#rvb recollections

[louiseazy]

Red Vs Blue Swear Count Season 7

111 swears in total for season 7. First to swear was Sarge last swear of the season was Tucker

swear words used:

dick/boner/bastard/douchebag/r-word were used once; bitch was used twice; crap 6 times; shit 11 times; damn 15; ass 18; and 54 for the most use fuck

Ranks

last place non-swearer Washington/Caboose/Meta/consular/chairman/aliens* & extras

is Donut with 1

is Sarge with 8

is "CT" with 9 (insurrectionist leader)

is Lopez with 11

is Simmons with 13

3rd is Grif with 14

2nd place is Epsilon with 15

1st place is Tucker with 40

*can't tell what aliens were saying but deleted scenes suggested they're polite

[justtkatt]

May I present

[carbonateddrinks]

“And I mean, hell. If you’re have to live the rest of your life in a memory… ya might as well make it a good one.”

[skwistokwarrior]

can't tell if i love or hate watching s8 of rvb. on one hand, this season absolutely changed the way i view storytelling forever and will always have a special place in my heart for how ambitious and creative it was. on the other hand i want to jump off a cliff after the ending

[katzenklavierr]

I've always thought of the humour in RvB as being a bit low-brow (mainly because of all the sex jokes) but while I was going through BGC clipping some of my favourite moments, I realized there's not actually that much potty humour. In at least of one of the commentary tracks, Burnie had said something about not wanting to get too much into that, so it makes sense, but I guess I'd just kind of thought there was more than there is.

While I wasn't dedicatedly tallying them, there are three jokes about someone pissing themself (all of which land for me) and one joke about T-bagging (which was done by the Beaver Creek troopers so it's IC), but other than that most of the crude humour is just about sex (and a good bit is about gay sex specifically, albeit in the somewhat-homophobic 2000's gamer way. It's okay tho because I still think it's funny).

Even so, much more of the humour is stemming from military culture, bureaucracy, science fiction, video games, satire, word play, farcical situations, and so on. There aren't even that many jokes that rely on pop culture references. I think this is part of why the show holds up so well even having been born from that very specific gaming culture.

Overall most of the jokes in the early seasons land for me and there's only a couple that I think are indisputably distasteful, but I might get more into that some other time. I have a lot of thoughts on how the show deals handles social identity through the lens of comedy specifically.

I'm not really going anywhere with this, it was just an observation I had during this past rewatch.

[smilysstuff]

You cannot deny deez nuts.

[carmarriage]

officially up to s11 in my rvb rewatch but i had to stop because i heard the first few notes of contact and started howling

[bornonthebob]

Not even sure what the situation is with the Red vs. Blue fandom on here nowadays (my last time as an active part of that was in 2016) but I figure if there’s anyone around, they’ll dig this thing I made:

A 46-minute celebration of the music of Red vs. Blue, in the form of a mega-compilation of clips from seasons 1-13—set to a massive medley of themes, leitmotifs, and other musical cues.

There is also a VFX breakdown video for the original portions, if you wanted to feel insane for eight uninterrupted minutes with how much unnecessary work I did.

There are currently two CC options—regular English captions for subtitles and lyrics, and “music citation” captions, in case there was a song you don’t recognize and felt like hunting down. I hope that’s helpful.

Enjoy!

[jomeimei421]

doodles from today’s rvb rewatch marathon in preparation for the series finale! Got through the recollections saga and the freelancer seasons. Chorus tmrw 🫡

[louiseazy]

thoughts while rewatching Relocated

it could have easily been added to the beginning of season 7, it would have made more sense too, and made the season around the same length as the others in the recollection

why are the reds yelling at each other and not useing their short range radio's?

[high-voltage-rat]

Actually I'm still thinking about it. Another interesting way in which RvB is anti-war is the way that the Director fills the role of a villain and antagonist (especially in the Recollections trilogy, where he's a faceless villain we never see but is responsible for everything that happens).

