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pompeiibonzai · 5 years

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Red vs. Blue: Where do We Go from Here?

Recently Youtube creator EruptionFang put out a video regarding which direction he believes Red vs. Blue should go in the upcoming seasons (video can be seen here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d6DJmrCI84g). In his video he postulates that while he doesn’t think the show should end, maybe it’s time to retire the Reds and the Blues, at least temporarily.

Now, this is an interesting idea. The Red vs. Blue universe (Red vs. Blu-nerverse?) has no shortage of characters that the series could shift its focus to and there’s no denying that the fan base does have a certain affinity for the Chorus Lieutenants, the Freelancers…hell, people have been chomping at the bit to see Junior again for the last ten years. But do any of these characters, or groups of characters have what it takes to carry a season’s story on their own? Would Red vs. Blue be the same without the Reds and the Blues?

Of course, it wouldn’t. The reason those of us still watching the series keep coming back is for the current cast of characters. People went nuts when Donut, after nineteen seasons, was finally given his own story line, and one (despite its flaws) was actually entertaining and interesting to watch and actually progressed the character forward beyond Guy Who Makes Inappropriate Innuendos. There are fans who would love to see the same be done for other characters still who haven’t received the Spotlight Treatment. Honestly, after Season 17, I believe that very well could be a possibility and there is a part of me that is looking forward to those types of stories.

All that being said, however, I do think there is something to the idea of a possible spin off series, which EruptionFang also briefly touched on. I think the best way to test those waters is to revisit the Season 14 idea of an anthology season. Now, I’m not going to argue that Season 14 was not a great season. I fact, if I were to rank the seasons, Season 14 would fall somewhere near the bottom. The reason for this isn’t necessarily the idea of a season made up of differing stories, but the type of stories that were used for the season. Of the seasons 24 episodes, the only ones I really remember are the ones in which Captain Butch “Florida” Flowers recruits the team to Blood Gulch, Felix and Locus’s backstory and the Triplets. Why are these the episodes I remember? Because they were “canon” episodes that actually expanded on the universe. They took characters we were already familiar with (or in the case of the Triplets, a set up and time frame that we were already familiar with, i.e. the Freelancers) and used them to explore a different aspect of the universe and/or introduce new ideas and information concerning to their individual stories.

I think doing another season in which we had stories like these would be a good way to gauge interest in possible spin off series, or even give writers the chance to take a break from the normal RvB writing and play more to their strengths, or even experiment a little. This anthology season would have three to four stories that would span three to four episodes each. Each story could focus on a character or set of characters. For example, we could have a story focusing on the Freelancers during a mission (which we were semi teased with in Season 14’s trailer but never got), a story about Vanessa Kimball and/or the Lieutenants adjusting to a newly unified Chorus and what that means to and for them, and a follow-up story about Felix and Locus showing how they went from bounty hunters to mercenaries. There is quite a bit to explore in each of these ideas. Hell, I’ve read plenty of fan fics about the Freelancers during missions that I actually think would make for interesting episode plots. And if there’s some hesitation about completely leaving the Reds and Blues out of the picture, do another shorter story about one or two of them. A Grif and Kai story could be interesting and provide an opportunity to let yet another member of the BGC a chance at development.

There is an amount of risk here, there’s no doubt. A season consisting of only a handful of short stories focused on “side characters” could be disastrous if even only one of those stories is a bomb. Long time fans may feel abandoned by suddenly not seeing their favorite red and blue soldiers stumbling through another set of misadventures. However, I believe that instead of introducing completely new characters and using established and well liked characters to expand the universe and explore ideas that have been introduced. Season 14 tried, and ultimately failed, to do this, but I still think it’s an idea worth some attention, especially now that the latest arc has wrapped and fans are left wondering what, where and if there is anything left the show has to offer.

#Red vs Blue #rvb #Fischer Writes!#unpopular opinion probably

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