Red vs. Blue: The Blood Gulch Chronicles is the first main saga of Red vs. Blue, introducing the Red and Blue soldiers stationed in a box canyon in the middle of nowhere five-hundred years in the future. It consists of five seasons and a miniseries. This saga introduces several events that would become relevant in later seasons, as well as several running gags that would define the series.
This storyline is notable for having a continuous episode count, with its final episode being referred to as Episode 100 rather than the twenty-third episode of Season 5.
The main characters include Sarge, Grif, Simmons, Donut, Church, Tucker, Caboose, Tex, and Doc. Major recurring characters include Lopez, Sheila, and Andy. The primary antagonists are O'Malley, Wyoming, Vic, and Gary.
Main Characters[]
Red Team[]
- Sarge (Season 1-5; 86 episodes)
- Simmons (Season 1-5; 95 episodes)
- Grif (Season 1-5; 92 episodes)
- Donut (Season 1-5; 78 episodes)
- Lopez (Season 1-5; 39 episodes)
Blue Team[]
- Church (Season 1-5; 89 episodes)
- Tucker (Season 1-5; 89 episodes)
- Caboose (Season 1-5; 90 episodes)
- Tex (Season 1-5; 60 episodes)
- Sheila (Season 1-5; 46 episodes)
- Andy (Season 3-5; 27 episodes)
- Flowers (Season 3, 5; 5 episodes)
- Sister (Season 5; 16 episodes)
Other[]
- O'Malley (Season 1-5; 33 episodes)
- V.I.C. (Season 1-5; 13 episodes)
- Doc (Season 2-5; 43 episodes)
- Wyoming (Season 3-5; 14 episodes)
- Gary (Season 3-5; 12 episodes)
- York (Out of Mind; 3 episodes)
- Delta (Out of Mind; 3 episodes)
Story[]
Season 1[]
The first season of The Blood Gulch Chronicles begins with the introduction of two rookies on the Red and Blue teams: Donut on the Red Team and Caboose on the Blue. Also, the Red Team receives a jeep and the Blue Team a tank. Donut is sent on a fool's errand by his teammates, Grif and Simmons, only to accidentally steal the enemy flag when he believed their base to be the store. Meanwhile, Caboose allowed him to take it, believing Donut to be the General foretold by his teammates, Church and Tucker, in a fool's errand of his own. The season introduces the concepts of the Freelancer Program and its AIs, explaining that each agent would receive an AI to help them in combat. Church is killed early on in the season and returns as a ghost. The Blues then recruit Tex, an agent of the Freelancer Program and Church's ex-girlfriend, who helps them regain their flag. However, Tex is later killed by a grenade thrown by Donut. At the end of the season, Church possesses the Red Team's robot mechanic Lopez in order to have a body to move in and Caboose suddenly announces that his name is now O'Malley in a sinister tone.
Season 2[]
The second season begins several months after the first season. A medical officer arrives to check on a wounded soldier Blue Team reported but realizes he is three months too late, as the wounded soldier (Tex) had already died by the time he arrives. The hapless Blue Team nicknames the medical officer "Doc". Almost immediately after his arrival, Red Team attacks but quickly runs out of ammo. The Reds salvage their failed offensive by getting Doc as an exchange for Blue Team's surrender (although he had been ordered to check on Red Team anyways). Doc's added involvement in the canyon, combined with Tex's rampant AI, O'Malley, infecting Caboose, causes conflict within both teams. After Tex returns as a ghost, she and Church force O'Malley out of Caboose's head. Hoewever, O'Malley, who is able to jump via radio signals, ends up infecting Doc and ventures through a reconfigured teleporter with Lopez to an unknown area. In need of both Lopez and Doc, the Reds and Blues temporarily team-up and follow O'Malley through the teleporter.
Season 3[]
The third season begins with the Red and Blue teams fighting Doc/O'Malley and causing the detonation of a bomb that had been secretly placed in the robot body provided to Church by the Red Team's sergeant. The Reds and Blues then find themselves in a desert after the explosion, believing themselves to be in the future. Church, meanwhile, travels back in time with assistance with a computer terminal named Gary, reliving events from the previous two seasons in order to fix past mistakes. When Church, however, is unable to fix past problems, he travels into the future and rejoins the others. Suddenly, the soldiers stumble upon a prophecy that states a blue being will destroy everything. Church's teammate, Tucker, picks up a glowing sword that is also connected to the prophecy. Soon afterward, the Reds and Blues try to defend themselves from an attack by O'Malley, Lopez, and their Robot Army when the "Great Destroyer "- a blue-armored alien - arrives.