In his memos to the Chairman, the Director emphasizes his sense of duty and obligation to the military- he becomes irate for the first time when he feels that it's being implied that he was derelict in his duty... or that the work he did out of that duty is being criticized for being against the military's interests. He also talks about Allison's death in a way I find... interesting.

"You see; I never had the chance to serve in battle. Nor did fate provide me the opportunity to sacrifice myself for humanity as it did for so many others in the Great War. Someone extremely dear to me was lost very early in my life. My mind has always plagued me with the question: If the choice had been placed in my hands, could I have saved her? [...] But, given the events of these past few weeks, I feel confident that had I been given the chance, I would have made those sacrifices myself... Had I only the chance."

The idea of sacrifice is central to the way he talks about his wife's loss, to the way he talks about the war in general. He talks of sacrifice with a sense of veneration- that it's something he aspires to do, that he longs for. There's a few ways we can interpret "I would have made those sacrifices myself"...

-That in Allison's place, he thinks he would have laid down his life too.

-That if given the chance, he would have given his life to save hers.

But most interestingly...

-That he would have sacrificed Allison's life for the continued survival of humanity, if that was what duty called for.

...And personally, I think all 3 are true.

In most war media, the Director's perspective on sacrifice is very common. Sacrifice is glorious and heroic- to die in battle is an honour- and it's the only way to ensure the group you serve survives. This is a tool of propaganda- nobody wants to go to war just for the sake of it, you have to give them a reason that the risk of dying or being permanently disabled isn't just acceptable, but desirable. Beyond that, most people don't want to do things they think are immoral- you have to convince them it's important, a necessary lesser evil. You teach them to sacrifice their morals, too.

The way they train soldiers to follow orders and to kill, is to convince them that they, and the people around them, and the people they care about, will all die if they don't. It's drilled into your head from day one. It's the way they ensure their commanding officers won't shy away from sending their men off to die. The message is constant- sacrifice is your duty, and duty ensures your people's survival.

In the Director's eyes, the damage Project Freelancer caused was his sacrifice. He never got the opportunity to sacrifice himself during the war- so he sacrificed others, as military brass do. The Freelancers- including his daughter. The countless sim troopers. Any people he considered "collateral damage" on missions. And when the opportunity to do so presented itself, he sacrificed a copy of himself- Alpha- and he sacrificed a copy of Allison- Tex.

The very thing that derailed his life- the loss of his wife- he made it happen again. He put her copy in dangerous situations, let her exist in the position of constant repeated failure, created the circumstances that would eventually lead to her death. He put their daughter in deadly situations that nearly killed her repeatedly, provided her with impossible expectations leading to self-destructive behaviours in the name of duty, implanted her with two AI knowing they could cause her permanent harm. He was confident he "would have made those sacrifices himself" because he did.

The Director is the embodiment of the military war machine. As an antagonist, he is a warning against buying into the glorification of sacrifice. He's a condemnation of the idea that one should be willing to do anything to win a war- that duty to the military is the thing that ensures survival... All the messages that are pushed to ensure recruitment and obedience of soldiers.

He's a reminder that swallowing the propaganda leads to you doing terrible things... and in the end, you're a broken man left mourning the losses that you suffered even as you repeated them, convinced that it was all necessary.

[tvckerwash]

@joltning I present to thee the elaboration requested:

When broken down to the bare essentials Wash and C.T fulfill the same function within the story, and the differences between them as characters mostly results from how the story was executed when it came to them fulfilling that function. 

For example, everybody (myself included) complains about how C.T exists solely as a plot device in the Freelancer Saga, but nobody complains about how Wash also exists solely as a plot device in Recovery One and Recollection. I mean Reconstruction is literally the ‘omg theres a plot!?!?!?!?” season of RvB, and without Wash there is no story. 

