take it back. Then there’s the entire pizza quest thing. He doesn’t want to call it a quest. He doesn’t want to look for Donut because it would mean staying around and having to talk to cops. He calls out the others on how everything always has to be treated like a major production. He outright tells Sister that they’re not getting into anything crazy when she is clearly enthused about the idea. Now this could just be because he’s ‘hangry’ and also doesn’t want to chance getting arrested, but… IDK. To me, adding in the ‘new science’ line, it all paints a very clear picture: Grif wants things to go back to normal, just like he did last season… and it makes sense.

Some may say ‘wait, shouldn’t he be over this after last season?’. No. No he should not. Last season had Grif regret quitting because he didn’t like being alone and in the end, he DOES care about the others. And yes, he did willingly get into the thick of things when he joined back up. But here’s the thing, he did so because the others were in trouble and they needed him. But now that trouble is over. Now there is a chance for him to FINALLY go back to a level of normalcy with the others again. It’s why he’s trying so hard to avoid talking about serious matters or refusing Sister and Caboose’s replies about ‘adventures’ and ‘quests’. He never got over wanting to be done with that. We never had any kind of scene where he comes to terms with the insanity that is his life, only of him having regret abandoning the others. So it makes sense that this is still a thing with him like it was last year. The only difference is this time, instead of quitting, it seems like he’s going to try to actively attempt to keep them out of any insanity. Will this go anywhere? We’ll have to see. But since the promo art just has him facepalming, I think this may be his character arc for the season. And since Grif is my favorite character and I loved his development last season, I am all for it!

That leads us to our ‘villains’. And I say that lightly because while they ARE clearly the antagonists, I… can’t really tell if they’ve evil. Going off Mugigns’ narration and report to the leader, it sounds like they are trying to prevent some kind of horrible catastrophe that the Reds and Blues unknowingly started. As for WHAT they are… well they aren’t human, at least not fully. It’s way too soon and we still know way too little. But I am going to assume that they are aliens and some kind of high cosmic order. One that makes the head of it essentially a God. Heck the names Huggins and Muggins seem to be based off Huginn and Muginn, ravens who act as the eyes and ears to Odin in Norse mythology. Going off that… yeah, we’re going full Thor here apparently.

The leader we can assume is the equivalent of Odin, the king God in Norse mythology. IDK if we’ll get a Thor and Loki equivalent…. unless the green guy is meant to be one or the other. But yeah, this means that this guy is scary news. It’s too soon to say who he may be, though I saw one person speculate that it may be Donut. And with the time travel stuff, it IS possible. But again, too soon to say. Though if not I guess that Donut becoming a God will be the key to beating this guy. Either way, the goal is unclear other than that a prophecy has been provoked. Whether they’re going to try to stop it form coming to pass, or make sure it comes to pass is unclear. We also don’t know what the prophecy is other than that the time drill’s activation was the first sign and the pizza quest was the point of no return.

So here is my current theory. As I said, I don’t think that the ‘villains’ are actual villains. Or at least they aren’t evil psychos like Felix or a well-intentioned extremist gone mad like Temple. I think that this ‘prophecy’ is going to make them see the Reds and Blues as the villains. So they are going to attempt to wipe them out in order to prevent the prophecy from being fulfilled. It makes them the antagonists by default. How that will cause time travel to factor in unless an attempt to kill them goes horribly wrong IDK. Still, that’s my current stance. Will it get cleared up? Probably and it’ll lead to the true villain showing up. Bu it’s still WAAAAY too soon to say, but going off Muggins’ worry it doesn’t feel like he and Huggins at least aren’t antagonistic. But we’ll see as things unfold.

All of this of course leaves a LOT of questions. What is the prophecy exactly? What is the catastrophe? How does time travel equate into it? How does the medieval scene fit into it? Is this based on any of the alien stuff we’ve had in the past? Is it something completely different? How does Donut’s current situation equate into this? What kind of aliens/interdimensional beings are these guys? Who is the golfing guy? Who is that four armed guy that we saw in the trailer? Is he with these guys? Or is he a different antagonist? Is he an antagonist at all? How do the Reds and Blues end up caught up in it? Are we going to learn the definition of shisno? There’s a lot of questions man! And that’s okay, it’s the first episode, we’re supposed to be asking questions. Gotta give Joe this, he left us with plenty to think about.

So the way that things currently stand is the Reds and Blues are going for pizza (and I assume that the ship crashes since we see them in a forest area in the trailer), Carolina is heading for Chorus, and the villains are beginning their own plans. What’s going to happen next? I honestly have no clue. I assume that we’ll be following the Reds and Blues still next episode and maybe they’ll discover Huggins, but I honestly don’t know. Way to keep us hanging Joe.

Final Thoughts

This is how you do a premiere! The episode leaves a LOT of questions, but plenty of laughs in classic RvB fashion as well. It uses it’s time effectively and while it was only nine minutes long, it sure didn’t feel that short. The scenes all serve as a nice welcome back, opens up new possibilities, and sets up things for our heroes nicely. Sure the medieval scene is kind of out of place, but normally in animation a scene like that is there for a reason, so we’ll see later. But the machinima and original animation were solid, the acting was good as always, the humor and banter were on point, and we have plenty of mystery to look forward to down the road. It also sets up potential character development for Donut and Grif, which is very much appreciated. It was very well done and I am absolutely craving for more! Great episode!

#rvb #rvb16 #rvb reviews #old blog repost

3 notes · View notes

anneapocalypse · 7 years

Text

On the Slow Collapse of Season 15′s Narrative

or, Anne’s Big Fat RvB15 Meta Post

Strap in, pals, this is gonna be a long one.

Let’s get the disclaimers out of the way first! These are, as always, my personal and subjective opinions. Some of these opinions are critical. If you are not interested in hearing any criticism of Red vs. Blue, you should probably just stop reading here. If you loved season 15 and feel it was without flaw, I am happy for you and I’m not trying to ruin your day. If you think this is going to upset you, this is your chance to be on your way. That said, I’m always up for friendly discussion and you are welcome to disagree with me as long as you’re civil and come prepared to defend your assertions.

Needless to say, this post contains spoilers for the entire season.

I also need to give the biggest shout-out to @tuckerfuckingdidit--it is impossible to quantify how much meta we’ve shot back and forth during the season, how many concepts I’ve talked through with her and how much those conversations have fed my inspiration and my desire to actually get this beast completed, so my hugest thanks to red for going deep into RvB with me and generally being an awesome pal. <3

Red vs. Blue’s season 15 starts off very strong. In fact, in my opinion the first five episodes are the strongest in the season, and with that setup, I found myself taking a very optimistic view of the season even as the cracks in the writing began to show later on. I still enjoyed watching, and withheld an overall judgment until the season was complete. Now that it is, I’ve had the chance to rewatch it start to finish and think about the progression of this season as a whole, as a complete narrative arc.

What I want to explore here is this: where, why, and how does season 15 go off the rails? Why is the writing so much weaker in the back half, where does the narrative fall apart, and perhaps most importantly to me as a writer, how could some of these problems have been avoided?

Season 15’s narrative has some problems. One thing that’s interesting to me is that they’re different problems than we’ve seen before with this series, particularly in the last two major arcs, the Chorus Trilogy and Project Freelancer. Both of those arcs suffer from pacing issues in their first season that put a tremendous amount of pressure on their ending season to hammer through necessary plot points and tie up loose ends. In Freelancer, this is a problem of putting all the focus on animated fight sequences and putting almost no exposition in season 9, making season 10 a messy and rushed string of poorly-planted payoffs and numerous continuity issues. In the Chorus Trilogy, the plot effectively doesn’t arrive until the end of the first season, which results in a third season that could easily be two, and ends up dropping some compelling plot threads without resolution. I would put forth that the closing season of both arcs is technically the strongest, but mostly because there’s no time left to meander and the plot has no choice but to move.

By contrast, season 15 starts out extremely well-paced, which gave me high hopes for what it would deliver later. What could be considered the first act of season 15, the first five episodes, are very tightly-written, and it’s not until the second act that the cracks start to show. You could easily argue that this is simply because season 15 is a one-season arc; there’s no time for a meandering first act, so the season needs to open strong, and that may well be true. But this doesn’t explain why the narrative begins to weaken in the second act, why certain plot points feel a bit forced, and why the climax itself lacks tension.

Hitting the Ground Running

I love episode 1. I love it. As a cold open to a brand new story arc with brand new characters, it’s fantastic. The dialogue is quick, witty, and engaging. Characters with under two minutes of screentime capture my heart instantly. The theme of “Every action has an equal and opposite reaction” is introduced through an apparently-insignificant piece of dialogue. Our villains are introduced, shrouded in mystery, their disparate weapons subtly highlighted for the audience to begin unpacking immediately. Though we do not yet know whether we’ve seen our Reds and Blues, they are a constant topic of conversation, reassuring viewers that this story is very much centered around our old favorites.

Dylan Andrews’ reporting serves as a vehicle for exposition that doesn’t feel shoehorned; her conversation with Carlos is also informative as well as highly entertaining. Her creative thinking and tenacity for a story make her an instant favorite.

Honestly, it’s a near-flawless premier. Tightly-written, surprising, engaging, with a balance of humor and drama, it sets the tone for a very promising story.

Dylan herself is a strong character. She’s highly motivated--just enough to be flawed, not enough to be unsympathetic. She serves as a very effective audience proxy, hunting down the plot and letting us see it unfold through her eyes, while at the same time getting a solid amount of characterization in her own right. “The Chronicle” shows her professionalism but also her low tolerance for bullshit and occasionally short temper; “Mother of Destruction” establishes her adeptness in combat situations; “Chorus Lessons” shows that her tenacity for a story may turn unscrupulous in a pinch.

The next three episodes follow Dylan as she attempts to track down the Reds and Blues, and the fifth relates their adventures between the end of the Chorus trilogy and the present day. I wrote early on about these episodes being good television, in that each one functions well as a mini-arc in which our POV character has a problem to solve, and solves it via some creative solution, leading into the next episode’s problem, all of which chain together effectively to further the main arc. Everything I said in that post is still true and I stand behind it. Those episodes are tightly-written, well-paced, and compelling. Each small reveal is really Dylan giving voice to what the audience is already figuring out, and that makes the audience feel both engaged and satisfied.

“Previously On” isn’t a perfect episode, but in terms of character writing, it contains some of my favorite in this season, biases fully acknowledged--I love the development Carolina gets as she’s finally allowed to interact directly with the Reds and Blues and show that she’s a part of the family, rather than just saying so. “Reacts,” the episode that follows, stays relatively strong as well, with a serious twist of character development for Grif and solid relationship development for Wash and Tucker.

This is as good a point as any to mention that this season hasn’t been without its share of cringey jokes, and those early episodes are no exception (“bi phase,” the whole Temple of Procreation business, and the Grimmons, oh the Grimmons, we’ll get to you eventually), but as they’ve all been pretty thoroughly discussed and deconstructed during the season, I’m not going to focus heavily on them here. That’s not to say they don’t matter. But for the purposes of this post, I’m primarily concerned with the structural issues of season 15--the things that really can only be examined effectively in big-picture mode.

