I am less than 2 minutes into SIDEWAYS and it's like watching a sitcom without a laugh track.
Akira Toriyama (April 5 1955 - March 1, 2024).
There was... something off with that episode.
- Jokes didn't land whatsoever.
- Awkward dialogue ("Story time... is over!") and animations.
- Tucker's voice acting has been off ever since the Death Battle.
- Zero's motive is feeling weaker and weaker.
- Most of the choreography was lacking, sans the quad fight in the forest.
- They just killed a RVB alumni with barely any ceremony. So my guess is we're about to get back into some cosmic time travel stuff because there's no way that's sticking.
- East was Phase the whole time? So, the whole "side effect" of her power was just a convenient side effect of the "echo"? One's whole rivalry with her is kaput?
- We still have whatever... Zero and Phase did with Wash.
Edited by FOFD on Dec 7th 2020 at 10:44:46 AM
Akira Toriyama (April 5 1955 - March 1, 2024).
...Yeah, I don't buy it. There is no way Tucker died to a gut stab. I'm not even spoilering it, that's how obvious it is. Until the Great Key actually gets shown activated by Phase, there is no way Tucker is dead. I honestly think this was all a set up, since there's no way Carolina wouldn't have called Tucker in advance. Though again, I have to ask, if the Reds and Blues were in retirement, why is Tucker working for the AOD?
Even then, it feels like Tucker's personality has again been stripped of his Character Development, and he's back to being the egotistical chauvinistic asshole he was in The Shisno Paradox, despite Singularity going out of its way to give Tucker Character Rerailment. Ya know this, combined with Wash no longer having Cerebral Hypoxia, it honestly feels like they're trying to get rid of anything that happened in Seasons 15-17 just to appease the people who accused it of Seasonal Rot. What's next, will Doc be back to having O'Malley as a Split Personality? Will Kai and Donut go back to just being vehicles for Double Entendre jokes? Will Grif just be the lazy asshole?
Yep, figured East was a clone of Phase and her "backlashes" were a sign of her dying, and that Phase was West's real daughter. In retrospect, East betraying Shatter Squad should have been obvious, since Torrian described One and East's rivalry as like "Naruto's and Sasuke's". And even people with a tertiary knowledge of Naruto know Sasuke becomes a villain before the halfway mark of the series. Though I do think that reabsorbing East is gonna give Phase more of a conscience via a Split-Personality Merge. East and Phase were effectively only one half of a personality on their own, but now that they merged, they are a full personality again.
I actually like the idea that Zero doesn't know about the Ultimate Power outside of it existing. It shows he isn't this Machiavellian schemer with knowledge of a bunch of Alien shit just because, rather he's just someone the AOD tried killing thinking he's too dangerous, and now he's so consumed by a lust for revenge he grasping at whatever he can get that he thinks we'll let him get said revenge. These Alien Weapons? They aren't keys to the "Ultimate Power", they're just alien tech that Zero thinks leads to something that may not even exist. Explains why they seem so random.
Though I definitely have a big critique of the season now: the pacing. The pacing is very off due to the fact it's an eight episode season. The first three episodes were much slower paced, but now we're going a mile a minute and not slowing down. We only have three episodes left right now and yet we're already at the point where Viper is set to claim the "Ultimate Power", and yet we still need to figure out what Axel is hiding, reconcile the whole "East/West relationship", have Wash wake up, figure out what the "Ultimate Power" is, fully establish why Zero was considered too strong, and establish just who the fuck the AOD and Starlight Labs actually are in the grand scheme of shit and what shitty stuff they've been pulling.
Edited by RebelFalcon on Dec 8th 2020 at 1:19:36 PM
Vegeta: I'm back bitches!
Also Torrian literally saying on twitter he wasn't allowed to kill any preexisting characters. But yeah, no one actually thinks Tucker is dead, and if they do, they really have not seen a lot of tv shows/movies.
Ok, that Fortnight announcement at the game awards was kind of painful. Grif wasn’t even in character.
