#the time I needed it. but looking back at my old RvB stuff is kind of like

[jomeimei421]

GYAAHHH people are reblogging ANCIENT art of mine

#mei talks #😭💀✌️ we don’t speak of Roosterteeth here any longer but #I genuinely do miss being in the RvB community! the people there were so so kind to me #I was something like 13 or 14 and still finding my legs art wise! I grew up in the community surrounded by people who #really poured their hearts and souls into their stuff and were sooo so kind to me #the art and writing communities were super tight and I actually am still in touch with many of them #including the man the myth the legend jason weight o7 you could have saved RvB if they kept you on for s18 king #like I still remember the day saltsanford sent me like. a 4 ask long text wall screaming about my lyric comic while I was in line at ax #nearly fainted #ahh my lyric comic….I still have it up on ur channel. before my dad passed away he would always show me when it hit a new milestone in view #old art is always kind of embarsssing and tbh I think my interpretations of the characters made me well known much more than my art skill #but after high school my life kind of. fell apart in a lot of ways. dad dying was def a part of that 💀 and I think I found orv exactly at #the time I needed it. but looking back at my old RvB stuff is kind of like #a little time capsule ig. I was happier then but I’ve grown up a lot too

[cinaed]

Red vs Blue: Zero Eps 1-2

Going to be posting my thoughts on the newest season of RvB! Doing the first two in one post because I didn't get a chance to watch until now, but will put the ep 2 reaction behind a cut to avoid spoiling non-FIRST members! 

Red vs Blue: Zero Ep 1: Viper

Really enjoying the music already just for the introduction. 

Re: Agent Washington, "they fixed that a long time ago using robotics and old kitchen appliances," I'm not sure how I feel about Wash's injuries being completely fixed, but also great shoutout to Grif and Simmons cyborg fun and Sarge being saved by CPR. But also I really wonder where this is in the RvB timeline. Has it been a couple months? Years? Maybe we'll find out.

I was joking with some friends that the other Reds and Blues are on vacation (Grif, Simmons, and Kai are visiting Hawaii, Sarge took Lopez home to meet his mom, Doc and Donut are doing a galactic road trip, and Tucker and Caboose are visiting Junior) but this is Wash and Carolina's idea of vacation, a supposedly low-key security mission. That's my story and I'm sticking to it until otherwise contradicted by canon. 

I really like the fight scenes so far! They feel very fluid and easy to follow, at least for me. 

Also I am kind of obsessed with the female villain's weapon. A knife that can like teleport you??? That is so cool. (Imagine if Tucker could do that with his sword. Or Simmons got a hold of one.) It's just a neat concept, and I cannot wait to see more fight scenes with it included. 

CAROLINA! I love her so much. "A fan? Do you want an autograph or something?" Love her and Wash working as a unit. 

Villain: "Don't get distracted." No, get distracted, love that the female villain is a fangirl of Carolina because who wouldn't be. 

I really like the introduction to the new characters. They're called the Shatter Squad? It gave us their personalities right off the bad, with a rookie and a race. Looking forward to learning more about them! Love One versus East's rivalry, Axel's long-suffering attitude because he knows One is going to get too competitive, and the poor newbie (Raymond, I think?) puking in his helmet. 

I will admit, I am not sure about Wash in peril yet again. I love Wash, but I am a bit tired of him being constantly hurt or in danger, you know? But I am willing to see where it goes, and I do like the concept of Carolina raising hell to get him back from these guys. 

"Where's the temple?" "He knows that the alien artifacts are keys to the temples that hold the ultimate power!" Hm, so is this like Forerunner stuff or whatever, like the stuff they found on Chorus? Or stuff like Tucker and Locus' swords? Will be interesting to see where they're going with this, because Chorus' temples did have some very powerful stuff going on. 

Red vs Blue: Zero Ep 2: Recovery 

Carolina just instantly going into fight mode upon waking up is so good but also hurts a little! I just want her and Wash to have a less fraught time. Also the giant over-sized cast is an amazing visual gag, I approve. 

Carolina immediately going into leader mode is SO GOOD. Very great callback to her during her Freelancer days as well as being with the Reds and Blues. God, the Reds and Blues totally helped prepare her for the Shatter Squad, huh. Also her putting her feet up on her desk is definitely someone like Grif rubbing off on her, because she wouldn't have done that in her Freelancer days. 

Axel: a dad and a Boy Scout. West is the father figure -- and East's actual father? Carolina might've said "A bit on the nose," but also like...she must have some feelings about a father and daughter working together. That is definitely interesting. I mean, I would also have daddy issues if my dad was in charge of my squad, just saying. But it does explain a little of her determination to be better than One, who is headstrong and needs to learn how to be a team player. Raymond compared to Guy Fieri is fun, and I'm intrigued how they'll all work together as a squad. 

I LOVE Tiny. I want to see more of her. Enormous genius mechanic who likes to high-five and is super cheerful? She's great. Also I see that remark about Warthogs being ancient. I see it.

Okay, if any of the crew dies, it's going to be Axel. A dad who just wants to retire and is obsessed with his lawnmower? 

Carolina being a mentor to One is giving me a lot of feelings. Carolina has done the whole loner thing! She knows you need a team! She knows One needs a team! I am here for this relationship.

Hmm, so East had some sort of illness as a kid, and West gave her up for some genetic alteration or testing? I don't know Halo really well, but I'm sure stuff like that was happening during the war. But whatever it did saved her but has some side effects? Interesting. 

One's family being a long line of soldiers KIA really works as a backstory for me. And also that means we've got TWO father-daughter relationships on this squad which is both amazing and makes me worried. I am really loving Axel though. He saw One, went "Is anyone going to adopt her?" and didn't wait for an answer. 

I am again really liking the fight scenes. It's a nice juxtaposition of seeing the bad guys working together like a well-oiled machine while Shatter Squad is still, well, a little scattered. 

This really was supposed to be low key, a medium risk assignment for Wash and Carolina. :( Oops. 

Oh god, One calling Carolina grandma and Carolina IMMEDIATELY wiping the floor with her is great. Love it. And then of course ending with her about to kick One and East's asses because she's Carolina.

I am excited for the rest of the season, though I hope we get some mention of the Reds and Blues, even if it's just Carolina saying someone in Shatter Squad would get along with one of them. 

#rvb zero #rvb zero spoilers #Red vs Blue

[infriga]

Writer tag game

I was tagged by @novantinuum !

Author Name: I’m Infriga on tumblr but I go by Ppleater on AO3 because it’s a username I liked to use in the past lol.

Fandom(s) you write for: Steven Universe, Gravity Falls, and in the past I’ve also written one or two things for Red vs Blue, Gintama, Chuck, Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicles, and SGA. Most of my older stuff is on FFN, where it will stay because it’s old and embarrassing lol. I want to write a One Piece fic some day but christ is it a hard fandom to write for. There are so many puzzle pieces and moving parts and layers to everything in the OP world that anything bigger than a oneshot is daunting. Also Luffy’s mind is an enigma so I can only imagine how difficult he’d be to write.

Where you post: AO3. I used to post on FFN years ago, but not anymore because let’s be honest, ffn kinda sucks in comparison.

Most popular one-shot: My RvB fic I guess. The long cliched title is Five Times Tucker Knew Church Was a Robot, And One Time He Forgot That Church Was Still Human. It’s not all that popular, but it got more attention than any of my older oneshots on FFN haha.

Most popular multi-chapter: My Gravity Falls fic about kid Stan and paranoid Ford, 1 Step Forward, 20 Years Back. It was my first multichapter fic, and boy was I floored by the response it got!

Favorite story you wrote: I’m really bad at picking favourites! I like both my GF fic 1 Step Forward, 20 Years Back, and my Steven Universe fic Aid to Navigation at the moment. They’re both more recent fics and I feel like I’ve shown the most improvement in writing both of them, which is part of why i like them more, but I like them both for different reasons so I can’t really choose between them.

Story you were nervous to post: Man I’m nervous posting everything I write lol. I guess I tend to be more nervous about my hurt/comfort stuff for some reason? Especially the hurt parts. Like the chapter where Stan gets thrown down the stairs by Bill in my GF fic, or the upcoming chapter 5 in my SU fic. I really enjoy writing that sort of stuff, and I love reading it even more, so I’m always a little like >:3c but I can be a wee bit sensitive about stuff I get really into writing because I’m invested in it so I’m also a little like <:3c every time, you know? Still, if there’s one thing I’ve learned by getting more involved in fandoms is that it can be worth it to just put stuff out there and own it even when I’m nervous about it, so I usually just force myself to press the post button before I can chicken out. It’s worked out pretty well for me so far.

How do you choose your titles? I’ve developed 2 main methods which, funnily enough, I used for my two recent multichapter fics.

Method 1 involves word play, such as using a pun or a saying that fits one of the themes of my fic, and I adjust it as needed it to match the story. I felt like the saying “1 step forward, 2 steps back” fit the whole portal confrontation in general, and Stan getting turned into a kid involves taking some pretty literal steps backwards, so I changed it to 20 years back to give it a de-aging spin and make it even more of a play on words. That one admittedly came pretty easy to me. I also came up with more puns,wordplay, and jokes for the chapter names to match.

Method 2 involves using symbolism. I like to figure out something I feel would be symbolic of my fic and I look for interesting and relevant terminology or topics related to whatever that symbol is. In Aid to Navigation I settled on lighthouses as the symbolic element because I felt it suited Steven’s character, since he lives on a beach, helps guide people, and literally glows. An aid to navigation is basically any structure that helps ships navigate on the ocean, which includes lighthouses in particular, and it felt really suitable for Steven’s character and the themes of the fic. Other terminology that popped up and caught my interest while looking into stuff related to lighthouses ended up serving as inspiration for the chapter names and some of the story progression.

Of course, sometimes a title just pops into my head automatically and I end up liking it right away, but that’s pretty rare lol.

How many of your stories are complete? 2 on AO3, my RvB oneshot and my GF fic, and an extra 7 oldy moldy ones on FFN which are all oneshots. I technically write more now than I used to, but while my word count has rised drastically the number of individual fics I’ve written isn’t too high yet. I just found I enjoy writing longer multichapter fics a lot.

In progress: Just Aid to Navigation at the moment. I’m the kind of person who usually likes to finish a writing project before moving to a new one.

Coming soon:

I’ve tried coming up with future projects but honestly it seems like I tend to just be sort of... Gripped with a sudden idea that just feels right. I always have tons of concepts I like, but most never actually become anything. Only a few strike me as something that I really want to turn into a story right away. I might make a series of connected oneshots for Aid to Navigation involving interactions and scenes that I couldn’t fit in due to there not being enough time to explore every character the way I wanted (like I wanted to write a scene with Lars and Steven for example, but it didn’t seem to fit anywhere), but beyond that I have no idea what I’ll end up writing.

Upcoming story you’re most excited to write: Do upcoming chapters of a current fic count? The chapters I felt most excited to write for Aid to Navigation are the next one which is already finished and awaiting the accompanying picture, titled “Red Sector”, and the following one after that, which will be titled “Leading Lights”. All I’ll say about them is that both types of lights serve as warnings.

Top five favorite authors:

I like so many damnit, it’s hard to choose!

I’ve loved everything I’ve read by @novantinuum

I’ve bookmarked a lot of GF fics by @impishnature

Same with @fanfoolishness and their SU fics

One Piece fics by @taizi are my favourites in the fandom

There’s probably more people I’m forgetting and if that’s the case I’m sorry and I love you all, but if anyone wants to see more authors I’ve read stuff by I have fic rec/fic recs/fanfic rec/fanfic recs tags (wish I could remember which one I use at a given time so I wasn’t so inconsistent about it otl. Someday when xkit is working again I’ll try to organise them better). Also I have like, 400+ bookmarks on AO3 that you can look through as well.

Tagging: Uh, I tag all the writers I mentioned above I guess, if they want to do it and if they haven’t done it already!

#tag meme #fic recs #writing #Steven Universe #Gravity Falls #I'm only gonna tag those two cause I aint tagging the rest of the stuff i've written for lol

[aestheticsandwriting]

One-Shot a Day, Day 4: Power Outage. RvB

Day 4: Power Outage. The overnight blizzard has caused a power outage. Thankfully the cabin Tucker, Junior, and Wash are staying in has plenty of firewood and candles, and the three brought plenty of card games and board games to keep them busy. 

“Hey, bud, how long have you been up?” Wash jogs down the stairs, spotting Junior sitting on the couch, doodling in a notebook, blanket draped over his hoodie-clad torso, taking note of the early time; about six-thirty.

“Not too long, but I moved down here to sleep about two this morning. My room got too cold.”

“Yeah, it’s pretty chilly in here. Had breakfast yet?” Wash tries to set the coffee pot going, not thinking about the lack of electricity until it won’t start, sighing and walking back over to the couch, glancing down to see Junior’s dragon drawings. “I’m going to put some more wood in the fire, and then get me some cereal or something. We’ll have to move all our cold and frozen stuff outside at some point today since the fridge isn’t running.”

“Nope, not too hungry right now. Papa Wash?”

“Yeah?” He smiles at the new name.

“Can I help you put the wood in the fireplace? Dad’s never let me cause he says it’s too dangerous.”

“Sure, I’ll let you help with a couple of small pieces. Big pieces can be really hard to put in cause they roll sometimes, but we can do a few smaller ones instead of one or two big ones.”

“Yay! Thanks!” Junior throws his notebook and pencil on the coffee table and scrambles to the small wood stock they laid next to the fireplace the previous night. The blond man knees down, showing the boy how to put the wood into the fireplace safely, using the poker to make sure the wood is back far enough before they close the door again, rinsing their hands and deciding to get some cereal for breakfast, taking the milk outside and setting it on the porch to stay cold.

After washing out their bowls and spoons, Junior looks at his dad’s boyfriend. “Papa Wash?” 

“What’s up?” 

“Will you tell me some stories?”

“What kind of stories do you want to hear?”

“I know you don’t like to talk about some of it, but would you tell me about some of your time as a soldier? I want to know what it’s like to be one.”

“Yeah, I think I can tell you some things. I have some funny stories from basic training.” The two lay down on the couch, Wash throwing his arm over Junior’s torso, wrapping them both up in the blanket. “There was this one time in basic,” a chuckle at the memory, “we had this obstacle course we had to do some days in PT. And one of the sections was kind of like a rope wall thing we had to climb. I was terrible at it. Well, that particular day I got my foot caught in one of the ropes, I just dangled there while everyone else was climbing all around me and I couldn’t get free. I had to re-do the course all by myself in front of everyone after they all finished to make sure I could do it in the right amount of time.”

Forty-five minutes and three stories later Wash pauses, glancing down curiously even though the boy can’t see him. “Why have you become curious about my time as a soldier recently?”

“Oh… well. I just am.”

“Junior… what’s going on? If you’re just curious, that’s fine you can tell me, but is there something else?”

“Well… both you and dad were soldiers, so I thought that you would want me to be one, too.” A pause as the boy fidgets slightly, the older man seeing that he wants to say more, so he stays quiet. “And, I figured I should know as much as possible about what it’s like in the military so that way I don’t disappoint you and dad.” 

