#grif always wanted to leave

[ozcarma]

I’m actually so upset over the grimmons resolution I’m tempted to start a YouTube channel and make a whole video breakdown of their fucking queerbait

[joltning]

was gonna keep this one to myself but whatever

[skipitty-bop]

im so torn between liking and disliking grif and simmons' ending

on one hand, grif has wanted to leave the military since the BEGINNING. its all hes ever wanted the entire show.

and simmons has been wanting to be a leader and be promoted since, again, the BEGINNING.

so im glad the characters were wrapped up in their own individual ways, and each of them reached their respective goals, and in a written way, can rest. grif can finally go home, and simmons can go on to potentially lead other soldiers.

so its just a personal thing but i wish they didnt separate grif and simmons. theyve always been together, and but i understand why they did.

[lavernius]

Use this ask as a prompt to talk abt Restoration :3 I always like reading your posts w/ your thoughts

Thank you! Heads up for the usual "I'm super RVB critical" disclaimer but here are my assorted thoughts.

RVB: RESTORATION SPOILERS under cut, very rambly, TLDR at the end.

The premise was interesting! I think I (personally) would've appreciated it way more if it had actually followed RVB13 directly, but that's beyond anyone's control. Tucker becoming the Meta is great, it would've been nice to see a real-time progression into it. Kinda sucked that Tucker himself didn't get as much focus as a character, but they probably didn't have time to squeeze in anything past Sigma mentally torturing him and Tucker's passing comments about not wanting to help him.

The animation was okay. I won't flame it because they were probably on a time crunch/low on crew, but some parts of it looked worse than others. Action sequences looked pretty good though.

They were trying to do a "final encore" thing by bringing back some old characters (even as cameos), which is, like. Fun? But I feel like focusing so much on Freelancer seasons (with Niner, Wash's hallucinations, Tex, the Meta) snubbed Chorus, which is fine, but a little sad to have the final season reflect on people from the past but not show any Chorusan past Grey. It's RVB, though, so the cast is way too huge for that shit to work out smoothly anyway.

Sarge's death sucked. I think I laughed through the whole thing because I was so baffled. It was expected, and while the comedy of it all fit him well, I just don't think it was good as like. His last ride, you know? He didn't die a valiant death, the comedy lead up was an "oh god don't do it like THIS please" moment for me. Subversion is fun but falls flatter in the very last installment of a show that's been going on for two decades. I kinda? liked that Grif was mourning it, but because his death was so lackluster the entire "This is the end for me" speech didn't grab me.

Seeing as she's my favorite Blue, I'm very happy they brought Sheila back, but bringing characters back randomly without…much explanation (did they explain that? Maybe I missed it) felt weird to me. I loooved Sheila's bits in the season but it felt like a forced cameo. Niner was similar, even if people wanted her back, but at least she had Sheila to explain her presence. Making FLISS and Sheila the same person was a crazy move I need to write a dissertation on though.

Speaking of feeling forced, half of Grif and Simmons's conversations felt so ingenuine. Like they were shoehorned in to MAKE them bicker and not natural. I knew (the second the season was announced) that they weren't going to do shit for Grimmons, but for ONCE I didn't really find…ANY of their interactions especially riveting. Simmons letting Grif leave was HILARIOUS from a meta standpoint. Physically splitting them up at the end as one last fuck you to the gay people.

Caboose felt better than he does most seasons. Still an ableist mess in some places but I loved his IDGAF attitude. The big Meta fight was just fun for him. He just wanted to win. He was fucking with Lopez on purpose, speaking Spanish and misunderstanding him. He should've been more of a little shit earlier on. His voice acting sounded good! Inflection is always annoying but it felt less…egregious this time?

Donut got fucking robbed?! Kai too?! What was the point of giving them development. There were so many places where Donut would've been great to have in! Throwing the memory unit at Tex as a parallel to their BGC rivalry, helping Wash through his problems, IDK. Sucks.

When the fuck did Doc die. Why him. (< Rhetorical questions.) Wash mental health stuff is awesome, though, I love psychotic Wash, even if the portrayal was a little predictable (to someone who was paying attention. I was thinking about Lopez) and imperfect. I'm kinda glad his issues were focused on without him being a major character. PISSED Carolina only showed up on his behalf and stuck around for his sake, can't a girl live for herself sometimes…

Ummm. Lopez was there. I want to wring him like a wet towel. He's medicated as fuck and got to talk to someone who speaks Spanish…and his WIFE was there…I'm so glad he was having as best a time he could and SOOOO glad they wrote him out early like I anticipated (just personally because I love-hate him, but it was cheap). Go on an adventure with Sheila gayboy. Run away from all of this.

TLDR: Overall, solid 7/10. I went into it expecting a 5-6, but was pleasantly surprised by it overall. It felt VERY forced in a lot of places, the pacing felt bizarre sometimes, I still don't even know where exactly this is placed in the overall timeline (and I don't care), but they did some fun things. I'm so glad it's over I hope I never have to see official RVB content again.

[the-team-sucks]

Aite, Jay's thoughts on Restoration now that the emotional dust has settled.

My non-spoiler thoughts are... it's okay, a love letter to the series? No. A love letter to fans? For the most part.

No shade to RT, Burnie or anyone who worked on this, they did what they could, and had time for. This is going to be loooooong as its my full summary of the movie as a long-time fan, RvB is my special hyperfixation/interest. Spoilers below the cut.

Alright, to start. I personally will believe that s14-17 are cannon, and that Restoration is a simulation/Jax movie/AU/Alternate ending./what have you. I believe this for many reasons, but let's get the Big 3 out of the way first.

1. Sarge's death. I understand it's inclusion, and I understand that with the anvil and steel boot of WB it was hard to produce something of immense quality. Sarge had been a consistent key player and many of us expected this.

But his death was... wrong. It didn't feel impactful, he didn't die a Sarge death. While the reasoning was good (saving Caboose) the execution and runtime made it feel sloppy and just a plot driver(barely). He deserved a much more heroic send-off, and this comes from a avid Red Team supporter, so this should have impacted me. If Sarge had a proper heros death (and the movie had more time), set in a similar vein as Church (or even like he would have died to Meta in s8) then I think I would have had a lot more feelings, and I think it would have also allowed me to accept it much easier, I'm not insanely upset at Sarge dying(however I still would prefer them all to be happy), im upset at how it was handled.

2. Doc's death. Alright, this one peeves me a bit. I LOVE the idea at play, I personally even think it works with Wash given their history in S8, it is a really good reveal. But this also means Doc, an integral character who's been there since Season 2. Doc, who had been the most mistreated and abused character--and JUST got over being overshadowed by O'Malley in universe(S17)... died off screen. And that alone makes me not want to take this as cannon.

It was a moment of "WHAT??-wait." I like Doc, I like all the characters of RvB, but Doc dying off screen after the battle is not it. The Matt Hullum double kill is arguably funny, but I won't stand for Doc dying like this. Sorry.