- Oh look, Tucker is alive, who saw that coming?
- Axel is just as big a dork as the others, and I love that. Though interesting to know that not only was Axel on the first Shatter Squad, but West too.
- Okay, I know they said Project Freelancer was just one of many groups trying to find a so called "Magic Bullet" to win the War, but now we have "Glass" too? What, was Glass the precursor to the AOD? Hell, West says Glass had a "Starlight" initiative, which would obviously be Starlight Labs.
- Though, we do have confirmation on a timeline at least. West says Glass shut down because the War ended, and that Zero, then known as One, had yet to be deployed and felt betrayed after all they did to him. Back in Season 5, the War was still going on, hence why Tex took Wyoming's Helmet, Omega, and kidnapped Junior for the sake of winning it. After that, the War ended in the proceeding years. Meaning all this stuff with Zero likely didn't happen until around the same time the Recollection trilogy was going on.
- And now we have an idea as to what happened to Phase. She broke out of Starlight Labs one day, Zero took her in, and she took on the codename "Phase". She then used the abilities the experiment gave her to create a Holo Echo, and sent it back in her place, the Holo Echo taking on the name "East". Said Holo Echo was a portion of her personality, so while "East" existed, "Phase" was always left incomplete, as East was a Literal Split Personality. Hence why whereas Phase wanted to outright kill West, East simply held disdain for him.
- Hold up! Major Series Continuity Error here! The Great Key's are specifically bound to whoever it was who claimed them, and can't be used by anyone else until the current claimant is dead, hence why when Felix stole the Chorus Great Key, he couldn't use it since it was still bound to Doyle, but could use it once Doyle died detonating Armonia. So how the fuck is Phase able to use Tucker's Great Key when he's still alive?! And please don't Hand Wave it with "Oh he did die but was resuscitated" or "Phase's abilities let her use it", cause that is a freaking Writer Cop Out just so the plot can work.
- Uh, this is such an Action Movie cliche. Seriously, Zero decides to engage in Bond Villain Stupidity. He is that suicidally overconfident.
- And the whole speech from One after Shatter Squad gives up rings so hollow, because not only is Shatter Squad giving up forced as hell, but the fact of the matter is that due to the rushed pacing, One is the least developed of Shatter Squad, and Axel and West don't fare much better. Carolina in particular giving up like this is severely OOC. The only member reasonably developed outside of Carolina is Raymond, so it makes sense he's like this, but the pacing is so damn screwed that One's attempt at a Rousing Speech rings so hollow.
- Same for the whole "East is one of us" thing when so far all we've seen of East's relationship with Shatter Squad is her just being a loner of the group, and the way they try to make it seem like Raymond is pretty broken up about it also doesn't work when, again, he only really had one scene of real dialogue with her, and that was when he was introduced. So much of Shatter Squad's dynamic has been told to us, not shown.
Edited by RebelFalcon on Dec 16th 2020 at 4:10:45 AM
Vegeta: I'm back bitches!Yeah... so much of this season just reminds me of Monty-era RWBY: all style and no substance. I think the only characters I felt anything for in Episode 7 were Ray and Phase. Even freaking Carolina didn't feel like herself, just someone wearing her armor. So much of the dynamic and history between the characters is an Informed Attribute that it feels like we're Lost in Medias Res at the beginning of every episode, One is the most generic of archetypes, Axel's past with Zero is seemingly forgotten about, Diesel has no character, and both West and Zero are basically just archetypes now. And of course is the most cliche of tropes being used, even having a god damn To Be Continued sign.
This season is honestly such a let down after how amazing Singularity was. They had a chance to to focus on a new cast and start a new saga using them, but instead of putting their best foot foward, they crashed and burned right out of the gate.