Season 4[]
The fourth season begins with the Red Team following a distress signal back to Blood Gulch and experiences a falling out with one of their soldiers. Meanwhile, Tucker, Tex, and Caboose go on a quest with Andy, a talking bomb built by Tex, and the Alien to save the alien's race. When their quest comes to an end, Tex ventures off for Wyoming, a Freelancer working for O'Malley, and does not return to Blood Gulch with the rest of Blue team. In the aftermath, when Tucker becomes seriously ill, the Blue team, having no other choice, invites Doc and O'Malley to their base in order to help him.
Out of Mind[]
Out of Mind is a mini-series that takes place between Seasons 4 and 5, being a narrative from Tex's point of view as she pursues bounty hunter Wyoming, told in a more serious tone. Tex tracks down a former teammate named York who is still using his infiltration skills, although he is now a civilian. York and his AI, Delta, are at first unsure about helping Tex track down Wyoming and O'Malley; whose actual name is revealed to be Omega at this time. Tex, however, convinces York to help her and the two break into Omega's Island Fortress to battle Wyoming.
Season 5[]
The fifth season begins with a ship crash-landing in the middle of the canyon, containing a new soldier: Grif's sister. The confusion about her assignment leads to a mutiny against Sarge of Red Team. Grif and Simmons return Sister to the Blue Team side of the canyon, while Sarge and Donut find themselves in the caves underneath the canyon. Omega infects the deceased Capt. Flowers of Blue Team, reanimating him and teaming up with a green alien. Church's attempts to save Tex culminate in her defecting with Wyoming, as she decides she believes in Omega and Wyoming's plan to conquer the alien race. Since the plan involves infecting Tucker's newborn alien baby with O'Malley, she gets on the radio to call Omega back to herself. The season ends with her taking off in the ship that Sister had been delivered in, then disappearing from view.
Themes[]
Hate[]
At the start of the saga, the main characters on both sides of the Red Team and Blue Team hated each other with no legitimate reason besides being on opposite teams. Along with this, Simmons states "The only reason that we set up a Red Base here, is because they have a Blue Base over there. And the only reason they have a Blue Base over there, is because we have a Red Base here," implying that their armies only built the bases in spite of each other. However, as the saga progresses the characters learn more about each other and develop reasons why they like or dislike a specific individual. One notable example is Caboose and Donut, the rookies of both teams who annoy their teammates, who are the first to develop a friendship despite being on opposite teams.
Omega, the A.I. fragment based on rage, ultimately makes plans to destroy both teams without developing any real relations with the majority of the main cast, mirroring the heroes original hatred for the other team at the start of the series. Due to this, the teams join forces to defeat Omega and his allies, developing a genuine hatred for the antagonists for endangering them or others. At the same time, as the characters spend more time with each other, they learn more about one another and begin to develop genuine opinions towards each other, both negative and positive. Omega also causes anyone he possesses to act aggressively and spiteful, creating conflict between several characters. Ultimately at the end of the saga in Why Were We Here?, Church gives a speech about hating someone for being who they are rather than what they are, explaining genuine dislike is better than blind prejudices.
Change[]
Throughout the saga, many characters experience change that they originally disliked before liking, adapting, and accepting it, both physically and mentally. Originally the teams were fine with doing nothing in the canyon beside talking, but due to an ever emerging series of events in their lives, the two teams often found themselves forced to cooperate for a greater purpose, bigger than their petty squabbling. This resulted in the formation of the Blood Gulch Crew and started the characters' development into becoming heroes. Many times characters switch sides for their own benefits and comfort, such as Tex joining the Blues, Lopez and Sheila creating their own faction, Simmons briefly joining Blue Team, and Doc being forced to aid Omega's plans. Omega also changes the personalities of individuals he possesses, harming many in the process (such as Caboose). However, despite Omega's action, a majority of characters return to normal and overcome his influence.