And 3. The one that bit me the most, hold your sighs/tears; Grimmons. I'm sorry, but I refuse to believe that Grif would leave Simmons, or that Simmons wouldn't go with him. These two characters have been joint at the hip since episode one, they have been through EVERYTHING together. There is a LOT of subtext behind these two, Grimmons barely felt like a fan ship, if they revealed the two were married the entire time I wouldn't have batted an eye.

I don't like their ending. They should have either both went to earth, or both stayed in Blood Gulch. I understand Grif's entire thing was hating the military, but he loved his friends, he cared so much (saving Sarge MULTIPLE times despite Sarge still always bullying him, agreeing to go with Sarge and Caboose to fight the Meta even though he didn't have to, him throughout all of the Chorus Trilogy, and this is just the stuff that is cannon no matter what.), and I don't believe him simply being dismissed would have him leave, he stopped being apart of a proper military when Project Freelancer shut down, and while he was apart of Chorus they'd clearly been demoted/let go since they were ranked down to Privates in Restoration. (I also believe S15 handled the idea of them being moved after S13's ending far better)

And while I don't mind Simmons coming into his own as a leader, he dosent... have a team? They abandoned Lopez, Sarge is dead, Donut is an Admiral (likely for the UNSC), and Grif left. The Blues only have Caboose and Tucker. Carolina and Wash are likely going to go back to the hospital to let Wash heal (which is another thing). So its just Simmons, Caboose and Tucker alone in Blood Gulch? Doing... what exactly? Fighting? This is not a good ending for any of them and it barely makes sense. Id honestly have preferred a "where are they now" segment to this ending.

With those out of the way, lets go over a small lighting round of stuff i didn't like;

Wash felt like he was just there to tell us Doc died, and to get Carolina to the final fight. If you removed him entirely and just said "Carolina has been tracking Meta" nothing would change.

Carolina's inclusion felt like someone threw a cyan bolder into the script, her entrance being a homage to Maine's entrance in S10 was cool but she appeared out of nowhere.

I refuse to believe that after all of this none of them would be checking in on Wash, that man has been the glue of the Reds and Blues since he joined the team and I REFUSE to believe they would just dump him at an institution, however this is especially insane for Carolina. She would be with him every second.

Tucker was INSANELY underused, his moments of breaking through Sigma's control were good, but Tucker felt like he wasn't important. He should be, he should have been the main character of the story, he is the main character of Red vs Blue to me (after Church).

The way Lopez and Sheila were just abandoned is disrespectful. Its in character, and the whole gag but for a final season I dont want a gag like that in a finale. I wanted to see Lopez at that campfire scene imagining him not talking but enjoying the reminiscing. That would have been so sweet and nice. This also applies to Sheila.

The lack of Donut outside of a mention of him being an Admiral and the silly memory of him from Simmons is outrageous. He is a main character, we established this in S17 and retcon or not, he earned that development and it should have remained.

Grif was was insanely angry in the beginning, I imagine this more as Geoff because his performance throughout was probably the best of the movie. He's taken RTs closure hard and I completely understand him being upset, so this is barely a complaint.

Alright... with the negative out of the way, lets talk positive! i wish I could say my positives outweighed the negatives, but unfortunately that isn't the case, however I do have two big standouts.

1. The campfire scene. This, this scene alone is what adds a chunk to the positive section of my feelings. It was the scene that really gut punched me, the moment I heard Ed Robertson's voice I crumpled into tears (I am a HUGE Barenaked Ladies fan). The pure bittersweetness of watching these characters who have been through so much together finally taking a serious moment to reminisce is all I ever wanted from RvB. I wished with all my heart that Tucker, Church, Sarge, Donut, Doc, Lopez, and Sheila could share in it, who knows maybe Sarge and Docs ghosts popped by to listen. But, this is to me, what I wanted.

2. Agent Texas. This was good, this was REALLY good. The bait and swap to have Caboose bringing Tex back and not Church was good, and especially nice development from Caboose despite how rushed it feels. The kicker of this though? this Tex was not the same Tex as before. That reveal that this Tex was not based on the Directors memories of Allison's failure, but instead based on the Reds and Blues memories of her beating their asses is ACTUALLY insane, and a genius twist. And her getting her black armour plus the playing of Round One/Bullfight got me more hype then I was ever expecting to get from Restoration. I also believe that Tex finally being remembered properly and being able to move on with Church was heartwarming and very much deserved.

My negatives far outweigh the positives, but the positives are so good, and with it being the finale of 21 years worth of content I cant in the right mind say I dislike Restoration. I don't like it as the ending to Red vs Blue, call me bias (my favourite season is 15) but the trade off of development for the characters between Restoration and Shisno is just not worth it for me. Say what you will about the Shisno Trilogy but you cannot ignore that it gave us the much needed development for many characters, Grif and Donut standing out the most. While the "god"-plot is far fetched and out there, and I've heard that Tucker was character regressed in s16 (which I do not believe and will die on that hill but thats a topic for another day), or the inclusion of the Blues and Reds putting a wrench in some lore I still don't think it was all bad enough to warrant a retcon entirely. Who knows, maybe this was all planned from the start, or it was just because of WB. But this ending is not satisfying to me. I won't say its a bad ending, if I didn't like Shisno so much and never bothered to watch it I'm sure as a direct continuation from S13 I would have a much more positive look on it.

I also do believe that Burnie wrote it in such a way that you can decide for yourself if S14-17(and 18 if you enjoyed it) or Restoration is the cannon ending and to that I respect it.

So in short, my review of the final piece of official Red vs Blue content, is that its okay. A lot felt OOC, and plot was rushed and messy, things felt like they were all predetermined and not driven by the characters as is RvB's biggest strength. It was far too short and even still I generally don't like retcons. But for what it is, and the positive moments it brings I still think its good. Not cannon to me, but I will definitely be taking points from it into my personal cannon post-s17 (Admiral Donut my beloved, you would be so cool if you actually showed up).

[leafatlaw]

okay okay I’m only on s8 so stop me if I’m wrong, but I love how different the blue and red team dynamics are. For the blue team it’s like “oh well they’re an idiot, but I care about them anyways or whatever”, and church really cares about his team and it’s really sweet.

And then on the other side of the canyon you have the red team who will resort to killing eachother if bored for more than five minutes. Sarge wants Grif dead, Simmons would kill Grif if Sarge told him to, and Lopez who is always a hair away from killing them all( and he would be justified). It’s not found family, maybe found enemies. Pov your on red team: Your stationed in the middle of no where with the most annoying people in the world who hate your guts, and you cannot leave.

[rubykgrant]

You know what? YOU KNOW WHAT?

RVB Coffee Shop AU~

(but it's them, so it's WEIRD)

The Red Bean; a shop that specializes in coffee AND chili. The building is styled with a lot of desert and western themes (the whole vibe being "cowboys drinking coffee and eating chili out on the trail). They also serve a lot of "hearty" meals (bacon, fried potatoes, etc). Sarge is the founder and claims to have a "secret ingredient" that makes his coffee fresher and stronger than anything else (so, yeah; he's Mr Krabs). He's the main cook, with Simmons as his assistant (Simmons INSISTS this makes him junior manager. it does not. he's very proud about getting Employee of the Month, though!)