The sneak peek Torrian showed is really looking like a Missing Trailer Scene, since no one wearing a Locus style suit has shown up, nor has anyone wearing a blue version of Carolina's armor.
the Quantum Mechanic
When Freelancer did something similar, the action was used as a contrast. Seeing these badass professionals was a completely different pace from the Reds and Blues, it showed off how capable they were while also demonstrating how poorly they functioned as a team. It could get into pure spectacle for the sake of it at times, but it largely helped get us to care about people we've briefly met or fill in the gaps.
Plus it had 2 seasons to spread out the narrative with hooks from the present story to tie it together. Zero gets none of that, it has to live and die purely by this new cast of unrelated plot.
"No will to break."
Is there a trope for when the heroes have a clear numbers advantage on the villain, but for some reason It's Personal and they decide to split up?
Because they did that in RWBY and they're doing it here. Weiss-Blake-Yang splitting up to fight minibosses. Now Carolina and West going to fight Big Guy and Phase.
In a way it makes sense, they're on a time limit. That said, the entire team probably could've put Big Guy down, and Phase certainly, and then they'd have had better odds against Zero who schooled the entire team minus Carolina earlier. Instead, they had to fight him with... One and Axel being the only ones who stood a chance.
And now he's more powerful. So yeah, they're screwed.
Akira Toriyama (April 5 1955 - March 1, 2024).
If I could change anything about this episode:
- have Dex stay behind to fight the big guy since he's the weakest hand to hand fighter (plus Carolina's solution was hitting his weak points, stunning him, and using his own rocket launcher against him, which I could easily see Dex doing)
- plus Dex and West were the first two members of the squad to fight the big guy, so it'd be somewhat fitting for one of them to take him down
- have West insist on fighting Phase alone, but the team ignores him and they take her down together, so they move ahead while she's incapacitated and she and West have a heart to heart where she seems to be coming around before slipping away - since escaping is kind of her thing
- have her actually kill West and further her character development with a What Have I Done
- since Zero schooled Shatter Squad last time, having Carolina fight alongside Axel and One would make for a more interesting fight
Edited by FOFD on Dec 22nd 2020 at 10:32:23 AM
Akira Toriyama (April 5 1955 - March 1, 2024).
Ouch. [1]
Them rolling up in their F&F cars, the Avengers-style lineup as they charge in, the sudden slo-mo, the cartoony monsters, the superhero landing, the Lara Croft spinny ring thing in the temple… I get that it’s what the creators are going for, it’s just not for me. It feels so out of place in this show, at least in the way it’s done, or maybe the frequency with which these devices are used. It feels like it belongs somewhere else.
They’re trying to build up One to be the leader the when she’s done zero (ha!) to earn that title except give a cliche, poorly delivered speech. Actually she hasn’t done much of anything the whole season, at least no more than anyone else has which is to say nonstop fighting that’s too jam-packed to follow. Now she’s shouting overused lines like “squad up” and “on me” and “let’s move.” Uh-huh. Also, West ordered her…?
The VA continues to need some improvement. When you’re going for emotional moments, they’re best suited for strong voice acting. I’m talking specifically about the Phase-One and East/Phase-West scenes. The script didn’t exactly give them a good foundation to work with, but boy was the delivery cringeworthy, too. To be honest, even those cliched “squad up” lines sounded flat. To be fair, the voice acting in Rv B has never been Oscar quality, but it’s always been passable and never stuck out like a sore thumb.
Oh look, more fighting. What a surprise. What was that dragonfly-wing-shield thing West had, anyway? I don’t think it needed a Dickens-level detailed explanation but it came out of nowhere and looked ridiculous. You might say, I don’t know, anime ridiculous. Speaking of anime, that split screen cut. Wow. I didn’t like it in the first episode, and I still don’t like it here. The character’s movements continue to be overexaggerated like it’s Power Rangers, not to mention distracting. I never thought machinima’s head bobbing could look more natural than animation, but I was proven wrong.
The grenade shot out the air and the grenade on the end of Raymond’s gun were taken from previous seasons. But this season is ‘different.’ Right. All I see is rehashing of things that have been done before, inside and outside of Rv B, but this time it’s not done well.
