A Review by Zane Wetzel
It’s been fourteen years now since we first heard the question “You ever wonder why we’re here?”. Fourteen years since the first episode of the machinima (a form of film-making that involves using the engines of video games) web-series Red Vs Blue (based on the popular Halo franchise) aired on April Fool’s Day. If you don’t know what Red Vs Blue is, I don’t blame you; but it does seem to be well-known throughout the Internet and the Halo community (along with its creators, Rooster Teeth . Fifteen years, fourteen seasons of 280 plus episodes later, the show is still going strong as the longest running web-series of all time, and has now entered its 15th season. And man, is this season going to throw its fans for a loop! Granted, the first episode is currently only available to Rooster Teeth FIRST members right now and won’t be available to the public for another week, but I decided to get the FIRST subscription just for this. It will be worth it!
Before we go any further, I’m going to assume that you are familiar with the show and have watched the majority (if not all) of its content, and so everything I’m about to mention will make sense to you. If not, then I have three options for you: you can either
- Stop reading this because you don’t know what I’m talking about and go binge watch it on any of the following locations-
- Com
- The Red VS Blue YouTube channel
- Official Rooster Teeth YouTube Channel
- Netflix
- Watch this video that sums up everything that’s happened so far:
- Continue reading anyway
If you’re still here, good work soldier. Now here’s the recap of what happened in the first episode:
It’s been ten months since the events at the end of season 13 occurred, and if people thought that peace would finally return to Chorus and the Reds and Blues would be hailed as war heroes, this episode nips that in the bud. While we still don’t know if Hargrove was arrested for his crimes, it seems like his forces were defeated, but peace hasn’t exactly returned to Chorus. Apparently, the people of Chorus are insisting on remaining independent from the UNSC, which is not sitting well with the latter. Negotiations between the two are starting to break down, with the public beginning to move in favor of military intervention (which I can assume is to forcibly re-annex the planet). Oh, and apparently shortly after the Chorus Incident, the Reds and Blues went missing. Now, they suddenly re-appear and start violently attacking UNSC outposts throughout human space, leaving no survivors. They also seem to act nothing like the audience is used to: they never said a word at all, they were quiet and stealthy (they normally suck at hiding!), and they killed the people without hesitation or reservations. Most shocking of all, they seemed to be led by a man wearing a familiar cobalt armor and carrying a sniper rifle. Just like Church (even though he should be dead. For the third time now, and it seemed like for good). He said nothing, either, just cooly wiping the blood off his visor and then removing his helmet (we never see the person’s face) and leaving the blood-speckled helmet behind as a grisly calling card.
Now enters a new character, Dylan Andrews: a cunning and fiercely determined reporter who is already familiar with the Reds and Blues, having written the article about their exploits in taking down Project Freelancer that had first made them famous. And she knows them well enough to know that something is not right, and the fans seem to agree. The Reds and Blues displayed few of their trademark qualities during the attack: they didn’t argue or joke around with each other, they didn’t use any of their trademark weapons, and they (like I said before) they were acting like professional soldiers. They’re supposed to be the misfits that don’t fit in, that’s part of their charm! They have definitely gotten better as soldiers since the start of the show, but unless they got serious and trained super hard over the last few months, this is completely out of character. It doesn’t matter to the public, though: they think that they’re doing this to support Chorus, but still, it’s not like our hapless heroes to act like this.
The episode also deals with some cool meta issues, with Andrews boss telling her that the Reds and Blues don’t matter anymore, that they’re nobodies now. To me, that’s a prod at the fact that Red Vs Blue has been on so long that people have started to not care about them. Andrews sums up the fans opinion by pointing out what they did at Chorus and how awesome they became. The boss (appropriately captioned “Grumpy McBossyPants” on the computer the two are talking through”) says that they’re old news, and they don’t matter anymore in a 24 hour news cycle. I felt this highlights the fact that the Internet has changed a lot since RvB first came out: now we have YouTube, Social Media, video-sharing websites all competing for our attention alongside older forms of media. Even Rooster Teeth has grown since then: they have other popular shows, both animated and live action, plus several subsidiary websites, and even their own gaming department. There’s even a reference to another popular animated show by Rooster Teeth called RWBY (Pronounced “Ruby”): “Why don’t you do an article about those monster fighting sexy teenagers?”
Regardless of what people may think of it and how old it is, Red Vs Blue is Rooster Teeth’s baby: it’s what made them famous, it helped boost Halo’s popularity, and it’s not going away anytime soon. And if the first episode is any indication, this season is going to be one of the craziest ones yet
Some Observations:
- It seems like the Space Pirates have been defeated, but tensions are rising between Chorus and the UNSC
- The Reds and Blues went missing shortly after what happened on Chorus. What happened to them, and what turned them into this? (assuming that’s even the real them)
- Who is the person wearing Church’s old armor? Church is supposed to be dead (again, for real this time)
- Grif and Simmons were noticeably absent this episode. What could have happened to them?
- No information about the whereabouts of Agents Washington and Carolina. Are they still with the Reds and Blues or are they somewhere else
- Tucker not wearing the Meta’s armor anymore. Simple explanation could be it was only a one-time thing or they cannot get the armor with the new, Halo 5
- Speaking of Halo 5, the Halo franchise has reached the point where the game engine can blend perfectly with Rooster Teeth’s own CGI. I love it
- This is going to be a terrific new season of Red vs Blue
- Before I forget: shotgun (It’s a RvB Thing)