Grif; he would be a very good cook, but he is not to be trusted around the food (he wouldn't eat stuff for the customers, but he just sneaks little snacks all day if given the chance). Instead, he takes the drive-through orders and answers the phone. He also has close-up cleaning duty with Simmons (cleaning sucks, but the two of them have a routine where they can take their time and talk, so it's not so bad together)

Donut; greets customers inside and is the front barista (he keeps trying to come up with fun names for the different brews, but Sarge rejects them). He convinced Sarge they should sell candy too, but it has to SPECIFICALLY be Boston baked beans and various red jelly beans. He accidentally washed his red uniform with a bleach load, and it came out... lightish-red

Lopez; handles the money, and works on general repairs around the business. For special events, he rigged up a food truck so they can sell at other locations. Sarge also wanted to have "delivery jeeps" so they can do big catering orders. Nobody knows why it had to be jeeps, but Lopez made it work. Somehow

Doc; a health inspector who also checks for safety regulations. The Reds are very... chaotic in some regards, and rather strict in others. He'd rather see a place stay open and improve than simply close it, so he gets very involved with trying to help update things (at one point, the Reds thought he was getting mean phone calls from his boss, O'Malley. it turns out O'Malley is NOT his boss. O'Malley is kind of him, but also not, he just isn't always sure how to explain it to people... but now that they know, they can be introduced to O'Malley properly! he proceeds to mock them for their weird coffee-chili gimmick)

Blue Cup Coffee; originally managed by Flowers, who mysteriously went missing shortly after hiring two new employees, who had absolutely no training. Church decided to just give himself a promotion, and now he's the boss (he regrets this, now everything is his fault). He and Tucker made the mistake of enjoying free coffee a little TOO much, didn't sleep for 2 days, and started hallucinating. Church thought he died and turned into a ghost. They decided to NEVER do that again, and the whole incident kinda forced Church into actually thinking like a Responsible Adult (ew). Blue Cup focuses more of sweet and unique treats (iced coffee, milkshakes, lots of pastries and bakery goodies). Church and Tucker still enjoy these very often

Tucker; general clean-up duty and back barista. He wanted to be the one who takes orders up front or in the drive-through, but he kept flirting every time there was a girl (Church handles the front orders. he hates it). One night when he was closing, somebody broke in and tried to rob the place. Tucker stopped them, and the incident even got in the news. Tucker the Hero had a big ego boost over that. Evidently, somebody thought a "hero" would be the perfect person to leave a baby with. Early one morning, after a rush of customers, Tucker went to clean the tables and... yeah. Somebody left a baby all bundled up in a booth. Tucker was ALONE, and because of an accident in the city, emergency numbers were busy, and he PANICKED, closed the coffee shop, raided the cash register, and got a bunch of baby formula and diapers. Church is ticked off about this at first, but eventually Tucker settles down, and when family for the baby can't be located, it seems like maybe Tucker can actually do the whole dad thing

Caboose; a new employee who is a bit "accident prone", and somehow, it always negatively impacts Church. However, Caboose has a lot of enthusiasm for work nobody else wants to do, so Church keeps him around. Caboose is also good at coming up with new treat combos people love to try (special cupcakes and ice cream flavors, all that jazz). He and Tucker sort of fight for Church's attention, to which Church responds "Guys, guys- I hate you both, equally!". He and Tucker also kind of get along, but in the worst way (they aren't allowed to clean together at night anymore; they tried to combine cleaning products in the toilet for "efficiency", and it exploded)

Sheila; the one who takes calls and drive-through orders... a lot of people think it's some kind of automated voice recording that responds to their words, but that's just how she talks on the phone. She also keeps track of the finances, because Church keeps doing the math wrong

Tex; a temporary employee Church calls in when somebody is sick, or Tucker is busy with baby stuff. A lot of people assume from they way they act around each other that Tex, like... stole his wife from him and caused a divorce or something. Everybody is very surprised to learn that she's his ex-girlfriend, that he isn't totally broken-up with, and are maybe still a thing together. She refuses to wear a uniform, and instead just looks like a random biker helping herself to the coffee

Kai; she used to mooch free coffee from her bro, but Sarge cut her off. She got a job at the rival coffee place out of spite, and is now with the Blues. She doesn't pay much attention at work (and keeps wearing clothes that she THINKS are blue... but it never is), but she gets a lot of customers to pay attention to HER, so she's good for repeat-business from people who enjoy flirting (she does suggest they start selling various merch, shirts/hats and what-not, of which she takes a cut of the profits)

The Director; he's some kind of property-flipper, who wants to do something stupid like buy all the coffee places in town, because he and his now dead wife had coffee on their first date, and he's too depressed every time he sees people drinking coffee. No coffee for anybody. He wants to buy out the businesses and open a pretentious "health food" store (it's just regular food, but everything is called "artisan" and the prices are jacked way up. Freelancer Foods, sure why not). The Red and Blue coffee places won't sell to him, so he tries to send employees there for corporate sabotage

Wash; the first person sent over, initially as a go-between for both the Reds and Blues when they have vendor spaces at a county fair (or whatever). Wash isn't super into the idea if doing this, but his boss has old files on him about some... illegal incidents in his past, and is basically threatening to call the cops on Wash. After an accident at the fair, Church winds up in the hospital, and Wash gets found-family-ed by the Blues, who force him to do all the boring responsible stuff. He officially quits his old job, and finds out that there aren't any active warrants/active charges on him anyway (his previous boss was using it as an empty threat. he very much did break the law, it's just been so long, he's not wanted anymore. it wasn't a big deal, anyway. he beat up a cop who was harassing his friends~)

Carolina; shows up at Blue Cup Coffee one day, and kinda just starts demanding to know where Church is. He woke up from the hospital... and kinda wandered off. Evidently, he's related to her, and there's been some WEIRD issues with her family lately, so she just found out about him. Church has got some memory loss problems, and seems offended by the idea that he works at a coffee shop "What, no? I DEFINITELY should have a cooler job than that. Like... a firefighter. Who rides a motorcycle". Although she's pretty bossy and intimidating, Church isn't afraid to just argue back with her, and it eventually helps her be less harsh with everybody. She helps expose the wrongful activity at her father's business, and gets the Reds and Blues to finally join together (now they have one shared location, but the inside is divided right down the middle as RED and BLUE, like an argument in a sit-com)

[theatricalsorrow]

Overall?? Did not like rvb restoration. Thoughts under the cut

There's so many questions that are just left in the air by what happened and I def felt like there was some mischaracterization stuff.

-I Knew Sarge was going to die, if anyone was going to it was going to be him. I had felt all right about his death initially?? But then the end just. Grif leaving made it lose inpact?? "I always believed in you and knew you could be better" and then he just leaves? After all the things they've been through and he doesn't turn around and stay? Just made it feel meaningless.

- Grif was so angry??? Why was he so angry??

-Doc being dead with zero explanation to that and him just being a haunting of Wash was uhhhh??? Bad

- Donut didn't even exist except as a 5 second memory flash pissed me off so bad. Where was my boy???

