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Red vs Blue

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Red vs Blue: The Blood Gulch Chronicles, sometimes abbreviated as RvB, is a comic science fiction video series created by Rooster Teeth Productions and distributed via the Internet and DVD. The series chronicles the story of two opposing teams of soldiers fighting a civil war in the middle of a desolate box canyon, in an absurdistLeggat. parody of FPS games, military life, and science fiction films. Initially intended to be a short series of six to eight episodes, the project quickly achieved significant popularity following its April 1 2003 internet premiere. As a result, Rooster Teeth decided to extend the series, whose fourth season ended on April 1 2006.

Red vs Blue emerged from Burnie Burns' voice-over-enhanced gameplay videos of Bungie Studios' first-person shooter (FPS) video game . The series is primarily produced using machinima technique of synchronizing video footage from a game to pre-recorded dialogue and other audio. Footage is mostly from the multiplayer modes of Halo: Combat Evolved and its sequel, Halo 2, on the Microsoft Xbox video game console.

Both within the machinima movement and among film critics, Red vs Blue has been generally well-received. Praised for its originality, the series has won four awards from the Academy of Machinima Arts & Sciences. It has been credited with bringing new popularity to machinima, helping it to gain more mainstream exposure, and attracting more people to the art form. Graham Leggat, former director of communications for Lincoln Center's film society, described Red vs Blue as "truly as sophisticated as Samuel Beckett".Delaney. Although episodes continue to be released online, the four currently completed seasons are also available on DVD, making the series one of the first commercially released and successful machinima products.

Contents

Plot

Red vs Blue tells the story of the Red and Blue Teams, two groups of soldiers engaged in a civil war. Each team occupies a small base in a box canyon known as . According to (Gustavo Sorola), one of the Red Team soldiers, each team's base exists only in response to the other team's base. Although both teams generally dislike each other and have standing orders to defeat their opponents and capture their flag, neither team's soldiers are usually motivated to fight each other. Teammates have an array of eccentric personalities and often create more problems for each other than for their enemies.

The main Red vs Blue storyline spans four seasons, and a fifth season is planned to premiere in July 2006.Burns, et al., Red vs Blue Season Four, Audio Commentary. Rooster Teeth also periodically releases self-referential public service announcements (PSAs) and holiday-themed videos, which are generally unrelated to the main storyline. In these videos, the members of both teams still act in-character, except during introductions that refer to the Red vs Blue series itself. On June 16, 2006, Burns announced a six-part mini-series, , which chronicles the adventures of the mercenary (Kathleen Zuelch) after her disappearance in season 4. The mini-series premiered exclusively on the Xbox Live Marketplace, but Rooster Teeth hopes to make it available on their main website once all episodes are released.Burns, Out of Sight.

[Spoiler warningSpoiler warning]: Plot and/or ending details follow.
Although the background of Red vs Blue is primarily taken from Halo: Combat Evolved and Halo 2, its creators consciously limit connections to Bungie's Halo fictional universe. A video made for E3 2003 portrays Master Chief, the protagonist of the Halo series, as a larger-than-life member of the army, and the Red vs Blue trailer and first episode establish that the series is set between the events of the two games. Beyond these references, however, the series follows an independent storyline, which, according to Burns, is intended to make it accessible to those unfamiliar with the games. For example, even though the cast includes a character from the alien Covenant Elite race, Rooster Teeth never portrays that character in its original Halo context.Smith.

A scene from Red vs Blue. From left to right: Simmons, Grif, Sarge, Donut, Tex's future robot body, Sheila (the tank), Caboose, and Church.
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A scene from Red vs Blue. From left to right: Simmons, Grif, Sarge, Donut, Tex's future robot body, Sheila (the tank), Caboose, and Church.