Those early episode aren’t without hiccups in character writing either--Andersmith’s writing in “Chorus Lessons” is more baffling than anything, and the goofiness of his lines would make much more sense coming from a character like Palomo. But that scene is only a cameo, and as such, it doesn’t ramify very far and it doesn’t distract from the simply flawless execution of Dr. Grey or the pleasure of seeing Kimball in her new role as President.

Plot-wise, the single major flaw in these first five episodes is the introduction of the red herring that comes to a head in episode 7.

The Red Herring

The pattern of tightly self-contained episodes continues through episode 7, “Nightmare on Planet Evil.” It’s tonally a bit different from the rest of the season, but it works well enough.

There’s good character writing here. Caboose’s faith in Church’s eventual return, Simmons’ fixating on Grif while trying not to, Tucker’s protectiveness of his friends, Sarge’s paranoia.

Then we get… this guy.

Things that were completely unnecessary in Season 15:

Spencer Porkinsenson

This character was introduced five episodes ago. His presence has been looming for a solid quarter of the season.

And he means nothing.

I can come up with better “You’ve been served,” jokes that don’t exist solely to reflect poorly on Tucker, but it seems pointless because there’s no reason for Spencer to exist at all. There’s no need to mirror Locus’s looming presence in season 11 just for a fakeout. There’s no need to have him save Dylan and Jax in “Mother of Destruction”--we know Dylan is no stranger to working in combat zones, let her figure out a clever way to sneak them back to the ship. Jax can just as easily serve as the sounding board for Dylan’s explanation as to why the Blues and Reds are imposters. “Planet Evil” could instead expand on the hint dropped with Sarge and his ominous “reflection” in the window, suggesting that the Reds and Blues are being tailed by their doppelgangers.

There’s plenty of ways this could’ve gone. But Spencer is a wasted build of tension that doesn’t pay off for the plot. He doesn’t even have any follow-up appearances in this season, making him a completely meaningless misdirection.

This is the first sign of the plot shooting itself in the foot. In hindsight, it really is the beginning of the downturn.

A Fistful of Retcons

Episode 8 is where the main plot starts to fall apart.

The Blues and Reds (henceforth, B&R) being carbon copies of the Reds and Blues, then later turning out to be a prototype of sorts, really doesn’t hold up to much scrutiny. And it could have held up better, with a few small changes. Surge shouldn’t be a Colonel. Lorenzo shouldn’t exist, since the robot kit was a nonstandard issue given to Blood Gulch specifically because Alpha was there.

I won’t say this conceit could’ve been done perfectly--it still changes the context of a big part of the show’s history in a way that is incredibly risky for a new writer to attempt. But it could’ve been done better. More thought could’ve been put into what a prototype for Blood Gulch’s personality archetypes would actually look like, taking into account that not every event in the Blood Gulch Chronicles could’ve been predicted by the Counselor’s profiling. The death of Captain Flowers, the destruction of Church’s initial body by Caboose, Caboose’s brain damage from Omega, these and arguably other events are potential wildcards that change the course of these characters’ development. The pre-existing relationship between Temple and Biff, too, would’ve been impossible to replicate in Blood Gulch since Temple has no true analog, and that relationship is arguably a big reason for the ongoing stalemate between the outposts. Captain Flowers has no analog and his very presence is therefore an unaccounted-for variable (unless he is actually the analog for Temple, which I thought would’ve been fascinating but was not explored). What would a prototype simulation outpost actually look like if you were to reverse-engineer it from Blood Gulch, taking into account all these variables?

When a concept like this is used as a one-off gag, Rule of Funny can trump logic and internal consistency without doing too much damage. As a season-long conceit, though, the logic needs to hold up, and it simply doesn’t.

I think on some level Joe realized this, because he doesn’t let the Red and Blues actually converse with their mirrors for very long before throwing them into combat, as if to distract both us and our heroes from asking too many questions. But even the fight scene raises further questions. Surge is a Colonel but we don’t know how or why and it’s never explained. He’s taking orders from a Blue he outranks, and this too is never explained.

That Yorkalina Washlina Yorkalina Thing

Anyway here’s Wonderwall Wash and Carolina holding hands on a beach.

Okay, let me back up. (Also, warning for a critical view of canon York/Carolina in this section.)

Illinois is an interesting addition to the cast. One thing I really like about this season is the way it cracks the Freelancer Program open a bit wider than seasons 9 and 10 managed to do, showing us that there were lower-level agents, other squads, etc. That I appreciate, because it helps to rectify the claustrophobic feeling of what we know in theory was a larger program but which onscreen never showed us much more than the ten characters who were already named. I like it. Y’know. Better late than never.

However. This is nitpicky, but putting Illinois in a photograph full of other top squad agents feels shoehorned. What would work much better is to see Carolina and York surrounded by several other unfamiliar agents. Thus, it would feel less like inserting a character into this group who clearly was not there before, and more like showing us a different group altogether, with some overlap. Hell, it would even work to just put York in the picture, since Illinois is said to have been his drinking buddy, while Carolina admits to not having known him well and seems unlikely to have been palling around with agents not on her level.

But then we couldn’t have an anecdote about York invading Carolina’s personal space that we’re supposed to find cute, now could we.

Which brings me to… this conversation.

As a Carolina fan who’s long had an interest in her relationship with Wash, I’ve been waiting for them to have an actual talk since season 10 ended, and by the end of season 13, I’d just resigned myself to the fact that it was never going to happen--that a cooperative fight scene was about the best I could hope for. So when I saw Carolina and Wash alone on that beach, you better believe I perked up.

To say that this scene sent viewers some… mixed signals is an understatement. The opening motif of “Carolina in the Morning” immediately evokes memories of her relationship with York; later, the scene lingers on the image of Carolina and Wash holding hands while staring into the sunrise, right after Wash prevents her from throwing York’s lighter into the water. Followed by a gag in which Wash seemingly-obliviously asks Carolina to take her armor off so that he can reactivate her Recovery beacon.

(Nitpick: by all established canon, the Recovery beacons don’t activate unless an agent is dead or dying. That’s why nobody catches up with the rogue agents like the Dakotas and York and Tex until they start dying. Further nitpick: if they do allow for the tracking of an uninjured agent, then the idea that Carolina needed Wash to deactivate her beacon is pretty silly, given that she was missing and presumably in hiding for years such that Wash himself, a Recovery agent, believed she was dead. She would have had to find a way to deactivate her own beacon not long after her disappearance simply to stay hidden.)

I genuinely have no idea what Joe was trying to convey with the hand-holding. If it didn’t mean anything in particular, he sure did slam the panic button in the fandom for nothing. My feelings about Washlina are irrelevant here--I have no issue with the ship, and in fact enjoy many fan portrayals of it. But we certainly could’ve lived without the explosion of ship hate and pained discourse it sparked in the fandom, and I know some shippers who can say the same. Rarely do I have any desire to see my RvB ships made canon, including my most beloved ones; given the criticisms I do have of some existing canon ships, I would much rather be left to the freedom of my imagination than saddled with a portrayal that will then color every fan interpretation, for better or for worse.

And in hindsight, this mixed message feels like another red herring, a distraction from the more compelling questions about the direction of the plot at this critical midseason point.

But what I am really interested in unpacking is the content of their conversation.

Things that were completely unnecessary in Season 15:

Spencer Porkinsenson

A conversation about York

Shipping biases fully acknowledged, what purpose did the subject of York, specifically, serve to a) the plot, b) Carolina or Wash’s relationship development, or c) their characterization individually?

As far as I can see it served no purpose to the plot. Nothing from this point forward has anything to do with York. Nor does it particularly serve Wash and Carolina’s relationship development, since their brief moment of closeness is dropped and never raised again. The idea of fresh starts is raised, first by Illinois’ seemingly idyllic post-Project life, and subsequently by Carolina’s regrets about York, which, fine--but as I wrote after this episode aired, it seems very late in Carolina’s story arc for her to be questioning her the prospect of starting over when she’s already done that. In season 13, she calls the Reds and Blues her family, and in episode 5 she certainly behaves like she’s come to believe that. So to question whether a fresh start is possible seems completely out of place in the timeline here, when she’s very clearly already had one, and has finally begun to truly embrace it.

The sole point that conversation raises that has any later relevance is Carolina’s desire for non-lethality. And that’s… well, let’s put a pin in that. What’s noteworthy for now is that this still has nothing specifically to do with York, only with Carolina’s self-image, past and present.

You know who would’ve been a very compelling topic of conversation for Carolina and Wash--relevant to the plot, to their relationship, to each of them individually?

Epsilon. You know, Church? Carolina’s brother figure whom she lost less than a year ago and is still mourning? With whom Wash has a painful and complicated history that they have never talked about despite Carolina teaming up with him for the entirety of the Chorus trilogy? The thing that just spurred them all to action in the first place?

Carolina and Wash are years overdue for a talk about Epsilon. It practically writes itself. And instead we get a conversation about York, who in terms of this season is relevant to basically nothing.

This is one of those scenes that I can only guess was written not for plot relevance, not for character development, but for maximum Feels™, and as such, it not only feels out of place, but misses the opportunity for much more pertinent conversation.

This is not the only instance of For the Feels™ writing this season, nor is it the most egregious, cheap, or manipulative, so put a pin in that, too.

The Game Was Rigged From the Start

Instead of debating whether or not Tucker’s writing was out of character this season (you can make a strong argument either way), let me ask instead: how much more interesting would our villain be if Tucker’s trust was harder-won? How much more interesting would Tucker be this season if we didn’t have to come up with reasons why he is behaving so impulsively, why he is so susceptible to a stranger’s flattery? Other fans have raised the point of Tucker’s experiences on Chorus, but I’ll even go back further: Tucker was stranded alone in the desert for months fending off Fake CT and his goons, probably after initially believing Fake CT’s story about who he was. Felix was by no means Tucker’s first lesson in not trusting strangers. Yes, Tucker is grieving. Yes, he is vulnerable. But what if we got to see his vulnerability manifest differently--in pulling close to his remaining little family and distrusting outsiders who presume to know him and what he’s been through? How much more interesting does that make this season and his whole arc within it?

The problem is, that can’t happen, because The Plot won’t let it--and not just for Tucker.

The Reds and Blues are very scattered during this season. Their behavior while at Temple’s base is such a far cry from the unified front they displayed at the end of season 13. Again, you can come up with reasons for this: the doppelgangers have them rattled, they all got sick of each other on the moon due to boredom, etc. But these people are no stranger to living in close proximity, to standing around talking. The moon seems to have provided a lot more entertainment than some of their quieter times in Blood Gulch or Valhalla, and in fact they do seem to be having fun in a lot of those flashbacks--the rock band, for example, and the water park before its untimely demise--so I’m not sure that argument really holds up.

Grif’s decision to break with the group works because it’s sold well--because it makes use of what we already know of Grif’s character, and it plants compelling tension between him and the others, especially Simmons. Doc’s loyalty to the B&R could work, but it lacks follow-up when he switches side so easily at the end. Sarge’s turn is propped up by his need for a fight, but it’s a weak premise when he clearly has a fight on his hands either way.

And it’s only because Sarge and Doc side with Temple that Tucker and his remaining companions are outnumbered and forced to flee rather than fight. They then spend the next two episodes sitting in a cell, waiting for someone else to come rescue them.