“Oh, Junior.” Wash squeezes the boy tight against him. “Your dad and I want you to do whatever you want to do. If you truly want to be in the military, you can go into the military and we’ll both be very proud of you. But if you want to go to school and become a scientist or a veterinarian, or a nurse, or doctor, or if you want to go to trade school to become a mechanic, or welder, or carpenter, then that’s fine too! We want you to do something that you can be happy or content with. Trust me, it is not worth it to be doing a job that you hate if you have other options. You’re a smart person, and both your dad and I agree that we think you could do whatever you want if you set your mind to it.”

“Oh… So you don’t expect me to go into the army?” Junior squirms, turning himself in his step-dad’s arms so he can face him, concern bright in his dark eyes.

“Of course not.” Wash drops a kiss to the boy’s forehead. “Like I said, if you’re just curious about my time as a soldier I’m happy to tell you, and if you want to be a soldier, then your dad and I will be proud of your choice, but that’s not our expectation just because we were both soldiers.”

“Oh… Okay! I like that much better. Cause I was thinking I might want to be an artist.”

“And I think you’d be amazing at it.” 

“Could you tell me some stories about when you were a kid?”

“Did I ever tell you about my cat, Loki?”

“Nope.”

“Ooooh man. We had him back when I was a kid. Loki was always getting into trouble. One time he got stuck in a tree in our backyard.”

“Oh no!”

“Yeah. My mom’s about to call the fire department when dad stops her. Says he’ll handle it. So he sends her inside and gets out his chainsaw. Dad was never a cat person. So he starts to cut down the tree, but it falls the wrong way. Right into the power lines!”

“What happened to Loki?!”

“Poor cat was electrocuted, falls thirty feet out of the air, lands on his feet, and then walks away like nothing ever happened.”

“Wow!”

“Yeah! Another time, we found him in the dryer once ma had finished a load of laundry. And another time we found him in the engine of dad’s truck. That cat lived to be twenty-five years old.” Wash continues, telling him a few more stories of his childhood, Junior giggling as he obviously embellishes a few of them, and that’s how Tucker finds them close to two hours after Wash had come downstairs. 

“Hi, dad!” The boy calls, having stayed in his facing upward position so he could see Wash’s face while he was story-telling, giving him a perfect view of the open landing above.

“Morning, T, nice of you to finally join us.” Wash grins up to where his boyfriend is standing.

“Yeah, I must’ve really needed the sleep. What have you boys been up to?”

“Wash has been telling me about when he was a kid! He had a cat named Loki that could live through anything!” 

“Ooooh, that sounds fun. Have you eaten yet?”

“Yeah, we both had cereal. The milk is already outside to stay cold. I didn’t measure, but it looks like the blizzard last night dropped about two and a half feet of snow, but I turned my phone on to check the forecast quick, and it looks like it’s supposed to start warming up enough tomorrow to melt it. But who knows how long the electricity will be out, so we should probably move the rest of the cold stuff our there and surround it with snow.”

“Oooh, I’ll put my snow clothes on and pack the snow around stuff if you and dad bring it out!”

“Sounds like a plan to me. Let’s let your dad eat breakfast first, though, okay?”

“Okay. Oh, dad! Wash taught me how to put small logs in the fire this morning, too!”

“I hope that’s okay with you? I didn’t let him put in anything too big.”

“Yeah, that’s fine. He’s grown a lot since last year, and I trust your judgment.” Tucker finally descends the stairs, dropping a kiss on his son’s forehead and his boyfriend’s lips before walking into the kitchen, grabbing a pop-tart and heading back into the living room, nudging Wash feet. “Move, lemme sit.”

“That’s pleasant.” The blond grins at him as he moves his feet, plopping them back down on Tucker’s lap after he sits.

After Tucker finishes, the three don their winter clothing, Junior bundled heavier than the two adults, still volunteering to stay outside and surround their food items with the snow to keep them cold. They set to work, carrying the food out and insulating it. 

After that job is done, Tucker sets to work turning on and heating up the gas stove to heat water, dumping in hot chocolate packets once it’s hot enough and passing mugs to his son and boyfriend, picking up his, and then settling on the couch with them again. 

“Dad, Papa Wash?”

“What’s up?”

“Can we play some games? Like Uno, or Clue or something? I’m starting to get bored. Wash and I were gunna play more of the racing game today, but we can’t do that until the power comes back on.”

“Yeah, go pick a game and we’ll play!”

“Yes! Be right back!” Junior hops off the couch, running up the steps to his room where the game bag had been placed, running back down with the whole bag a minute later. “I thought it’d be smarter to just bring the whole bag so I don’t have to go back up when we want to change games.”

The trio spends the afternoon and evening playing various games like Uno, Clue, Sorry, and even a round of The Game of Life before deciding to break for dinner. “Wash, will you go out and grab the stuff out there that we need for the quesadillas? I kept the chicken in here thawing cause those will cook with the gas stove and don’t need the oven since we can’t use it right now.”

“Yeah, sounds good to me.” 

Once Tucker has the ingredients, he sets to work, cutting up the chicken, placing it, cheese, sauce, and beans on tortillas, folding them, wrapping them in foil and placing each of them on a stove burner, keeping a careful eye on them to ensure nothing catches fire as they cook.

“Dinner’s ready, guys,” Tucker calls, carefully pulling back the foil from the last of the quesadillas, setting them on plates for each of the others to grab as they come into the kitchen and dining area. “Hey, Junior, are you going to sleep down here tonight or do you want to bunk in mine and Wash’s room if the power still isn’t back on?”

“I’ll just sleep on the couch. It’s pretty comfy, plus I’m getting too big to be sleeping in the same bed as y’all.”

“Okay, just wanted to make sure you were comfortable.”

“Yep! Can we play another game of Clue after dinner?”

“Sure, bud.” 

After dinner, Tucker sets about finding the candles he knows the landlord stores for power outages, lighting them and setting them around so they can see, Wash re-stocking the fireplace with more wood, also grabbing more from the covered woodpile on the deck to bring in for the night, taking some up to his and Tucker’s room, rekindling that fire, too.

After a few more hours of games, and Junior nearly falling asleep during the last game, Sorry this time, Tucker tells his son it’s time for bed and that tomorrow they’ll put the tree up and decorate it weather they have electricity for the lights or not since it’ll be only two days until Christmas. 

The three trudge up the stairs, Junior to put his pajamas on and brush his teeth, Wash and Tucker retreating to their room for the evening, taking a few candles with them for light, making sure Junior has his battery-powered lantern and that all the candles downstairs had been put out and dosed with a slight bit of water for safety. “Come in and tell us goodnight before you head downstairs, J, but make sure you knock first if the door is closed in case we’re still changing.”

“Okay, dad.” Junior’s voice muffles as Wash closes the bedroom door behind them, him and Tucker changing into their pajamas as well, each man throwing on a pair of sweatpants and an old t-shirt, not needed anything heavier due to the fireplace in their room. 

“Goodnight dad, goodnight Papa Wash. I love you both.” Junior walks into the room, his father having opened the door after they finished changing, signaling to the boy he could come in whenever. 

“Goodnight, Junior. I love you, too.” The couple says in unison, Wash hugging him and dropping a kiss to his forehead, before the boy’s father moves to do the same.

“If you wake up cold in the middle of the night cause the fire’s dying, come wake one of us, yeah? I trust you, but I still don’t want you putting in new firewood by yourself, especially not in the middle of the night, okay?”

“Okay, dad, I will.”

“Good. I love you.” He drops a second kiss on his son’s head before Junior turns and walks out of the room, the couple hearing his footsteps fade away down the stairs. 

“You know, I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of hearing him call me that.” They each step into the bathroom, brushing their teeth and readying for bed in their normal routine for whenever Wash decides to stay at Tucker’s. “So Junior and I had a talk this morning,” Wash’s voice is soft as the couple crawls under the covers, the dark-skinned man tucking himself into the light-skinned man like normal, and Tucker notes the slight caring concern in the voice that he gets when they talk about an important subject.

“Yeah?” Tucker turns his head enough to make eye contact with his boyfriend. “About what?”

“His future job. He was asking me all sorts of questions about what it was like to be a soldier. At first, I just thought, ‘well, okay, he’s a ten-year-old boy that’s interested in this kind of thing.’ But then he kept asking about things, and when I questioned him about it he told me he thought we would want him to become a soldier because we both were, and he wanted to know what to expect that way he could have plenty of time to be prepared and not disappoint either of us.” A sigh from the younger of the two breaks the silence that had been left by Wash finishing his sentence.

“I wonder where he ever got that idea.” 

“No idea.”

“What did you tell him?”

“The truth.” Wash pauses for a second, internally marveling at how much Tucker truly does trust him with his child; it’s still so hard to believe sometimes. “That we both want him to do something that he can at least be content with, and hopefully happy doing. And that if he truly wants to become a soldier, we’d be proud, but that doesn’t mean we won’t be proud if he does something different. That was okay, right?”

“Yes, Wash, that was wonderful. You did great. You know Junior really does see you as another father, right? He was ecstatic when I asked him what he thought about you moving in with us.” 

“Yeah, I know. I just… Sometimes it doesn’t seem real.”

“I know. Did he say anything about what he might want to do after he found out we don’t expect him to go into the military?”

“He said he might want to be an artist. He’s good at it. I’m sure if he applied that into digital design he could do really well.”

“I bet he could make a killing at that. That or an animator of some kind. But he’s got plenty of time to decide and even change his mind. I can’t believe he’s going to be eleven in a couple months, though.”

“Ugh, stop that, you’re making me feel old.”

“It’s cause you are old.” The younger of the two grins, laughing when Wash playfully slaps him, pretending to be offended.

“Really? Cause I’m pretty sure old guys can’t do this.” The blond slings a leg over Tucker’s waist, straddling the younger man and leaning down to kiss him, grinning when he hears Tucker mumble the word ‘asshole’ against his lips. 

“Yeah, but you chose to have me around.”

“True.” As the word leaves Tucker’s mouth the light from their bathroom, which had been on when the power went out the night before, flicks back on, the heating system almost kicking on due to the thermostat being in the cold hallway, not the room filled with the heat from the fireplace.

“I’m going to go lower that temperature so it doesn’t run too much overnight since we have the fires going.”

“Sounds good. I’d like to not wake up in a puddle of sweat.”

“Agreed.” Wash climbs off Tucker, heading into the hallway, and Tucker stands to turn off the bathroom light, getting back into bed when Wash walks back into the room.

“Come ‘ere Mr. not-so-old guy,” Tucker smirks, kissing Wash again as he climbs into bed. “Let’s get some sleep, I have a feeling we’ll be playing in the snow with J tomorrow.”

“Agreed. Goodnight, Tucker, I love you.”

“I love you too, Wash.”

#mod becca #becca's writings #december one shot a day #one-shot #one shot #tuckington #tuckington family #lavernius tucker #agent washington #david washington #rvb junior #junior tucker #rvb #Red vs Blue #fluff #tuckington fanfiction #tuckington fluff #family fluff #Wash is a good step-dad #step-dad wash #tucker is a good dad #good dad tucker #slight rvb s16 spoiler #rvb s16 spoiler

[calliecat93]

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

(Top 5 Dislikes)

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

#5. Machinima

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

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

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

#4. Caboose’s Mind

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

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

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

#3. O’Malley Subplot

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

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

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

#2. Improved Production Standards

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

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

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

#1. Improved Characterizations

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

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

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

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

#rvb #rvb reviews #top likes/dislikes

[niqhtlord01]

Rooster Teeth Mortal Kombat Championship Part 7!  Pyrrha is just happy to be in the competition, RVB team’s are rubbing their victory’s, and Cammie is frustrated because she can’t get online.  Pyrrha: *Twirls rifle as it transforms into a spear* Sarge: I should warn you young lady that taking a spear into a gun fight is unwise. Pyrrha: That’s alright, I can change it back If I need to.  Sarge: *Cocks shotgun* I’m sure you can, but I doubt it would stop a shotgun blast to the face!  Lopez: *Walks in attaching his head to his body* Yasamin: They sent a tin man after me? Lopez: *In Spanish* I know, they should have sent the coffee maker instead with the way you fight.  Yasamin: *Takes fighting stance* Why do I feel like you have insulted me?  Kazu:  *Flips in and lands* Yang: Was that meant to impress me? Kazu: You think you could do better? Yang: *Cocks shotgun wrists* I’ve friends that can jump across an entire canyon, so yeah.  Ozpin: *Walks in looking at pocket watch before putting it back in pocket* Tucker: I’m going to be honest, this hardly seems like a fair fight.  Ozpin: I applaud your honor, but I don’t ask for special treatment from you. Tucker: *Draws energy sword* No I mean I’m a space soldier with an energy blade and power armor, and you’re an old man with a walking stick.  Roman: *Slow walks in twirling cane* Julian: You look like you’re straight out of Disney movie.  Roman: Hopefully as the bad guy, otherwise I’d be horribly offended.  Julian: *Hologram flickers* I was going to say comic relief, but we can settle on bad guy for now.  US: *Enters with coin flipping* Salem: You can use magic as well it seems.  US: Oh sure lady, I’m a regular wizard of OZ Salem: *Spreads arms* Poor choice of words.  Sheila: *Rolls on to the stage* Cammie: How da hell is this fair?!?!  Sheila: The rules state matches are 1v1, so I am not violating the rules. Cammie: *Nugget hops on Cammie’s shoulder* I think they’d say an unarmed girl fighting a damn tank isn’t exactly fair!  Ren: *Guns firing through window with Ren crashing through it* Caboose: You know I don’t feel like fighting anymore. Ren: And why is that? Caboose: *Pulls out a can of soup* Well now there’s glass all over the floor and I don’t want to step on it and hurt my foot since I need them for walking and stuff.  Nemesis: *Nanotech cloud appears and forms Nemesis* Grif: All I’ll need to defeat you is a vacuum cleaner.  Nemesis: You dare mooooockoockcock me?  Grif:  *Facepalms*  Dude, you’re basically a cloud with an attitude. A gust of wind could defeat you.  Nora: *Smashes through nearby wall with hammer* Donut: Oh my god! I love your outfit! Nora: Thanks! It’s nice to find someone else wearing pink.  Donut: *Pulls out frag grenade* It’s a light red.  Kaikaina: *Kicks over stacked crates, before tripping and falling on face* Kazu: Why do I feel like you are not a threat? Kaikaina: Get between me and happy hour and I’ll gouge your eyes out.  Kazu: *cracks knuckles* Slightly more threatening now.  Pyrrha: *Twirls rifle as it transforms into a spear* Church: Going to take it you’re some kind of badass? Pyrrha: I am pretty strong, but I’m sure you and your team are just as strong. Church: *Pulls out the sniper rifle* Kid, I’m sure you could kill half my team before they even cared what is going on.  Rufus: *Walks in handing data slates to Caliban to hold* Church: I hear you’re the guy who puts minds in machines. Rufus: Yes, yes; cutting edge science I can assure you.  Church: *Pulls out sniper rifle* You must be reeeeeeeeeeeally behind in the times, I’ve been doing that for years.  Penny: *Two swords embed in the ground followed by Penny* Caboose: So the swords are in your stomach?  Penny: Well, technically they are stored in my stomach compartment.  Caboose: *Pulls out a spork* So when you get a tummy ache do you see a blacksmith or a mechanic? 

