User blog comment:Western Gen/Speculations for Season 14/@comment-1886172-20160515200602/@comment-1886172-20160517034622

I have no problem building off of Freelancer, hence why I also consider the Recollection Saga to be part of what Red vs. Blue is. I'd be lying if I said I didn't have my issues with how the Freelancer backstory was told, if I'm being honest I think that Monty played a bit too big of a role in our Freelancers, at least those who had already been established. For new characters such as Carolina and Connie, or those who we've never really seen in real combat such as North and South I would have been fine with the martial arts type of fighting that goes on during these parts. If I could, I'd trade out the CGI Freelancer backstory for one that is filmed ingame, because as pretty as it could be to see and exciting as it was to watch sometimes, it was a bit extensive and there definitely felt like a larger prevalence on the action rather than the backstory that it was supposed to be telling. And that's admittedly where my biggest qualms with Seasons 9 and 10 are at. The backstory has it's moments, mostly when the Freelancers aren't fighting but when they are it just is a little jarring for them to fight how they do. All in all I really enjoy the present day stuff for both 9 and 10, even if the Epsilon unit feels pointless it's still very fun.

If I were asked a couple of years ago, I'd have easily said that my favorite bits were the CGI heavy backstory, though even as it was coming out I remember coming on here and saying how I would prefer more gunfights than martial arts. That's why I'm really excited for the C.T. and Wash episode, that looks to be filmed in Halo 3. It'll be what I really wanted from the rest of the Freelancer backstory. Honestly, Episode 2 of Season 14 has been one of my favorite episodes for Red vs. Blue in years and the first episode was pretty good too, even though I can't even think of how many times I've seen RvB Animated trailer on YouTube. I think 14 may be one of my favorite seasons yet, despite the worry I had about a year being potentially wasted.

As for the Chorus Trilogy, it just didn't set very well with me. And a lot of it could have to do with the change in writers. I didn't really care for any of the new characters, the only ones who I really liked were Locus and Felix and Locus especially. Those little previews they had for Season 12, and Locus questioning about if he would have been good enough to be Freelancer was perfect in my eyes. Of course during Season 13 Locus remained one of my favorites. The New Republic charcaters were interesting, it was kind of cool to see those who were like our original characters so that we could see how much they've grown, but they just weren't written in entertaining ways outside of Bitters. Doctor Grey and Doyle were both a bit dull for my taste while Kimball just never really clicked for me. Felix's betrayal of the characters was unexpected, but still didn't have the same impact that Wash's betrayal of the characters did. I still remember thinking that due to Dan's work schedule and being so far from RoosterTeeth, that they actually had killed off Donut back in Season 7. On top of that, after his betrayal Felix stopped being interesting to me until his final few episodes. Season 11 tried too hard for comedy that admittedly mostly fell flat for me, Miles can write a good story but I don't find his character interactions as good, outside of the humor with Red Base and it's rooms. The Dos.0 subplot was pretty lackluster, same with the Cyclops that they find. And I'd nearly forgotten about Freckles, so that says a lot about it. 12 was decent I guess, but not too much happened. Here I appreciated how there was a balance between gunfight and martial arts though. And finally in 13 the characters I previously mentioned were kind of holding it back for me, not to mention the pointless addition of Sharkface when the Counselor would have been way better being a psychological villain against the Freelancers.

Also, the threats are just getting too big for the Reds and Blues. They're not good soldiers, and sure maybe they've grown a bit but they're outliving so much. In 1-8 they acted more as support characters while the Freelancers would do the main work to take the antagonist down. Beating the Meta by dropping him off the cliff was a great way to end the villain because the Reds and Blues managed to do it in a still believable way. Same with the Director, it was just a hunt for a lonely old man to get some revenge. With Chorus and them being war heroes, it's just hard to believe. And they try to emphasize how they're "not really good soldiers" but the feats they pull off are pretty impressive.