Season 1

April 1, 2003 – September 28, 2003: episodes 1–19
The indifference in Blood Gulch is disrupted by the introduction of new players to the "conflict". (Dan Godwin) enters the fray on the . On his first day, he captures the Blue flag when his new teammates, (Geoff Ramsey) and , send him on a fool's errand during the absence of the team leader, (Matt Hullum). Meanwhile, a rookie named (Joel Heyman) and a battle tank named (Yomary Cruz) join the and accidentally kill the group's self-appointed leader, (Burnie Burns). At the request of (Jason Saldaña) and Caboose, Blue Command hires a mercenary named Tex to help. Church briefly returns as a ghost to warn his teammates about Tex, who soon arrives and attacks the Reds. After severely injuring Donut, Tex succeeds in returning the Blue flag, but is captured by the Reds. Church again appears to the Blues to explain that Tex is actually his former girlfriend, whose mind is partially controlled by a psychotic artificial intelligence (AI). He organizes a rescue mission that succeeds after some difficulties. In an attempt to keep Tex stationed in Blood Gulch long enough for him to remove the AI from her head, Church possesses the Red Team's robot, (Burnie Burns), to warn them of Tex's impending attack. He fails and, much to his horror, she is killed in action by Donut in revenge for her previous attack. Church runs to her side, stealing Lopez's body in the process.

Season 2

January 3, 2004 – June 11, 2004: episodes 20–38
Three months after Tex's death, (Matt Hullum), a medic who is soon nicknamed "Doc", arrives in the canyon. On loan to both armies due to a lack of resources, he checks on the Blue Team just before the Reds attack. After the skirmish, the Blues surrender and give Doc as a hostage to the Reds, who soon tire of his personality and ditch him in the middle of the canyon. Meanwhile, Church continues to attempt to acclimate himself to his new, stolen robot body but eventually loses control of it. Tex returns as a ghost and informs the Blues that her evil, megalomaniacal AI, (Joel Heyman, later Matt Hullum)O'Malley is voiced by the actor responsible for whichever character he is possessing at the time., had jumped to Caboose right before her death, thereby explaining his recent aggressive behavior. Church and Tex possess Caboose and force out O'Malley, but the AI survives by taking control of Doc. Later, Donut is captured by the Blues during a reconnaissance mission, and Sarge is forced to build two new robot bodies for Church and Tex in exchange for his return. Meanwhile, Sheila and Lopez form their own robot army and join the exchange in order to conquer the Blues. This culminates in a Mexican standoff, during which Tucker discovers that both teams are apparently secretly controlled by the same Command; the Reds and Blues have the same contact, a man named (Burnie Burns). O'Malley suddenly appears, kidnaps Lopez, and escapes with him through a teleporter. The Red and Blue Teams call a truce and form two-man teams to pursue O'Malley. However, the teleporter malfunctions, and the teams become scattered across various locations outside Blood Gulch.

Season 3

October 12, 2004 – May 18, 2005: episodes 39–57
Sarge and Caboose manage to escape from immortal, respawning, flag-obsessed Red and Blue soldiers ("")Burns, et al., Red vs Blue Season Three, Audio Commentary, episode 39. in . On behalf of Vic, O'Malley hires a mercenary named (Matt Hullum) to kill Tucker to preserve the secrecy of the apparent conspiracy. After Simmons repairs the teleporter, the Red and Blue Teams regroup on and confront O'Malley. However, a reality-shattering bomb destroys the present and propels everyone, except Church, into the future (represented by Halo 2); Church is thrown into the past (represented by Marathon 2 and Marathon Infinity). In the future, the Reds and Blues battle O'Malley at his new fortress but become trapped inside with an active time bomb, who is later revealed to a be a sentient, foul-mouthed entity named (Nathan Zellner). In the distant past, Church learns of The Great Prophecy from , a computer. This prophecy states that, in the future, a blue being known as will use The Great Weapon to bring The Great Doom to billions of people. Believing that the prophesied blue being is Caboose, Church travels forward in time to Blood Gulch, in the recent past. He then attempts to prevent the problems that the teams had encountered in the previous two seasons, and, in turn, the events leading up to The Great Doom. However, in a causality loop, Church realizes that his own actions cause these issues. Eventually abandoning the idea of changing the past, he travels to Sidewinder and rejoins the main group as the explosion occurs, thus propelling himself into the future with everyone else. He arrives just in time to ask Gary, who still remains in the fortress, to stop Andy from destructing. Shortly after, O'Malley lays siege to his captured fortress with an army of robots, only to have them obliterated by an unknown being, who then confronts O'Malley himself. Unknown to the Blues, the Reds leave mid-battle in search of a mysterious distress call and arrive back at Blood Gulch, much to Grif's dismay. The season ends on a cliffhanger as a creature creeps up on an unsuspecting Church.