The main reason Wash isn’t perceived in the same way as C.T is due to the level of freedom the writers had when it came to telling the story they wanted to tell. The Blood Gulch Chronicles and Out of Mind set the foundations for Recovery One and Recollection, but it was through Wash that the lore of RvB was reconstructed into a cohesive story. The unexplainable was explained, the unelaborated was elaborated upon, and all the wacky hijinks and random bits and bobs of the previous seasons were tied together in a way that answered the question asked in episode one: Why are all of these idiots stuck in a canyon in the middle of nowhere while being separated into color coded teams that are fighting each other?

C.T however did not have the same level of freedom as Wash, and this is because of pfl’s nature as a prequel combined with the pacing of those seasons. We pretty much already knew everything about her that there was to know, so there was no point in hiding anything or taking it slow because of that, hence the painfully obvious foreshadowing. This approach to the Freelancer Sage, and C.T’s story is what leads to her essentially having the same arc as Wash, just reversed—or more accurately described; mirrored, like Chief and Arbiter in Halo 2.

A majority of the reversal and/or mirroring between them manifests in their personalities, which I actually talk about some here, but some examples of the phenomenon in regards to actual plot points are:

They are both introduced as recovery agents (or rather fake C.T, who was the real C.T at the time, was introduced as a recovery agent). Wash is a single agent recovering human technology from dead Freelancers, and he uses explosives to destroy the rest of the equipment to prevent information leaks. C.T is attempting to recover alien technology from a long dead civilization with the help of other aliens, and he uses explosives to make sure anyone who knows of their operation and presents a problem will be destroyed to prevent information leaks. 

We knew exactly who Wash was, who he worked for, and why he was reassembling the blues. We didn’t know who C.T was, who he worked for, and why he was fighting Tucker in the desert. 

Wash was shot in the back and survived, but failed to subdue the enemy. C.T was shot in the chest and died just as they were going to subdue the enemy.

In regards to the real C.T, some examples include:

The Meta was portrayed as the primary conflict for Wash, but in reality he had always been aiming for the destruction of Freelancer. On the flip side, C.T’s fight to take down Freelancer is portrayed as the main conflict, but in reality, while poorly explained, tracking down the alien artifacts seemed to be her real goal (which is not as insane as it sounds when you remember that Charon Industries was more aligned with the UNSC proper than pfl was). 

Wash never hinted towards his plan of taking out the Meta in Recovery One to South, or his plan for destroying Freelancer to the Reds and Blues until he had the perfect opportunity to strike, and by then he had built enough trust that they were willing to help him out despite his secrecy. If they weren’t, well, he knew what to say to change their minds. C.T however wasn’t exactly subtle with her thoughts and feelings, and she didn’t build any trust with the people around her, so when she finally defected—which didn’t take a genius to see coming—no one was willing to listen to her or take her at her word, and there was nothing she could say or do to change their minds except offering concrete evidence. “I’m starting not to trust you.” vs “I can’t trust you.”

This one isn’t a plot point, but I’m going to mention it anyway because I think it’s a nice example of this subtle yet obvious mirroring I’m talking about, and shows what I was trying to replicate in my blurb that spurred me to finally write this analysis:

Counselor: Agent Washington? Agent Washington? Washington: Sorry, what were you saying? Counselor: Were you thinking about Epsilon again, Agent Washington? Washington: No. Counselor: What happened with Epsilon was not your fault, Agent Washington. Washington: I didn't think it was. Counselor: We have safeguards for the unstable emotional patterns of an artificial intelligence. Sometimes these algorithms fail. Washington: Oh. So then it's your fault. Counselor: We prefer to think of it as no one's fault.

Vs:

Washington: It wasn't your fault, Connie. Connie: Easy for you to say. You didn't drop the ball. Washington: The ball got dropped. We were all there, it's everyone's responsibility. Connie: Dammit, why are you doing that? Washington: What am I doing? Connie: Making excuses for me. I'm not making excuses for myself...why are you?