I guess Raymond was supposed to carry the comedy this episode but I didn’t find the couple of what I assume were jokes to be funny, which is par for the course this season. The comedy needs work.
Shouting ‘Danielle’ a few times does not count as character development. The characters are still bland; now they’re bland with names. Every time this season tries to get personal it just recycles the same information we learned in episode 3. Freckles, a Mantis-class assault droid or rifle (take your pick), had more personality than these characters. And yes, one season is enough to make new characters likable (or hatable). It’s been done in Rv B before, many times. I will say that that East-West punching scene at least showed this season has a faint pulse, as overused as that trope is, as cheesy as the dialogue and music were.
And WTF was that robo-alien thing? Was it supposed to be an homage to Santa or the Labyrinth, or just a random guy called Black Lotus (which sounds hilarious)? But it looked and sounded so out of place, like I was suddenly watching an alien movie, only with Starship Troopers vibes (not in a good way). It looked like another example of this season reaching too far to try to be “epic” and ending up looking and sounding like a child’s mashup of his favorite “epic” movies. And was it just me, or did the lighting make the scene look purposely flat, more like a comic book? No particular issue with that, I just happened to notice it.
Overall I really wish this season would stop trying to make Rv B something it’s not. Sure, change things up, but don’t change it to the point where it’s unrecognizable. My only remaining hope that this season is actually a Jax film is that there was a minotaur head, so maybe Jax is making a movie about their time in the labyrinth? I’m reaching. I’m desperate. I’d really like something to explain away this season as non-canon. A girl can dream….
Edited by FOFD on Dec 27th 2020 at 8:46:22 AM
Akira Toriyama (April 5 1955 - March 1, 2024).
the Quantum Mechanic
No kidding about being underdeveloped. Chorus took its sweet time building this kind of stuff up first, with time and good jokes used to characterize the new cast we were intended to care about. But it worked, because we still had the old cast to prop up the new elements.
Carolina and five minutes of Tucker don't cut it. At least reuse some of the now long established cast that aren't the Reds and Blues if they wanted this to feel like the same universe.
That, and using the RWBY formula of brief but action-packed seasons doesn't work. RVB is a lot more methodically paced than its little sister.
"No will to break."Disappointing end to a rather lackluster season. Diesel dies with no character whatsoever, Zero's motivations are largely inconsistent, Phase has a random Heel–Face Turn with no build up whatsoever, Carolina was given The Worf Effect just to make Shatter Squad look good, all of Shatter Squad are still underdeveloped, Wash and Tucker were pretty much pointless this season, and there is still no explanation for what the heck "Black Lotus" is. Again, the only real enjoyable part in all this was Raymond, but even his humor can be hit or miss.
I'm not kidding about Zero's motivations being inconsistent.
- When we first get his flashback with Axel, he talks about how Axel has no idea what's going on, how Starlight Labs ultimately fears him and are hypocrites, and that he wants to fight the "true monsters".
- Then when West reveals the history of Shatter Squad and Glass, it sounds like Zero just wants to prove his worth as a Super-Soldier after he couldn't do so during the Great War.
- Then he goes on about how what he wants is "everything" and he sounds like he's just a power mad nutcase.
- And here, in the midst of his Villainous Breakdown, he starts going on about how the Ultimate Power is "[His] Power! [His] Will! [He] won't be anyone's puppet! Not again!", making it sound like he's just sick of being used as a pawn and lashing out, which is what ultimately makes him sound so terrified when Black Lotus makes clear he intends to take over his body after they leave.
As for Diesel, I can't tell if he really was just that much a Flat Character to begin with, or if a lot of his shit got cut as a result of what happened with Ryan. I'm more inclined towards the former since the delay likely only accounted for redubbing lines, and with such a short run time to start with I doubt there was room too have anything of substance.