Season 4

August 29, 2005 – April 1, 2006: episodes 58–77
As the Red Team re-explores Blood Gulch, Simmons' insistence that Sheila still roams the canyon leads to his exile from the group. In retaliation, he paints himself mostly blue, takes command of the empty Blue Base and Sheila, and captures Grif. Back at the fortress, the Blue Team attempts to confront the new (Nathan Zellner), only to experience humiliating defeats until Caboose manages to befriend him. With Andy translating, the Alien reveals that he is on a sacred quest to save his people and has come to the fortress to retrieve The Great Weapon, an energy sword. However, because Tucker accidentally discovered the weapon first, only he can use it. Threatening to kill everyone otherwise, the Alien forces Tucker, Andy, and Caboose to partake of his quest; Tex trails and later joins them. The team eventually finds a temple occupied by the Grunts from Battle Creek. As Tex defeats them, Tucker uses the sword to open a gate to a flying ship, of which the Alien quickly takes command. Wyoming suddenly re-appears, however, and shoots the ship down, thus killing the Alien, before fleeing with Tex in pursuit.

Meanwhile, Church returns to the Blue Base in Blood Gulch and encounters the blue Simmons, whom he pretends not to recognize, and accidentally contacts (Burnie Burns), a distant descendant of Vic who scoffs at Church's mention of Blue Command. Simmons returns to the Red Base to relay information learned from Vic Jr. about the war, and Tucker, Caboose, and Andy return to the gulch and inform Church of the events at the temple. However, Tucker becomes ill for an unknown reason, and Church calls Doc, whom O'Malley still controls, for help. On his arrival, O'Malley exchanges Doc's aid for something to be named later. The Reds find Lopez, who had returned to the canyon with O'Malley, and discover that important instructions that Red Command has placed inside Lopez's head can only be played in Spanish. While Church confirms Doc's diagnosis that Tucker is pregnant, Sarge distracts Caboose and steals Andy to translate the plans, which turn out to be unhelpful. Upon hearing of Andy’s disappearance, Church becomes enraged at the whole situation and confronts the Reds with Sheila; in response, Sarge radios Command for reinforcements. Andy reveals that the Alien had the ability to impregnate others with parasitic embryos, and, off-screen, Tucker gives birth to a creature heard speaking in a high-pitched alien language. Caboose informs Church that O'Malley had left Doc after Sarge had contacted Command. As Church runs back to the Blue Base, a ship crashes into the gulch, right on top of Donut.

Characters

Donut}}.
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Donut}}.

Red vs Blue features characters whose personalities are skewed in different ways and to varying degrees. These quirks and the ways that they interact and conflict with each other drive much of the plot and humor. The series has revolved around eight main characters, four on each team. Several other characters, both team-affiliated and unaffiliated, human and non-human, have played significant roles at various points in the story.

Main characters

Sarge is the staff sergeantBurns, et al., Red vs Blue Season Three, Character profiles, Sarge. and leader of the Blood Gulch Red Team. A military man with a Southern United States accent, he is the only Blood Gulch soldier on either team consistently serious about the Red versus Blue civil war. His sociopathic battle plans often entail unnecessary casualties in his own men. In particular, a common planned outcome is the death of Grif, who is habitually lazy, irresponsible, and uninsightful. These characteristics earn him the disrespect and ridicule of both Sarge and Simmons, Sarge's sycophantic, insecure right-hand man. Despite this, Simmons and Grif are often seen together, either chatting or bickering. Donut, the eager rookie who joins the team in , tends to annoy his teammates with his naïveté, garrulousness, and cheerfulness and becomes more effeminate and childish as the series progresses.

Tex}}.
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Tex}}.

On the other side of the canyon, Church is the cynical de facto leader of the Blue Team. Often shouldering the responsibility of actually solving the various crises that the Blood Gulch teams encounter, he often ends up taking their brunt, leaving him increasingly disillusioned and antisocial. His serious, reasoned approach conflicts with the personalities of Tucker and Caboose. The former is snide, averse to work and battle, and obsessed with women; the latter, although physically strong, exhibits varying degrees of stupidity and childishness throughout the series. Rounding out the Blue Team is Tex, Church's former girlfriend who is hired by Blue Command to join the team as a mercenary in . Able to eliminate entire teams of soldiers by herself, she is described as "the most lethal soldier in Blood Gulch".Burns, et al., Red vs Blue Season Three, Character profiles, Tex.

Significant supporting characters

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