Many characters who experience a change in this saga eventually develop into a better individual. Simmons turned into a cyborg due to Lopez being absent, resulting in some of his organs to be transplanted to Grif. Although he greatly disliked it at first, he eventually accepted his cybernetics as being part of himself and acknowledged how important it was to help his team. Donut is given pink armor near the end of Season 1 and is made fun of it as it's a feminine color. Although Donut keeps stating it's "lightish-red", he eventually accepts it and begins to show more feminine traits and develop his personality. Church's relationship with Tex becomes extremely strained due to the constant threats of Omega and becomes more annoyed by his team. He even attempts to try to change the past for his liking at one point before acknowledging it's impossible and deciding to return to the present and be more tolerant to his allies, which eventually improves their relationship. When Tucker became pregnant with an alien baby, he constantly refused to be "the father" and showed no interest in becoming one. After Junior was born, Tucker developed a loving relationship with his son and acted a little more mature. Doc is possessed by Omega for most of the saga and is forced to help the A.I. in his plans to conquer the world. Despite this, Doc kept a positive mood while his personality became more aggressive, resulting in a more confident individual.
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- This is the longest saga in the entire series, being the only one to contain 5 full seasons and go up to 100 episodes.
- Burnie Burns got the idea for making The Blood Gulch Chronicles while playing Halo: CE in Blood Gulch. He had gotten the inspiration by asking his teammate "Why do they call it a Warthog? Can't they call it a Puma?"
- Each season of the saga opens in Blood Gulch.
- The first four seasons were eventually re-shot, or "remastered", using the Halo: Combat Evolved Custom Edition PC game as well as Halo 2 Vista, the latter of which was used prior for Season 5. The remastered seasons presented freedom of the constraints Rooster Teeth experienced in the original production, including removing the target reticle, improving the size of the aspect ratio and removing the camera from the controlled camera character. The remastered seasons were originally released over Xbox Live, but were later released on DVD as a 5-season box set.
- The Blood Gulch Chronicles takes place as early as 2552, which is the year Halo: Combat Evolved takes place in.
- This is calculated using Carolina's given birth year of 2523, and her stated age when Alpha arrives at Blood Gulch, of 29 years.
- This contradicts Grif's statement in the first episode, "Next thing I know, Master Chief blows up the whole Covenant armada and I’m stuck in the middle of nowhere, fighting a bunch of blue guys.". Of course, at the time, this would have been inaccurate: At the end of Combat Evolved, Master Chief merely destroyed Halo, not the whole Armada. The Covenant Armada survives into 2553 in Halo 3.
- This may, however, be explained by Blood Gulch happening several years later, as Church has stated they were stationed at Blood Gulch for several years. On the other hand, this may be the result of false memories due to Alpha's forced implantation.
- Burnie Burns left a heartfelt comment nearing the saga's finale in 2007, detailing his thanks to the fans and community, as well as describing the journey of producing The Blood Gulch Chronicles. His message is as follows:
|
''April 1st is a special day for us here at RoosterTeeth, as it marks the anniversary of the first Red vs Blue episode we ever posted, way back in 2003. We always want to pause on occasions such as this to thank all of you for supporting RvB over the years. We try to say it as often as we can; the people of this community do so much for us by keeping us inspired and motivated to create every day. And the sponsors especially deserve our gratitude by supporting us in (if I may borrow a phrase) "a rent and food" kind of way. It's hard to believe that today marks four years of producing the series and with this week's release, we are 6 episodes from Episode 100. It seems like just yesterday that we started working on what we thought was going to be a mini-series that was intended to run six episodes in total.
Producing RvB and getting to know the people who watch it have been two of the greatest joys of my life. That's why we wanted to let you all know first that Episode 100 is going to be the last installment of The Blood Gulch Chronicles. One hundred is a great number, and it seems like the perfect place to call it a show. I am sure you have some questions about our plans for the series and beyond. We will be talking about all of that in the weeks and months to come, but I want to use this time to thank all of you for nearly half a decade of support. For now, it's back to work. From the recent developments in the storyline, you may have noticed some loose ends coming together and we have a lot to wrap up in the last seven videos. We hope you will love them as much as the first seven or the middle seven or whatever it was that initially drew you to the world of Red vs Blue. |
|
- During the Season 5 finale, Burnie Burns left a comment once again thanking the fans for their support of the season. In the message, Burnie leaves separate links to each of the alternate endings.