-Why the fuck would everyone have just left Wash alone in that facility. No ones been checking up on him and trying to take care of him? Help him out? Cool cool cool. Carolina def would've been making sure he's okay and you know the reds and blues care too but whatever

- What was Carolina even doing if she wasn't with Wash or the Reds and Blues. What could've been so important that she wasn't with her family as she has stated they are to here-

- Love (sarcastic) that Lopez didn't exist after the first 5 minutes

- only things I thought were particularly satisfying was A) Tex coming back because my friend, my partner, and I were all excited screaming when we realized what was happening and that was so fucking hype. And B) I'm glad she got a good ending with Church there. That was also nice to see them walk away holding hands, and I felt a lot about it.

-Mad that her and Carolina didn't get to even talk though cause of course they didn't. Carolina didn't even question why she was there and that's a real "okay but why didn't you question that?" Feeling.

-Tucker existing almost not at all because he was Meta the whole time and then he didn't even get to talk to everyone/wasn't there like Caboose was to say bye to Grif

- The Brief existentance of Dr. Grey had made me think Wash was just hallucinating here cause she also felt like she wasn't herself

-Of course Chorus was immediately sidelined

-Locus not even mentioned (fucking Felix got mentioned but not Locus, damn -_-)

- This is a said lightheartedly (but also with feeling), but 21 year slow burn of Grimmons still ended in nothing. Couldn't even give us that one.

- I think that hour-twenty time run shot them I the foot. It could've been something good, but it just felt unsatisfying in the end. It was just Meh. Not the worst thing they could've made, but damn it could've been much better.

I just think it's also weird they said they were de-canonizing 14-18 and then they made references to stuff in those seasons and it felt weird. But whatever, they did what they did. I'm gonna go do a rewatch of other stuff cause I want to see better content again ahdjsjsj

Edit: I have more to say-

-Where was Freckles? Yeah there was confetti gun but I (could be misremembering) did not hear any freckles voice lines?? He's in Caboose's gun?? Where was he?

Just watching it made me feel like I missed an entire season. Like there was supposed to be a season between end of 13 and Restoration but there isn't and wasn't supposed to be. The fact that it's been several months since Tucker went missing and nobody tried to go find him?? Or reach out either?? That just seems weird too. Idk man it just felt off and like everything was to the left a couple inches the whole time

[rvb-is-gay]

Final Thoughts on RVB Restoration

(note that i did not bother with proper punctuation here and additional thoughts may be added later)

SPOILERS UNDER THE CUT:

wow. i have A LOT to say about this

first, lets start with the things i really liked about this finale:

red team fight scenes. simmons and grif fighting the meta was so good, especially simmons being SO BADASS. simmons stans were fed well. i always love seeing the reds and blues fighting, even if theyre not good, as opposed to freelancers fighting

caboose did a lot and i think had some solid development (as much as he could get in only an hour and 25 mins, at least) and it seems like they made him less dumb?? which is fine with me, it almost seemed like he matured. i also kinda liked seeing caboose being thrown around and beaten up cause it HURT ME SO MUCH but i love being hurt (i love caboose this isnt meant to be an insult to him). it was also just so surreal seeing caboose actually being hurt in an animation because he always managed to avoid major beatings like that before. him and tucker having a brief moment together was soul crushing and i wish we couldve had more of that

tucker being influenced by the meta has been a thing since the s13 finale and seeing it actually happen was really cool

tex being brought back was kind of a meh thing for me. i think everything tex related shouldve just been left in s10 because that season really wrapped it all up nicely. i did enjoy having her back, though, just for the sake of her as a character cuz i love her. and her and church together was so fucking cute and heartbreaking

sarge dying to save caboose was obviously fucking SADDENING but also sweet in a way cause i love caboose being the honorary red member. he loves his blue son

again, simmons being a badass was so fucking good

the grimmons scene with grif saying "come with me" was romantic as hell 😭😭😭

churchs gay little pose

chex scene with tex holding churchs hand was so gjfHDJSAFKGHSDJFSDFKAS GODDDDD THIS M/F SHIP HAS ME IN A CHOKEHOLD

now, the things i DIDNT like:

really unfortunate that the movie/season was only 1 hr 25 mins. it really limited what they could do with the plot and characters, but i understand if it wasnt possible for RT to do more due to warner bros for example

churchs whole youtube video thing was kinda funny but also dragged on for too long and was the perfect example of "show dont tell" NOT being implemented

a lot of stuff felt ooc, like how the reds didnt wanna help caboose at all. the beginning with epsilon showing up was understandable with how they didnt want to get involved, but later on the ship they just leave caboose to be choked out by the meta? THAT part didnt feel like the reds at all. grif also for some reason was so fucking mad and yelling a lot? idk where all that came from? it was so random like grif chill dude 😭

wash just being stuck in a mental hospital for something we dont even find out about until the end, which in a story sense isnt inherently bad obviously and can really add to the narrative, but in this case it just felt so confusing and like it didnt make sense. why would carolina and the reds and blues just let that happen to wash? not to say that getting help with mental health is bad or anything, just what i mean is they dont seem to care that hes gone or anything and dont visit him and hes treated like hes crazy the whole time hes in the hospital

479er being alive was really awesome, but it came out of nowhere (i understand that this is also probably due to the runtime restraint)

WHERE THE HELL WERE DONUT AND LOPEZ THE WHOLE TIME???? lopez showed up once and donut was in a 5 second thought bubble from simmons? the FINAL season of rvb and they dont even have the full crew of characters fighting together one last time? nobody talked about them at all? come on guys

the beginning with the convention was just really unnecessary and boring

why does nobody seem to care that TUCKER IS MISSING WITH MAINES ARMOR?? it feels like everyone just got brainwashed to forget about all the years they spent being friends

what was the deal with the covid jokes 💀

sarge wouldve never let himself die to a blue

doc just dies offscreen and its only vaguely mentioned at the very end and just happened out of nowhere, almost as an excuse for wash to not be present during everything with the meta?

where the hell has carolina been? she was never mentioned once until she showed up at the end

why why WHY did GRIF LEAVE??? i know season 15 was retconned, but the fact that he CARES ABOUT HIS FRIENDS and doesnt actually want to leave them unlike what he says shouldnt have just been forgotten about. AND SIMMONS JUST DOESNT WANNA GO TO EARTH TO VISIT? HELLO THIS IS NOT THE SAME GRIF AND SIMMONS WE'VE BEEN WITH ALL THESE YEARS. wheres that tweet saying "found family separating after the journey is bs" cause thats how i feel about that. 21 years spent building up these amazing relationships between these amazing characters just for them to seemingly not give a shit about each other?? is simmons just alone in blood gulch with tucker and caboose now?? 💀💀💀

i understand because he was the meta, tucker didnt have control, but it was still unfortunate to barely have any tucker this season

i understand that the meta was a threat to everybodys lives, but it feels like everyone was just ok with killing tucker to be able to kill the meta. it wouldve been so much better and angstier if they were having difficulties with it because thats their friend

why did one have to show up. i dont really have anything personal against her as a character or anything but i wouldve really preferred any and all things related to zero to just be wiped off the face of the planet