Why does this happen? Why shouldn’t they hold their own against the Blues and Reds? Tucker is right on that account: these enemies are no match for them. They fought much deadlier enemies on Chorus. They survived what could have been a devastating last stand on Hargrove’s ship, and they did so with total unit integrity, so what is this?

Their team cohesion really doesn’t return until episode 20, when they finally begin to function like the team we’ve seen before, because The Plot is finally allowing them to do so.

And that’s just the problem: too many things this season happen just because the writer wants them to. There is a checklist of events that need to happen, so the characters are written to make them happen. And in a character-driven universe like RvB, when the characters aren’t driving the plot, but the reverse, we notice. This happened in Freelancer, too, particularly in season 10. Events happen just because they have to, not because they’re consistent with what spotty development we’ve been given for these characters.

It's not that these actions can't be explained. You can come up with an in-world explanation for just about anything if you're creative. The problem isn’t that the any of these characters are blatantly and obviously out of character. The problem is that the plot is driving the characters’ actions rather than the other way around. Tucker and the Reds and Blues are not allowed to demonstrate the full range of strengths their thirteen years of character development have given them, because their enemy is just not that smart or creative, and his team is just not as strong as the Reds and Blues should be.

Your villain has to be a match for your hero in order for the story to be interesting. And the problem with Temple is, he’s not. He’s the kind of villain who might’ve been a match for the Reds and Blues pre-Chorus, but not now. They’ve just been through so much that he and his team haven’t--which is, again, a big part of why the doppelganger conceit feels so off at this point in the timeline. B&R shouldn’t be so like the Reds and Blues, they shouldn’t be on their level unless they’ve been put through their own crucible comparable to what the Reds and Blues have experienced. But we just don’t have any evidence that they have.

So Tucker’s competence and cleverness has to be dialed back, the Reds and Blues have to splinter with no real explanation. Like season 12 allowing Felix to stab Carolina in the leg, this feels like a nerfing, only more subtle, and an emotional one instead of a physical one.

Tucker and Caboose, in particular, appear highly motivated when they first spring into action upon hearing Church’s message, but once they find the B&R, too much time goes by in which Temple is clearly stalling them, and yet they do not press for more information or for quicker action. Tucker is only allowed to entertain a hint of skepticism at Dylan’s prompting, so that she can move the plot forward. His motivation, and that of the Reds and Blues as a whole, wanes because the plot needs it to, and with it goes the tension. Our core characters are not driving the plot, but being driven by it, and that weakens both the characters and the story.

Which brings us to…

The Accidental Protagonist and the POV Problem

So, this is where we come back to Dylan’s role as audience proxy, and where it starts doing the story more harm than good.

Dylan is a compelling character this season not just because she has good dialogue or because she is sympathetic, but because she is highly motivated and her motivation largely drives the story, to the point that I would argue really, she’s the protagonist. Most of this wouldn’t even have happened if Dylan hadn’t hunted down the Reds and Blues on their vacation moon and dragged them kicking and screaming into the plot. And it’s her investigation into Temple that creates the tension to move us forward to endgame once Carolina and Wash are trapped in armor lock. This is lampshaded by Jax making a comment about driving the plot forward.

But Jax shouldn’t be the one driving the plot forward, and neither should Dylan at this point. It should be the Reds and Blues. This should be their story. But it isn’t. It’s not framed that way.

If Dylan is the audience proxy, then Jax is the author proxy, literally Joe’s voice in his own story. As such, Jax’s constant fourth-wall breaking allows Joe to lampshade the weaknesses of his own writing without actually fixing them. There’s only so many times this technique is cute. (Twice is probably the upper limit.) I actually like a lot of fourth-wall breaking jokes in and of themselves--there’s a long tradition of that sort of thing in RvB (“We’re out of parts because we overused that joke!”) and it’s one I’m rather fond of, though your mileage may vary. Cumulatively, though, this constant lampshading doesn’t so much weaken the narrative as highlight its existing weaknesses, which I think is why so many fans so quickly grew annoyed with Jax. While I like him as a character in-world, I certainly understand why many don’t.

Initially, Dylan’s role works very effectively. She needs to know more than our heroes in the beginning, because her role in the plot is to deliver them their quest. This changes once the Reds and Blues reclaim their active, onscreen role in the story. Dylan and Jax take a backseat for a bit, and rightly so. But in the two-episode flashback “Blue vs. Red,” Dylan reassumes her role as the POV character, and unlike before, this now creates a glaring problem that is never solved or even addressed.

Temple monologues his Tragic Backstory at Dylan and Jax only. Right away, this is a problem. It’s clear that Temple wants to be heard, wants his grievances aired, but generally, villains like this want the people they’re hurting to know why they’re being hurt. And yet Temple doesn’t tell Carolina and Wash, only commenting on how he feared she would recognize him. Of course, Joe doesn’t want to reveal Temple’s true identity in episode 10; he wants to keep something back to create tension, but there are other ways Temple’s monologue could’ve been addressed to the people it was actually for.

As it stands, our reporters are the only people who ever heard Temple’s story… because Dylan is the protagonist of this season, and the resolution to it is Dylan getting her story, not Carolina and Wash understanding why they were put through this hell. The season ends with Carolina presumably never knowing what Temple’s grudge against her even was. We get a satisfactory conclusion for Dylan, but not for the core characters we love, and this is a massive oversight.

There’s another problem with Temple’s Tragic Backstory as told to Dylan, and that’s the problem of whose point-of-view is framing the story as we see it. It should be Temple, and thus we should only see what Temple would himself have seen and known about… except the two opening scenes in episode 13 are impossible for Temple to have seen. I hate to say they shouldn’t be there at all, because in truth they are my favorite parts of the flashback and I think the most effective. The sim base fight itself is critically lacking in the animation department, the dialogue is much more hackneyed at points. Most importantly, the reminder of the Director’s manipulation and the intense pressure Carolina is under offers some context for her actions.

But the fight scene itself almost requires the assumption of an unreliable narrator to smooth over some of its more noticeable, uh, gaffs (to say nothing of the music gag, and the absence of these characters’ well-established fighting styles, which other fans have broken down better than I can). Carolina’s aggressive and hypercompetitive attitude, in and of itself, is not necessarily out of character for her at this canon point. It’s her over-the-top callousness at Biff’s gruesome death that really doesn’t sit right with a lot of fans. This on top of the fact that the death itself makes no sense--not Tex’s decision to throw the flag when all she had to do was hang onto it to win, nor whatever outrageous concept of physics allows a wooden pole to penetrate the armor’s breastplate, even at a weak point.

Oh, It’s You

Things that were completely unnecessary in Season 15:

Spencer Porkinsenson

A conversation about York

Locus

I have no objection to Locus having a cameo in and of itself. In fact, I’d be sort of disappointed if he didn’t show up again sooner or later, given the way his Chorus arc ended.

My problem with Locus being in this season isn’t that he’s here, it’s that this kind of cameo should feel necessary. Everything Locus did could’ve been done by someone else. There’s no reason he needs to be the intermediary who stumbles across Lopez and then seeks out Grif; Lopez could’ve crash-landed back on the moon himself, and in fact it would’ve been a great opportunity to give Grif’s newfound Spanish skills a practical application. Grif can’t undertake a rescue mission all by himself? Why not reunite him with his sister now, and let some wacky Grif sibling hijinks ensue?

What about Wash being rushed to the hospital? Gosh, who do we know with a fast prowler, knowledge of the location of the nearest hospital, and the press credentials to get past the First Fleet blockade surrounding Chorus? I can’t quite think of it, but I’m sure it’ll come to me.

The worst thing about Locus’s part in this season is it ends up being most of the reason that Tucker can’t be suspicious, that the Reds and Blues can’t stand together against their enemies. They have to crumble and be overpowered so they can sit around waiting for Locus to come save them.

This should be their story. But again… it’s not.

As for Locus freeing Wash and Carolina from the armor lock, that was one of the most disappointing non-payoffs of the season for me. Caboose’s immunity to armor lock is well-established and even planted by Temple dropping the number 8.11 (the episode in which Caboose’s special helmet is mentioned). It is unfathomable to me that this setup was wasted, instead delivered in a scene where it wasn’t allowed to actually change anything and thus had no payoff. Again, this writes itself.

Okay, but how does it write itself, Anne?

I’m so glad you asked. So. You can actually fix the Caboose Problem and the Monologue Problem in one fell swoop. For this concept we need Freckles to still be a rifle, which doesn’t really mess up anything else this season so let’s roll with it. Caboose is looking for the bathroom and wanders down into the basement, finds Carolina and Wash. Cue joke about Caboose thinking they’re playing a game. Since Tucker really should be in this scene too, let’s have him be snooping around for more information (because he’s suspicious!) and follow Caboose down. Unlike Caboose, Tucker actually recognizes this situation as Bad News Bears, but before he can figure out how to release the Freelancers, Temple catches him. Temple hits his armor lock button, thinking he’s locked them both.

Here, you put Temple’s lines about how they’re doing the right thing, and the Reds and Blues should be on his side. Then he monologues, letting all of Blue Team hear his Tragic Backstory, minus the parts he wouldn’t have actually seen. When he’s finished, Caboose tells him he loses the Quiet Game, revealing that he’s been unlocked the whole time and was only keeping still because he thought it was a game. Thinking quickly, Temple tries to convince Caboose to join him.

Caboose is uncertain and maybe expresses sympathy for Temple losing his best friend, because he understands that concept, but he does not think that is a good reason to be mean to other people. At which point Wash speaks up, weakly: “Caboose… listen to me very carefully. I want you to help him. You should help him.”

“Okay, Agent Washington!” says Caboose cheerfully, and helps Temple in the manner to which he is accustomed: he shoots him. Recognizing Temple as a hostile target, Freckles fires actual bullets, and Temple goes down.

Meanwhile, you can have Red Team getting up to some shenanigans with the rest of B&R upstairs. Maybe Sarge pushes the rank question with Surge, maybe Simmons gets fed up with Gene and they get into a fight that escalates, maybe Cronut lets something slip to Donut in his zest for philosophical discourse. Your pick, really.

Later, when Carolina and Wash have a moment to breathe, that’s when Wash asks, hesitantly, “So, that story… did that really happen?”

Carolina’s silent for a moment, then replies, “It wasn’t like that. I mean, it was, but…” And now we get the framing through Carolina’s eyes. The flashback to the bridge, the dropship with Niner. We don’t have to see the whole fight scene again, just a few critical moments that frame the incident differently, toning down the moments of really over-the-top callousness. Temple is framed as an unreliable narrator (something that Joe has, baffling, stated outright was not his intention), and Carolina gets to tell her side of the story.

The Invisible Clock

All that aside, the armor lock was a pretty creative, and gruesome, story device. I think it’s really well-suited to a villain like Temple, who could never hold his own against even one Freelancer in raw combat. It makes sense for him to choose this particular method of execution: luring and trapping, watching them squirm, prolonging their suffering.

Coming in at the season’s midpoint, Carolina and Wash being locked in their armor serves as the second act culmination, introducing the new and dire question of whether they will be rescued before they die. Their lives are now on a ticking clock.

