bitters-is-my-bitch

[bitters-is-my-bitch]

This is not a statement about RvB/RvB0 at all, I just think its funny, but:

Torrian spelled grif wrong

[bitters-is-my-bitch]

yknow as much as i understand torrian being reasonably pissed he's just making the divide between creators and fans even bigger, even if it was unintentional.

[bitters-is-my-bitch]

jesus god damn fucking christ, i’m not afraid to say it, the staff of red vs blue is incredibly immature holy SHIT

[bitters-is-my-bitch]

I agree with absolutely everything you said here. Especially that last part. Blue Team does suck.

Zero is Null

A discussion of Zero’s love-hate-relationship with RvB and struggling independence; including a hotdog too big for the bun, tragic backstories, a single bow-chicka-bow-wow, and a cookie at the very end.

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[bitters-is-my-bitch]

I wish we'd gotten a season of the lieutenants. I'm biased (obviously), but c'mon. Spinoff about Chorus and the lads? Please?

[bitters-is-my-bitch]

i can't believe zero's only motivation is brexit.

[bitters-is-my-bitch]

i watched red vs blue: zero with my dear friends today and i was asked to “post” my “thoughts” on the subject. Please do not click this readmore unless, for some reason, you want to read three thousand words on the subject of red vs blue: zero critical analysis. i highly doubt that’s the reason anyone is following me, but hey. 

anyway. here you have it. 

Keep reading

[bitters-is-my-bitch]

while i think the sword thing is dumb copout garbage i worry that people focusing on it is just gonna give more ammo to the people who say the only reason people are hating the show is because its focused on new characters and a new story when to me, that isn’t the case

i have literally no affection for the shatter squad characters and the villains. i can’t think of any memorable, funny character establishing scenes outside of the very first one where they’re in a car chase, and even that doesn’t establish much outside of ONE is competitive and raymond is new. there’s no dynamics i’m invested in, no funny scenes that shows us how the team gels together, nothing outside of cliches and one liners. we get nothing like the BGC where we’re introduced to the docmallley and lopez dynamic and get to see how ineffectual of villains they are through arguing about their evil lair’s resale value. i don’t get to see caboose and donut interacting to establish theyre both the nicest, dumbest characters in the canyon who treat hostage situations more like slumber parties. instead, characters do fights and sometimes raymond tells a joke or rambles on about how his poetry doesnt rhyme, and thats supposed to be the same

(and the dynamics that are established also seem to change on a whim? four episodes ago ONE was telling east that the only reason she’s even here is due to her invasive medical trauma giving her superpowers, and now theyre family and they can’t give up on east. i barely remember axel and west interacting at all and all of a sudden the new ep acts like theyre old war buddies who have been by each others sides for ages and expects me to think thats engaging. i’m sorry i just don’t)

like, i’m not saying that being upset the reevb cast isn’t in it is invalid criticism, because it isn’t. but even completely standalone i’m given no relationships or dynamics i can care about, and the characters on their own feel like cardboard cutouts so i can’t love them in isolation either. i spent this whole season wondering why ONE was branded as the protagonist of the show despite having no personal investment or relevance to the plot until this episode where she made the cliche shonen protag we’re all beaten down but we can’t lose hope speech, and i realized oh, she’s just supposed to fit that Character Archetype. and this isn’t me saying a cheesy motivational speech is a bad thing! i fucking love them! in fact, sarge giving one near the end of s8 is one of my favorite rvb moments ever. but that’s because i actually know these characters are a family who care about each other since i’ve seen it before, instead of just being told it 75% of the way through the show 

[bitters-is-my-bitch]

it makes me legitimately sad how i have zero interest for zero. i remembered being so hyped every weekend, i remember sharing theories with fellow fans, i remember writing fics right after an episode because i couldn’t hold back my love for the show.

ive tried to watch one episode of this new season, and it just- it isn’t rvb for me. no reds, no blues. it feels way to actionhero-ish, and i cant even blame them for that because that’s the vibe they were going for, and it’s just- urgh.

and i love this year’s psas so much. like, a season of that, please. it doesn’t even need any big dramatic plot. rvb was about funny dumbasses and then plot slowly seeped into it.

i just fucking miss the reds and blues, alright. the new season has made it clear that it’s something new, that everyone won’t like it, and i guess that’s it. fair. i don’t like it, and it’s not for me.

and that makes me sad.

[bitters-is-my-bitch]

RvB Zero

Man, this show… I kind of don’t want to talk about it, but I also really do…

The thing is, this show is so clearly made with lots of enthusiasm by people who really love their job. You can feel their excitement at getting to do a show like this in the colours, the soundtrack, the acting, in the way that literally every single shot is designed to be “the most possible” - the most possible emotion, the most possible acting, the worst possible joke, the extra angled camera, there is nothing half-assed about this, they want full impact and they’ll do whatever it takes to get there. And I really want to get swept up in that excitement.