the music was just terrible. really unfortunate they wouldnt have trocadero return :( it felt so unnerving having this weird stock music playing whenever people were just standing and talking. throughout all of rvb, 99% of the standing talking scenes never had any music so this was so bizarre

some animated scenes looked really off, idk if it was just me

one personal gripe i have that doesnt actually really matter that much to the overall season, but it really bothered me, is that that IS NOT HOW THE BUBBLE SHIELD WORKS!!! i think technically we've never actually seen the bubble shield be entered or exited on screen so i guess you could argue that it works differently from how they work in halo? idk still bothered me

this season in general just felt like an AU?? even 15 through 17 felt more real as seasons of rvb than this did, and i HATED season 16, so thats saying something

and of course, grimmons. big congrats to RT for the longest queerbaited couple in i think tv show history. this one really pisses me off the most because just. how. theres a difference between a queer ship existing because people like it, and a queer ship existing because there was actual subtext and clues and their relationship is written so perfectly and its been around for so long that so many queer people came to really love and identify with it in spite of how shitty they were treated. idc, grimmons is canon in all of our hearts, fuck that

a great point from mod janae: the whole point of rvb, which aiden price even talks about, is that they come together as friends/family and even though they individually suck, together they can do anything, and a better ending wouldve been not to bring back tex carolina or even wash but to have gotten all the reds and blues back together to stop the meta. it was never about being the strongest but about working together

in general, i did not like the season. it had a few things i liked, but obviously the cons outweigh the pros here and so overall, i hated it. i mightve hated it even more than season 16 which is insane because ill fight tooth and nail for why season 16 is such a catastrophe. really disappointing that this is how rvb ends. i wouldve much preferred a cheesy "friendship defeats the bad guy and saves the day" ending because that IS what rvb is to a degree. anyways i understand how GOT fans feel now

[shutthehellupcaboose]

I’m gonna spoil restoration I lied im tired and I wanna talk about it cause I sorta hated it? Like. Even more than zero. Spoilers are under the cut and if you read it and don’t like what I have to say cause it’s my opinion, that’s okay I’d love to hear what you have to say

So Grimmons not being canon is actually fine. What I didn’t like is Grif getting what he wanted because I think the Grif we know now didn’t want to leave after everything, I think he grew past that and decided he would rather be with his friends than be back on earth.

Simmons got the respect he always wanted but at the cost of Sarge’s life.

I couldn’t care if Grimmons was canon or not, what I care about is the way everyone was handled. It felt like we were taking away development and we were rewriting characters into characters from season 8! Grif if I remember correct had a whole big speech about how they always follow church and the blues because that’s what they’ve always done and none of this would have happened if they didn’t and then he QUITS and stays on iris until he goes insane and then once he’s back with Simmons and the rest of them he agrees to stay by their side.

And I think that was Grif GIVING UP the idea of leaving in favor of the people he cares about. What the fuck is on earth for him besides retiring? Like really. If Simmons HAD gone with him that would have been something but deciding to give Grif the ending he DIDNT need, or in my opinion, really want really feels underhanded and like it’s just easy?

I understand they were on a time squeeze and COULDN’T make something of the caliper of the rest of rvb, I’m not complaining about the quality of it, but parts of it felt so rushed and unplanned and I wish they had taken time to actually close the doors rather than blowing them off their hinges??

I feel like Tex also wouldn’t call herself Allison. Church calling himself Leonard makes sense but Tex tells Tucker Meta that she isn’t Beta she is their memories and she is THEIR Tex and I think the idea of her embracing herself as Tex the robot built to fail over and over again makes sense! She is doomed to fail, but that doesn’t mean she’s not going to try. But I will say church and Tex did get a good ending in that regard even if I don’t like the outcome it was a good ending really.

And I wish I had more information on doc and donut. We (partner and friend) tried theorizing about why they were gone and we honestly couldn’t figure out why because they tried so many things at once and I just wish there was like a line that was like “oh when donut / doc died” or “donut quit” or something

I just feel like Wash, Grimmons and Sarge got a really shitty deal, and maybe that’s just me but I feel like there could have been a bit more and sadly I think with everything going on they didn’t have a choice BUT to rush to release it.

I mean to Me season 13 is a perfect ending, and having church dissipate and being an open ending that’s like “okay now you decide what happens” is better than this personally.

[heroictoonz]

So, I finished Red vs Blue. Just now like not even a few seconds ago as of writing this post. It was, well to say it bluntly it wasn’t great. I didn’t agree with pretty much most of the endings for these characters and I wish the final season had been longer than less than an hour an a half. Most movies are longer than that these days. But, I will say, that I cried. I cried and sobbed and am still crying writing this because even if I didn’t like how it ended it didn’t end horribly and I can tell it ended in love. All the characters, the ones they had in the season at least, got their emotional 15 minutes of fame. Maybe Tucker didn’t get much at all but, I dunno. As the guy whose only personality trait is liking Tucker RvB I weirdly didn’t mind all too much. Donut wasn’t in it either but he did great in season 17 so I also don’t mind that too terribly.

I will say, I don’t think there was any hope of RvB having an ending that I, personally, would think was ‘good’ or ‘satisfying’. Not perfectly at least. And I don’t say this to be mean. But, this was clearly the kind of show that was meant to run on till it was forced to die. They probably weren’t planning on ending it when they did and it took the company getting taken to pasture for it to be over. With as much random bullshit that they crammed into this show I never much expected for it all to be focused on or tied up in the finale. And this show didn’t start as something that took itself very seriously, but the ending was clearly taken with so much heart and care in mind and that’s all I can ask for from this show, I think.

They ended the show where it began. In a box canyon. They ended the story with Allison and Leonard. The people who unknowingly started all of this in the first place. They did what they could to tie in other loose ends and bring in some really cool ideas to make the ending interesting and still it’s own fun story. It made me sad to watch, honestly. Most the characters I have spent so many years loving just didn’t get the best endings. And I was always afraid of that but, hey maybe I’ll write a fic to give them a better one. Maybe it’s the endings that the RT team thought was most fitting for all of them, and I can understand why. I just, personally, enjoy happy endings. This one wasn’t as happy. But, it had hope in it. Especially Carolina and Wash’s last part. I hate the idea of some of these characters being dead and never coming back. I hate the idea of Grif leaving and never seeing any of the others again. But I get it, I understand the ending and I’m content with it. As weird as that might seem, honestly.

Whenever I finish something I’m always reminded of this Doctor Who episode I watched as a kid where he talks about how much he hates endings. How he will tear the last page from books he reads so they never have to end. It’s funny that without fail I think of that episode, that scene. Because in that episode the Doctor is forced to face an ending. One he doesn’t want but accepts anyways. This is me rambling but, I think every time I finish something I love this much and have loved for this long, whether the ending it good or bad, I think I understand that random Doctor Who episode more and more each time.

