Season Review: Red vs. Blue Season 13

Spoilers Below:

As season 13 of Red vs. Blue comes to an end, we all likely know the criteria for evaluating the success of the show: humor, plot, and action. In the interest of quelling one of my extended rants before it begins, let’s stick to this formula and break it down.

Of course almost every episode of Red vs. Blue needs humor – after all, that was the basis for the entire show way back when. Before Bernie Burns and co. created any sort of intra- or inter-episode plots – to say nothing of the larger story arcs – it had to be funny. The jokes back then were almost all meaningless banter about each other, the opposing forces, the shitty situation in which they were perpetually stuck, and general Halo-parodying humor.

Can a 13-year-old show still feature more-or-less the same characters and still find things for them to argue about? You bet. Not only did this season have a consistent amount of laughs, but it also contained some surprisingly large ones. The return of Doc was a nice touch, and the introduction of a few new characters – the misfit soldiers, most notably – injected some fresh material and added some interesting new personalities. Dr. Grey was a personal favorite of mine. Not to skip to the end toward the beginning of this review, but there were also some especially fantastic cameos at the close of the season.

All these gags were imperative to keep the series grounded given the abundance of plot contained within. Don’t get me wrong, this wasn’t as deep of a season emotionally as we’ve seen several times before from the show. Back in the middle seasons, a big following was gathered based on the intricate backstories of the soldiers, and how it all played into current events. Things got pretty heavy at times – hell, most of the time for a while – and many old school fans were probably thrown for a bit of a loop. But it was good still. And to lose this element in the later years would be a slight toward viewers that desire a well-crafted tale to accompany their chuckles.

This season saw the appearance of the space pirates right from the get-go, as well as evil characters like Locus, Felix, and Sharkface. Although we all figured Locus to be the head honcho for Team Bad, Sharkface emerged as an insane, unpredictable killing machine – and suddenly things seemed a lot more dangerous for our friends.

I think we could all see the triumph of good over evil coming a mile away (I mean, it’s a given for the show – and many others – as a whole anyway) but the Rooster Teeth folks took a long, scenic route to get there. And it was totally worth the ride. For another layer of conflict, the story started with two warring armies on Chorus, eventually shifting when the sides realized they were simply pawns pitted against each other by an even higher power – the UNSC, of course.

My one gripe with the plot? The conclusion took a long time to be worked out when the end was clearly near, a handful of episodes before the actual finale. Why do this? We already knew there were more episodes coming (although I questioned this at times) but they nevertheless threw in some last-minute twists and false endings ahead of the real one. This may have been done to keep us guessing, or it may have just been a way to squeeze a few more action sequences into a season.

And this brings us to our last section. As a dude who really doesn’t have any special interest in fight or battle scenes, I must say I was impressed several times during RvB season 13. Although the final showdowns became a bit redundant plot-wise, the choreography was very creative and entertaining each time. As I just lamented, it was kind of frustrating to have all these fake defeats before the final one, but I’d guess the action-lovers among the fan base appreciated it even more than myself.

Plus, the whole time it seemed like the show was leading up to the inevitable defeat of Locus & Felix, but in a surprising outcome, Locus wasn’t killed, and instead quit his cause after the elimination of his partner. Of course, Locus had already severed his ties to Felix a few moments prior – something that had been brewing for a few episodes.

To close, I’ll admit to one last time I was surprised: when I saw the average score for this season. Considering the strong start and even stronger finish, I assumed we’d be looking at a rating around 9, yet it fell short of that mark. I would attribute this to a few bad eggs that weighed the numbers down, specifically the several episodes following the initial two. After all, this season actually scored three 8s, two 8.5s, four 9s, two 9.5s, and one perfect 10 – the final being extremely rare.

Regardless of the final number, I honestly believe this was the best season of Red vs. Blue yet. And although the next season will focus on a different story arc than the Chorus trilogy, I nevertheless will be anxiously awaiting its return.

Wherever it may be, I’ll see you there.