Season Review: Red vs Blue Season 17

Fix what was broken.

Our Take:

Things don’t start out with good news: Chrovos might break free, thanks to the paradox that was caused, and Genkins is on the loose. The only one that has a chance of making things right is Donut. One of the complaints that I had last season was that divinities felt a little too off for the Red vs Blue universe- and while I still feel that, by now I’ve come to take it as it is. Divinities have been established, so let’s see how things end up. This time, I feel like it was done fairly well. After all, the bulk of this season isn’t set up new concepts or characters, but working off what existed from last season. It’s a true continuation of things, and everything exists here as a consequence of what happened last time.

The main character of this season is clearly Donut, who is following up on his choices from the previous season. He was not part of the paradox when it happened, and having a shard of Chrovos’ power inside him, he is able to act independently across timelines. Trying to rectify the problem that he ended up causing allows him to reflect on his previous behaviors, namely why the team doesn’t trust him. He acted like a joke, so nobody took him seriously, even when things finally became serious. This time, he does have power, and he actively makes an effort to become more serious, and doing so ends up bringing the team together, and unifying them. He is an outsider, but that allows him some perks, such as being able to guide the team instead of being part of it. His keen awareness of the situation even allows him to manipulate Genkins into his own demise. I really think he needed this retailoring since honestly, Donut wasn’t much of a standout character. He needed to be more than sex jokes, and this highlighted his capabilities pretty well. It’s unclear where things will go from here regarding Donut’s character, but what we got was satisfactory.

Following up Donut with the leader of the season is Washington, who didn’t have much last season due to being shot and the consequences following that, but here we see Washington return to his normal self. As the point of the paradox, as what caused the initial paradox in the first place was the team trying to save him from his fate, he is initially trapped between two outcomes, unable to break free. When he realizes he is inhabiting two probable selves at once, he gets himself together and is able to once again strategize. It’s really his charisma that pulls the whole thing together, as he is a tactician and someone that the team universally respects. Beyond his strategy and reuniting the team, he is also key in coming to terms with what happened to him. While some of those aspects are kept comedic, Washington remains keenly aware that in order for Chrovos to remain permanently sealed, he has to fix the paradox- which means getting shot again. Being shot means losing his sanity, and relapsing into his brain-damaged self. Since we all know that didn’t turn out so well, that’s a hard thing to sacrifice for the sake of the world. The team also had to come to that conclusion, especially Carolina, was a particularly heart-wrenching portion of the series.

There were several instances that tested the team’s individual mentalities, from being trapped in paradoxes to the shaped hells that the labyrinth showed them. It allowed a good cut into their psyches; most of the information in this show is delivered by dialogue, but this was visual. It was heavier and meant more.

Altogether, I think this season was just a good time. Between the serious moments and the funny ones, I found both to be fairly equivalent, neither one overpowering the other. The plot carried things more than hijinks, and with the direction the series is going, that’s a good call. I enjoyed every episode- some were better than others, but all were an enjoyable time. This show isn’t groundbreaking media, but it’s fun. Sometimes, all you need is something silly yet engaging enough to keep you going, and I’d say this season succeeded in that regard.