Did I like the ending season of Red vs Blue? Not fully. The ideas were cool but as with most of this show the execution wasn’t the best in my opinion. But, maybe I’m just a hard ass lol. But the ending did make me laugh, it made me cry, it made me smile and stim and feel. The ending made me feel. And it was a pretty good send off to a pretty great show. And hell, they got an ending. That’s harder to come by these days. Maybe that’s all I can ask for from it. Maybe that’s why even in my tears I’m content more than any other emotion.

But, it’s also weird. Like a really long chapter of my life is closing. I think this is also where I have to officially accept what happened to RT. As someone who’s followed RWBY, RvB, and Camp Camp for a really long time not to mention the lives and their gaming channel and all of that, it feels weird? Kinda bad, honestly, to see it end. I’ve, admittedly, been avoiding it. Avoiding talking or thinking about it. And I doubt the guys told all the stories they had for this show, but I’m glad they got to end it. I’m glad they got at least that much.

It’s 2am and I have work in about 14 hours. I think I’m gonna go read fanfiction.

[churchs-topsurgery-scars]

wait wait wait can you expand on the transfem simmons hc bc i'm interested as a transfem who is a major simmons fan 👁️👁️

Absolutely!!!!

Simmons honestly reminds me of a LOT of my transfem friends so I can't unsee it.

Personally I think she's an egg who is in complete denial of being trans. Very much "Yeah I think about what life would be like as a girl constantly. Still cis tho" kind of vibe happening there.

Literally everyone on the red team has said "dude if you're trans that's okay you don't have to hide it" and yet she still is over here screaming "WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT I AM A MAN." Everyone is pretty much like "okay sure lol" and leave it alone except for Grif who is constantly giving her shit for being an egg. They frequently argue about if Simmons is trans or not and it always ends with her being like "whatever dude shut up"

This is a big part of why she's so nervous around women. Not because she wants to be with them but she wants to be them. Kaikaina (who is also transfem and very open about it don't @ me) gives her major gender envy and she doesn't know how to cope with those feelings. If Simmons would have like ONE (1) conversation with Kai about gender this wouldn't be happening, however the poor soul is too intimidated by confident femininity to get more than 10 feet of her. But honestly right now she's in the middle of a warzone and doesn't have the time to really contemplate her gender so it's taking way longer for her egg to crack than it really should.

I like to think that after the events of the show she will start to figure it out and be like "okay maybe I like being a bit feminine sometimes but that doesn't mean I'm a girl." When she does eventually transition she isn't really hyper feminine. She enjoys doing her hair and makeup, but 90% of the time said hair and makeup is paired with a pair of basketball shorts and a hoodie. Simmons is honestly too intimidated by the intricacies of women's fashion to further than a sundress every once in a while. Grif and Kaikaina keep telling her she's reading too far into it and she should just wear what she thinks is cute, but she's way too neurotic to take that advice at the moment. Everyone is just glad she's finally out of the closet; the rest can come later.

Btw I've decided basically the entire cast is queer in some way so if y'all wanna send me more asks about my head cannons I would LOVE an excuse to infodump about them.

[yanderes-galore]

One more from 📸 anon (who didn’t even turn on the anon option in their hurry, which is so ironic considering the emoji), could you also please write a RVB short with a darling who was Church’s S/O when he died, and Temple deciding that he needed to have them? At first as just part of his plan to mess with the Reds and Blues, but then he actually ends up in love and starts getting possessive over them?

Sorry I’m at work and had to rush myself ^_^’

I really do love Mark Temple as a villain, honestly- Here you go! I like how this came out honestly.

Projection

Yandere! Mark Temple Short

Pairing: Romantic

Possible Trigger Warnings: Gender-Neutral Darling, Obsession, Manipulation, Grieving, Major character death mention, Kidnapping, Isolation, Forced relationship, Mark being a delusional creep.

Maybe it was your hope that got you into his mess. You only came out of retirement and pushed aside your grieving because you had hope. Everyone had hope... except Grif-

There was hope you could've seen Church again...

You've missed him ever since.

Epsilon, Church, had become a thing ever since the Tex situation was resolved. In his words it was his attempt to start anew. You didn't mind... truthfully you've fallen for Church since Alpha.

It had its struggles but you were happy to help Church. Church was family, the Red and Blues were family. Then the events of Chorus had happened...

Leaving Church to sacrifice himself for the greater good...

Leaving you in mourning.

You swore off participating in the "Temple Event" on Chorus. Instead your retirement was spent mourning the death of your AI companion. Since then you vowed you'd never have another partner.

Then that reporter came with that fateful message... a message from Church.

You didn't want to get your hopes up. Yet the rest of your family believed it. So... you thought you could believe it too.

Your journey had led you to the Blues and Reds. It had felt strange to see someone else share your armor color. But that wasn't the only thing that felt weird.

Your gaze never left the cobalt armor that stood in front of you. Pains of familiarity struck your heart as you tried to tell yourself it wasn't him. This wasn't Church... this would never be Church.

That was Mark Temple, a sim trooper similar to Church. In fact he was the one to tell you the UNSC may he holding him captive. You were doubtful of this claim...

But hope encouraged you forward...

Hope for love.

Speaking of love, Mark knew all about your history. He knew you loved Church. He knew he could manipulate that to make the Reds and Blues fall for his plan.

Which is why he began to get closer with you. Similar to how Sarge was easily manipulated with a simple position, you were easy to manipulate with simply looking like your lover. You're blind by grief.

Which made you more susceptible to him.

Mark treated you with such care. He picked his words carefully and lead you along. He watched as you opened up to him more and more.

Part of him even began to falter and fall for you....

Mark began to like how you laughed and talked to him. He could tell you trusted him. Yet whenever he tried to pry into your past with the AI, you shut him out.

Part of you saw Church in Mark, but it was all in appearance. Sometimes you caught yourself thinking of him as Church. But you made sure to catch yourself.

While Mark began to fall for you... he felt frustrated that you didn't see him for him. He wondered if each time you saw him you saw Church. Such a thought made his blood boil.

Every laugh wasn't for him. Every gaze wasn't for him. Every cute little thing you did never belonged to Mark in the first place.

It was always Church... because you met him first.

Mark didn't know why he got so worked up over this. He was never meant to fall for you. He was meant to use you.

But here he is... tapping his foot at his desk as he tries to get you out of his mind. No... no, actually, he wanted you in his mind. He just wanted Church out of yours.

He's an AI! How could you love an AI more than an actual person, huh!? He could treat you so much better than some robot hologram....

Such a thought ate away at Mark. He even made it a goal to show you he could do better. The thought never left his mind even as he froze the Freelancers with their own Armor Lock.

Even when the Reds and Blues caught on to his plan, he made sure you were distracted before locking them away. He refused to have his chances at having you and his plan working sabotaged. Sarge was already loyal enough to not be locked away.

Oh.... with everyone out of sight he can just imagine how you'd be with him. He'll make you forget about that damn AI. He has ways of convin-

"Where are they!?"

Mark looks towards Tucker, annoyed that his outburst shoved him out of his daydreams.

"Whom?"

"You know who I'm talking about! I also know that look damn well! What the hell are you planning!?" Tucker growls from his cage, pressing up against it to glare at the cobalt soldier.