This should be an effective way to build tension in the latter half of the season, now that the earlier questions of the B&R’s identities and whether they can be trusted have been answered.

Problem is… we can’t see the clock. And the show doesn’t cut back to Wash and Carolina again for six episodes, during which the plot barely moves forward--so we don’t get any visible escalation of this new tension, which allows it to drain away.

When we do get to “True Colors,” it almost feels like the plot is tired of itself. At this point, the Reds and Blues have to figure out soon that the Blues and Reds are bad guys, because there’s simply nothing else to do. Carolina and Wash are locked in their armor in the basement. Dylan and Jax have been caught red-handed and are now being held captive. There’s nothing else to do with the plot, except stall.

And stall we do, for a solid five minutes of this thirteen-minute episode, via a conversation with Caboose and Loco, which is cute and plants the time portal concept, at least, and an extended scene of the Reds talking to themselves about their feelings, before Tucker just walks up to Temple and asks him point blank if they’re bad guys. We already know the answer, so there’s very little tension in the confrontation. The real source of tension--Wash and Carolina’s ticking clock--is buried, because we can’t see the clock. We don’t know if they’ve been down there six hours or two days.

And the time question is never answered. By the time Locus rescues them they’re starving and dehydrated, and their armor’s life support has failed. (Why? Shouldn’t Freelancer armor be able to hold up a few days in the field? Wouldn’t that mean they don’t have oxygen inside their helmets? And how was Locus able to unlock them in the first place without Temple’s remote control?) So we can guess that it’s been maybe three days, but we don’t know. And we’re never told. I have an uncomfortable suspicion even Joe doesn't know; the question was raised in a Reddit AMA with Joe and Miles about a month ago, and was never answered, not even with a vague handwave. I don’t think Joe actually nailed down a concrete timeline for this season, and I think this aspect of the story suffers for it.

Bang Bang, My Baby Shot Me Down

All right, let’s get this over with.

Things that were completely unnecessary in Season 15:

Spencer Porkinsenson

A conversation about York

Locus

Wash getting shot in the neck

Wash getting shot served no purpose to the plot. None. It changes nothing that happens in the last few episodes except that Wash isn’t there. (He wouldn’t have been able to do much anyway, considering that Carolina is barely staying upright.) It adds nothing to his characterization, because he’s nothing but loopy and babbling from the moment he’s out of armor lock.

Carolina is at least lucid, and her continued screentime post-rescue very much does serve her characterization. We get to see her refuse to sit out the fight, and struggle to muster the strength to go on; we get to see her fight briefly and collapse, and we get to see her frustrated but still willing to ask Tucker for help. All of these are great character moments. Imagine what we could have if she and Wash muddled through the final sequence together, leaning on each other, fighting to keep going just a little longer, reassuring each other it’ll all be over soon.

I don’t accept for a minute that contriving for Wash to get injured and hustled offscreen was the best use of his character at this point.

And it is absolutely contrived, because you can justify Tucker’s impulsiveness early in the season all you want but he has had plenty of time to steady up and realize they need a plan and have we forgotten that Tucker himself is actually… pretty good at planning? That it was Tucker who engineered the plan to entrap Felix at the end of season 12, in a high-stakes, high-stress situation where failure meant that he and very likely his friends old and new would be dead? That’s what present-day Tucker has lived through. That’s who he is.

There’s no good reason for Tucker to rush out into battle half-cocked. There’s no good reason for Wash to have wandered past everyone without anyone noticing. If Carolina were slumped against the wall, barely able to move, I could buy it from her, but she’s fully upright and mobile a second later, and there’s just no reason for it. There’s no reason for any of this to have happened except that the writer decided it needed to.

But why did it need to? What did it accomplish, besides shoving Wash offscreen, getting rid of Locus, and riling up the fans up for a week?

And it’s that last bit that really frosts me, honestly, more than anything else in this season. I don’t expect flawless narrative structure from RvB. I know what kind of show I’m watching. I can point out its plot weaknesses and still be entertained, and for much of this season, I was. But this is where you lost me, Joe.

Wash is exactly who you would pick if you asked yourself, “Which character can I grievously injure and cliffhanger for Maximum Fan Feels™?

Yeah, there’s that fuckin’ pin.

Some of you may be thinking, “But Anne, Carolina got a near-death cliffhanger in season 13!” Yes she did. It came at the end of a protracted confrontation as an important piece of her personal side plot about confronting her past and moving on. Carolina’s near-death cliffhanger was meaningful, and while it wasn’t handled perfectly (actually seeing her get rescued by her team would’ve been swell for establishing that whole “family” thing), it was part of a larger arc giving her character development that was sorely needed at that canon point. Also, Wash got his own year-long cliffhanger at the end of season 11 that was both heavily plot-relevant and drove a ton of character development for Tucker in particular.

This, though? This was cynical, calculated angst bait and nothing more.

What Are The Stakes Again?

Once it’s confirmed that Wash is alive and probably isn’t going to die offscreen, we have to go find the plot again. Where will we find it? On Earth. Yeah. Earth. The UNSC Headquarters. Where are they again? Do we know anyone there? Are our heroes in any particular danger if they don’t hightail it to Earth immediately? Given that they’ve figured out exactly where Temple is planning to attack, is there any reason they can’t just… you know, call? Sure, the UNSC won’t take their word at the moment, but how about the award-winning investigative reporter who’s literally on a phone call to Earth right now, couldn’t she--

Nope, saddle up kids, we’re going to Earth. We have to go save the… UNSC. You know, the real actual military. We have to save them. We definitely have to do that.

See, this is another problem with Wash getting shot. The audience just got done having their emotions jerked around over the fate of a character that a lot of people are really fucking invested in. Coming down from that, it’s a hard sell to make the endgame stakes a place we’ve never seen full of people we don’t know.

Tucker’s speech is pretty much forced to acknowledge that their only stake in this is revenge. “We do this for Wash! We do this for Church! We do this because fuck those assholes!” And while revenge can be a powerful motivator, we need more than that to build tension for the season’s climax. We need stakes. We need to know it matters if they fail to stop Temple, and on a personal level, it doesn’t--Wash is alive, Church is dead, and nothing they do from here will change either of those things.

So of course the machine turns out to be a doomsday device. It has to, because we have to get back that tension the plot keeps bleeding out. It’s not even a very good doomsday device, from what we can tell--it’s not going to destroy the very fabric of spacetime, just the one planet--and yes, destroying Earth is a big deal, but again, the Reds and Blues are safe as long as they’re not on Earth and in the time it takes for interstellar travel, they could just contact the actual military on Earth who could get there faster. Dylan is already on the phone with someone from Earth, a scientist who has confirmed for her that the device if activated will destroy the planet, and his response is… telling literally anyone important about this? No, he’s going to go get shitfaced.

Yeah, this end sequence has a stakes problem.

No Killing, Unless We Have To Or We Feel Like It Or Whatever

I actually find the idea of Carolina trying to practice non-lethality post-season 10 very compelling. It’s an idea I’ve seen explored very effectively in fic. There’s precedent for it in canon too, from her decision not to kill the Director herself, to her attempts to spare Sharkface in season 13. Notably, there is a context to Carolina’s choices not to kill, and also an understanding that sometimes it is necessary. And I think this whole idea could be explored very effectively in the right context, with the right follow-up.

This is… not that.

For one thing, the only person Carolina implores anyone not to kill is Temple, the worst and most malicious of their present enemies, and that’s such a lazy application of “don’t kill unless you have to.” It’s the kind of thing you see in video games where, after cutting down hundreds of nameless goons, you’re left with the choice to spare the leader--the one who actually masterminded the Evil Plot--because Mercy or Forgiveness or Being the Bigger Person or whatever.

Locus, by contrast, is at least given some consistency in his vow not to kill (setting aside the whole Batman logic that a GSW isn’t lethal as long as it’s not in the head) but it mostly just contributes to prolonging the fight that ends up getting Wash injured, since Locus won’t take a headshot on the machine gunner. And Locus is gone one episode later anyway, so there’s really no opportunity for the differences in their principles to play off one another.

Once we get to Earth, the zealots guarding the perimeter are mowed down with extreme prejudice and no qualms from anyone, and to lampshade that, Joe uses the laziest possible shorthand to demonstrate that they deserved to die. It’s almost an inversion of the scene in episode 1, which uses the opening dialogue to show you why the soldiers at the supply depot don’t deserve to die--except that was effective and well-written shorthand, and this just feels cheap and phoned-in.

It might even be funny, except that we’re still supposed to agree that Temple should live.

That Grimmons Thing

I never expected Grif/Simmons to be canon. Let’s get that out of the way first. Queerbaiting is not “I wanted my ship to become canon and it didn’t.” Prior to season 15, there’s really nothing in the text of the show itself (extracanonical comments from the creators, etc. notwithstanding) that I would consider queerbaiting. To give a counterexample: Carolina gently touching Kimball on the shoulder makes for great shipping fodder! But that in and of itself doesn’t make it queerbaiting.

In “Previously On,” there’s a joke that strongly suggests Grif and Simmons had some kind of sexual encounter in a closet during the Temple of Procreation activation. Notably, it’s something they are embarrassed about and will angrily refuse to discuss. It never comes up again, except indirectly when Jax butts in on their reunion conversation in hopes of catching them kissing on camera. The shot then cuts to Jax knocked out on the floor.

Take out those two jokes and the entire case for queerbaiting is gone. That’s it. That’s the problem. Why is it a problem? Because it teases the idea their relationship could have become sexual, but does so as a joke (which allows it be dismissed as such and not really canon) and in such a way that shows them both being uncomfortable with it afterwards and reacting with hostility to anyone else who brings it up. Neither of them ever brings it up again, and there is certainly no confirmation of romantic feelings that might make a certain portion of the fanbase uncomfortable in a serious context.

Queerbaiting rests on deliberately teasing a romantic/sexual relationship between same-sex characters, while also deliberately maintaining a plausible “no homo” to avoid alienating anyone in the audience that might think that’s icky. That’s what it is; that’s why this counts.

And it’s a shame for that letdown to overshadow all the truly great relationship development between Grif and Simmons that does exist in this season. From Simmons looking on in stunned silence as Grif leaves and seemingly fixating on him during their travels, to Grif’s loneliness and his rehearsed apologies, to the callback to their “Why are we here?” exchange in season one--there is some fantastic material here. It’s so gratifying to see them acknowledge out loud that they are friends, that they truly care about each other, and to see Grif so eager to return to his team.

With all the development their relationship got this season, it wouldn’t have a stretch from there to make it clear that they do have feelings for each other beyond friendship. But if you’re unwilling to pull the trigger on that, then don’t cock it. Give us the friendship development, let it stand on its own, and don’t tease us. Trust the actual queer folks in your audience, when we say: we’ve seen this before, and it’s not nearly as cute as you think it is.

Closing the Goddamn Door

The loss of Church has been woven throughout this season, primarily as a motivator to spur the Reds and Blues back into action, but also as an open wound from season 13 for which several of our characters still need closure. I like this thread. I like it a lot, and in fact would’ve liked to see it used more, as I mentioned above with the missed opportunity between Carolina and Wash. Grief is a powerful vehicle in fiction not only for character development, but for relationship development between characters.