The fact Zero is still alive means if there is a Season 19, we'll still be dealing with Zero and Shatter Squad, but unless they want to have a repeat of this, they need to replace Torrian as lead writer with someone with actual experience in writing Red Vs Blue like Miles Luna, Joe Nicolosi, or Jason Weight, and actually give them a longer run time to work on the characters while slowing down with the action.
And preferably, bring back as many of the Reds and Blues as they can without getting rid of Shatter Squad. Carolina may as well be part of Shatter Squad now anyway, and as we've seen they do have Burnie Burns, Matt Hullum, Jason Saldana, Gus Sorola, Geoff Ramsey, Dan Godwin, and Shannon McCormick available as evident by the Death Battle and this season, and replaced Joel Heyman with Michael Malconian in said Death Battle. So they can bring the characters back, so bring them back alongside Shatter Squad.
And give Tucker back his damn sword!
Edited by RebelFalcon on Dec 28th 2020 at 5:33:41 AM
Vegeta: I'm back bitches!
n/a
Edited by FOFD on Dec 30th 2020 at 6:50:08 AM
Akira Toriyama (April 5 1955 - March 1, 2024).
I can only imagine what Season 15 could have been if they'd introduced Shatter Squad there.
- Dylan meeting Shatter Squad who are on the tail of the
Reds and BluesBlues and Reds - The Blues and Reds propped up as the doppelgangers, but also being antagonists (so we still get the classic humor without necessarily backsliding on character development)
- sadly if this had happened we wouldn't get to know what Carolina did in-between the Freelancer season and catching up with Epsilon, or Doc's character development, or Donut's, or any of the cathartic scenes between Wash and Carolina, or Wash revisiting his Freelancer days and turning into Donut, etc
I think Torrian suffers Monty's flaws; absolutely great at fight scenes, not so great at telling a story. RWBY fixed that by bringing on additional writers.
Better yet, make RVB Zero a full-fledged spin-off and do what Monty used to do, make a short that's one gigantic action sequence, or something like Dead Fantasy. Had this been a "Season 14" with maybe 6 episodes of Wash, Carolina, and Shatter Squad punching and shooting the heck out of bad guys, wouldn't be as easy to criticize. 8 episodes of almost non-stop fighting and minimal explanation though is harder to forgive.
Edited by FOFD on Dec 30th 2020 at 6:51:09 AM
Akira Toriyama (April 5 1955 - March 1, 2024).
I finally got to watch Episodes 2-8. I've had so little time recently it was either Zero or RWBY, I didn't have time to watch both.
I think I made the right decision to concentrate on RWBY.
I think the problem with this little mini-series is that it's trying to be a full-blown story arc in a mini-series segment. The best comparison is with the Chorus Trilogy, since that had most of the Alien tech as part of the story. Zero is what would happen if the Chorus Trilogy had to be done in 8 episodes.
What I mean by that is that enough of the concept behind the series comes through to show us that the concept actually has a lot of potential — but only if it's given the time in which to create a proper storyline with a proper story arc. And that mean 2-3 full series.
Instead, it's feels like that full, proper story exists somewhere in the universe and someone took scene snapshots from that story to create a summary, where the snapshots are in sequence order, but are clearly missing all the story in between.
With eight episodes it feels like they should have treated it like one of the mini-series: Zero making the decision to go after the Ultimate Power or Phase breaking out of Starlight Labs, or Zero recruiting the Viper members. Something small that sets up specific characters for the next full story arc. Or, if they wanted to tell the bigger story, then they should have created the remit for a full-blown 3-series story arc. Had they been given that, I think this could have become a very good story. As it is, it's just snapshots of a story... or, really, snapshots of the action sequences from a story.
I also discovered something I've possibly been in denial about while watching the rest of RvB: if the show doesn't involve Wash, it's harder for me to engage with the unfolding series. I hate saying that because I do like all the main RvB cast and I do have favourites beyond Wash... but, somehow, somewhere along the line, Wash ended up as the heart of the main cast — removing him does seem to gut the show of something important. That makes it sound like I think other main cast members can be removed without the show losing something, but that's not what I mean, and it's why I hate this feeling. But it does mean I was searching for a 'heart' that anchors the new characters, and there just wasn't enough story and character development for me to find that. The show didn't seem to know whether it wanted West, Axel or East to be that anchor character — it seemed to eventually settle on Phase, but... it was the finale fight by the time it came to that decision. That's too late.