"Aww... Tucker! Are you jealous?" Mark taunts. "Have you also been shunned by them because they love some... AI!?"

"That AI was our friend and their partner! Wait... oh, dude, you have some SERIOUS issues-" Tucker shudders as Mark scoffs.

"Don't worry about what happens to them." Mark says as he exits the room "I promise I'll take good care of them!"

The door closes and Mark makes his way to his office. He calls Sarge to do some other order before entering. He could barely contain his excitement.

Now that everyone was out of his way... he could call you into his office.

Mark is patient when he calls you in. His helmet hides his grin while he watches you hesitantly enter the room. Once you stand in front of his desk he leans forward.

"You called?" You ask softly.

"Yes I did!" Mark chirps, leaning forward. "Please, take a seat."

"What did you need me for?" You ask, sitting down to look at the cobalt soldier. You still struggle to make eye contact after all this time. No matter... he'll fix it.

"Hm... come a little closer, will you?"

With a nervous feeling sinking into your gut you shift closer. Discomfort quickly replaces it when Mark leans forward, as though he'll reach out for you.

"Has anyone told you... how cute you are?"

You stay silent, shock preventing you from moving momentarily. What did he just say?

"Seriously... you've been on my mind for a long couple of months since I met you! It's enough to drive a man insane, y'know?"

Mark's hand drifts to your helmet and you push him away. You don't like what he's trying.

"Come on, baby... won't you let me have a little peak? I think you're just so... perfect for me."

"Temple." You manage to speak, holding his hand down. As a result he manages to change it into holding your hand.

"Would it be easier if I removed mine first? I can do-"

"I'm not interested." You say quickly, looking away from him. He looks too much like Church.

"Oh... it's that AI clouding your mind again, huh?" Mark mutters bitterly. Your heart pangs again.

Suddenly, Mark forces your helmet to look at him. You can't read his face but based on his strength you can tell he's annoyed. Angry, even.

"I could be so much better than him. He's just an AI. In fact, he's a DEAD AI, isn't he!?" Mark growls and you feel tears slide down your face.

"Get the hell away from me... I loved him-"

"And I love you! I'd do anything to push him from your mind. I want your mind to be filled with me, not him!"

"You're insane!" You push him away and dart away from him. Mark laughs to himself before getting up.

"Insane? I'm not the one who fell in love with a dead robot! I was giving you another chance!"

"Another chance!? At what!?"

"At love!" Mark steps closer yet you keep your distance. "I could heal you, you could heal me! We both lost someone close to us!"

"I don't care-"

"Harsh! That's okay, I don't care about that AI either. All I care about is you and I plan to have you!"

You tire of talking and rush for the door. Mark only responds by calling over Surge and Sarge. Both red soldiers block the door once it opens.

You give Sarge a pleading look.

He pauses before shaking his head.

"Sorry, kid...." Sarge mumbles.

"You backstabber-"

"Oh... doesn't betrayal sting, baby?" Mark coos behind you. You freeze as Mark swings you to face him. "It hurts me even more. Yet thats okay, I promise when my plan against the UNSC works I'll come back for you!"

"... come back?" You ask, feeling Surge and Sarge grab your arms.

"Baby, you're staying here until you forget that AI of yours." Mark answers in a sing-song tone, yet you can hear the bitterness of it. "You'll have your own little cell away from everyone."

"Please, don't!" You struggle, yet Mark only waves as you're dragged off.

"Oh... I'd normally feel bad for doing this." Mark hums, watching you dragged off to the cell he prepared. "But you'd have to love me to earn my sympathy, dear...."

As you're dragged to your cell by the two red soldiers, you hope someone will come and help you...

and once you're alone? You begin to wonder if you should even hope anymore.

After all, didn't hope get you into this mess?

[weatheredlaw]

what i liked about rvb: restoration (spoilers ahead)

okay i've spent a lot of time complaining to some friends today about what i didn't like about restoration, so i'm going to tell all of YOU what i did like, because i don't like to inundate myself with negativity!

Caboose

as a caboose fan, as a caboose girlie, as someone who has written a bunch of caboose fic - i fucking stayed winning last night. burnie keeping caboose knowing how to speak spanish was excellent. caboose was treated so well, he really wasn't the butt of a joke (the bit about epsilon programming in the "shut up caboose" lines was very funny to me, it's peak church and caboose and the fact that they came out and weird times was so so funny)

follow-up caboose point: i LOVE that he's too unpredictable for epsilon, it's truly caboose in a nutshell. and he was treated as capable and able to do things. he was also so GOOD. i'm absolutely not over this and i probably never will be:

caboose deciding to bring back tex because he wanted them to win? flawless. no notes. excellent.

Grimmons

i knew as soon as it was announced that burnie was writing this season that we were not going to get the grimmons ending of our dreams (yes i saw that google drive, yes it haunts me forever) but this isn't about what we didn't get

it's been 21 years since "why are we here" and i loved the shots of the two of them standing together. it always feels right when they're a pair, no matter what's happening.

i'm going to take what i got and write the fix it fic later. simmons gave grif what he always wanted - a way out. he gave him those papers, he said "here, you can leave, no strings attached" and the almost first words out of grif's mouth were: "come with me." it's romance, to me. i'll take it.

willing to go out in a blaze of glory together. say no more.

Sarge

i really wasn't sure if this was going to be a joke or not when it started happening. meta!tucker pulled out his sword and sarge was too close to the door and i said outloud GET AWAY FROM THE DOOR and damn

i know it was SUPER cheesy, but i was a fan of the sarge-grif interaction there at the end. sarge's animosity for grif has always been played up for laughs, but the last few seasons (retconned simulations or not) really strengthened red team. and the chorus trilogy did, too.

man i loved these lines:

(this shot makes me miss donut so bad but this is about what i liked, not what bothered me so please take this shot of sarge and the boys)

also sarge going back for caboose was so so so so good to me. "one of us" - yeah man, caboose is one of your boys. you gotta go BACK for your BOY. and he fucking did. i really wasn't sure if this death was going to stick, it got me pretty hard. (he didn't HERK-BLEH so idk if it counts but)

Tucker/Sigma

META!TUCKER RULES

conceptually, i fucking love this. i think it would have been nicer to get a bit more pre!meta tucker and see what was going on. his absence is handwaved a bit but if i'm able to remove seasons 15-18 from my brain, i'm able to focus more and say yes, ok.

i do have questions, like what was he acting like? did he do anything strange? did he disappear RIGHT away or did he linger and then go? it seems like wash doesn't know, and i think if wash knew tucker was the meta, he'd have been a lot more concerned (the bit at the end with wash and doc and tucker being taken care of was nice)

but i'm OBSESSED with this idea that tucker's stuck in there and he doesn't want to be there. really genuinely i love sigma and how nasty that little shit is. it's interesting that epsilon has the memories, but sigma still knows EXACTLY what the director did to the alpha and, even while it hates him for that, it's completely willing to use that on another person:

and THIS PART:

ugh MY BOY. it was nice to have tucker back, i was sad we had to see him like this and i wish we had more time with this concept, it's very delicious and it's one thing i do LIKE about the later seasons being retconned.

