Red vs. Blue: The Shisno Trilogy is the fifth main saga of Red vs. Blue and takes place from ten months after the end of Season 13. The story focuses on the Reds and Blues getting themselves involved in an intergalactic conflict after being brought out of retirement by Dylan Andrews. While its first installment, Season 15, closed loose ends left behind from the previous four sagas, its followup The Shisno Paradox branched out to tell a completely new story centered around time-travel while its conclusion Singularity revisited events from prior seasons using said plot device.
Season 15 introduced Joe Nicolosi as the new writer-director for the series, later joined by Jason Weight as co-writer for The Shisno Paradox. Weight would end up taking over primary writing duties for Singularity, now joined by The Chorus Trilogy writer Miles Luna as co-writer, while directing duties were given to Joshua Ornelas and Austin Clark.
The main characters include Grif, Simmons, Sarge, Donut, Tucker, Caboose, Washington, Carolina, Sister, Lopez, and Doc. Major recurring characters include Church (posthumously), Dylan Andrews, Jax Jonez, Dr. Grey, and the Cosmic Powers. The main antagonists are Chrovos, Genkins and the Blues and Reds.
Main Characters[]
Reds and Blues[]
- Sarge (Seasons 15-17; 35 episodes)
- Grif (Seasons 15-17; 34 episodes)
- Simmons (Seasons 15-17; 35 episodes)
- Donut (Seasons 15-17; 30 episodes)
- Lopez (Seasons 15-17; 26 episodes)
- Carolina (Seasons 15-17; 28 episodes)
- Washington (Seasons 15-17; 27 episodes)
- Tucker (Seasons 15-17; 37 episodes)
- Caboose (Seasons 15-17; 35 episodes)
- Sister (Seasons 15-17; 20 episodes)
- Doc (Seasons 15-17; 18 episodes)
- Church (Seasons 15-17; 13 episodes)
- Tex (Seasons 15, 17; 3 episodes)
Chorus[]
- Dr. Grey (Seasons 15-17; 5 episodes)
- Kimball (Season 15; 1 episode)
- Jensen (Seasons 15-16; 3 episodes)
- Palomo (Seasons 15-16; 3 episodes)
- Smith (Seasons 15-16; 3 episodes)
- Bitters (Seasons 15-16; 3 episodes)
Blues and Reds[]
- Temple (Season 15; 14 episodes)
- Buckey (Season 15; 13 episodes)
- Loco (Season 15; 13 episodes)
- Surge (Season 15; 13 episodes)
- Biff (Season 15; 2 episodes)
- Gene (Season 15; 12 episodes)
- Cronut (Season 15; 12 episodes)
- Lorenzo (Season 15; 9 episodes)
- Zealots (Seasons 15-17; 7 episodes)
- Simulation Troopers (Seasons 15-16; 5 episodes)
Interstellar Daily[]
- Dylan Andrews (Seasons 15-17; 20 episodes)
- Jax Jonez (Seasons 15-17; 22 episodes)
- Carlos Trabka (Season 15; 3 episodes)
Cosmic Powers[]
- Atlus (Season 16-17; 9 episodes)
- Kalirama (Season 16-17; 7 episodes)
- Burnstorm (Season 16-17; 6 episodes)
- Apovos (Season 16; 1 episode)
- Huggins (Season 16-17; 15 episodes)
- Muggins (Season 16; 7 episodes)
Other[]
- Genkins (Seasons 16-17; 16 episodes)
- Chrovos (Seasons 16-17; 10 episodes)
- Locus (Seasons 15-17; 10 episodes)
Story[]
Season 15[]
The fifteenth season begins with a series of violent attacks attributed to the Reds and Blues being committed, leading investigative reporter Dylan Andrews to set off and find the real Reds and Blues, who have retired peacefully on a moon called Iris.
The Shisno Paradox[]
The sixteenth season starts moments after Season 15, with the Reds and Blues deciding on where to eat after saving Earth from the Blues and Reds. Unfortunately, they are part of a major prophecy that sees them as the destroyers of time itself.
Singularity[]
The seventeenth season continues from where The Shisno Paradox left off, with Donut having successfully reinforced the prison holding Chrovos. However, with the Reds and Blues having created a paradox regardless, they remain trapped in a timeloop to be toyed with by Genkins at a whim.
Themes[]
Past[]
The past serves as the main plot across all three seasons, particularly the latter two. Season 15 revolves around the Blues and Reds seeking revenge against the UNSC and Freelancers alike for being the sole cause of their traumatic past. Seasons 16 and 17 are more literal with this theme and focus on characters time travelling to the past, both their own and beyond. Season 16 focuses on the Reds and Blues travelling back in time to change the past while in contrast, Season 17 focuses on ensuring everything in the past proceeds exactly as it was meant to, whether good or bad.
Mistakes and Regret[]
Many characters throughout the arc go through Regret from mistakes of the past. This theme also ties into the theme of the Past in Seasons 16 and 17, serving as the main motivation for the actions of a lot of characters, particularly the Reds and Blues. They attempt to use time travel to fix or otherwise atone for past mistakes and regret. Ultimately, this never works and either causes the problem in the first place (For Example, Sarge losing the battle at Broken Ridge) or makes things worse (For Example, Saving Washington from getting shot). In season 17, The Reds and Blues have to learn to resist the urge to change things for the better and ensure the past goes exactly as it was meant too, including the permanent brain damage on one of their closest friends. Washington's speech in A Time for Hammers highlights how the past can't be changed and all that matters is learning from the mistakes and regrets of the past and grow from it to become a better person.
Trust and Betrayal[]
Throughout the arc several characters commit acts of betrayel. However, these acts are often motivated by the character feeling they themself have been betrayed and as such have lost trust in their allies. The most important examples are Temple wanting revenge against not just the Freelancers, but also the UNSC as a whole, for turning the Blues and Reds into fodder for Project Freelancer, and Donut stealing the Hammer of Time and almost freeing Chrovos due to his friends constantly insulting and degrading him. Genkins also end up deciding to betray Chrovos after Donut makes him doubt if he can trust Chrovos NOT to betray him. Washington also feels betrayed and becomes furious at Carolina after learning she had been hiding the full scope of his injury from him.
Trivia[]
- This is the first saga where Sister appears as a main character and the second where she appears for more than one scene, the first being The Blood Gulch Chronicles as a supporting character.
- While Season 15 was produced as a standalone season, the synopsis for Singularity refers to it as part of a trilogy.
- This is the only saga to not feature a miniseries at any point.
- This saga, and its standalone followup Zero, would later be retroactively considered a series of simulations created by Epsilon as seen in prologue of Red vs. Blue: Restoration, the nineteenth and final season of the series overall that continues directly from The Chorus Trilogy.
- This saga and the season that succeeded it would later be retroactively considered a series of simulations created by Epsilon as shown in Red vs. Blue: Restoration, the finale film of the series overall that continues directly from The Chorus Trilogy.