Blue Team has a hole in it. Tucker and Caboose have lost a friend. Carolina has lost a brother. And Wash is probably left with a lot of complicated feelings about his own history with Epsilon and the fact that everyone else on his team loves him… which of course could have been explored for some fascinating tension, but hasn’t been touched on since season 11.

As of episode 6, it’s clear enough that Carolina, Tucker, and Caboose are all deeply affected by their loss. But as the season goes on, it’s really mostly Caboose’s need for closure on which the story actually follows through. It’s fair that Caboose’s view of death is complicated by Church’s repeated “resurrections.” Nevertheless, the fact that the time door seems only designed to offer closure to Caboose, when Tucker and Carolina could probably use some too… well, it feels like a dropped thread.

The time door in general is awkward and unsatisfying to me anyway, given that Alpha isn’t the same Church they recently lost, and to top it all it’s Alpha from the very beginning of Blood Gulch who has no regard for Caboose to speak of and certainly not the affection for him that Epsilon came to have. Caboose’s goodbye simply crams a weird and contextless experience into Church’s life, which he will, of course, never think about or bring up again.

Tucker and Caboose’s conversation in the jail cell about Church being really gone felt much more poignant and emotionally satisfying, because… well, that’s the thing about death. You don’t always get to say goodbye the way you wish you could have. And sometimes it takes a long time after to process those feelings, and the comfort of your friends means a lot during that time. A conversation that included Carolina would’ve been nice, maybe a mention of the messages Epsilon left for them all.

It might not be as flashy as a time machine, but given that by the end this season desperately needs some team cohesion and found family moments, maybe flash isn’t the way to go here.

To VICtory

VIC’s whole… subplot this season has a major, major tone problem. And this is a show that vacillates wildly between drama and comedy, and often very effectively, but... boy howdy does this subplot have a tone problem.

VIC’s suicidality being played for laughs is going to land badly for a lot of viewers from the start. There’s no way to make that not uncomfortable. But when it’s set up as such an obvious parallel to Epsilon’s dramatic and noble sacrifice in season 13… it falls particularly flat.

As a sidenote, while Epsilon is undeniably suicidal early in his life, I see no indication that he wants to die in season 13 or the Chorus trilogy generally. I won’t say he couldn’t have been, but I don’t think there’s canon evidence for it. His death is explicitly framed as a sacrifice, a choice made to protect the people he loves. A choice he is sorry to make, the outcome of which he regrets that he won’t get to see.

The impact Epsilon’s life has had on so many other characters is deeply felt in his final message.

VIC’s gleeful self-immolation, by contrast, leaves us with not much more than a vague distaste. That’s the danger of callbacks, especially to highly emotionally-charged moments. If your callback moment isn’t equally compelling, you run the risk of simply reminding your audience that they could be watching another, better story.

Conclusions

I enjoyed so much of this season, even beyond the strong first act and despite the issues in the second and third, and I think a big part of the reason I enjoyed it so much is that it has some really great moments. There are moments throughout the season when the characters are allowed to move unimpeded by The Plot, and in those moments they really shine. Everything I praised about the first act is still true. Most of episode 5 is gold. Tucker and Wash’s moment in “Reacts,” Grif’s arc, Niner’s flashback cameo, Tucker getting creative in the absence of his sword and punching a tank to death, the Grif sibling reunion--all of these moments and more tell me that Joe absolutely can write these characters, and can do so in both humorous and emotionally-powerful ways. I don’t doubt his abilities on that front.

Where there are cracks in the character writing, where the story drags and becomes unsatisfying, is when the characters aren’t allowed to drive the story, but are forced to act in such a way as will facilitate the plot even when it just doesn’t feel quite right.

I’ll close here with the same thing I said at the end of season 10, five years ago: Red vs. Blue is a character-driven universe at its heart. That doesn’t mean we don’t love plot! It doesn’t mean we don’t love mystery and intrigue and dramatic twists and big reveals. We do! But don’t forget that you hooked us with a bunch of people standing around talking. Characters are the heart of this show, and they will always be what matters the most.

I’m interested to see what Joe learns from this season, and how he grows from the experience, and if he stays on board for season 16 then I’ll look forward to seeing more of his work.

#rvb critical #rvb15 #red vs blue #avian dentistry #joe nicolosi

251 notes · View notes

charlie-artlie · 7 years

Text

hhhhhggrrrmmhhhgggggggg aaaaaaa ok i got on in this white hell box to start slamming rvb s15 but that ep10 was so good!!!!!!! click below to watch me go back and forth on this topic for like 5or10 paragraphs lmao!!!!!!!!!

ok so lemme start with things i like which

1). UHG??? that beach scene!!!!!!! perfect amazing perfection everything ive ever wanted???!!!!????!!!! they held hands im literally crying my hands were over my face the whole time like!!!!!!! AAAAAA so that was great

2). i........ like temple. even tho i got spoiled about him being a villain i still thought the reveal was good and i have such a soft spot for smarmy yandere style “im gonna emotionally torture u :)” villains. it also probably doesnt help that i love and miss church so hes a fun stand in on that front AS WELL AS a stand in as tuckers new evil boyfriend now that felix is a pancake

2.5). unrelated but did we get confirm on felix being dead??? he aint dead til i see a body jussaiyin...

3). i have mixed feelings on church coming back that ill get into but church is maybe my favorite character so ultimately i view that as a plus?

4). i really put this one off cuz i was still reeling over this newest episode but all the potential grif development (and by extension red team development as a whole) that looks like its gonna happen this season has got me bittin the pillow like i kid u not im on the edge of my seat fam

ok but like. now onto the real shit. (THIS GOT SO LONG SHIT)

the one thing that is really REALLY holding me back from fully enjoying this season is wanting to know what the crews fuckin intentions are with this show. like. im gonna go ahead and put my hat on the fuckin table or whatever but season 13 was an ending. it was good fucking ending too (and i know someones gonna go back and pull up receipts of me a year or so ago begging for a continuation season after s13 ended but dont do that pls) and to continue after an ending like that with a time skip like that makes this whole season feel like an epilogue to me? like a clean up? like there were some loose ends were tying up.

like. if theyre serious about this season and about ALL these new characters theyre bringing up then were looking at an arc here. like its gonna have to be to bring this to a proper close after all this extra shit?? they cant comfortably bring this to a close in one season

like what are they planning????whats the point of all this????

i honestly wouldn’t even be so bent out of shape about it all, like it wouldn’t seem like such a stretch but the fact that we’re introduced to this season with dylan, who is also, largely, framed as a main character this season. who is. a new character. :/

like i get the narrative tool of using a reporter to drag your characters out of retirement for “one last job” (again, kinda framing it to be one season which worries me!) but whyyyyyy do we have to go through all this stuff with dylan and jax??????? like W H Y do we have to go through the same relationship development we’ve seen like three times already?????? jax is characteristically indistinguishable from caboose, so like???? weve seen this before!! the cold cynical “i dont need friends im just doing my job” person getting frustrated by having to deal with the idiot heart-of-gold tagalong who refuses to hate them no matter how mean or terrible they are like?? we saw it with church and caboose. we saw it later with wash and caboose. we saw it with church and caboose againnnnnnnn. we even kinda saw it with tucker and palomo!!!!! like whats the point of repeating this scene again and again!!!! we get it cynical mean assholes deserve unconditional love too i guess!!!!

like i just cant really get into it. and i dont even really mind dylan like i like her a lot more than i initially thought i would but i already can pretty much see the direction her character arch is going so im just sorta like shrug. shes gonna push jax until he leaves and then...........only then..........will she learn how much she should have valued his unconditional love.................even if he annoyed her and they didnt get along objectively in any way shape or form. but since he likes her then its her job to reciprocate even if she doesnt get anything out of the relationship at all. also she shot him. but whatever their friendship is beautiful (didnt know i had this much salt over this particular subject lmao whoops)

ok so narratively i only see two reasons to do this and im not crazy about either

1). theyre building up to draw some parallels between dylan and like wash or church or s/t but again i dont see the reasoning like why is this season framed around teacher dylan an important lesson about friendship you brought the show back from the jaws or death to give my a character arc for a new character????

2). this its more significant than it seems (i.e. theyre not who we think they are, i mean, its pretty suspicious we only have jax’s stage name rn) like theyre more significant players than we’ve been led to believe

(((also also im with grif on the whole bringing church back thing lmao. like WE DID THIS ALREADY??? there were a lot of AI why dont we ever go on an epic quest to save any of my other favs like oh idk TEX?????????!!!!!!!!!???????)))

but really tho my real and true problem is that i cant tell why theyre still making episodes. is it because theres still a story here that needs to be told or just because they can. and i know my hangup with this mostly stems from one interview i saw after s13 ended with miles and burnie where burnie pretty much said “yea if i had it my way uh i would end it here but hey it is what it is :/” and that just sorta struck a cord with me. maybe because he was a writer and one of the original people who created it i was sorta uncomfortable with taking the show places he didnt want to take it (and i could be TOTALLY off base with this assessment!!!! like i dont know how burnie really feels about this show rn he could be totally digging the new stuff this is just a personal things thats a hangup in just my own head!!!!)

ok so i think i covered pretty much everything i needed to say about this season so far if you actually read this far thanks if u gave up and skipped to the end then i have one last food for thought:

im gonna be the huge stick in the mud who says it: people are putting way too much faith in a company that is still using donut to make cheap gay jokes by actually thinking grimmons is going to become canon and im sorry that youre going to be disappointed. what we are going to get is a unsatisfying reunion and subsequent make up a la church and tucker in s12 and thats it.

thats not what i want to happen thats what i believe will happen. i am FULLY prepared to eat my own hat if im wrong. you may consider this text post legally binding

#talks #rvb critical #rvb15 critical #rvb15 spoilers #but its not all critical #its like 65% critical #maybe 70%#i just had a lot of shit to get off my chest!!#ichi #tagging u cuz i still need to rant one on one with u about this #BUT IM GOING TO BED NOW CUZ IVE BEEN STARING AT A COMPUTER SCREEN FOR LIKE 12 HOURS AND MY BRAIN FEELS LIKE FIRE #so if any of this is incoherent thats why #night night

8 notes · View notes

calliecat93 · 4 years

Text

Top 5 Likes of Red vs Blue: Season 1

(Top 5 Dislikes)

Alrighty, the first Dislikes post is up. Which even calling those things Dislike is stretching it, to be honest. So let’s get to the Likes! Which there s honestly a lot to like in this season. Even though the Blood Gulch seasons are my least favorite and as a saga it’s just barely over Freelancer, these seasons are very endearing. I always enjoy going back over them, and I’m glad to be able to talk about a few of the reasons why. So let’s get to it~

#5. Early Installment Weirdness

You know everything I listed on that Dislikes list? That’s all due to Early Installment Weirdness. That essentially means things early on were quite strange when you compare it to a show’s current standard. It’s only natural that a show needs time to find it’s footing and not everything will work out or be done well. Especially for a webseries like this made by a bunch of video game nerds for what was originally planned for a miniseries, but the more ideas they got, the longer it went. So as I said, many of these things are very forgivable.