Wash and Doc

okay so i had to go back and watch some of the last episode of season 13 to understand this better, because i hadn't watched season 13 in a REALLY long time. once my memory was jogged i understood what was happening better. to recap, if you're like me and forgot:

wash and carolina were on the evac ship headed towards the reds and blues. after they win their fight post-epsilon death, it seems that the evac goes wrong and wash is injured. in that scuffle, doc dies getting wash to safety. this seems to be a breaking point for wash and doc manifests as a hallucination that Dr. Grey seems to be aware of. she never address that it IS doc, but she (and ADMIRAL FUCKING DONUT OK) are aware wash isn't doing well.

this was something i saw on reddit - doc being dead was foreshadowed pretty well! here's the image from the reddit page:

one shadow! i'm sure a lot of y'all saw this but i was busy thinking wash didn't sound like shannon mccormick (it was him! he just isn't talking about the show online really it seems - i haven't checked his tumblr for a while, but he's p much silent on twitter, i assume he came back after some negotiation because he and RT no longer work together, even before RT was dissolved)

EDIT: upon rewatching this it appears to move WITH doc but i do LIKE the one shadow thing so i'm gonna stick with this

also doc disappears from frame whenever other people are talking. no one ever addresses him, and i assume because he says doc's name while talking about the meta, Dr. Grey is like ah yep he's hallucinating again.

upon first viewing i thought this was a little rushed, and i still believe it was kinda shoved in there at the end, but after sitting with it and doing a little season 13 refresher, i actually really like this and i think it's very bittersweet. wash doing his best to cope with his guilt and thinking about the person who saved him and having them live on like this is incredibly hard, but it also feels incredibly REAL for his specific history and trauma

Other things

carolina coming when wash calls for her

wash BREAKING HIS LEG to call his best friend like dude wtf

simmons still wanting to save tucker, knowing he isn't the one who killed sarge

the work from home security guards. it's funny. it's really funny.

"i hate the future"

sitting around the fire and remembering! i cried! THIS SHOW AND I GREW UP TOGETHER

the trocadero song. it fucking got me.

tex and carolina fighting the meta. just. bad ass.

the framed photo of wash's cat

the AI's bickering in tucker's head. theta saying "he's tired and scared." delta comforting theta.

geoff really delivered grif's lines. they were SO unhinged i loved them.

speaking of VA's - michael malconian! honestly i was so worried when joel was fired that we were going to lose caboose forever. it made me SO sad to think about, but when they started making some PSA's and kind of made some jokes about the voice change (and in restoration!) i was much more hopeful. i really think he did a SUPER good job capturing caboose. my favorite scene in red vs blue is caboose saying goodbye to church in season 15 - and i think my second is now michael's delivery of caboose telling tucker he's already forgiven him if he decides to kill him. he just totally knocked it out of the park.

and just speaking of...him.

there's a lot i wasn't happy with, and i guess i could make a list about that, too. i feel like it's a lot of things y'all probably weren't happy with either, but this is what i DID love. and i think there's some more i'm just not remembering and i think i will come to really love this. someone already said it best imo: it was good enough and that's ok. i grew up with this show, seeing it end was incredibly emotional for me, but it feels right to say goodbye.

bow chicka bye now.

[xombe]

Before all the videos were taken down from YouTube, friend A and I introduced friend B to Red vs Blue. This involved us all piling into his apartment and binging as many seasons as possible before midnight.

Rewatching was a blast, and B really liked the show. We got to the end of Reconstruction before Rooster Teeth pulled everything. Maybe someday they'll get to see the rest.

Binging meant a refresh on the lore and writing, and Rooster Teeth has got retconning down to an art. They embrace the weird and silly and turn it into feasible plot devices. Did you know Texas mentions Carolina as early as season 5? Also, Caboose calls time a circle in the 3rdseason.

Red vs Blue's strongest point is the characters. They're fun, flexible, and enter every scene ready to 'yes and' their way out of it. Sarge has always been my personal favorite, and this watch-through changed nothing. He's goofy and ridiculous but takes himself seriously enough that his hare-brained plans somehow work. I'm a red for life.

There are still some jokes that hold up. The best received was Sarge using a cow diagram to perform surgery on Grif.

It isn't without flaws. The early seasons worked best as two teams taking turns slinging insults. When they introduced a narrative, there was clearly a struggle to wrap it up. I have never seen a show fail to acknowledge character deaths before, especially characters they spent ages hyping up.

Wyoming's death is nothing. Texas shoots him in the head in a split-second scene. While my friends and I were watching, we didn't realize he'd died until Texas plugged his head into Pelican-Sheila.

He's not the only one who gets these weird, unacknowledged deaths. Beta, the Agent Texas we'd gotten to know and love throughout the series, was also killed in the blast. That's never mentioned or acknowledged, and neither are the rest of the A.I., but they do get revisited later.

While watching, B didn't realize Alpha had been killed by the EMP. There was either, though this may have been a choice by the writing team to leave it open-ended so they could revisit it if they so chose.

I know many seasons have awkward endings because they were written to be open-ended in case the team decided they did or didn't want to continue the show, but that doesn't mean it was a good decision.

Apart from the bad at writing death scenes, it was a great rewatch. Do it with your friends sometime or something.

[dgknightblue]

My Simmons has a whole wardrobe of lingerie/ slxtty outfits that he wears occasionally on his most confident days.

Under his armor, he might have something risky there. Obviously not all the time, just something when he’s feeling particularly good about himself.

Lace, frill, see through, chains all kinds!

Some, of course, are reserved for a romantic partner he feels he can intimate with.

Grif has seen some of his tamer outfits because Simmons a confused and dense idiot.

This was brought on by an idea I just had.

Simmons has a meeting just before bed, without Grif, he tells everyone not to be out of their rooms at a specific time because he’s walking to Grif’s room in lingerie. Before anyone asks, no I don’t want to have sxx with him, I just want to sleep in the same bed. I sleep better next to someone. Best way to do that is to confuse the hxll out of him and fall asleep the second I’m on the bed.

Simmons admits Grif was his first real and only friend and the majority of what he knows about friends is his interactions with him, but he doesn’t really act the same with the others maybe because they are his friends and not his best friend? Is it normal to seduce your best friend with a slxtty outfit?

Doesn’t matter, Simmons leaves anyway. They turn to Kai and ask her about this.

“First off, he sound super fxcking misguided. Second off, He totally has a crush on my brother and has no clue. Third off, there’s no way I’m not watching this shxt show go down!”

So not every one was interested in seeing this, so they went to bed. But the others? They saw. Something really cute and surprising.

Simmons wasn’t kidding about seducing Grif into letting him cuddle.

The outfit wasn’t bad, certainly not something to wear in public, but cute! He’s showing skin, but also covered.

Not going to say more.

Grif was confused and flustered as Simmons fell a sleep seconds after crawling into his bed.

“Did you seriously just fall asleep???”

It’s not suppose to be smxtty. Fluffy actually! Let him have clothes he likes to feel confident in! He’s always covered up and embarrassed about himself.