#rwby #rwby ozpin #penny polendina #michael j caboose #rufus weller #leonard l. church #pyrrha nikos #kaikaina grif #kazu iida #nora valkyrie #franklin delano donut #dexter grif #nemesis #sarge #gen:lock #rooster teeth #mortal kombat #red vs blue #lie ren #sheila #cammie maccloud #The Great Union of the Fourth Turning Republics #lopez the heavy #Roman torchwick #salem #julian chase #lavernius tucker #yang xiao long #yasamin madrani #genlock

[callie-the-snarky-geek-blog]

RvB16 Episode 7 Review: It Just Winked At Me

Last time on Red vs Blue: O’Malley came back bitches. That’s it. That’s all you need to know. No need to go into how Grif is all alone with only a talking lens flare and all the potential angst that writers can dig up from that. Or that Atlus is a dork who obliterated Tucker and Sister into subatomic particles. None of that’s important at all. Only O’Malley matters.

Alright, so this episode has been hyped for awhile. Joe hyped it up. Kyle Taylor (the Machinima director) hyped it up. Even Gus hyped it up. Any of this can mean anything. So as we enter the shortest episode so far (only 7 minutes… I guess Joe couldn’t make the episodes longer unless he’s holding them back for later), what has all the talk been leading up to? Well… I can say it was like nothing I’ve seen before!

Overview

So good news, Tucker and Sister are alive! Yay… yeah I knew that was coming. There is no way that they’d kill a long-time character and a fan favorite character they finally made a main like that. Also it looks like the blast sobered them up. So there’s your lesson kids: if you are drunk off your ass, being blasted by God is how you sober back up! Atlus tries to kill them a couple more times before finally realizing that ‘his’ protection is making that impossible. Also we find out that Kalirama is his sister, which explains her being the Queen of the Cosmic Powers. So goign into some speculating, Kalirama mentioned being the Daughter of Time. My guess has been that the villain is Chronos, the Personification of Time. It can also refer to Cronus, the King of the Titans and father of Zeus. If Joe made Chronos and Cronus the same person who Atlus overthrew and he and Kalirama and his kids trying to keep him locked up… wow and I thought the Church and Grif families were fucked up.

Since Atlus can’t obliterate Tucker and Sister, he goes with the option of ‘let my mindless minions do it’. So he summons up a cyclopes… I am NOT joking. Some may find this too bizarre, but as someone who likes mythical shenanigans I do NOT give a shit! Plus it fits the myth theme since cyclopes’ are part of both Greek and Roman mythology. So the cyclopes obviously isn’t a Halo character, so what did they do? They… put Gus in a costume/a ton of makeup and made him do it. Yes, you read that right. The cyclopes was RvB’s very own Gustavo Sorola. It is also, I believe, RvB’s first implementation of live-action within the show, at least on this level. It’s pretty good! I mean the cyclopes is butt ugly, but I’m pretty sure that was the point… sorry Gus.

So Atlus sicks… Grugh, I think? Screw it, I’m calling him Gus. My blog, my rules. Atlus sicks Gus on the two Blues. They understandably, make a run for it. At least until Sister quips that Tucker could prove how great a fighter she is. Which she meant as sarcasm… but Tucker of course has to decide to be Mr. Macho and face Gus. The result? Both the time gun and the sword get knocked away from him. I should also point out that Gus is about 100X larger than Tucker. So he can easily crush him… yyyyeah… not your best plan Tucker.

Back in the 6th Century (not the 16th like I wrote last week, Past Callie is stupid), Huggins is trying to figure out what to do now that O’Malley has gotten away and both she and Grif are stranded. Grif is currently… I guess looking for mushrooms since he mentions eating them later. Guess since he can’t talk Italian, that’s the only way he can survive, I mean it worked on the moon! Anyways, Huggins contemplates her options. Now because she’s talking fast, it’s hard to make out everything and for whatever reason,t he RT site doesn’t have a subtitle option that I REALLY hope they fix soon. But anyways, Huggins comes u with three potential solutions:

Wait it out and let time move along until she’s back in present day. This is ruled out because it would take far too long. This one is declared a ‘maybe’.

MURDER! Kill Grif and prevent at least one dirty shisno from fucking everything up! This is also ruled out as it goes against Huggins’ code and it’s also forbidden. Oh, but Atlus can obliterate people? I sense abuse of power!

Talk to Grif and convince him to team up so that they can find a way out of the 6th Century. But if she does this, thee penalty is getting tortured int he Underworld for all eternity. But this is the only option that could work, so… ye, she risks it.

Alright, so reasoning! Huggins goes to Grif, who is pretty much refusing to believe anything that is happening. Huggins tries to convince him to help her since otherwise hey’re both gonna die. Grif doesn’t buy any of it, especially when Huggins reveals that the Gods sent her to spy on them. SO he just walks away and Huggins is probably re-considering the murder option now.

Alright, back to the moon! Tucker tries to shoot Gus… and of course fails. Stupid guns! Sister retrieves both the time gun and Tucker’s sword as Tucker himself ducks inside the base. He tries to think of what to do… and sees his old armor set, giving him an idea. Gus reaches in and grabs what looks like Tucker, eating his head. Eww, Gus! That’ll ruin your teeth!  Also is this an Attack on Titans reference? I’m positive that it’s an Attack on Titans reference. But of course it was really the empty armor which Tucker stuffed with grenades. Which go off, distracting Gus and Tucker drives in with the Warthog, driving it straight into hos face. It finally knocks Gus down and Tucker along with him.

So it looks like Tucker wins, right? Haha… yeah… about that. Sister points out that normally when you beat the boss, they come back twice as powerful. You’d think that Tucker, living in a video game, would know this but meh. SO yeah, Gus gets back up and he is not happy. Hey Tucker, tell him that they should go to Vegas! That’ll make him REALLY angry I bet! Tucker runs into the caves and seems safe since Gus’ hand is too big… until Tucker says he needs to do it one finger at a time. And Gus can understand English, so… yeah…

Fortunately before Tucker can get grabbed, Sister channels her inner Xena and attempts to use the sword, jump down form the cliffs, and stab Gus in the head. But Tucker informs her too late that the sword only works for him. SO she gets smacked away and when Tucker exits the cave to help, he gets knocked over to her. Sister points out that cyclopes’ have a fatal weakness, so Tucker goe sin and… attacks Gus’ groin. I… don’t think that’s what she meant Tucker… but it works as Gus finally hits the ground. Well… not the defeat I was expecting, but it was a defeat!

Unfortunately, Atlus decides to sick Gus’ wife on them who is rather peeved that due to this, they can’t do hanky panky and have kids. Having had enough, Tucker and Sister FINALLY do what they should have done before: open a time portal and get the fuck out of there. Where do they end up? Well remember the medieval scene from Episode 1? Well they FINALLY connected it to the main narrative as the two end up on the same tower as medieval Grif and Simmons. And the two get arrested… WELP.

Review

This episode has had a lot of mixed reception so far. I haven’t seen anyone hate it, but many were disappointing. It’s understandable why. After all the hype, it was really just about a dumb joke. A very well shot dumb joke, but a dumb joke. There’s still so little about he plot we know, nothing advanced any further here, the episode was incredibly short, and it’s still unclear what all of this is leading us to. We’re on Episode 7 and no progress has been made. I think so far Joe has the opposite problem he had last year. Last year, he rushed it because he only ha done season. This year he has more than one, but due to it he slowed down. A little too much maybe. This coming off the heels of last week’s O’Malley plot bomb and… yeah I don’t blame people in being disappointed and viewing this as completely pointless.

I didn’t know how to feel during the first viewing… but when watching ti again to write this review, I was laughing so much. I got a LOT more enjoyment out of it. To be fair, I am always like that. I always like stuff on the second watch than the first one since I knwo what’s coming and I can better process it. And watching ti again… I don’t think that this was pointless at ll. There’s no major progression with the plot, and I agree that it’s been long enough. But… I got a lot out of this episode, even form Grif’s brief scene. Not just with plot, but the work on this episode is truly impressive imo.

Before we talk about that, lets do Grif’s scene. It’s only about a minute long and the only machinimated scene. Yeah, 95% of the episode was CGI animated. But Grif’s scene, while brief, was good. I wish we saw a bit mroe follow-up on how he’s doing after O’Malley left him stranded, but him living off mushrooms I can buy. Him also goign into denial over everything I can also buy. So not as much as I was hoping for with him, but good stuff that matches his character.

The scene’s actual importance is mainly setup for what’ll happen later. It also FINALLY gave us some time with Huggins’ since Episode 1. And OMG, I absolutely love her. Her rapid fire dialogue is kind of hard to make out, but her actress did a good job at it. Huggins is cheerful, but serious about her job. She understands the importance of what’s coming, but has to resort to breaking law since she’s in a position where otherwise, everyone is doomed. She’s cute, but also sassy as evident with her response when Grif calls her Tinkerbell (is that gonna be his nickname for her when he warms up to her? I want it to be!) Seriously I am already loving the interactions between Grif and Huggins and I am really excited to see more of it! Now how they’ll get out of the 6th Century IDK, but we’ll just have to wait.

Okay, back to the res tof the episode. As I said, pretty much the entire episode is CGI animated. it’s the first major CGI fight in the season, and it was awesome. Okay it was mostly running, but it was fun to watch. Tucker plowing the Warthog into Gus was freakin’ badass. The voice acting was also on point. I have never laughed harder at Jason Saldana’s performance than I have today and Becca continues to crush it as Sister. Seriously, going all Xena with the ‘alalala!’ war-cry had me dying. An ProZD as Atus… OMG ProZD. He was fantastic in this episode and it added so much to Atlus as a character. Like he is just enjoying the show and is so unimpressed with Tucker and Sister even when they win. His animation where he’s just celebrating watching Gus winning was also so freakin’ fantastic and again, dds to the character. Seriously, I wasn’t sure what to think of Atlus before, but he has already become one of my fav RvB villain ever after this episode alone.

So onto Gus… I have no idea how Joe talked him into this. I mean he’s done worst and IDT anything will be as bad as when he did the Baby Gus RT Short. That short man… anyways! I think Gus did really well! It felt like he was truly interacting with the environment. He didn’t have to do much acting aside form grunting and going around wildly, but it felt like he was playing a monstrous cyclopes. Credit also to Joe and his directing. I don’t knwo what inspired him to do this, but OMG I am so glad he did. I mean it looks weird and it’s ridiculous.., but it’s RvB. It’s always been weird and ridiculous. Plus using live action again sells the effect that the cyclopes is a monster compared to what we’re used to with the machinima. It sold the effect really well. So kudos to Joe and to Gus because shooting this and then editing it in had to be a nightmare.

It’s why I don’t think the episode was at all pointless. I mean we DO have some minor things. We find out that Kalirama is Atlus’ sister, the villain si indeed a locked up time God, get a taste of how powerful the Cosmic Powers forces are, have some characterization for Atlus, setup for Grif and Huggins’ plot, an actual fight scene after so long, and it FINALLY ties in the medieval scene. It’s also huge on a cinematic scale, which is probably why it’s only 7 minutes. I mena Joe and his team had to fully animate the episode, shoot Gus’ scenes where he’s pretty much just interacting with air, combined the footage together, likely do re-shoots if the live action was even slightly off, edit it all together with the machinima, and… yeah. This was likely a huge pain it he ass to do for everyone involved. But I appreciate that they did. Joe is going above and beyond what he has to do. he could just do solely machinima and it would be fine. But he’s trying new things, implementing more CGI, and taking the show to the next level. Is it a hit? That’s for one to decide on their own. I think it worked here, but I don’t think they should regularly implement live action as they did. Special occasions are fine though. But I still appreciate Joe trying things and putting in the effort when he doesn’t have to. He wants to make the show as good as he can, and I can absolutely respect that.

Final Thoughts

Did they hype this one too much? Maybe a little. It was not what I was expecting at all. But I don’t thin that’s a bad thing. Again, I appreciate them going out of their way to do this. Plus the animation, dialogue, and voice acting were really good. Can I understand why people don’t like this episode and are getting weary of the season? Absolutely yes. I do hoe that Joe starts to speed up the plot soon. But I still had a fun time watching the episode, and in the end that’s what matters: having a good time. It was weird and ridiculous and I wouldn’t have it nay other way.

#rvb #rvb16 #rvb reviews #old blog repost

[knightofbalance-13]

http://dudeblade.tumblr.com/post/166151533694/some-of-my-personal-thoughts

Kudos to anyone who can hype themselves up for volume 5, because after how much of a letdown volume 4 was for me, I don’t want to risk myself getting disappointed. It made me get angry at a… certain part in volume 4, and overhyping myself probably isn’t going to be good for my health.

I don’t buy this for a fucking second: All you’ve done is lie and ignore facts just so you can claim to be disappointed and shove your agenda down people’s throats. You want to be disappointed so you can berate the show and as you have shown, you’ll do anything to keep up that narrative.

In all honesty, you should just go to one of the other toxic fandoms like Voltron or Steven Universe: At least the people there know not to take your ass seriously.

Look, these guys have made a name for themselves. As much as people would like to think that Roosterteeth is this massive company, they’re still just an indie company with a (relatively) small amount of people, and not a whole lot of effort going to the right places.

And yet you set up standards that not even big budget shows with large groups of people and massive companies backing them could live up to and when someone calls you out, you throw a hissy fit. Remember when I pointed out that RWBY was doing just as well as shows like Korra and such despite the numerous disadvantages the show has? You threw a hissy fit and lied throughout the whole thing. And yet you think I’ll take this seriously? The way I see it: you’re starting to get it through your fucking skull that your voice is not only a part of a vocal minority that is growing more despised everyday but said voice is being exposed in their bullshit and their credibility is tanking.

Boo fucking hoo.

Red vs. Blue was their first project. They told so much with so little. They didn’t have famous voice actors or fancy fight animations, they just did it in a Halo engine. I explain this because, if it hadn’t been for this, they would never be as big as it is now.

You talk as though RT only got famous off the work of another. Red Vs. Blue succeeded because it was funny and endearing and is still followed and loved to this day due to years of fantastic comedic timing and writing. And if I may point out: The only redeeming factor about RWBY was it’s action scenes in the first Volume. It only survived because of the action scenes which gave them enough time to develop and grow.

Nobody wants to see the same repetitiveness that is coming out of their (relatively) new flagship show. It’s starting to get a bit repetitive. Establishing character moments for characters that have already been established, introducing characters when we already have enough characters who don’t have enough development. How long until even the most dedicated fan gets tired of the same old “Just wait! You’ll get your LGBT+ Representation. Trust us!” and joins the overly critical part of the rwde tag (Which is basically just the crtq tag to be honest (HEY-YO!))?

Never happened. Characters were never reintroduced that way. Seriously, name one instance.