Plus, like I also said on that list, these things make the show endearing. The Blood Gulch Chronicles are very comedic driven compared tot he later seasons that are plot-driven. Things like the amateur voice acting, the weird stuff like the afterlife, and even the audio quality adds to the charm. It’s this weird show being made via a video game by some video game nerds. It feels like a newcomer’s indie project… which I guess it kinda is. And while machinima has been around before this, no one quite did it like how RvB did it. These things, as well as the other things I’ll get to soon, just help make it stand out.

Plus, if anything, it helps show how far we’ve come. Every dislike I listed has been improved. The voice acting is stellar, the audio is much better, the characterizations are stronger, and while there are still the occasional continuity issues many of them have gotten reasonable explanations. It’s fun to go back and see the lesser developed parts. You don’t feel annoyed with it, you have fun watching it not just because it’s funny, but because we’ve seen the evolution of the show. We can have fun with the older stuff, and that’s a great thing. It’s why I think these things should be celebrated, not mocked. I only put them on a Dislikes list out of necessity, but I love these things. I don’t want them to go back to it cause production standards are higher, but I’ll always enjoy revisiting it.

#4. Church Dies

Okay maybe phrasing it like that is kinda mean, but it is what happened so…

So I knew this was coming because Ten Little Roosters had this fact as a joke in Episode 2. But despite knowing about it, it was still a surprise to me. I mean they killed a main character? In Episode 7? And the character of the creator to boot?! Wow, that is ballsy. But the part I didn’t know about was that Church came back as a ghost. I guess I should have known since I had seen people talking about Church and he was still listed as a main character on Wikipedia when I was looking up stuff about the show. But tbf I didn’t know he died this soon or that it was only the first time.

It was certainly a thing that took me by surprise. Especially since IIRC, Burnie hadn’t planned on doing it. He just came up with it since I guess at this point they knew it was going to go for longer than intended. Honestly knowing that a lot of this season was made up on the spot explains a lot of the weirder stuff like the afterlife scene… anyways! Yeah, it was something that legit shocked me. The ghost thing confused me for the longest time, but I was just glad to have Church around soon since he has easily become my favorite (sorry Grif, it wasn’t always you…) and this one on the spot decision? It lead to some of the best parts of RvB. BOth comedically and once it was time to become more plot-driven, it made some of the best drama and lead to my favorite saga in the show with Recollection. It’s a minor thing, hence hwy it’s at 4, but it lead to so much more and I love it~

#3. The Tex Twist

Adding Tex to this season was a great move. For one it allowed a lot of great things for later, like the Freelancers and the plot after Blood Gulch. Even before all the Freelancer stuff came out, having these agents who were pretty much paid mercenaries added plenty of potential for stories and even comedy down the road. It also helped that we had someone who was actually competent among the main cast, adding an actual threat level. Not to mention she has a very blunt sense of humor that helps her stand out despite being the only female character aside from Shelia.

Heck, making Tex be Church’s ex-girlfriend was a great move. It adds something a little more personal and also helps Church’s character. He was the grumpy, snarky one among the Blues and then he died not even halfway through. But this helps give him another dimension as a character since he clearly still cares about Tex and wants to free her of the AI. Sure he’s still grumpy, being dead will do that to anyone, but he showed some competence once Tex got captured and again still cared about her. Tex’s bluntness and non-caring attitude about these things as well as owning her bitch-like personality helped her not just be ‘the girl’ either. She’s the competent one, but she isn’t just there cause she was Church’s girlfriend. She’s tough, takes no shit from anyone, but she never really gets annoyed or exasperated by the others either. Her straightforward personality is not only funny, but lets her shine as her own character and the later seasons only help.

While IDR if Tex was planned, her being Church’s girlfriend I remember Burnie saying was not. This is kind of a precursor to something I always admired about the show, taking small things and weaving them into the story. Like taking the joke that the teleporter turns armor black and the Blues using that to their advantage to trick the Reds. You almost can’t tell that this wasn’t going to be nineteen episodes cause they did so well finding ways to extend the story by using what they had. Tex is a perfect example of this. Not just because of later, but even for this season it added some more humor, added to her character when she could have easily been this standard tough guy, and also helped Church’s character. It’s probably the best decision that Burnie made for this season, and I’m glad that he did.

#2. Character Interactions

On Dislikes, I talked about how the characters were not very fleshed out. This, as well as the show being machinimated, meant that the comedy and dialogue had to be really good. Fortunately, that was by far the thing that they nailed most in this season. As I said while the characters aren’t fleshed out, they /do/ still have character. Heck Burnie basing them off the people he cast was a very good mood in this regard. People like Gus and Geoff have known each other for years, for example. So this made for a lot of natural character chemistry and a lot of really good interactions. I mean people love having Grif and Simmons together for a reason. They just play off of each other so freakin’ well..

The interactions and dialogue are really good and even funny. Sure sometimes maybe they dragged a joke out a little too much. Like when Church was starting to talk about Sidewinder and Caboose kept interrupting, you just wanted Caboose to shut up so Church could get to the point. But at the same time, Caboose’s interruptions and Church’s annoyance felt so natural and funny. Or how Grif and Simmons messed with Donut and tricked him to get headlight fluid, and everything that led to. Not only were the contrivances funny, but the characters just bounced off each other so well. They didn’t need to be deep in this season because they all balanced each other out so well, which is pretty key when it comes to comedies.

I think that this is what allowed the show to thrive. People didn’t mind the machinima or how bizarre things got because we liked seeing these characters together. We enjoyed seeing them bicker and them getting themselves into something stupid. The dialogue was funny, the jokes, while some could drag, were timed well, and it just felt so natural. Despite most of the cast recording from different parts of the country (and in Gus’ case another country), you wouldn’t know it going off the interactions. It just worked very well and is very much what helped the show endure for this long, and it’s something I don’t feel has ever faltered even at it’s lowest point. That is saying a lot I think.

#1. Memorability

“Hey?”

“Yeah?”

“Do you ever wonder why we’re here?

You already heard the voices the second you saw the screencap, let’s be real. You look at Season One, and it’s clear that it’s not exactly a cinematic masterpiece. It’s made by people who had no idea what they were doign. Everything is pretty amateur. The comedy, while good, is pretty much aimed more at middle/high schoolers and some probably would not pass today. I know if I tried to watch the show when it came out when I was nine years old, my mom probably would have banned me from it. So then… why did it succeed?

Like I said, it’s flaws and character interactions made it endearing. There’s a lot in this season that we still remember. ‘Why are we here’ is the most obvious one, but this led to so much. Church being a ghost got us Recollection. Tex got us Project Freelancer. There are so many quotable moments, like Tucker’s Voltron line or picking up chicks in a tank. Moments like the first scene, Church’s death, Tex’s arrival, Donut’s pink armor/awesome throwing arm. We always remember these things. We always end up going back to Season One in one way or another. Sure, some stuff is jarring, but we don’t care.

Season One is just fun. No one knew that it would lead to one of the longest-running webseries made, including RT themselves. I mean this allowed RT to exist period. It’s just got so many moments that we remember and still quote to this day. Even the show will call back to several moments. I mean how many ways have they incorporated ‘why are we here’ into the show now? Not only is it still funny, but it shows how far we’ve come since. We wouldn’t have the rest or RvB or anything else we enjoy from RT without this season. As such, I think that it’s memorability and just general existence is the best part about it, and is my pick for Top Like of Season One~!

Okay, one season down. Fourteen more to go. Thank you for reading everyone~! This is done, but I’m just getting started! So stay tuned for Season Two~!

#rvb #rvb reviews #top likes/dislikes

4 notes · View notes

calliecat93 · 5 years

Text

Since I can't go to RTX and they aren’t streaming it this year but I wanted to do a masterpost of something RvB related, I decided to write a wrap-up of this interview with Jason Weight on The SHizno RvB Podcast. Please go check it out because there was now ay that I could fit everything in here and there’s so much good stuff in it. SO please go and check it out! But anyways, here we go:

Joe had told Jason about the plan for a Donut and Wash season back at RTX, which Jason at first wasn't on board with. But once he began writing it, he got into it and became very attached to Donut.

When rewatching the show to prep for S17, one scene that took note of was in the caves when Grif was making the Reds not look at Kai when naked… except for Donut since he just paid attention to the Blue’s base. It felt like he had depth in those kinds of moments and it got him to like him. He was very happy to see more people join Team Donut after the season. He feels like only the surface has been scratched for him.

He confirmed that Donut’s innuendo in the finale was intentional (even putting ‘tongue and cheek’ in the character notes) and any made after will likely be intentional by him.

When they talked about Donut and Tucker’s development, Jason joked that Simmons would be next to receive development. So it seems that Jason is at least aware of our desire for a Simmons season XD

The Everwhen was devised essentially as another method of time travel different from the previous methods seen before since doing it the same way again would have been boring.

The timeline after the paradox in the Writers Room was called Schrodinger’s Ass.

The version of time travel we got was the third version. Jason spent a month on Verison One, but Burnie had rejected it. Then he, Joe, and Miles devised a second version, but near the end they threw it out and the third version that included The Everwhen was made.

How it worked in previous versions was that Chrovos has made the alternate Blood Gulch as a containment unit type of thing to contain the Reds and Blues as she went backwards in time, giving them a limited amount of time before she reached the beginning of time and… honestly, IDK how to type the whole thing out. But to put it simply, it was very convoluted and thus The Everwhen was made. The first version was also rejected due to being too similar to S9.

Jason is on Red Team! His explanation? “Red Team is an actual team.”

He really liked the direction that Joe took Wash, especially since him now having a disability gives him a new unique perspective that, even if he doesn’t get to write in the future, he looks forward to seeing the direction that Wash is taken. He also believes that if they focus on Wahs’s rehabilitation, Caboose should have a major role in it. HIRE HIM RT, DANG IT!

Simmons original nightmare was the same scenario and the same joke… except that the one int he UFO was his dad. The higher-ups rejected this since it could come off as, well… incestuous/pedophilic. Which while I think the ‘dad’ bit would have made more sense… yeah, I… can’t blame them for that one. Jason DOES say that in his mind, Simmons feels that he’s in his father's shadow and the scene was supposed to be in a Freudian reference to those feelings.

Genkins was originally not as intimidating int he script. Much of it came from the direction, especially in Episode 10 after he got skewered by the golf club. Same with Wash and Carolina’s scene in Episode 9. He greatly loved seeing the direction that Austin and Josh took with the scenes.

Miles had toyed with having a scene set directly after S13 (he says 10 but I think he meant 13), but Jason felt that it was best to leave that area alone since it had ended on such a perfect note and talked him out of it. Jason also toyed with having the guys see Epsilon’s final message ala Princess Leia hologram and Tucker picking them up/explaining Episolon’s nature. But it was too talky nor did it really affect anything, so they instead went with Tucker re-living Crash site Bravo which was done by Miles.

If RvB ended up a Seinfeld-esque comedy, Grif and Simmons would live together with Grif trying to get Simmons out of his shell. Sarge is essentially Dan DeVito. Tucker would live alone and use his sword to open up beer bottles. Donut would live in a gym due to, in his mind, him having severe allergies and is why he wears the Power Armor all the time. Carolina and Wash would live together and have a dog, and they both suck at dating due to judging the other’s dates (which Jason feels their relationship is brother and sister). Caboose owns the building they all live in. Lopez is maintenance. I want this show now.