Anyway, random aside: looks like both of Shannon McCormick's characters have been tortured in the current series of their respective shows. Nice timing.
Edited by Wyldchyld on Dec 30th 2020 at 5:26:11 PM
If my post doesn't mention a giant flying sperm whale with oversized teeth and lionfish fins for flippers, it just isn't worth reading.
Theta/Trust - and we trusted him
Gamma/Deceit - but he lied to us! He twisted
Omega/Rage - and tortured us and used us
Sigma/Ambition - manipulated us for his own purposes, and for what? For this?! This... Shadow?!
Christ. I forgot how good the Chorus Trilogy was.
Season 12, Ep 19 - Churchs finale speech
Tucker and Sarge victory dance A scene like this and then you look at Zero dumping all of the comedic responsibility on Raymond..
Edited by FOFD on Jan 8th 2021 at 10:42:36 AM
Akira Toriyama (April 5 1955 - March 1, 2024).I said it before and I'll say it again, Raymond was the most likeable character in Shatter Squad. Mainly because he actually felt like a character, and seems like he'd fit right in with the BGC. It probably helps that unlike the rest of Shatter Squad, we weren't Lost in Medias Res with Raymond, since he was the rookie of the group, and as such we got to see his story, even if short, from the beginning. Just wish his relationship with East was more developed, cause it still comes a bit out of nowhere that he has a crush on her.
Edited by RebelFalcon on Jan 9th 2021 at 12:01:41 PM
Vegeta: I'm back bitches!
the Quantum Mechanic
The Chorus trilogy did a great job advancing the character development while giving everyone something to do and keep the character-based jokes going. For the Reds and Blues, the rookie squad, and Felix and Locus get plenty of comedic scenes and dynamics themselves. Nobody was above a joke, which I think really helps the dramatic moments and new plot land as much as it does.
"No will to break."
So I binged this season in one go and it was...not good. I mean, the action was amazing so there was at least enjoyment. But that's all the season focused on. The characterization was minimal and the humor was hit or miss. Zero seemed to have a lot of story potential, but none of it is touched upon. Hell, I can't even figure out what his goal was. There were many interesting ideas, but they were rushed and unexplored.
That guy with the face
Red vs Blue should have ended at Chrous. Or even Season 15. Caboose saying goodbye seemed like a great place to cap it off. But it needed to end somewhere before now.
Qui odoratus est qui fecit.
I maintain that Season 10 was the perfect endpoint. All major plot threads tied up, the Reds and Blues back in Blood Gulch (yes, really. Them crash landing on Chorus was a retcon), Carolina and Church off on some other adventure.
Seriously, if this had been the Grand Finale of the series, literally the last we ever saw of these characters / world, would anyone have complained? I sure wouldn't have.
Edited by Primis on Jan 11th 2021 at 10:13:03 AM
I finally watched Episodes 1-3... I like it. This doesn't feel like Red Vs. Blue though, it feels like a cross between Power Rangers and The Fast and the Furious. Very little actual Machinima, an intro sequence, high speed action, this feels more like Torrian wanted to make a Volume of RWBY using Halo Armor.
- Right off the bat we set off on the wrong foot by handwaving away Wash's Cerebral Hypoxia despite how a good portion of his character arc in Singularity was coming to terms with having it. Why would they consider getting rid of it after spending so much time making a big deal out of it?