While I might agree with that: The RWDE tag has proven time and time again they don’t know what the concept of a “one off” character is. Characters like CFVY, NDGO, SSN and so on have been cited as characters without development when they were never meant to be developed at all.

And what do you say about fans who have stuck this long? Weiss rose? hawkeyedflame? They are all examples of long term fans that go against you rnarrative. What does that say when the few who do leave do so for petty reasons like the setting changed, the show got darker or that a character died?

Gee, I don’t remember the last time anyone using the crtq tag sucide baited someone. Or lied, Or misinformed. Or attacked the creators. Or attacked someone for having a different opinion. Or showing a lack of human decency. guess you couldn’t stand there being a better version of you out there huh?

How much longer can this keep happening? It’s starting to feel as if they don’t want to plan ahead. The recent Yang Trailer fiasco being enough proof. They could have had done all the trailers a month ahead of time so that we could have time to let it sink in, and talk about it and stuff. But instead, we’re jumping right into it, then getting the official Volume 5 trailer right after. This scheduling thing is starting to become a bit of an issue here. They seem to write things without thinking ahead of how this would play out.

What fiasco? The trailer isn’t even out yet and mind you, the ORIGINAL trailers were spaced the same way. SO if you had no problems then, you should have no problems now.

And considering the RWDE tag talks about shit like the “asset stealing” and Shane’s Letter like their hotcakes: you don’t care about that kind of discussion. And considering it takes the average trailer a day to be dissected and reviewed by everyone: Its life span isn’t as long as you claim it to be.

“Hey! How should we write this scene here?”

“The one where Blake is about to open up to her parents?”

“Yeah, actually, we didn’t have the time yesterday to write what she was going to say, can we have Sun interrupt her instead?”

“Sure, I guess. What should it be for? Important information? The White Fang are there, maybe he saw something-”

“No. Just have him use some excuse because he’s eavesdropping. We have this hilarious joke planned out where Blake’s sister-”

“Mother.”

“-Whatever, does the exact same thing. It’ll be funny!”

“Wait, you had the time to plan that, but not the time to figure out what Blake is going to say to her father? Why not ask Arryn? She knows Blake inside and out. Maybe she has some suggestions.”

“What? And have her cut into my-”

“Our.”

“MY writing pay? HA! No thank you!”

“Alright man. You’re the head writer.”

“Yeah. Yeah I am.”

One Week Later…

“Okay, so how about we have Sun try to explain that he had valuable information about the White Fang-”

*THUNK!*

“Why do you have your head on your desk right now?”

Except if you look at what Blake said in EPisode 11, you’d know from the context of both conversations that what Blake said to Sun about leaving her team because she didn’t want to hurt them (You know, the question ghira asked) I her answer. And if ypu paid any attention to anything that isn’t a white male for you to screech at, you'd notice that Ghira and Kali have the EXACT same relationship as Blake and Sun does: Ghira being the serious, driven but socialy awkward one and Kali being the easy going, joking, social adapted one. Thus that joke is to show their paralells. If you were as critical as you say, you’d notice it. I did the very instant it happened, why can’t you?

I hope you liked my sketch of how I personally think that whole discussion went down. I had fun writing it.

And I had fun using it to show you have nno critical skills whatsoever. Keep going, you’re just proving me right. I would have also said: “Probably the same way a political party slanders it’s opponent like a group of immature children.”

And speaking of fun, I think that the writers aren’t having any of it. I think they need some new blood in the writing room, and maybe get some women into their female-centered show or maybe some people who aren’t white to help better portray their entire fictional race that acts as a stand-in for ALL RACIAL MINORITIES. - I’m still bitter about that if you couldn’t tell.Â

Does that mean that Steven universe should kick off Rebecca Suagr because Steven is a male?

Or that their shouldn’t be a single male writer for MLP?

Or that characters like Tex and Carolina should have never been made because RvB is male centered?

Or that Monty, a man, shouldn’t have made a female centered show at all?

See, when you automatically assume that only women can write women and vice versa, not only do you limit what a creator do as well as spit on RWBY’s message of freedom of expression but it also implies you think that women and men are entirely different and that they can’t share any personality traits or experiences or anything the other gender. Which is basically the definition of sexism: Same thing goes with the race thing. And funniest thing is: Both women and racial minorities disagree with you so you exposed yourself as a racist and a sexist for nothing.

How much longer can the fanbase be baited for the representation that they outright promised several times? I mean, have you seen the notes section of this post for their Q&A? There’s a split between the people who are (rightfully) pointing out that they said this last time, and still haven’t delivered, and others who are basically saying “They said ‘yes.’ Now shut up!” How much longer can they keep this up? How much longer until even their most die-hard fans start to question them on their ability to write a character in the LGBT+ community? At this rate, I don’t think it can last for very long.

So the side that ahs attacked them numerous times while demanding they make a Mary Sue while demanding it e clevery written is better than the side that respects the creators wishes and treats the as human beings? Because considering you have used LGBT people despite not being LGBT: You shouldn’t be one to talk.

And there you go again, putting yourself. You do seriously think that every LGBT person who watches RWBY watches it for an LGBT character and not the animaton, the music, the characters and their personalities, the plot or the world? Because if you do (and considering your history, you do): You think every LGBT person thinks the same way, acts the same way and wants the same thing. That’s homophobia you idiot. Congrats on seeing nothing but their sexuality and disrespecting their individuality.

Look, these guys seriously need to either get their act together, or someone needs to create some competition major for them. It’s getting obvious that they can be lazy with how they’re scheduling things because there’s no other American-Made Anime around to compete with them. If someone can create a show that can compete with RWBY for a Streamy, then they would be forced to improve and take harder criticisms.

Except that even in Japan, RWBY is booming even with conpetitors like My hero Academia, a Shounen anime written by a guy taught by the writer of One Piece, and Dragon ball Super, the successor to the anime that BIRTHED SHounen as we know it. It has been acknowledged by the creator of Blazblue of all people And that’s all with an admitted shotty translation. So what’s your excuse for that?

And by harsher criticism, you mean your personal opinions you want to force on the CRWBY. Because not once have you made a critique that wasn’t riddled with misinformation, edited parts and even outright lying all while even admitting you have a personal bias. You don’t care about RWBY: You just want to control.

It’ll be a win for everyone. Rwde will finally tone it down a notch because their voices are being heard and taken into bigger consideration, anti-rwde will calm down due to initial rwde’s calmness, fans will see improvement, and the actual show will improve. The show has to improve. Because if all it’s going to do is introduce new characters to avoid giving development to ones that need it (Sage and Scarlet), then those characters may as well just be killed off… I hope to every single God that I didn’t just give them an idea.

Except RWDE doesn’t deserve to have their voices heard. You’ve all done irredeemable shit to the point I salivate at the thought of the LGBT character being introduced so I can indulge in my sadism.  You’ve all shown a disturbing lack of human decency and respect to the point you think it okay to suicide bait people and use the dead for your own purposes. You lost the right to have your voices heard a long time ago: to the point you’re finally understanding youll never be heard so you pull this bullshit to manipulate people into hearing.

Well, let me say: You could start apologizing right now and continue until the end of Volume 9 and you wouldn’t be forgiven so nice fucking try.

#rw/de bullshit #dudeblade

[mlynar-nearl]

Little White Lie

Some of Leonard Church's high school problems include:

Having a crush on one of the guys from athletics, Saying he actually knows things about said crush's athletics, and lying, And being believed.

Me? Posting RVB fic? It’s more likely than you think.

This was a dorky little fluff request for some of my discord buddies who asked me to post it. I haven't posted much rvb stuff before, but I have a few domestic AUs in mind, and there’s so little good good churchwash shit anyway.

So take this.

("I don't know anything about sports but you play sports and I have a big crush on you so I told you that I love sports" AU)

[on ao3!]

"Dude, just fucking talk to him."

Leonard Church, sixteen, groans, dragging one hand down his face. Next to him, leaning on the lockers lining the halls of their high school, is his friend and resident dweeb-who-thinks-he's-cool Lavernius Tucker.

"It is not that easy."

"Sure it is, I do it with chicks all the time."

"Yeah, and you haven't gotten a date in ever."

Tucker shrugs calmly. "But I have gotten laid."

"As if I believe that," Church mutters, shutting his locker.

"Dude, listen. You've had the hots for this guy since the first day of sophomore year, right?"

"Don't remind me."

The guy in question happened to sit next to Church in sophomore english, perfect position for sneaking looks at when the sun by the window would highlight the bleach-blond of his hair.

His name was David Washington, Wash to friends, star goalie for their school's soccer team.

He was also popular and ran with the most famed athletes in the school, which didn't help the nerves involved with actually speaking to the guy on a more common basis.

"He's like, the nicest guy in the room at any given time. Just ask him out for burgers and I'm sure he'll say yes."

"It's not like that," Church mutters, embarrassed. "He's a jock, dude. What the hell do I talk to a jock about."

"Hey, listen. It's the first day of junior year, right? Hit it off with the guy. Ask him about what he does for the soccer team, or whatever. He's a goalie, even you know what that is."

"Okay, yeah, but-"

Tucker grabs Church's schedule out of his hands.

"Look. You have math first period, right?"

"Yeah, and?"

"You know who else has math first period with Mr. Sarge?"

"Oh, no."

"Ohhh, yes. So get in there and talk to him."

"I hate you," Church groans weakly, and Tucker grins.

"Let me know how that goes."

With Church's luck, he ends up sitting next to Wash in math, as well.

Wash looks next to nothing like Church, except in maybe height. Wash is athletic, of course, so toned that it makes Church's mouth go a little dry. Wash is tanned from all the time he's spent in the sun. Wash has freckles across his face and neck and even shoulders- Church knows because last year in spring Wash had worn a particularly revealing tank top that had distracted Church for hours on end. Wash has bright green eyes that shine with wit and intelligence and his hair is bleached blond with a perpetual touch of black roots. Wash is probably some kind of angelic being.

Church, on the other hand, is more fat than muscle anyway. He's not unnaturally pale, but pale in comparison to Wash, with messy dark hair that never quite stays where it should. Patches of stubble are growing in on his jaw, and the bags under his deep blue eyes make it look like he's always pulled an all nighter playing HALO. (So maybe he did the night before. Sue him.)

And Wash is wearing some kind of soccer jersey Church doesn't recognize, and Church is wearing an old zazzle shirt Tucker bought him as a gag gift and a worn blue hoodie and jeans, and Church wants to melt into the floor on the spot, if only that could happen.

Wash looks up as Church approaches his seat (and shit, why are his smiles even perfect?)

"Church!"

Church isn't sure if he's died and gone to heaven, but Wash acknowledging him by name would be one of the signs of that.

"Hey, Wash."

Church isn't even sure how he sounds so casual when he's pretty sure the next five minutes of his life involve him running out the door.

He sits down, though, and Wash gives him another one of those perfect, adorable smiles.

"How was your summer?"

Filled with video games and late nights at Tucker's house to avoid dealing with his family.

"Fine. Uh...yours?"

Wash's eyes light up. "Pretty good. Took a road trip to Disney with some of the guys."

"You did? I, um...didn't think that's what jocks would get up to over the summer."

Wash laughs, and Church swears that no other sound has been so rewarding to hear.

"We're not like most jocks, then, I guess."

"Are, uh...are you doing anything for soccer?" Church asks. "Since it's a spring sport?"

Wash leans back in his seat a bit.

"Well, we're doing some stuff, but nowhere near as intense as when we're in season, obviously. You...like soccer?"

Church has never liked sports. Never seen a game of soccer in his life. Too shy to even go just to watch Wash play.

"Yeah-! Definitely!"

Church wants to kick himself as soon as he hears his traitor mouth trying to impress this boy without his consent.

"You should come to a game sometime, then," Wash says, and Church thinks he might keel over on the spot from how damn excited this boy sounds.

"I'll see what I can do," Church says, weakly, then the bell rings and he has the whole period to watch Wash out of the corner of his eye and regret opening his dumb, gay mouth.

-

"How'd it go?" are the first words out of Tucker's mouth as soon as Church sits down at their bench in the quad.

Church groans, putting his head in his hands.

"That bad?"

"I told him I liked soccer."

"Technically, that's a half truth. You like him."

"I don't know anything about soccer!"

"So you can just come over to my place tonight and watch a bunch of games with me. How hard can it be?"

"He asked me to come to a game."

"That's practically like inviting you inside after a date, dude."

"Shut up."

-

It's spring before Wash pressures Church into making good on his promise to see a game, which gives Church a lot of time.

Church has absolutely never understood why people watch sports. He's begrudgingly respected it since his cousin runs track, but he's never understood it.

"He asked me to come down to the pitch after the game. He's gonna ask me all these soccer questions and I won't know what to say."

"You know how the game works, what's the problem?"

"I'm gonna forget what to say!"

"Compliment. Him. Jesus, you're gone for this dude."

"Shut up."

"Seriously, just-- pick out a few things he did in the game, and compliment him for it. 'Oooh, Wash, you looked so sexy blocking that ball.' That's it."

"I am not saying that."

"Whatever, dude, that would totally get you laid, though. Put your own twist on it, I don't care."

Church splutters.

"You're not even coming with me, are you?"

"Nope!" Tucker grins. "Family's riding me-- bow chicka wow wow- to have a nice family night. So I'm dropping you off and you're on your own."

"You're leaving me to die."

"Absolutely!"

"For the love of god, Tucker-" Church says, interrupted by the car screeching to a halt and Tucker reaching over him to open the passenger door.

"Yeah, Church, for the love of god." Tucker undoes the seatbelt and shoves Church out. "Have fun!"

Church curses as Tucker's sedan peels out of the parking lot.

"That son of a bitch."

-

The game is about as confusing as it's always been, for Church, but the most important thing is that Wash is there. Wash looks good, even better than usual, he looks in his element, really.

Church feels like someone kicked him in the chest.

He's so fucked.

It's late, and it's chilly, when he finally makes his way down to the pitch. The team won, 2-0, Wash a star blocker the whole time.

Church waits at the edge of the astroturf for a few minutes as Wash talks to some of his teammates, before walking over and removing his gloves.

"You came!"

Church's stomach does a backflip.

"Yeah, of course I did." Because I'm head over heels in love with you and would do anything to impress you.

"What'd you think?"

"It was, uh, really good-- nobody even scored against you, uh..."

Church blanks upon making eye contact with Wash, who laughs, leaning in and bumping his shoulder against Church. Church stiffens.

"You know nothing about soccer, huh."

Wash is wearing one of those grins that say that he knows exactly what he's doing.

"And you thought being here tonight would impress me."

"Why'd you think that?"

"Because your cousin told me you have a huge crush on me."

Church lets out a high pitched squeak.

"That bitch!"

"Hey, hey." Wash grabs Church's hand, tugging him closer. "Do...you want me to get you burgers after I wrap up here?"

Church nods, bright red.

"Oh, and Church?"

"Yeah?"

The next thing that runs through Church's mind is that Wash is kissing him, the faint smell of his sweat in the air, and Church feels his hands reaching to grab Wash's.

And it feels like an eternity, an incredible, pleasurable eternity, before Wash pulls back leaving them both panting softly from how long they had spent in contact.