But… urgh. It’s like reading a kid’s first fanfic, when they first learn that this is a thing they can do. There is something to be said for the joyful energy, and you feel like you shouldn’t point out all the parts that could do with more polishing. But this isn’t little kids doing their first fanfic, it’s grown-up adults doing their first fanfic, one they’re charging money for, and that changes things. So I feel we have to acknowledge the fundamental truth:

This is so, so bad. And the amount of energy they put into this is a huge part of why.

The thing where every shot is literally the most impactful it could possibly be grows old incredibly quickly. Remember, it is totally okay for RvB to be a show where they just stand around and talk. That’s all they ever do. The high impact also means that every single moment where two characters interact is comically over-exaggerated. They are deeply committed to not being subtle on this show, and it drastically hurts the characters.

A side effect is that the pacing just doesn’t work. There is almost no quiet moment. Even the moments that are or could be quiet have an action sequence going on in the background out of a misplaced fear that we might grow bored (episode 2 shows this in spades). That results in action scene fatigue very quickly.

The other main issue that the writing is just plain awful. None of these people ever sound like humans who have actual conflicts or want to convey information; they all sound like imitations of bad action movies.

The fact that the writing is bad and that quiet moments don’t exist means that we don’t really manage to get close to the characters, which is a pity because I think there are some genuinely interesting ideas there. Especially the pink ones have interesting backstories and genuinely cool abilities and twists, and the drama between the red ones might also be interesting if we ever actually saw it. I don’t think there’s any saving the yellow characters though; Grifnut and Mechanic are supposed to be funny and just fail entirely.

It’s particularly insulting that our first real glimpse of these new characters and what makes them tick is… Carolina just plain telling us. And I’m not even sure why. She’s telling it to them. Does she actually already know them, or were things like „daddy issues“ just in their personnel files? These are things that should be revealed gradually and organically, but I guess if you did that, then you’d have to cut down on action scene time.

To be fair, I’m not a fan of the villains either; the whole scene where they’re like „I’ll get the ultimate power!“ „But why? And what is it? You don’t even know!“ „Generic threat!“ is probably an ideal microcosm that illustrates all the bad writing perfectly.

I really want to like this show. I love the enthusiasm and love that the creators clearly have for it. But in practice, I find myself looking at the progress bar, going, „ugh, two more minutes of this?“. If the show were just lazy, or mediocre, things would be different. But it’s this mismatch between energy and outcome that makes it so frustrating.

[bitters-is-my-bitch]

I really don't like RvB0.

The animation genuinely gives me a headache. That's not me being dramatic. There is so much movement I can't keep up with it, and I have to look at it all at once and it just... doesn't work. I don't like looking at aliens trying to mimic human body language or whatever the hell is going on. I feel like they really need to consider the phrase "less is more" when animating. The fight scenes, however, are fine. It's the rest of the animation. (Also, y'know. Would have preferred real machinama rather than it being animated in. Save yourself some time and budget by just doing machinama.)

And the pacing. My god. The pacing. There is not enough time to fit all this lore and worldbuilding into eight episodes. You can't shove so much information into 20 minutes. The most recent episode with Tucker? There was no time to react to anything. It was all GOGOGOGO.

Also, the details we WANT to know aren't mentioned. How much time has passed since s17? Where are the Reds and Blues? Where the fuck is Junior? What's Locus up to? How is Chorus doing? Sure. It's a jumping point for new fans. But the old fans are still here. You can't just throw us out the back to the trash. We want Red vs Blue, not a glorified OC insert fanfiction.

I firmly think RvB0 is a bad show. I know there's a lot of love and care put into it, I really do. But that's not enough. Love and care can't combat bad writing and pacing. Honestly? I hope it doesn't get a second season. I want Torrian to get his own show. He has potential as a writer, and I want him to succeed. I just think he could have plenty of time to play around and get a feel for showbiz and writing without touching Red vs Blue. And honestly, it's on RT for not giving him his own show in the first place.

[bitters-is-my-bitch]

technically i mean, uh, both. i just like the meta more than maine. but for a rough explanation: when i say the meta, I mean both of those, they’re still not maine, they’re still the meta no matter how broken he was. when i say maine, i mostly mean fanon maine. i really hate how the rvb fandom has, like, made him into a toddler that’s capable of snapping necks. counselor described maine? brute. good. yes. fanon maine? uwu baby aww look he’s getting so good at words!!!

unpopular opinion:

Meta > Maine

[bitters-is-my-bitch]

unpopular opinion:

Meta > Maine

[bitters-is-my-bitch]