All I've mentioned above is also why C.T’s relationship with the leader and the plot twist that the C.T in the desert wasn’t the real C.T are disliked by so many, as there was nothing to justify the sudden bait and switch like there was at the end of S6. I mean, considering we see both Tex and South use voice mods to sound like men, it reads as though that was supposed to be the case with C.T as well, which makes it feel like it was changed at the last second because everyone saw it coming.

This is an issue because A) There's nothing inherently wrong with being predictable—a good plot twist always has foreshadowing, even if it won’t be registered as foreshadowing until the twist happens in certain cases—and B) The story of the Freelancer Saga as a prequel was confined in a box created by the previous seasons, and all they were doing was connecting the aforementioned events to tie up a few loose ends and properly establish Carolina's driving force in present day S10.

[heroictoonz]

What is your favorite RvB arc? What’s you’re favorite RvB season?

(I ask them as two different questions cuz sometimes they don’t always match up: my favorite arc is Recollection but my favorite season is 10) :)

EASY. CHORUS. NO FUCKING DOUBT IN MY MIND.

Now, I’ll preface this with I have yet to see past season 16 for my own reasons (though I intend to watch them now) but Chorus has always been my favorite seasons full stop. Favorite season? Yeah still Chorus.

Chorus makes me insane cause it’s Tuckers best set of seasons and personally I wish they would write him like that again. I wish they’d write all the reds and blues like that again. I really do just thing they were the best seasons for the characters especially my favorites.

Watching a character who for so long was nothing more than a walking sex joke have to face the fact that he had to step up and be a leader is insane to me. Not even to talk about the fact that Tucker through this whole time is under so much pressure in so many ways.

Firstly you have Wash and Kimball constantly telling him that he can be better that he can do better and where they think they’re working to uplift him they’re really just unknowingly bringing him down cause Tucker physically can’t see himself as anything even close to a capable soldier

Tucker has like actual fucking insecurities but we never see them cause he’s got so much bravado to him to mask it all like THIS is when we see that it’s so fascinating

Also just lots of people die in RvB and most the MCs don’t bat much an eye even when they cause it but Tucker’s reaction to getting some kid killed in a mission that he was supposed to be running is fucking EARTH shattering

Also the characters in this arc are so amazing. From Locas and Felix to Kimball and Doyal and all Polomo and all them like god what an amazing supporting cast holy shit

ALSO THE ANGST! THE DRAMA! TUCKER GETTING FOR REAL AND ACTUALLY STABBED! THEM THINKING THAT THEIR FRIENDS ARE BEING TORTURED! THE TUCKINGTON OF IT ALL!!!!

Anyways best arc best set of seasons full fucking stop I have seen RvB in it’s entirety at least five maybe six times but the Chorus arc I have watched more times than I can remember I will just flip on those three seasons and go ham

[creatrixanimi]

I dont think i ever posted my feelings on the new rvb season here. This will be kinda ramble-y because its been a few days. So I thought it was ok while watching but i feel like thinking about it for any amount of time kinda makes it seem worse and worse. Short review is: i wish they didnt just rehash the recollection arc but worse. I know why they decided to do it because in theory tucker getting meta-fied is kinda compelling but in practice it really did just turn into the recollection arc but somehow everyone was even less competent than they were then? (simmons and grif did NOT suck this much ass at fighting during the recollection arc. them getting beat up over and over in the same way wasted SO much time where story could have gone). Wash also kinda didnt do anything besides jump off a cliff for comedic effect? lmao? Theres a lot more i could say about how all the characters besides caboose were utilized in extremely inefficient ways but ill just leave it at that. If you go in "no thoughts, head empty" the season was fun to watch, especially the very beginning but it kinda went nowhere and everyone was kinda wasted because of the lack of time both for production and the short runtime. A very "you tried". I respect the effort but am sad that it didnt turn out to be a miraculous hit. Oh well we still have all the past seasons to rewatch so i guess its not the end of the world. PS before i forget: Caboose was very good he carried the season 100% he's always the mvp. love him.