Jason reads all the comments after all the episodes, including on Tumblr (I’m going to be so much more paranoid over my reviews now...) and one post he really liked was the idea of an RvB Road Trip since he used to be a roadie.

Jason doesn’t know how the whole Shisno thing came about since it was Joe’s idea. He does say that it used to be spelt ‘shizno’ until they found out how it’s officially been spelt as ‘shisno’. Whoops. They DID consider involving Wyoming’ time distortion unit in the story, but with all the other time shenanigans they felt it would make it too complicated.

Koen Wooten, a 3D Producer at RT, joked about putting time travel into every show from now on. Miles and Jason were unamused XD

He had a lot of fun with things like writing The Labryinth and Kai messing with Tucker

The hardest part was balancing out the time travel and figuring out what to look into and what not to.

Jason is very used to being a director due to his own show, Starship GOldfish, and his scripts for himself are MUCH longer and detailed than they end up being in the final draft. For, he had a specific way that he wanted to have Chrovos done, so he was Skype’d in to direct Lee Eddy. Speaking of, he pushed for her after seeing her do Gwen from Camp Camp live at RTX 17 and he really wanted to have her in the show in some form.

For RvB Movie Nights, Jason thinks that Grif would like Caddyshack, thinks that Carolina is terrified of horror films like Paranormal Activity (which makes Wash confused) and ends up panic stabbing the TV, Simmons and Donut both do documentaries, Lopez liked Mr. Bean… then after going back to the beginning of time, he hates that kind of media and just watches an aquarium screen, and Kai likes Alien.

For Halloween, Jason would want to dress as the Fishman from S3 of Camp Camp.

When questioned about the show potentially hitting serial escalation after the Cosmic Powers stuff, Jason talks about how they feel that they have now sealed off from that and can move more laterally again. But he does also feel that there are larger threats out there that affect you more personally, such as everyone trying to kill you which he thinks could be much stronger than fighting some ultra-powerful God. But we’ll have to see where things go from this point.

He believes that moving forward, Doc can be more important since he now is a nice guy with the danger of O’Malley in him.

He also has seen that fans feel that the Reds and Blues need a rest, which he agrees with. One idea he likes that he did in PSA’s was do some Grif and Sarge bonding since he feels there’s plenty left unexplored there, Caboose helping Wahs rehabilitate, giving Simmons an arc, and Donut exploring the universe to do some world building. He and Joe liked the idea of maybe doing a mini-series, especially since Halo 6 won’t be out for quite a while and doing one can explore some new options. He also brings up ideas for the future like Locus on trial, Wash’s rehabilitation, and Tucker seeking out Junior to bond with him more after what happened in The Labryinth. I mentioned that RT needs to hire Jason ASAP, right?! RIGHT?!

He also feels that there would, ideally, eventually need to be a new villain… and suggests himself cause of him being British. HA! He also really loves villains and if he got to keep being the writer, he would absolutely voice the villain like Miles did as Felix. Although he does bring up the ‘self-insert’ critique but thinks it would be okay since as the villain it would be okay to hate him!

At the end of the interview, Jason talks about how collaborative the entire process had been and how Miles greatly helped him with the writing as well as Josh and Austin’s direction, who he hopes will still be on it. He says to thank them.

Well, that was fun! I will say, Jason hit all of the right buttons for me and I do legit hope that he can come back. But even if he can’t, this was so great and having his contribution was amazing. Thank you again for everything Jason~

#rvb

41 notes · View notes

callie-the-snarky-geek-blog · 6 years

Text

RvB16 Episode 15 (Season Finale) Review: Paradox

(Old Blog Repost)

Fifteen weeks ago, RvB16 began and all that we know going in was that it involved pizza quests, Donut the God, and time travel. Over these many weeks we’ve had sex adventures throughout time, the return of O’Malley, an in-universe Red vs Blue movie, the adventured of Grif and a sentient lens flare, Gus the Cyclops, Alien Gods who are actually AI, and buckets full of feels. Well, after all of that and so much more, it has all come down to this. Hoping to save Wash from his brain damage, the remaining Reds and Blues venture back to save him, but we discover that doing this will spark the end of time itself. So the question that remains is: what the FUCK are we in for?!

I got to see this yesterday as Rooster Teeth livestreamed it early. It… it… well I’ll be discussing it down below. Before I get to it though, I want to say thank you to Joe, Miles, Kyle, Josh, the animator team, David Levy and Trocadero, the voice cast, and everyone involved in this season if Red vs Blue. It has been an incredibly fun ride form start to finish and I’ve enjoyed it immensely. A lot of work went into this and I can’t even imagine how exhausting it all had to have been. But I.think that I speak for many of us when I say that we greatly appreciate every second that was put into everything, and again thank you for one Hell of a season.

Alright, well… lets do this everyone. Be afraid. Very afraid.

Overview

We begin with the Reds and Blues already back in the past inside the underwater base, going over the plan. They have 18 minutes before Wash gets shot and they are going to do their damnest to be careful and NOT cause anymore serious damage to the timeline. As they go over their plan, they get caught by a random Blue, provoking both Carolina and Tucker to beat him up. While Carolina does get seen on the security camera, the gang continues to stick to the plan. But their plan may have another potential snag as DOnut returns to Chrovos, The Hammer in hand.

As the guys move forward, they end up at a locked door and are forced to go around. Before they can however they’re forced to hide due to Locus, Carolina, and a delirious Wash about to pass by. Before he hides though, Grif smells something that alarms him. Once Carolina gets a delirious Wash to continue on his way, the guys get ready to resume before Grif calls their attention to the scent. He recognizes it as a Sammie Raphaello’s pizza. Why is this important? Well remember that by this point the restaurant had been destroyed, pizza got wiped out existence, and the Blues and Reds only ever had fish. All of these factors cause Grif to realize that another time traveler is there and he decides to go after whoever it is while the others focus on the mission. Simmons is reluctant, but Grif says that they don’t have time to debate and runs off. Simmons can only watch him go (anyone else have Season 15 flashbacks?) as he and the others press on.

The Reds and Blues make it to what they assumed was an empty hangar, but lo and behold it’s covered in guards. They have only two choices, go ahead and fight them off or chance waiting for them to leave and end up running into their past selves. Fortunately they get a little help when Simmons form a few minutes into the future contacts them. In the meantime, Chrovos tries to have Donut give him The Hammer, and as he talks about the guys being mean to him again, it looks like that Donut is indeed about to do as told. Back at the base, Grif follows the pizza scent and finds the mystery time traveler: Genkins. Grif aims his gun at him, even fighting off being tempted by the pizza, but Genkins says that he’s not here to fight and simply brought the pizza over as an apology. it better be for killing Huggins (even if I still refuse to believe it) you sick fuck!

Back with the others, future Simmons gives the guys advice: to use what they learned and that they’re going to do great. Carolina is confused, but Simmons tells her to let them handle things from here. Back with Grif, he pieces together that Genkins was responsible for Kalirama attacking them at Sammie Raphaello’s and was the one who wiped pizza out of existence. Genkins confirms this, trying to again tempt Grif with the pizza but he simply says that he doesn’t care and presses him to explain why he set them up. Genkins answer? Simple, he’s bored. That’s right guys, Genkins is Chaotic Evil. The Reds and Blues meanwhile fight off the guards. Highlights include Sarge luring two into a portal and onto Iris where they’re faced with the Female Gus Cyclops, Tucker dropping horses on them via the portal gun, and Simmons telling Caboose that the guards stole his penny to anger him enough to clobber them with the golf club. I’m so proud of my boys! So proud! They press on, but not before Simmons contacts his past self to set everything into motion.

Back with Donut, he hesitates and asks about Chrovos why he saved him. He says that he simply took pity on someone in trouble, again asking for The Hammer. He also explains that once freed, he’ll gain power that’ll allow him to kill the Cosmic Powers but promises to still spare the Reds and Blues. Donut points out how his friends are jerks to him more often than not… but that they are still his friends and that Chrovos was both responsible for what happened to him and has only been using him He decides to instead use The Hammer to reinforce the prison, but he’s stopped by O’Malley. They struggle and with Donut continuing to refuse to listen to him anymore, Chrovos orders O’Malley to kill him. It leads to one HELL of a fight scene across time. Due to it being a fight, I won’t go into details but guys it is AMAZING. The animation and choreography are perfect. It goes from on top of airliners, to Blood Gulch, to the moon, to a wrestling rink, and finally to a city. O’Malley tries to act as Doc to make Donut back down, but Donut doesn’t buy it. So how does Donut defeat O’Malley? Well during the Blood Gulch portion, he threw a grenade at him and seemed to miss. In the city however, he opens a portal and the grenade flies out, landing before O’Malley and blasting him away. Donut takes The Hammer and teleports away to take care of Chrovos.

All throughout this, Genkins reveals to Grif his motives. He’s grown tired of their current universe, finding that it has gotten boring as of late. So wanting to spice things up, he agreed to help Chrovos when offered power and wishes to become an actual God to change up the universe as he sees fit. Oh God, is Genkins one of those RvB fans who keeps sayin that the show has gone stale and wants to change everything?! Grif says that by now, the others are already in position to save Wash… to which Genkins responses positively. It causes Grif to realize that Genkins isn’t there to stop them, but to ensure that they succeed. If Wash doesn’t get shot, neither he nor Locus will leave and they’ll be able to take down Temple before he turns the time machine on. If it isn’t turned on, then Donut never gets zapped by Chrovos and therefore none of the events that caused the time travel to begin with will commence. Therefore creating a paradox, one that will have enough power to shatter the already weakened timeline.

Grif runs to reach the others and at the same time, Donut makes it to Chrovos and lifts The Hammer to trap him once more. But unfortunately… it’s too little too late. Grif arrives just as Carolina shoots down the soldier that hit Wash, causing time to freeze. Everything soon fades to white, the Reds and Blues realizing far too late what they have done. They all too begin to fade away, Tucker trying to talk to Sister one final time as Sarge tells them all, especially Grif and Simmons, that it has been an honor. Soon, everyone is gone and the screen cuts to black.

As a new Trocadero track begins to play (I believe that David Levy said that the title was Rush in the livesteam chat, love it by the way!) we soon get a panning shot of some grassy-like area before we see our new location: Blood Gulch. From what I’ve seen more Halo-savvy people say, they are now using the Halo 2 Anniversary engine. So why are we in Blood Gulch? Hell if I know, but we see Sarge calling Grif and Simmons, Grif asking if it’s because they wont he war. Sound familiar? Like that being the same dialogue from Episode 2 of the very first season familiar?! Yeah… from how it looks, time has reset and has sent the Reds and Blues back to the very beginning of their journey, their memories wiped.