Church looks at Wash with a gaze that he's sure is unguarded, betraying a year's worth of affection and longing.

Wash gives him one of those beautiful, perfect grins.

"I'll be right back."

"Okay," Church says, dazed, but sure that Wash would keep his word.

[Text to: Fucker]

[Don't need to pick me up]

[I have a ride home]

[Text to: Jurch (Jean Church) 👖]

[Oooh, does that mean what I think it does? ;3]

[Text to: Fucker]

[Tell you on Monday.]

#rvb #red vs blue #agent washington #leonard l church #churchington #god this is my SHIT #ash writes

[vehlika-pelican]

warning for long post! i always get my best ideas at night when im on mobile and cant do a read-more. sorry. blacklist "vehl's headcannons" to stop seeing my stuff. no rvb season 15 spoilers i dont think. me3 is like 5 years old now so im not tagging it as spoilers for any of the games. OKAY, RVB X MASS EFFECT TRILOGY CROSSOVER ( mostly ME 1 because its been two hours since i started writing this post now and oh shit) #TuckerFightsARobotArmy is gonna be the tag for this and the inevitable sequel posts at first i thought, with default Femshep being a badass red-head that would make our local badass red-head Carolina the obvious choice for the role but it occurred to me that she would make a better Miranda Lawson than Commander Shepard. The Director is The Illussive Man (Tim). Aside from the daddy issues, Miranda is a big supporter of Tim's until she finally sees his dark side and resigns during the end of ME 2 just like Carolina was a staunch believer in the Director until she had to face the music. The Freelancers are involved in Project Phoenix and ultimately its every man for himself when the Director starts indoctrinating/reaperfying troops. She gets assigned to the Normandy SR-2 just before the agents make their escape and she's left out of the loop and feeling betrayed. She carries that well into hunting the Collectors and her loyalty mission involves maybe saving York and getting answers. Carolina goes into hiding just like Miranda during ME3, trying to take down her former employer and his organization on her own until she needs help. Thats where our best dudes come in. but then if she's taking the place of Miranda, who could be Shepard? let's start with the Reds. Sarge is too...Sarge. Maybe he could take Admiral Hackett's place as Admiral Colonel Sarge because obviously (everyone knows he's crazy but going from enlisted man to fleet admiral makes him a legend, and he really earned a name for himself during the First Contact War. that name was legally changed to Colonel.) Grif would be Joker, so our esteemed pilot/vehicle operator who's all back-talk and bitching. Simmons is where it gets tricky. Simmons could be an engineer, possibly a quarian, who got prosthetic limbs from when he temporarily served with Sarge on a joint human-quarian deployment and became enamored with the freedom to experiment in the Alliance opposed to the strict policies in the Migrant Fleet and sought to return to his service by trying to kiss ass. but i also like him as EDI because of the proximity to Grif and how they would develop that friendship leading up to Joker's Mission when Grif unshackles Simmons to save the Normandy in ME 2. i also kind of like krogan!Grif, and you know the two of them would have the greatest time messing with the Alliance's engineers during the retrofits. then when Simmons gets a body in ME3 he tries to get a faux-skin to look human but there's a problem and its missing in places on the left side and Grif decides to tell people he's just got some prosthetics from an accident. all shiny and chrome on the fury road. Donut is Kelly Chambers. trained in psychology but rarely clinical, loving all the species, somehow spreading a space-dog STD around the ship, a bit too naive if pretty gung-ho about the mission but give him a belt of lift grenades and hot damn we're in business. Lopez is the AI who robbed the bank? embezelled money? (ME 1) and threatened to detonate a nuclear bomb inside a shopping center but actually managed to buy and download himself into a ship and set sail for sweet robot freedom in the Persius Veil. he was caught by Sarge and officially "destroyed" when he's really locked in a Rampart mech with AI shackles that force him to aid Sarge in his crazy science endeavors. he refuses to speak anything other than spanish out of spite even when he genuinely needs assistance. now the Blues. Washington will have been with Cerberus until about the beginning of ME3 which is when Tim starts indoctrinating troops and members of Project Phoenix take their chances so thats too late to start trying to save the galaxy from the Reaper threat. Caboose takes the place of David (i might be getting the name wrong), an autistic savant who can communicate with a race of alien AI (the quarian-made geth) and is unwillingly mentally linked to the geth for an unknown period of time by his own brother (one of his sisters then? my poor boy imsorry). This would cause the neural trauma/scarring resulting in Caboose being... more Caboose. but he isn't found until sometime in ME2 by Shepard and co. Freckles is the mad AI who goes rogue on Luna (not EDI or part of Simmons in this au) but ends up being befriended by Caboose. he inhabits an Atlas/Titan mech and together they're unstoppable. Tex is an attempt to recreate Allison as an AI inside a cloned body made by the Director during the early stages of his madness. now she's taking Ashley's place as a trigger happy space racist, a double agent inside the Alliance and on Tucker's squad. Church almost dates her but something...feels off...and instead spends his time fighting with her because it feels...familiar? like when he used to argue with his mom when she was alive. huh. Kaikaina and Grif petitioned to serve together so she's on the squad as an infilitrator of all things. she and Wrex commiserate over the story of how she stole a krogan warlord's biotic hammer and she tramatizes Grif by flirting with his 800-pound ass. (not that it goes anywhere. Wrex thinks humans are too squishy.) which leaves...Tucker. because who else. Commander Shepard took the responsibility of proving the existence and defeating the Reapers only because they happened to be at Eden Prime when the prothean beacon was to be recovered. it could have been anyone caught in the beacon- Ashley or Kaidan or any other marine- and that person would have tried to do the same. Tucker in RVB isnt so much chosen to be the savior of an alien race (Doc said he was but that was more Junior) as he gets caught in a bunch of shit that went down in ways he was not expecting when he interacted with an ancient alien artifact thank you very much. so he's on the Normandy SR-1 because he's an N7-in-training or outright failed to get past N1 (which is still impressive because he was considered and thats not easy criteria to meet. let my man be a badass space marine. just a little bit. badass-in-training. HE'LL GET THERE.) but is noticed for his potential and is to be evaluated by turian!/salarian!Felix for Spectre candidacy. the first human Spectre. he's a biotic, i can't decide between adept and vanguard. Tucker and Grif are Totally On To the mission's importance because "spectre's(Felix) dont come along for shake-down runs" in their new experiental human-turian ship and they arrive at Eden Prime mid-attack. Tucker and his squad try to clear a path to the beacon while Felix scouts ahead. but then they find his body and eyewitnesses say it was someone he knew by name that shot him once he let his guard down and his back was turned. "Locus" they say. supposedly leading the assault with an army of heretic-geth and a massive ship emitting a terrible sound. they fight to the beacon, disable bombs along the way, and find it just as Locus's ship departs. as the squad's engineer is scanning it, Tucker notices they're starting to levitate and rushes in to grab them and throw them aside only to get caught himself. he gets the prothean vision-warning about the Reapers and maybe a special prothean omni-blade and its on. he has to prove to the Citadel Council that their Spectre Locus is a traitor and that the Reapers are real but visions? galactic extinction cycles? oh you humans are so full of it. you've been part of the galactic community for 30 years and now you're here with a conspiracy theory at best? i cant believe we thought you could work for us. blah. Tucker marches off but meets Church who's been trying to take Locus down from within the system to no avail. Alpha!Church is the Director's son but Allison got custody after the divorce and now he's a grouchy C-Sec cop getting nowhere real quick. Tucker invites him along and he's a shitty sniper but actually pretty decent with the Mako's cannon considering it handles like a drunk krogan who can do a flip it you drive off the cliff edge fast enough (what are mass effect booster jets for?). they track down a krogan mercenary (Wrex is probably still Wrex. because who could hope to live up to him?) and fight through a strip club and kill Fist and rescue a quarian (Palomo? make that Jensen) with evidence proving Locus is guilty. then they save Dr. Emily Grey and help her keep her small clinic in the wards from being shut down and she gives them sweet discounts and all the free medigel they can shove into their pockets. they rescue asari!Doc from inside a prothean ruin (got lost on a yoga retreat and panicked when geth started attacking...i guess he could be an archeologist but maybe they drag Grey along for the ride instead...) but he's developed a split personality due to how long he's been alone in there and its kinda murderous but coupled with biotics its pretty useful. (and yes, asari are mono-gendered and are all "female" but ME: Andromeda confirmed that some asari use masculine pronouns/identify as "male" and there's no way that wasn't a thing in ME 1 canon so Doc is he/him). on Virmire, he almost shoots Tex AND Wrex on the beach- put down your shotguns you fucking lunatics i will biotically throw you into the ocean! he helped Wrex get his family armor so Tucker manages to talk him down but man Tex could you chill its been months already. he has to leave Tex behind though to protect the bomb while he and Wrex save Kaikaina and Kirahee and fight Locus. they evacuate and the bomb detonates and atleast it was instantaneous. she wouldn't have felt herself be vaporized, it was quick and we stopped Locus from getting an army of krogan. Church is devastated and knowing that Tucker leaving Tex behind was a conscious choice splinters their friendship. but. Tucker has to finish this. its bullshit and why us. why'd it have to be us on this ship in this life shewasmyfriendtoo- but its a race against the clock to the lost relay and Ilos and theres no time to have a real talk. its complete bullshit. they get to Ilos but Locus is ahead of them and they have to fight so many geth and find a 50,000 year old message which only Tucker can understand but fuck this we're being left in Locus' dust openthisstupid templedoor*swish* oh shit this things a fucking key "guess we didnt have to fight all them robots" he said stepping over the mountain of slain robots because fuck my life. Wrex how'd you live so long life fucking sucks. "i've been drunk for a lot of it" great. yup. can the Mako go any faster. and then they meet Vigil but dont record it because they're still idiots who forget/dont mind the details until Simmons shows up in the sequel you morons but hey remember THAT CHASE WE WERE IN LETSGO and they drive the Mako into a relay and if Tucker made sure to crash into a geth colossus no one says anything- and they fly out into the Presidium Commons like if the Mako had wings but itfuckingdoesnt and why are there even jets on this tank. Locus and Sovereign beat them to the Citadel and the arms are closed but Hal-9000 over there is just chillin' on the Citadel Tower like he's shishing the kebab himself. then gravity goes off and they fight sideways all the way up the tower and those turrets sure are being turrets you know and not differentiating between us and the assholes ahead of us. but they finally make it and stop Locus short of the apocalypse. Tucker goes all renegade Locus was just afraid, the Reapers put his life in persepective and we are all so small and insignificant, "is servitude not preferable to extinction?" you're just a puppet, they're using you because you're weak, because you let them, do yourself a favor-! but Locus claims its too late and they fight and kill him. but he rises anyway. the fight the first and only Possessed Marauder- Sovereign controlig Locus' corpse through implants. he was mostly implants. and once its ash ashashashes Tex didnt even get to be ashes its unfa- and Sarge is over the comm, open the Citadel's arms son so the Alliance can save the day and Tucker has a choice. save the Council and sacrifice thousands of soldiers. or kill the Reaper and worry about new leadership later. its Tex again. worse. i need to think, theres no time, you know what this thing can do you saw in the vision i believe you so what do we do. make the call. and Tucker needs the Council's support...but the Reaper needs to be killed...but saving the Council will cost too much...but the Reaper could still call the others from dark space...they'll trust me... will the new ones? will the Alliance? Anyone? no. but someone will definitely be alive. kill Sovereign. the Council dies. the Destiny Ascention is destroyed. the Alliance suffers minimal loses. humanity fills the vacuum of power. humanity is no longer trusted. they blame him. he does too. have any of his choices been good enough? right? much of the crew goes their own way. Church goes back to C-Sec. maybe he'll call. Wrex returns to Tuchanka, faith in his people restored. Doc joins Grey at her small clinic. Jensen returns to the Migrant Fleet with geth data. and Tucker and the rest are... disgraced. no one says but they dont have to. every breath is a reminder of his failures and what he did. so much potential in him once, they say. he could have been great. instead he did this. and they fight geth. chase geth. fight more. they head to Alchera. more geth, they said. it isnt. the ship is blown apart. Kaikaina shoves anyone who cant walk into the escape pods. The XO is killed almost immediately. Grif won't leave. Tucker, please, Dex! Get Dex! she yells as she's dragged into an escape pod by a Yeoman and he storms over because he wont lose anyone else but the hull is gone and you can't run in mag boots. Grif is fighting for Normandy. Tucker can hear him asking for just a little more just enough to- to- but Tucker's having none of it and pulls and heaves and forces his idiot pilot into the pod. of all the times Grif chose to be the opposite of lazy. a streak of yellow catches his eye and its coming this way and he pushes off and hits the launch button but the engines blow and he hits something as he is set adrift. he's losing air. fuck, its- its behind him. he panics and scrambles for the puncture but his arms are geting heavier and he's already wheezing short little breaths shortlittlefailures youfailedyoukilledthem youkilledher. the sun in the distance is bright. he can feel his body tilt toward the planet, sees the sunlight cresting over the horizon. his vision goes dark around the edges. but the sun is bright and he doesnt notice he isnt afraid and he falls *maniacal laughter* someone should have stopped me. i think its super out of character but this is a rambling monster and not meant to go super in-depth or anything. god help me.

#vehl's headcannons #TuckerFightsARobotArmy #lavernius tucker #rvb #mass effect

[whimsical-writer]

the whole rainbow!

OH GEEZE ANON.

Well I already answered Green here, so I’ll do all the other colours.

red: 

how was your first kiss? 

To be honest it was SHIT. I’m 18 years old, never been kissed before, in my second real relationship. Cuddling with the guy in his basement, playing video games… And he’s holding me close… Suddenly says he loves me. It’s been two months. I am a smol, and I panic, and say it back to him cause that’s what you’re supposed to do right? And then he asks if he can kiss me. Okay sure….

But then proceeds to lick all over my lips/shove his tongue in my mouth (despite KNOWING it was my first kiss), wouldn’t let me pull away… it was AWKWARD AS HELL. I ended up breaking up with him about a week later and he spread a rumor that he got his hand down my pants. :’u Grade A asshole.

what do you love about yourself?

I love how creative I am! It’s easy for me to think of stories / drawings, and I’m always eager to pick up a new art skill. =D

When’s the last time you warmed your hands in front of a fire? 

Back in February! It was Reading Week ( a week of school) for my Roommate and I, so we went to Winterlude to go skating and see the ice-sculptures. They had a few wood stoves around outside for people to keep warm at. My gloves smelt like wood smoke for weeks

would you rather watch a sunrise or sunset? 

Sunrise. 

what’s the best thing about summer?

Uh… I like all the flowers and the meteor shower in August… But other than that I am not a huge fan of summer. I melt easily. :’u

orange: 

what makes you feel warm inside? 

Honestly, talking to my friends and getting hugs. And kittens.

what’s your favorite halloween tradition?

Dressing up! … And candy.

what’s the last thing you learned?

Well, I’m currently in a program for animation… I suppose the last thing I learned is I need to manage my time better. :’u Next year, my grades WILL be better.

when’s the last time you felt obsessed?

-looks at my sketchbooks filled with RVB characters-

… Very recently.

what’s your favorite article of clothing?