- Then we have Zero's crew: Viper. These guys all have Alien level tech, are stronger than two of Project Freelancer's best, and pretty much make Wash and Carolina suffer The Worf Effect to justify them being the new villains. At least with Locus and Felix it made sense why they were as strong and had Alien Tech, they were elite soldiers who fought in the Great War, spent time working as Mercenaries, and were being bankrolled by Hargrove via Charon Industries and their experimental weaponry made examining Chorus' Alien Tech, and even then Carolina was suffering Worf Had the Flu due to the injuries Felix did to her leg. Unless Viper is from Chorus or worked for Charon, where the hell did they even get the Alien Tech, and how do they know about the temples?
- Zero initially felt like a generic bad guy, but the knowledge he's a former member of Shatter Squad, as well as apparently defected because of something they did related to what West had done to East to save her, it honestly reminds me of characters who defect from the group protagonists belong too, only to reveal they were Good All Along and that the group is actually bad. And considering AOD and Starlight Labs give me serious vibes akin to the UNSC and Charon Industries, I wouldn't be surprised if Zero was, while not a "good guy" as evident by his willingness to torture Wash, at the very least the lesser of two evils.
- Phase is the most interesting one. The way she fights with that knife is reminiscent of how Noctis fights in Final Fantasy XV, and with the color scheme and mention of something being "done to her" along with saying someone "is not my father"...
Yeah, I think she's West's real daughter, and East is actually a Flash Clone, a type of Clone created by the UNSC in the Halo games to replace children they kidnapped for the SPARTAN Program, with a built in lifespan so that their parents would believe they just died of illness, and that East's "issues" are actually her suffering Clone Degeneration the further she pushes herself. Phase was in turn saved by Zero after he defected from Shatter Squad, and she blames West for putting her through what Starlight Labs did to her.
- Diesel however is the least developed or interesting. He's just the generic brute character/muscle of the group. At best he's a bit sadistic and bloodthirsty, but that's it.
- Then we have our new main cast, Shatter Squad. While they're more militaristic than the Reds and Blues since they have a commander willing to punish them... they all just feel like composite characters and decomposite characters for past roles and dynamics. That's not to say they're unlikable, quite the opposite, I like them. But it still feels like a bit of a rehash.
- Axel feels like a cross between Wash, Tucker, and York, being the snarky badass stuck with the hotheaded leader and Only Sane Man of the group seeking to finally retire. He certainly has Wash's A Father to His Men behavior.
- One and East's dynamic feels like a rehash of Carolina and Tex's dynamic back in the Freelancer Saga. They both feel like parts of Carolina, with East having her daddy issues and anger issues, and One having her competitive side and lone wolf behavior. Hell, they aren't exactly subtle with One's comparisons.
- Raymond feels like Donut did when he was starting out mixed with Simmons tech skill. And the way West treats him is reminiscent of Sarge's relationship with Grif.
- West feels like Sarge's leadership played seriously. Add on that he's East's dad, and it gives him elements of a Good Counterpart of the Director.
- While not an official member, Tiny feels like a mix of Sister, Lopez, and Doc, being the plucky girl in yellow working as the teams mechanic that frustrates the other characters just by her normal behavior.
- Of course there are two big questions in all this: "Why are Wash and Carolina working with the Alliance of Defense?" and "Where are the Reds and Blues?" We aren't given an answer for this outside of a brief comment saying Wash was supposed to be in retirement due to his Cerebral Hypoxia, but was pulled out after they did experimental surgery on his brain. Hell, based on Carolina's words when Axel asks why she didn't request backup, the Alliance of Defense doesn't seem to be any better than the UNSC, so I can't help but ask why Wash and Carolina would work for them after the trouble the UNSC has given them over the years. And how do they have Armor Enhancements similar to Freelancer ones?
There is a lot to like though. Carolina serving as a proper mentor figure, the Shatter Squad are all likeable, Torrian's animation continues to impress. I'd probably like this entry a lot more if it was actually a Spin-Off rather than the main series, since the tone and style feels unlike normal RVB, but does feel like one of the miniseries, like "Out of Mind" or "Recovery One".Edited by RebelFalcon on Dec 5th 2020 at 9:41:59 AM
Vegeta: I'm back bitches!