It’s not long before we see that things aren’t quite the same however. When we cut to the Blues, we see Tucker with a cobalt-clad soldier… but the second he talks, it is very clearly not Church. For one he’s in a good mood and sees rather optimistic, so definitely not Church. He even offers to let Tucker hold the sniper rifle, to which Tucker days that he doesn’t like them. Yeah, things are NOT right Anyways, Not-Church (there’s speculation if this is Jimmy, Temple, or even Genkins currently) mentions that they’re getting ‘new recruits’ (unassumingly Caboose and maybe Sister) and maybe even a tank. Back with the Reds, we see Grif and Simmons on top of the base as we did back in the beginning so long ago. Grif starts to ask the “do you ever wonder why we’re here?” line… but stops due to the sense of deja vu, asking Simmons about it. When Simmons starts to comment about it being one of life’s great mysteries, he too pauses at the feeling. But they simply go back to standing and doing nothing, the camera panning down and giving us one more glimpse of the Red Base before cutting to the credits.

My friends, Season 16 has oficially ended. Ad ther eis only one proper way to express how I feel about it...

Review

HOLY

SHIT

I was in shock when I watched this the first time. This was my fifth time watching it and I am STILL in shock. This finale was incredibly well done. I think that we all knew, or at least thought about, that Wash was probably going to be saved and that in doing so, a paradox would happen. But even knowing it, I wasn’t ready for it. There’s a lot of questions. What happened to the timeline? What happened to Donut? Why is everyone back at Blood Gulch? Does Freelancer still exist since Church isn’t there? Who is Not-Church? Will the guys regain their memories? Joe left SO MANY things open, and we’re going to have to wait a year to find out the answers. Boy is hiatus time going to be fun…

I’m going to have a section devoted to speculation for the next season, but before we do lets discuss the finale. We’re going to do the Reds and Blues first, then Donut’s scenes, then Grif confronting Genkins, and finally a bit about the ending. SO beginning with the Reds and Blues, it was SO GOOD to see them working as one unit. It really shows us how far they have come since the Blood Gulch days. Everyone has their focus on the task ahead, Carolina remains calm and properly leads the team, Simmons essentially assumes second-in-command (a HUGE step for him) and handles it like a champ, being the one to put the plan to fight the guards into motion and unassumingly coordinates everyone’s efforts. While succeeding ended up a bad thin,t he fact that they DID succeed so flawlessly really shows how effective they all have become and how in-sync they truly are. I wasn’t kidding when I said that I was proud of them despite what ended up happening. It still shows how much they’ve progressed, and for that I am very happy.

Donut though is very much the MVP of this episode. Despite having every reason to not give a shit about the others, and even he point sit out, ultimately he realizes on his own that he’s being used and that his friends are still his friends. Before this season, Donut was easily my least favorite Blood Gulch Crew member and my least favorite Red. The past few episodes made me feel bad for him for the first time, and this one turned EVERYTHING around. Joe did such a good job at giving Donut a personality beyond just being a walking fountain of innuendos. He is smart. He is more than capable of holding his own. He can be hurt and does recognize how the guys treat him, simply wanting them to be nice to him. These are all things that a LOT of people have wanted to see out of the character for years, and Joe seemed to have listened and decided to do so. I’m really glad that he did. Donut feels like a much more layered character, keeping the comedic elements but having those traits that the audience can relate to and ultimately made him sympathetic and his actions understandable without overdoing it or making him look bad.

And int he end, Donut decided to be the better person and to stand up to Chrovos. Which led to the oh so AMAZING fight scene. It was done SO WELL. Like the animators experience with doing the fights over in RWBY really shines here. The usage of the portals was very clever and all the settings were used to both Donut and O’Malley’s advantage. They all felt unique and both parties were evenly matched. But Donut won by using his experience with the gun and cleverness with the portals, resulting in by far his best grenade throw since originally grenaded Tex. O’Malley was certainly no slouch though, even trying to revert back to Doc to try and throw Donut off. It failed, but that was still a clever move. It is one of the best fights in the series in my opinion and was well done by everyone involved. You can tell that Matt and Dan gave it their all with the performances (Matt sounded like he was having a LOT of fun doing O’Malley for that long again), and they did an excellent job.

Onto Grif now. I have made it no secret that Grif is my favorite character and imo the best done character in this season. That continued to shine through here. First, him being obsessed with food and his desire for pizza actually proved useful when eh deducted just through he scent that something wasn’t right. Like he pieced everything together all by himself, and even moreso when he discovered Genkins. And while going alone wasn’t the best option,t he fact that he was willing to do so to give the others time to carry out the mission shows just how far he’s come. Especially when he only gets tempted by the pizza for like three seconds before forcing himself to focus and outright telling Genkins that he doesn’t care. Yes, the one thing that Grif wanted all season? He doesn't are about it anymore. He cares about helping his friends and getting the job done. Despite their falling out, Huggins influence on him really shined through and shows us just how capable that Grif is when he actually does try. He’s smart, brave, and unwilling to back down no matter tempts him or what gets in his way. I could not be more proud of him.

Genkins plan was definitely brilliant. He set forth the events like destroying Sammie’s by telling Kalirama where the guys were and wiping pizza out of history to provoke Grif and Doc to try and remake it, provoking the events that resurfaced O’Malley and everything following. As he said, time traveling and changing history will weaken time, leaving it more than vulnerable to being shattered by a paradox. It was all clearly planned to happen, just as Jax said back in Episode 9. And because of how eccentric he is, the Cosmic Powers didn’t suspect anything even when Genkins outright said that he was the traitor back in Episode 5. He is absolutely Chaotic Evil, and for all intents and purposes he won. He distracted Grif long enough for the others to carry out the plan (which makes it interesting that he called away Grif specifically to ensure that happened since if he didn’t show up at all, chances are it still would have happened) and now time is screwed. If Chrovos keeps his word, Genkins can shape the universe into who knows what.

So yeah… that ending. I just remember everything fading to white and being in total shock. Chat was losing their collective minds throughout all of it, that I DO remember, I didn’t know how to process it, and I still don’t. As nice as it is to see Blood Gulch again, there’s that feeling that it’s just… wrong. Especially when we see the Blues and realize that Church isn’t there and that Tucker isn’t acting right. And when we got to :Do you ever wonder hwy we’re here”… I was gone. Every time that I’ve watched that part, I have cried. It is the one time that I didn’t want to hear it and just further emphasized how wrong things feel. It was an evil move by Joe, and he NAILED IT. I’ve never felt so weirdly satisfied but broken inside. Not even RWBY Volume 3 did that, and that broke me for days. SO yeah… the emotional blows all very much connected and waiting for April is going to be HARD. IDK if even RWBY V6 is going to help make the wait anymore bearable. But I’m positive that the wait will be worth it.

RvB17 Speculations

With this being the finale, and one Hell of a finale, I have a LOT of thoughts about what might happen next. So as we saw, things have been reset back to Blood Gulch. Going off the ‘deja vu’ bit, the guys memories are likely being suppressed and I assume that they’ll be triggered more and more next season. I guess in a weird way, it’s like in Season 9 with the Epsilon Unit int hat the’re going to relive Blood Gulch, but the events won’t be quite the same. This time it’s not because of Epsilon going through memories to meet Tex again though, plus this time no one remembers anything. It also raises the question about how the characters will behave. Likely the Reds are back to their old personalities (Sarge is murderous over the Blues and Simmons is an insecure kissass) but what about Caboose? With Church gone, the events that made him how we know him now won’t happen. Will he be like he was in Season 1 again? What about characters like Sister, Carolina, and Wash? And Donut? He was still in Chrovos’ domain, so will his memory be intact? Or since the Reds don’t mention a rookie, will he be there at all?

There’s a lot of questions, and we have a lot of time to think them over. So here is where I stand so far. There’s been a LOT of talk about who Non-Church is… but currently I’m going to say it’s Genkins. If only because the inflections int he voice sound very much like Genkins voice actor, plus it would mean that for now Genkins needs to keep the Reds and Blues in check while Chrovos does whatever he’s going to do. As for how the guys will remember… it’s hard to say. Enough similar-looking events may happen that it triggers their memories, or maybe Genkins will restore them to spice things up. It’s also possible that if Donut is at Blood Gulch, having been at Chrovos domain he may still have his memory and has to try and get everyone else to remember. If not, if I had to guess who’s gong to remember first… it’s probably gonna be Grif. I think that Joe built it up enough that we can assume that Grif is our main protagonist, plus he’s the only one who knows the true details over what happened. There’s also still that time loop theory due to Grif’s deja vu in Episode 14.

Which brings me to my next theory. I don’t think that the timeline necessarily reset. I think that Chrovos got free and placed the Reds and Blues in an alternate timeline, suppressing their memories since they would be the only ones who could interfere with him. This also means that Wash isn’t there since we last saw him in Chorus, so he’s back in the regular timeline. I think that the timeline is currently frozen outside maybe the Cosmic Powers, who Chrovos is going to try to kill as the timeline slowly shatters apart. Of we go with my theory of Grif eventually regaining his memory, he’ll figure out that Not-Church is Genkins (or even have a confrontation happen when memory-less that make sit impossible for him to ignore the deja vu so Genkins, wanting to see his reaction, grants him back his memory), confront him, and Genkins will shoot him into a Black Hole the same way that he did Huggins, which will lead to them reuniting and reconciling to fix everything. I don’t knwo how they’d escape, but it would lead them back to the broken timeline and Grif has to go through it to prevent the paradox from happening. Which will lead Chrovos to sending his forces, which if the Shisno thing still stand may include the Reds and Blues, to stop him. Bonus if Donut escapes and goes to help, and if the Cosmic Powers are alive they’ll likely also get involved if they see that Huggins survived.

But this is very much a long-shot and going off what we’ve seen so far and how the paradoxes work. I had a theory that all the scenarios may happen, which it looks possible. Chrovos creating an alternate timeline confirms that theory and if time hasn’t been fully destroyed yet, it creates a buffer period with the explanation that the process is still on-going. If all of them go back, it doesn’t change too much of the theory, it just means more people. Likely the mroe I watch the finale and speculate, the more that this will change. But for now, that’s all I’ve got. Will I be proven right? Probably not, but we won’t know until at least April so.. we’ve got time! Unlike the Reds and Blues, haha… and I made myself sad.

Final Thoughts

The finale was insane in all of the good ways. It had a great fight sequence, great character moments, and one mindscrew of an ending that I don’t think that anyone will ever forget. If I had to guess, we’ll probably start next season kind of like in Season 9, with some similar event splaying out and as they do, the guys memories will potentially be triggered. All we can do is wait for April to come and find out. But all in all, it was a great finale and I loved every second of it.

With that, I want to take this time to say thank you to everyone who has read these reviews. This is only the second season of RvB that I watched regularly and the first one that I reviewed as it was coming out. I had a lot of fun doing it and I’m glad that people really liked my silly ramblings! There will be one final review for the season coming up, an overall review of everything I liked and disliked about it, that should hopefully be out this time next week. After that, that’ll be a wrap for RvB16. If any of you guys are RWBY fans, I’ll be reviewing Volume 6 in the same format when it starts this Fall and I may also be doing Gen;Lock if I like it. I’m also going to be doing reviews of the other RvB seasons during the hiatus, so I’ll have plenty of RvB-related material until next season rolls around. Again, thank you all for reading and I will be back again to do RvB17 next year. So I hope to see all of you then!

#rvb #rvb16 #rvb reviews #old blog repost

2 notes · View notes