Skiiiirts and dresses! Any day I don’t have to wear pants is a good one.

yellow:

if you could have any view from your bedroom window what would you choose? 

Ideally: the ocean.

Realistically, a view of the city from my apartment.

what’s your favorite thing to do on a sunny day? 

Assuming it’s not STUPID HOT OUT, just sitting outside in the grass is nice. Miss doing this at my Mum’s.

what do you consider lucky? 

Overall, yeah. I have good friends and family, I’ve never been horribly injured… Would love a little more cash flow in my life but that’s everyone. :’u So yeah, I’d say I’m lucky. 

what made you smile today? 

THIS AMAZING FIC RIGHT HERE HOLY SHIIIIIIIT IT’S SO GOOD THEY WROTE CABOOSE SO WELL AND C A R O L I N A JUST AAAAAAAAH

I read the whole thing this morning and it made me want to cry it was so good but I was grinning at so many parts, it was sO GOOD.

what makes you happy?

Being with my friends and cuddles!! Also the discord chat, you guys are awesome and I love you all, thank you for being my friends.

blue: 

what do you do when you’re sad? 

If I can, I cuddle with someone. Being squished / hugged is really calming and can help me when I’m sad or panicked. Reading or rping a cute fluffy scene also can help a lot.

Just being with friends and talking.

what are some things you do when you can’t sleep? 

Roll over and check skype to talk to Mushi lol

Though if it’s the early hours of the morning I’ll daydream until I’m either so understimulated I have to get up or I fall back asleep.  I’ll plan out stories or write self-indulgent scenes in my head.

what was the best (non-romantic) night you’ve had?

hONESTLY last Saturday was the RVB Cards Against Humanity game and it was so much fun, especially when we collectively lost our shit upon realizing there was going to be a new RVB episode the next day, rather than a PSA. After that we streamed season 11 and everyone was just having a good time and it was lovely.

what kind of covers do you have on your bed?

Alright so

I got my sheets

Got my wolf blanket

Got my DIGIMON COMFORTER (it’s the best thing ever)

Got my woodland creatures blanket one of my best friends made me

And I got my Winnie the Pooh baby blanket! 

I am a warm and cozy Heza when I go to bed.

who is the last person you told a secret to?

Uh… I honestly can’t remember. I don’t often have secrets.

purple:

what’s your astrological sign? 

Aries baby! I enjoy being a fluffy ram. I put 0 stock into the Zodiac as being a viable way to explain anything about my life or me as a person, but I do find that stuff fun to read about! 

what’s the best piece of advice you ever received? 

“Never be afraid to erase.”. This was said to me by my Grade 7 homeroom teacher. I was just starting to get into art and drawing then, and it was a great piece of advice. I’m not afraid to completely start a drawing over, and there were even times I did that on my animations during school and honestly I think they turned out for the better. And from a non-drawing standpoint I think it’s good too. Don’t be afraid to admit something was a mistake and do away with it. Start over. Make it better. 

when’s the last time you followed your instincts? 

Hmmm… Having trouble remembering this one too. I think quitting the kitchen industry was one, because I knew I was just hurting myself in that career, and going into Animation instead. This is MUCH better for me.

what’s your favorite food? 

… You know how hard it is to pick one favourite food?? 

Uuhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh raspberries.

what’s your secret dream?

This took me a while to think about. I’m generally pretty open about what I want in life and what my goals are.

I suppose if I could spend a year or more traveling the world, without worrying about a job and money… That’d be nice.

And there you go Anon! :’D All about Heza.

#Heza Answers #Heza Speaks #Long post #Anon

[renaroo]

Double Time (1/24)

Disclaimer: Red vs Blue and related characters are the property of Rooster Teeth. Warnings: Language, Canon-typical violence Pairings: Tuckington, Chex Rating: T Synopsis: [Hero Time Sequel] After the events of Hero Time, the city and Blood Gulch are prepared for the true return of superheroes in a big way. But while Washington is attempting to adjust to a new relationship and a new living arrangement, the call of new heroes and a new mayor mean major changes for his professional life as well as his personal one. How will the balance of values fare when his new partners come to test everything he’s made of.

A/N: We are finally, finally back to this AU that has been the start of just so much in my fandom experience here with RvB. I adore this AU and while I needed the short break it’s fantastic to be back in the swing of things and getting back to the part of the story that captured so many people’s hearts to begin with: the relationship between our hero and our civilian. Hopefully everyone’s as ready for some high octane hero romance as I am!

I want to once again thank my collaborator and the just all around awesome artist @ashleystlawrence who helped inspire this AU as well as has provided just amazing artwork and costume designs throughout the installments. And also to @goodluckdetective for being a huge inspiration for this AU as well. This series is a labor of love dedicated to the inspiration of the two of them.

Startlingly Routine

Cities were never really quiet, and in that way, a hero who worked in a city was never really done. 

Washington wondered, somewhat idly, if that was the reason behind never exactly hearing about superheroes in the more sprawling wilds of rural country land, but he also supposed that a simple counterpoint was that heroes didn’t look nearly as cool prowling on tree limbs as they did on rooftops.

Clearly. 

He looked to the police scanner that Church had built him at the behest of Tucker and tuned into the several frequencies. Really, it was any wonder he was able to patrol without the little device on his wrist formerly -- it made finding trouble and being able to assist that much easier. 

And it had only been a few months since the entirety of the Blood Gulch Crew had entered into his never-completely-simple life. 

“Still nothing?” he asked the air around him, aggravation clear in his sigh. “Though, I suppose that’s better than something. By someone’s book.”

As a professional superhero, Wash knew that not every patrol was met with intrigue, but he was far from ready to call it a night either. 

Not until he checked in on his... work in progress. 

With an aggravated sigh, the catlike superhero began to change his patrol path and race instead toward the mechanic’s shop where his second longest rehabilitation attempt was stationed.

The Red Dead Blood Gulch Gang had long been operating out of Lopez’s garage -- their mechanic the ever befuddled and seemingly unhappy member given the unfortunate codename Brown. It was the kind of information which Wash would have given an arm and a leg to know when he was hunting down their crime patterns as the newly returned superhero Washington. 

Instead he gave them practically every other part of their body when he bounced off their hood and windshield.

For being a former criminal organization, even if did fancy itself to be more akin to Robin Hood than straight up debauchery, the Reds were not a particularly intimidating bunch to drop in on.

Stealthily as he might have been, Washington couldn’t help but think that former criminals sitting around  a mechanic’s garage and drinking beer while the reminisced should have been at least a little aware of his presence. Then again, he was obviously giving the Reds far, far too much credit on nearly every account.

“What’s got Lopez all pinched up and pissed off?” Grif asked, throwing a used can toward the garbage and missing, earning an annoyed look from Simmons.

“I think that’s just his face, guys!” Donut stage whispered to them, using his arm that was still in a brace. Wash tried to take some solace in the fact that it was no longer a cast (there was little to be had).

“He’s turning blue on us, just wait!” Sarge howled. “He’s all in a pissy mood and whatnot because we scheduled this meeting for the Gang on one of his precious date nights with our newest getaway driver.”

“How many times do I have to tell you, old man, I’m still your driver!” Grif snapped.

“Probably until you actually start driving again,” Simmons said with a roll of his eye.

“Even so, Sheila hasn’t agreed to be the getaway driver,” Grif argued.

“Oh, she will be! Her time will come, and she will see what her true calling has been all along,” Sarge chuckled.

Lopez sat in the back corner, arms crossed angrily over his chest as he released a long, aggravated sigh but otherwise didn’t even contribute to the conversation.

“Believe me, Sarge, getaway driver is not a calling anyone feels happy to answer to,” Grif huffed.

Having heard more than enough, Washington stepped more fully into the garage and partially into the light, tilting his head. “Strictly speaking, if you’re not doing things illegally anymore, you wouldn’t be a getaway driver at all. Just a driver.”

Nearly all at once, the Reds jumped up in surprise, causing more spilled beer cans than Sarge would have ever allowed in his poker basement. A fact that it pained Wash to know after the time he was drug down there by Tucker for a way to ‘relax with the guys.’

“Wow! Wash! Don’t jump out of the shadows like that!” Donut cried out. “Makes people think you’re about to shake them down for information they don’t have or something!”

Incapable of escaping the flinch that caused him to make, Wash merely sighed. “I’ll make note of that for the future, Donut,” he offered before looking more specifically to Sarge. “But I did promise to make more casual drop ins to see how you guys were doing with keeping the neighborhoods safe instead of taking on the system. In… utterly counter productive ways.”

“Yeah, well, at least painting stoplights and getting back at dumb bakeries was fun,” Grif huffed. “People barely thank you when you work on improving the community. Stupid community. What the fuck has it ever done for us? Nothing. That’s why we became a badass gang to begin with.”

“So eloquent, Grif, no wonder you’ve not been moved up to leader of a mission yet,” Simmons scoffed.

“I know it’s a… difficult adjustment to make,” Wash offered. “But for what it’s worth—“

“Not a hell of a lot, son,” Sarge harrumphed.

“But for what it’s worth,” Wash pressed on, “I think together we’re actually doing something to improve Blood Gulch. I’ve been on the police scanner all night and I’ve not heard anything. That’s the second time this week we’ve had a quiet night.”

“Second time this week you and Tex have had a quiet night,” Simmons corrected.

“Yeah, you’ve still not had us helping out with the actual crime fighting stuff,” Donut whined. “When’s that going to get started? I’d love to start on that stuff! I mean, planting a new community garden and cleaning up the park are great—“

“No they’re not,” Grif retorted.

“But we thought recovering from former villainy would involve more hero-type stuff,” Donut explained with a wide smile.

Wash put his hands on his hips and forced a smile. “I’m afraid I can’t really force crime to happen. And if I could, I wouldn’t. It’s good for our city to have a downtick in dangerous activity. But as soon as we start having emergencies again, when heroes are needed, I’ll know when to call you… So long as your community service hours are being kept up on.” He squinted at them. “They are being kept up, aren’t they?”

The Reds all glanced to each other then back to Washington.

“Oh, yeaaaaah, sure, Wash! We’re right on those!” Donut called out in what was bound to be his least believable voice.

“No,” Lopez voiced.

“See! Even Lopez agrees about how well we’ve been doing!” Sarge chuckled.

Washington scowled. “No is still no even in Spanish. I understood him perfectly.”

“We’re fine, stop moaning and groaning about the number of hours we have left to our community service,” Grif huffed. “You’re literally the only person who cares.”

“Technically the law cares,” Wash reminded them.

“And we’re only a few hours behind our projected capita, Sir,” Simmons bit out nervously. “We’re good on them, promise!”

Wash sighed. “I know going straight is hard—“

“I’ve never even tried it!” Donut rang in almost instantly.

“Yeah, like you’d know the first thing about going straight,” Grif laughed at Wash’s face.

“You know what?” Washington sighed. “I’m just going to go home. Don’t forget to clock in your community service hours this week. I’m serious. It’s important that you do that.”

“Yeah, yeah, whatever, Mister Fancy Pants in a new costume. All blue and disgusting — you should be ashamed of yourself,” Sarge grumbled.

“I’m far from it,” Wash said, heading out of the garage. “Seriously, keep up doing the good work and I wouldn’t have to pay you surprise visits.”

There was some garbled resentment, but Wash was far from caring about it.

With the Reds taken care of for the night, he was on his literal last stop of the night, and couldn’t be happier to finally get there.

Home was still a seemingly normal flat overtop a seemingly normal (because it was) laundromat. But behind such normal doors was security, protection, and — newly added — people waiting for him on the other side of it all.

Coming in through his bedroom window, Wash was at least a little disappointed that his room was empty. He never liked it when he kept people waiting, but living with said people had really made that gut reaction turn up to eleven.

Quickly dispensing with his patrol uniform, Wash changed into some boxers and a tee for comfort before going to the door and hoping that he was only keeping one person waiting instead of two.

In the main room, Tucker was preoccupied with a laptop and wearing pajama pants but not much else. Which, considering his usual bedroom attire, was a bonus, Wash supposed.

There was no Junior which meant the little quasi-alien was in bed and not waiting for the superhero role model to return home safely and give adventurous tales he could draw out and further cover the fridge with.

Standing in the doorway for a moment, Wash leaned against the frame and just looked at the sight set out before him. At his life — so different and new from what he had known just months before. And all because he had, by complete happenstance, ran into Tucker. Tucker and Junior and every remotely wild and obtuse friend and family that came along with them. From Reds to former evil geniuses to old not-so-dead fellow Freelancers, and landlords that Wash was more than happy to never deal with again.

It was all because of Tucker, and Wash’s heart swelled in his chest at the very thought of him.

That was, until Tucker happened to glance up from his laptop, get spooked and scream, and react by throwing a television remote Wash’s way.

Surprised, Wash moved out of the way and let the remote to the new television crash against the wall behind him and shatter. “Tucker! What the hell—“

“Wash!? What the hell is wrong with you? Why do you have to sneak up so quietly everywhere you go!?” Tucker cried out, bewildered. “If you were a cat I’d put a bell on you.”

Wash looked through the darkness at his partner and raised a brow. “Hilarious.”

“It’s not hilarious, it’s a valid threat,” Tucker said, sitting up on his knees and leaning over the back of the couch. “Any trouble tonight?”

Wash walked toward the couch. “Unfortunately no.”

“Unfortunately?” Tucker mocked. “I’ll never understand superheroes, I swear.”

“Unfortunately in that there won’t be a whole lot to tell Junior when he forces us both awake for breakfast in a few hours,” Wash said, leaning against the back of the couch, just inches from Tucker. “And for someone who will never understand superheroes, you’ve done a fairly decent job of getting together quite the crew of superhero tropes to surround yourself with over the years.”

Tucker shrugged passively, a smirk on his lips. “Eh, I’ve got my own power of magnetic personality. I just draw them all in.”

Tilting his head, Wash couldn’t help the fond smile across his face. “You certainly do,” he said. “I just hope it makes you happy.”

“What does?” Tucker asked blissfully, shutting his laptop.

“Being surrounded by bigger than life issues, living here with me, being friends with almost-nearly-convicts, pretending I didn’t see that it was porn on your screen before you shut your laptop,” Wash listed off almost wistfully.

“Make me happy?” Tucker laughed. “Wash, it’s like the definition of what makes me happy right now. I’m staying up late not because I had to pick up extra late night hours at the diner to cover the appliances. I’m staying up late watching porn in a living room I share with my superhero boyfriend who has a bankroll due to the kinda sketchy government coverup stuff that people on Blood Gulch couldn’t even dream up.” He then raised a brow of his own. “You ever going to tell me the full story of that someday?”

“I’m sure I will,” Wash said. “Just not tonight. Not when I can spend that time sleeping next to you in bed instead.”

Tucker waggled his eyebrow, as to be expected. “That all?”

“Well, I did have a slow night,” Wash lamented before leaning in and meeting Tucker for the kiss the man had been very obviously moving in for the entire conversation.

His life was becoming startlingly routine, but Washington had learned to very much love that.

And he truly did. It was the thing in the world he loved third most of all — right after Tucker and Junior.

At the back of his mind, though, Wash knew to be anxious, even if he wouldn’t dare show it to his partner. Because for a hero, slipping into routines, having things one loved most of all in the world, always seemed to have a price to be paid.

Sooner or later.

#writing #rvb fic #RvB: Hero Time #RvB: Double Time #Tuckington #Agent Washington #Lavernius Tucker #Dexter Grif #Dick Simmons #Franklin Delano Donut #AI: Lopez the Heavy #Colonel Sarge

[calliecat93]

Top 5 Likes of Red vs Blue: Season 1

(Top 5 Dislikes)

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

#5. Early Installment Weirdness

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

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

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

#4. Church Dies

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

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

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

#3. The Tex Twist

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

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

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

#2. Character Interactions

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

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

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

#1. Memorability

“Hey?”

“Yeah?”

“Do you ever wonder why we’re here?

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

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

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

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

#rvb #rvb reviews #top likes/dislikes

[sirithromen]

Alternate Approach to the basic premise of Season 15 of rvb

There is a fair bit of personal favorite stuff in here. You are very likely and perfectly welcome to disagree. I just think this might have been a smoother piece given all the excellent analysis I’ve seen from multiple authors. This is just my opinion after some thought about what could have been involved and the kinds of things I like to see in stories.

Main: While on the moon, every so often either Wash or Carolina will make a discreet run to Chorus to pick up the next round of food and get looked over by Doctor Gray (their implants are old, after all, and AI based brain damage doesn’t magically disappear). When on these runs the Freelancer in question is to check in after a certain amount of time has passed. If they can’t for some reason they are to get back to the team within three hours using a code that explains the delay (anything from ‘traffic, sorry’ to ‘need help, hurry’). When it’s Wash’s turn, he fails both check-ins. The team calls Doctor Gray, only to find out that she got a message saying shenanigans have delayed him and he couldn’t make it ‘til later in the week. They head out to find him, Blues determined not to lose another leader, Reds because Blue shenanigans are always interesting and often informative (no clear opinion here on whether Grif should still stay behind. He had good reason to do so canonically, but I don’t know if the different start would change that). They can still pick up the reporters on their way, and this may be when (and how) they find out about the fake Reds and Blues. Tucker rides herd on the team while Carolina orbits between her people and the next new lead (in Chorus trilogy Tucker was basically heir apparent/apprentice/right hand, so in Wash’s absence he gets Wash’s job, while Carolina does well as a scout who isn’t tied to a group’s pace while still being able to fall back on group support when things get dicey). As such, he’s in charge of corralling the Blues and Reds, while she’s the one to discover the Murder Fridge. Between the fact that she’s been learning how to live at peace (rather than as a powerful extension of the UNSC or Freelancer) and her worry for her teammate, when she sees him she moves immediately to help, and the area of effect freezes her.

Divergence: In this, Temple’s abilities and motives would be...a little different. He isn’t focused on a grudge against any particular Freelancer so much as against the Project itself and the UNSC that sold him and his people to them. He has cycled back round to the point where he believes the best way to spite the Project is to destroy the people they were made fodder for, the ‘valuable ones’ who were worth something to the Director if only because they were the ones that qualified for AI use. He has no real knowledge of Alpha Team except that many of them were able to kill each other before he could find them. There is evidence (though I’d have to look it up) that for a soldier to lose a brother in arms is as devastating to the human mind as losing a spouse of several years. The UNSC, when it conceivably needed every bit of help it could find, chose to sell his people to Project Freelancer as canon fodder for a bunch of experimental assets with no guarantee (or even necessarily high probability) of success. He saw his friends die for someone else’s mindgames, someone else’s farce, and became determined to destroy the people he sees as responsible. The thing is: the Reds and Blues are not exempt from his disdain. They adopted Freelancers, after all. They were friends with the AI, and founded by Florida himself. Because they chose to acknowledge that the Freelancers were just as badly treated (albeit in very different ways) as the Sim Troopers, and show mercy, even compassion to them, he doesn’t really separate them from Freelancers proper in his own mind. He is careful not to raise the groups’ suspicions since he understands he can’t take them all, or all at once, but he holds the Freelancers accountable for the Director’s and Counselor’s decisions (since they were the ones on the ground, the ones he saw) and doesn’t choose to distinguish the Reds and Blues from the Freelancers. Primarily: He has a valid issue with the UNSC (they sold. their people. into slavery. During a war of attrition where every life counts. Both in Halo base canon and in rvb. I’d hope a lot of us have valid issues with the UNSC). He just handles it wrong (which actually...kinda parallels how season 6 Wash handled things, only he went for the AI/records instead of the humans).

(This also means that if you do have Reds and Blues joining him, it’s not that they’re idiots or traitors. They’re just exhausted and want some real justice for a change.)

Main again: He’s laid several false trails of which the Blues and Reds are only the latest (where he couldn’t find analogues he found someone able to play the part), and there is the implication that he’s been doing this for long before the protagonists became aware of it (the same way it’s implied for Hargrove with Chorus, or the Director with...everything really). He proves generally able to play them off of each other (working at the cracks that no one was mending in war that only showed now they were at peace), and is a competent, serious threat.

Still, his biggest mistake comes from underestimating those he’s against. I’ve always been fond of the headcanon (not sure how popular it is) that Grif is canny, sly, and very aware, even if he usually can’t be bothered by what he notices. But (at least early on) he was also very careful with family. And this guy may have been able to cause trouble for strangers without it affecting him greatly, but now he’s targeting Grif’s (found) family. That is not acceptable. He is motivated, and he undermines Temple pretty effectively. Tucker’s main obstacles in this would be trying to handle the whole group at once when they saw him as a rookie and can’t always remember that he’s earned his leadership, even when  he doesn’t really want it. Caboose would be a little more angry, and a little more focused. This guy isn’t offering a chance to reconnect with First Church, he’s taken away Third Church (the first one who was openly friends right back with him). I don’t have enough of a handle on the others to be sure of what (if any) differences would result for them, but the premise is the same: The Reds and Blues are much farther and better than Temple (if that’s even his real name) assumed, and their loyalty, determination, and luck win out. They defeat him, save their Freelancers, and prevent him from starting a new Insurrection fiasco via terrorism. Wash does still have to get medevacced because he spent significantly longer (like days longer) than Carolina in armor lock (and she’s mostly scraping by on short bursts and leaning on the walls in between). They fix things as much as they can, acknowledge where they can’t, and try to establish a balance between being crazy/danger magnets and having a real life. Ideally, this puts them in roughly the same place (story-wise) as at the end of season 15 canonically, but in a way that may be a bit smoother or more sensible.

#Locus probably wouldn't show up #because you need to integrate your new person before bringing in your new new person #and Carolina wasn't fully integrated onto the team before this #I'd probably replace the Temple of Procreation stuff with #Tucker interacting with Junior #instead #maybe even have sister with the group #if the reporters drew her into things before the Reds and Blues got there #Wouldn't touch the bits with Gray though #I love her too much #I just really enjoy stories #where the protagonists' side is genuinely held accountable #Like the Republic in Clone Wars or the UNSC in Halo stuff #Not thrown completely out the window maybe #but actually held up to the standards they claim #and where the antagonists have good and sympathetic roots #even when they screw themselves over with a bad alliance #while there is the potential for that in these stories #it's usually background #Maybe it's just easier to make them both some kind of bad #than to have two mostly goods in genuine conflict with one another #because everyone knows that all good guys get along always #sarcasm #in case you couldn't tell #It just seems to me to be a simpler solution #to have Wash 'under' longer than Carolina #instead of having him inexplicably loopier and then shot #Red vs. Blue #rvb #Season 15

[meanderfall]

//puts chin in hands and stares at u adoringly, for the cute questions: 1 - 6 - 13 - 15 - 42 - 74 - 91 - 120 - 128 - 133 - 136 - 144 and 147!!!

ajflsdhfalkhf adri you spoil me rotten!!!! Thank you my love!!!

(this is going under a read more bc holy shit)

1. Who was the last person you held hands with?

I’m pretty sure it was when I met up with one of my friends after her class in summer school?? we just sat down together and like held hands while we talked. And I think that was the person bc tbh it is entirely likely i’ve held hands with my younger siblings between then and now (I guess i might not have a specific memory about it bc i havent seen my siblings in like 2 weeks ;;A;;)

6. What kind of people are you attracted to?

Honestly, I love passionate people, the people who adore things and others with everything they have, and people who are clever (which doesnt mean being good at school), and those who are a little bit snarky and a lot silly (well silly at the right moments i guess, there’s a time and place for everything!!! //whispers professor oak taught me that). People who take themselves too seriously aren’t for me.(Also, on a more “oh that’s really hot!” level, competency?? at anything, just having something you are really good at, and just how focused they are and absorbed in what they’re doing, and the concentration, all those things are so attractive omg) 

13. Do you like it when people play with your hair?

YES

AND IT’S SO UPSETTING BC IT NEVER HAPPENS, NOBODY EVER PLAYS WITH MY HAIR OR SCRATCHES MY HEAD OR ANYTHING WHERE IS MY PHYSICAL AFFECTION I NEED IT SOMEONE COME OVER HERE AND CUDDLE ME

15. What good thing happened this summer?

oh god, i have the emotional memory of a gnat. This summer… was pretty terrible tbh, but a good thing that happened was the time I spent with you?? like overwatch (and I finally started to enjoy playing it!!!) or when we watched rvb together (and drace!) and then the next day when we spent like six hours listening to music, that was fantastic! Besides that, I’m happy I’m getting closer with @anthcny-stark and @theaussiedragon too, and like! those two days I spent with my older brother and we just hung out and watched stuff together and my younger siblings! We binge-watched things together and had a blast!!!! so i guess a lot of good things have happened this summer, it’s just hard to remember when life in general is awful.

42. If your being extremely quiet what does it mean?

Depends! And it’s hard to tell because I’m a pretty quiet person in general. Pretty sure most of my family would assume that I’m snarking in my head, but I would say most of the time when I’m quiet, I’m just spacing out, just staring into the distance with my mind blank. Other times I could just be exhausted or have a headache. Though, if I’m with a group of friends that you know I’m usually comfortable and loud with and I’m not saying anything, I’m likely going through some kind of depressive spiral where I feel like nobody would actually miss me if I was gone and even if they did, I could be easily replaced and basically I’m not really important to anybody, and I could disappear and they wouldn’t really care.

74. How many stuffed animals do you think you have?

Two. The stuffed fox and a unicorn that has not left the box I put it in when we moved. (I had???? a shitton of stuffies but I gave them away when we moved bc I had never mastered the art of sleeping with stuffies so they were mostly a nuisance when they were in bed with me, and like I get stupidly and easily attached to anything so of course I loved them to death, but really my comfort object has always been my blankie, who is now ridiculously tiny for my size and I basically ball up and cuddle with when I sleep if I need that comfort.)

91. Is there anyone you want to punch in the face right now?

No. I think I would only feel that way if I was angry and I’m not angry about anything atm so no.

120. Are you afraid of the dark?

I used to be! Had a nightlight and everything. Now the only thing about the dark I’m scared of is the possibility of walking into something. I actually really like the dark (well as long as it’s in an environment I know lmao dont knock me out and put me in a pitch dark basement in the middle of nowhere)

128. Would you change your name?

If I could find a name I liked and felt a connection to, ye! My name is just… cumbersome and unwieldy to the tongue and it’s… pretty hideous tbh. I don’t know how to put it, ever since I was a kid, I always felt like my name was unique but not in the good way. It stuck out like sore thumb, and was stupidly long, and like, I would look at it and recognize as mine, like felt a connection to it? but it wasn’t a fun connection. It’s like those moments when you look at yourself in the mirror and it’s like you’re realizing that that’s what you look like to other people, that is your physical form, and there’s a weird disconnect between the two, and it’s fucking weird.

133. Favourite lyrics right now?

adri you hate me dont you, do you have any idea how hard this question is!!!!! how am i supposed to choose??? (the answer: I’m not. I’m choosing all of them. All of my favourite lyrics right now. I hope you’re happy adri)

“Oh everything’s a messAnd all these sorrows I have seenThey lead me to believeThat everything’s a mess” Dream by Imagine Dragons

“Happiness, feels a lot like sorrowLet it be, you can’t make it come or goBut you are gone - not for good but for nowAnd gone for now, feels a lot like gone for good” Happiness by The Fray (the part that really hits me is italicized)

“Make my messes matter.Make this chaos count.Let every little fracture in meShatter out loud.” Jupiter by Sleeping At Last

“Stitch by stitch I tear apart.If brokenness is a form of art,I must be a poster child prodigy.Thread by thread I come apart.If brokenness is a work of art,Surely this must be my masterpiece.I’m only honest when it rains.If I time it right, the thunder breaksWhen I open my mouth.I want to tell you but I don’t know how.” Neptune by Sleeping At Last

I can’t pick a favourite so, all of Saturn by Sleeping At Last. All of it.

“Much too tired to try,Much too stubborn to quit” Hit or Miss by Sleeping At Last.

“maybe distance is the only cure?Far away from hurt is where healing occurs.But all you really want to do is make them proud,Don’t you? don’t you?It must be so hard, in the mess you’re always cleaning up,To believe in the ghost of unbroken love.But I promise you,The truth is that you’re loved. so loved.” Silhouettes by Sleeping At Last

“Cry heart, cry yourself to sleep, cry a storm of tears if it helps you breatheIt helps you, if it helps you breathe” Homesick by Sleeping At Last

“Show meHow to struggle gracefullyLet the scaffolding inside of me be strong enough to hold this tired body upOnce more […]

So I will try, try, try to breathe‘til it turns to muscle memoryI’m only steady on my kneesBut one day I’ll stand on my own two feet

And I’ll run the riskOf being intimate with brokenness […]” Son by Sleeping At Last

“They say don’t let them inClose your eyes and clear your thoughts againBut when I’m all alone, they show up on their own […]They say “Just push them down, just fight them harderWhy would you give up on it so soon?” […]

Life is pain, life’s not fairSo angels please, please stay hereTake the pain, take the fear” Inner Demons by Julia Brennan

“Don’t you know I’m still standing better than I ever didLooking like a true survivor, feeling like a little kidAnd I’m still standing after all this timePicking up the pieces of my life without you on my mind” I’m still Standing (the cover by Taron Egerton)

“I feel fine enough, I guessConsidering everything’s a mess.” Pinch Me by the Barenaked Ladies

“I’m not expecting to grow flowers in a desertBut I can live and breathe and see the sun in wintertime“ In a Big Country by Big Country

(yes i know about 90% of these is SaL, but they have some of the best lyrics ever???) (also true story, the moment i read the question, i forgot every song i ever listened to lmao)

136. Do you sleep with your doors open or closed?

Unless it’s a hot and/or humid night and I need the airflow, the door is closed. Leaving it open makes me feel vulnerable?? (and that’s true throughout the day as well, if my door is open it’s bc I’m feeling open and wouldn’t mind people coming in to talk to me). Not to mention I usually sleep naked.

Fun fact! In the old house, I would sleep with the door open (mainly in case my cat wanted to come sleep in bed with me), but what ended up happening, bc I’m a paranoid and suspicious fuck, I would immediately awaken whenever someone would go to the bathroom (bc there was only one bathroom (for seven people!) and it was right across the hall from my room), and I would look to see who it was (which often resulted in awkward eye contact) before rolling over and going back to sleep. According to one sibling, the fact that I was always awake when they went was “really fucking creepy”. (I DIDNT DO IT ON PURPOSE THOUGH!!!!! I WOULD HEAR FOOTSTEPS AND AWAKEN, NOT MY FAULT!!! the worst part is that I can sleep through anything else. Cat sleeping on my face? no problem. Thunderstorm? Can’t hear a thing. My cats duking it out with an owl, which apparently woke up the entire house? sleeping like a baby.)

144. Dark, milk or white chocolate?

Sorry, I read the question and started drooling. Um, definitely have to go with milk chocolate. (White is a close second! Dark chocolate is too bitter for my tastes.)

147. Mars or Snickers?

Mars. (I do not like peanuts in my dessert. Or nuts in general.)

#aroacedrienne #about #this is so long im so sorry

[calliecat93]

Top 5 Things I Liked About RvB16: The Shisno Paradox

Yesterday, I posted my Top 5 Things I Disliked About RvB16. I don't like talking about negatives, but I had things that I wanted to talk about. I did my best to be reasonable and fair,, and I hope that those who read it had an enjoyable read. But the good news is that with the negative out of the way, I can now talk about the positives! Yay!!!

As I said in the Dislikes post, I think that this was a good season. It has issues, and I do understand why some didn't like it even outside my problems with it. Bu I ultimately had a really fun time watching it and it left far more good impressions on me than bad. Plus no matter what, positive feedback is just s important as negative since it lets the showrunners know what they're going right and even they deserve encouragement. That's what I like to do, encourage people.

So without further ado, lets begin!

#5. Expanding the series mythos

I know that adding the Cosmic Powers didn't catch on to everyone, and I understand why especially before the AI reveal came out. But even before then... I was okay with having Gods and more mysticism. Is it different? Yeah, and with how the show had always been sci-fi for over a decade and a half, I can get how jarring it came off. But for me personally, I was with going this route. Why? Well... first, I always like that kind of stuff. I like mysticism and fantasy, so seeing RvB indulge in it I thought was cool and could even be funny. Now that one is pure personal taste, of course.

The other reason though? It's because the universe was FINALLY expanding. For nearly all of the series run, it had been attached to Project Freelancer. I don't know about anyone else, but I was ready to see new stories. With Church dead for good, Freelancer pretty much dead, and with Wash and Carolina now having some form of closure and now having new developments open, if the show wanted to keep going then it was going to have to try some new stuff. I kinda see this move as a back to basics move. Back to when the show was absurd, illogical, and just plain crazy. Remember, Church being an AI wasn't planned, he really was just a ghost initially.

This is what I can see something like Blood Gulch doing if it had the budget and wanted to do more character development. And there IS an explinaiton to it. The Cosmic Powers are AI stored in the Monitor Body that Caboose put Epsilon in. Which remember, Epsilon had a bit of a God complex during that time. It explains where the 'shisno' slur came form, the Cosmic Powers used it to describe the prophecy and the Aliens adopted into their vocabulary. It only adds new mythos, but explains and uses bits of old gags form RvB as a starting point like Recollection did with Blood Gulch. That is the kind of writing I like, finding little things to expand on, even if it wasn't planned to be.

It was just cool for me. It expanded RvB;s universe, using old things and creating new mythos form it. But most of all, this opens the door to new stories and character development opportunities. It adds to the possibilities, not limit them. With how several ongoing plots have closed the door, I was ready to see new ones open since there was still plenty of potential to bring out. Is it more out there than it has been in a while? Yeah, that's a fair point. But for me? It was enjoyable and nice to see new orotundities open. Lets hope that even more spring up in the future~

#4. Tucker and Sister Plotline

Okay, okay, I know that some had MAJOR issues with this. Mainly in regards to how Tucker's character was handled. He was an asshole, narcissistic, and really entitled about Sister. I know that MANY had issues with this, especially when taking into account his character development during the Chorus Trilogy. If you feel that way, I respect your opinion and I'm sorry that it felt like it was a downgrade. But... this is my opinion, and as I said during the season... I thought it was what he needed.

While Tucker HAS developed and become a good soldier, we never really saw him get over his womanizing and ego issues. He took his responsibility more seriously and become a better fighter who can and will jump to the call when needed. But he's still always been a narcissistic moron. It made sense to me, especially in Episode 4 when he and Sister talked about wanting to go back to the “good old days” where Tucker didn't have to worry about anything anymore. Back when things, like friends getting shot, just kinda resolved themselves with no consequences. With what happened to Wash and now being able to live out those days again... well, Tucker took it and it was understandable why. I admit, as I said in the Dislikes post, it could have been been emphasized and clarified MUCH better, but you can still spot it.

I felt that this was the natural next step in Tucker's development. For him to recognize that in the good old days, he was a pretty sucky person. He can't go back to that, as Sister made clear. Sister was THE perfect character to pair with him for this, and she also benefited from it. To me in S5, Sister was an unnecessary late addition that really only advanced Grif's character (and even then only slightly) and was just a way to add more s*x jokes. She was a wasted character imo... until now. While she's still overly s*xual, there's a sense of experience and maturity to her as well. She's had her own shit going on and yeah she wants to get away form it, but for her it seems more like to have a breather than to ignore her responsibilities. And really, she handled Tucker's behavior MUCH better than I would have.

Sister became a character. Not just another excuse for s*x jokes. Not just for Grif's character (even if I wish they DID have some more moments in this), she was a character for herself. She didn't take Tucker's shit, and she ultimately threw in his face everything wrong with his mindset when he disrespected her. She wasn't cruel, but she was upfront and honest and later after cooling down, she had a calmer talk with him. Tucker NEEDED someone to throw his shit in his face, which to my recollection while some showed annoyance, no one ever called him out for it. This was the first time that this trait got put in a serious light, kinda like Grif's laziness and hatred of work last season. I thought it was VERY effective... sure the paradox may have undone it, but it was still something that imo was a long time coming.

Was the plotline perfect? No, and I can admit that even I got annoyed at Tucker and was hoping that he'd shape up. But at the same time, for a character to develop, sometimes we have to see them in a negative light and not like them for awhile. I didn't like Blake in V4 of RWBY, but I knew why she was written like she was and in the next two volumes I adored her more than I ever had before. I'm hoping that once the paradox stuff is fixed, that'll be the case for Tucker. But ultimately, I found their plot fun, it made me like Sister as a character, and I felt like Tucker got some long overdo focus on his more... problematic traits in a way that made sense. I hope that whatever happens with Tucker next will be more satisfactory for people, but in this case, it was for me.

#3. Donut became a character again

This kinda ties into the last one. You know how I just said that Sister finally became a character? Well she wasn't the only one. Donut... holy shit, DONUT.

Now this case differs form Sister as Sister was mainly the victim of unfortunate timing. Because she got added in S5, the final season of Blood Gulch, there simply wasn't time to do anything with her. Donut though... has been around since the beginning. He was at first some regular rookie, then after he got the Lightish-Red armor he became more flamboyant and dense. But his optimism compared to this teammates and being shown to have SOME competence (remember, HE killed Tex the first time), he was able to stand out. But after Blood Gulch and because he had to be shafted so much, he became less and less important and eventually just became the source of gay innuendo jokes. S15 even forgot to add him to certain scenes. Donut... really had no point anymore, and no one seemed interested in doing anything with him, even pointing out how he gets the short end of the stick and forgotten so much.

Well, clearly Joe listened because ho boy, he went and turned that around! While Donut wasn't in the majority of episodes, what we did get very much left their impact. You feel nothing but terrible for him. While he's a gullible idiot, he was sincerely trying to do what he thought was the right thing and help his friends. Friends who, as per usual, don't care or belittle him. The difference? Donut gets annoyed by it. Before, Donut didn't really react, or it was ignored. Now? Nope! He recognizes his treatment and is tired of it. This adds layers. It shows that Donut DOES recognize his treatment and that it DOES bother him. But at the same time, we see that he still cares for his friends as even when mad at them, he makes sure that Chrovos agrees for them to be safe. That really shows his devotion that they sadly have yet to realize.

For a long time, Donut had been both my least favorite Red and my least favorite of the Blood Gulch. Why? Because in my view, he had zero purpose. But this season completely turned that around. Donut got to show competence again. How the others treatment of him does effect him, but not in a way that makes him look unsympathetic. You can tell how Chrovos' manipulated him and understand how he fell into it outside just general gullibility. And they did so without getting rid of his past character traits, so if you did like Donut you don't lose that. And then the finale... well we'll get to that later. Joe said in an interview that he realized that since no one did anything with Donut, he could do essentially anything, and by golly did he. IDK where he stands on my Character Rankings, but he's now Number 3 on the Reds list (2 is Simmons and 1 is Grif, for those wondering), and hopefully the momentum with him just keeps coming hard into S17!

#2. Grif Development

While Donut had some good development, the character who by far had the most and the best is Grif. Last year already did a good job in having him get fed up, quit, realize that he needs his friends, and go back and help. The only downside is he spent the majority of the season off-screen. This time not only does his development take the natural next step (addressing his hatred of adventures and how he tends to try and avoid/complain about things), but we get to see it in full. To compare, last season Grif was in nine episodes out of 21. This time out of 15 episodes, he was only absent for one. So we get to see the Refusal to the Call in all it’s glory! Whoo~

I've gone on and on about Grif's development several times. I even did a huge ass analysis on this and S15. But to keep it on this season solely and in trying to summarize as much as possible, Grif's development was perfectly done. This was him trying to avoid the plot in favor of going after pizza, no matter how much shit gets thrown at him. But he of course, keeps failing at every turn and only makes it worst on himself. He doesn't try to fix the problem, he just keeps his focus on this pizza, and then provoking it's existence, until O'Malley happens and he's stuck with Huggins. Now of course, it's understandable why Grif does this, he's been through various adventures and just wants to do something mundane for once. And as usual, the universe just refuses to let him and it's affecting him.

After getting backstabbed by O'Malley and stranded though, Grif meets Huggins. She's a very positive, but stable character who at first he wants nothing to do with due to her being connected to everything that he wants to avoid. But once he comes around out of necessity, he... improves himself. Not only does Huggins win him over with her positive personality and really his own boredom, but Grif starts talking about his problems and how he feels stuck. Through most of S16, he's been shown as angry, frustrated, and prone to fits, including shooting at others. Something he wouldn't really do otherwise. And a lot of it seems to be because he didn't have a proper way to cope outside his inner circle. He needed someone to talk to not connected to his daily life and who can point out his flaws, but give him positive reinforcement and steer his focus in the right direction. Huggins did that by befriending him, listening to him, and pointing out how just avoiding and complaining about the problem does nothing. Grif clearly doesn't like hearing this... but he DOES listen, and he DOES shape himself up.

After Episode 9, where he and Huggins have those talks, Grif changes his attitude. Sure he can still be annoyed, but he's not complaining or trying to ignore the problem. He gets everyone else to focus, gets some kind of reward for his efforts with the Sword, encourages everyone to listen tot he Cosmic Powers word, and his attitude is overall more positive and lax. He's joking around, he's not lazing off, he's trying to get things done and fix the problem. And after finding out about Wash, while Grif does go along with the plan, you can tell that he was weighing the options and he does feel genuine guilt for pretty much betraying Huggins. But Wash is his friend, and as S15 showed in the end it's his friends that come first, the consequences be damned.

Grif has really, REALLY benefited from these past two seasons. A lot of his behavior has been given a more serious light, and in turn it’s given him more depth. Joe has actively tried to give him development, and damn he has done an awesome job. Grif's arc has been fantastic to watch, and add it to Geoff's absolutely perfect performance, and you've got a great arc that I'm hoping continues into the next season. This was almost Number One, but was just barely edged out... kinda. 

What is Number One? Well, no point in stalling. Here it goes.

#1. The Finale

I guess putting an entire episode on here is kinda weird, but there's a reason. The four things I already listed? This is the culmination of all of those, and so much more. This hits all of those points very well. The mythos goes into effect with Genkins efforts and the resulting paradox, leading to what we can only assume is some altered timeline. While Tucker and Sister's stuff isn't quite prevalent here, it is Tucker accepting his missteps and his care for Wash that leads them to where they are and he shows his competence again, and Sister before got him out of his funk while having a much more civil talk to him. It's where Donut shines at his best, deciding to stick by his friends, fight O'Malley through time, and have what may be the most badass fight sequence/moment in the show. And Grif's development comes at full force as he puts all the pieces together, faces Genkins, ignores the pizza because of the mission, and once he realizes the reality of what's going to happen, he goes to stop it. It's futile, but hey he tried.

This episode was just executed so perfectly. Aside from Seasons 10 and 13, this may very well be the best season finale in the show. I mean the Donut vs O'Malley fight alone is frekain' amazing. Cinematic, well coordinated and animated, uses multiple sets and uses them to their full, and still had plenty of humor in it. It was just amazing with a frekain' great payoff. But even outside it, there were some great moments, For example, Simmons pretty much coordinating everyone in taking out the Blues and Reds. Yes, Simmons. His development has always been subtle, so seeing him step up after getting some encouragement form his future self was just fantastic. Really, the finale tied in essentially all the plot points, even the stupid ones, very well. Which is what any good finale should do, and they did so in a very effective way. When it was over, I was just left numb. I felt more numb than I did when RWBY V3 ended, and I was a mess after that. Suffice to say, it did it’s job well/

And of course, there is how it ended. The ending leaves so many questions for the next one, but it ends S16 so perfectly. The bad guy essentially wins and the reset with everyone's memories gone and Genkins replacing Church is extremely concerning. But it really ends the season well and hammers in the point. Don't screw with the past. You can't change it. You have to focus on who you are now, not who you were then. The Reds and Blues didn't do that, but their reasoning is very understandable and canon left implications that just maybe everything will be fine if they save Wash. They were wrong. Now, as the song says, everything is f*cked up. Can they remember and fix it? What's in this new timeline? What is Genkins going to do nos that he’s in power? 

As the saying goes, only time will tell.

And that's the list! To me, this was a super fun season that left me satisfied and wanting more. I know that it didn’t catch on to everyone, but for me as someone who was watching an RvB season as it was airing for the first time, I had a ton of fun watching it. That’s what matter sin the end, having fun. It gave that to me, especially since I was going through some pretty rough times during it. It helped me get through those days, and I am always going to be grateful to it for that.

On March 9th, RvB Season 17: Singularity will debut and pick up form where we left off. Do I have concerns? Maybe a little, but so far I've enjoyed Joe and Jason Weight's work. I have faith in them to deliver something unexpected but good. No matter what though, I plan to see the end through. Because you do not do a finale like that and not expect me to not come back. So S17, bring it on!

Thank you all for reading, and I hope that this was a fun read! I’ll try to get some more RvB stuff out before the season starts, so keep an eye out. Until then, I'll catch you all next time~

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