Red Vs Blue (The Chorus Trilogy)

With the Freelancer storyline all but complete as of the end of Season 10, Red Vs Blue needed a way to keep on going without alienating the audience. With the Chorus Trilogy, RvB takes a far more character-driven turn that not only works pretty damn well, but feels like the perfect ending of the series.

The Chorus Trilogy has a simple storyline. The Reds and Blues crash land on the planet Chorus, where a civil war is currently being raged. Throughout these seasons, they have to reconcile the two sides, stop the mercenaries who are profiting off said war, and find a way to escape the planet. It's a solid premise, and one that allows the Reds and Blues to really get a lot more focus compared to the last few seasons. Don't get me wrong, there are obviously subplots, several Freelancer characters, and a twist that does a good job of tying the trilogy to the show's previous events, but this trilogy focuses the most heavily on the main cast once again and I think that's great. Even more, The Chorus Trilogy puts a great emphasis on character arcs. Each member of the main cast, from Wash to Caboose to Grif to especially Tucker all go through some sort of character development that is resolved by the end of the trilogy.

Season 11:

This first season of the trilogy is an absolutely underrated gem of a season. At first glance, it feels like your usual Blood Gulch-esque season that focuses primarily on comedy, but it's actually incredibly well-crafted and is packed with fun twists, a melancholic vibe, tons of great Chekhov's Guns, and a genuinely shocking final battle. All of the character arcs are introduced during this season which helps it surpass a lot of the more simplistic Blood Gulch seasons. What really elevates this season, however, is the episode "Fire", which is easily one of the best in the whole show. It's a crazy final battle that puts the Reds and Blues right in the middle of the civil war, utilizing all of the comedic threads from earlier on in the season from Freckles to Simmons' Facebook clone, and ending off by splitting up the cast. Even crazier is the fact that, with Monty Oum gone to work on RWBY, this entire battle sequence was made in machinima and it's still one of the show's best. I do think the final denouement episode is a bit weak, and a large portion of the season is build up for the events of "Fire", but Season 11 is generally a very strong start to the Chorus Trilogy with great character work and some fun twists.

4/5 Stars

Season 12:

I'm not a big fan of this season, to be perfectly honest. For me, Season 12 is the weakest season since the Blood Gulch Chronicles. But first, the things I do like: It gets off to a great start with Tucker, Simmons, Grif, and Caboose trying to train soldiers to fight in the civil war, and the middle of the season has some neat plot twists along with the return of Church and Carolina. The final battle is also pretty great, and Tucker's character development continues to be really strong. However, Season 12 is also a bit of a drag at times. The lack of many Reds and Blues in the first half means that we end up getting a lot of screen time for the Chorus characters who I just don't find as interesting. And then, once the second half starts and the Reds and Blues reunite, the plot just starts spinning its wheels until the big battle in the penultimate episode. Even more, the show tries to bring back CGI and fight scenes, but due to the evolution to Halo 4, the effects and lighting are just plain awful. There's a lot to like in Season 12, but it always just felt like a boring season to me, and one that struggles to reach the heights of the last six seasons. 

3/5 Stars

Season 13:

After my disappointment in Season 12, thankfully Season 13 managed to end up being one of the show's best seasons, elevating the entire trilogy as a result. Right from the very first episode, you can tell this season is trying to emulate the same ambition of the Freelancer arcs and it absolutely succeeds. The story of the people of Chorus fighting against the Insurrection is compelling and exciting, and it spans a ton of different locations. The CGI has improved and leads to some pretty sweet setpieces, and there manage to include a bunch of references to the Freelancer arc to help this trilogy feel more like a part of Red Vs Blue. And despite all of this bombast and fan service, Season 13 also manages to bring all of the show's character arcs to a satisfying resolution, from Tucker becoming a leader to Church's big sacrifice at the end of the show. I love the ambiguous ending in the last episode and I feel it's a pretty damn perfect ending for Red Vs Blue as a whole, even if they did end up continuing the series to mixed results. It kills off the main character, completing his character arc, and dials down the conflict to the main cast of the show. In case I haven't made it clear already, I absolutely adore this final season, and it makes the entire Chorus Trilogy, even the weak parts, more than worth it, in my opinion.

5/5 Stars

Overall, the Chorus Trilogy is an incredibly well-crafted arc that focuses on developing all of the cast, working incredibly well as an ending to Red Vs Blue as a whole. Even if not every season is amazing and it's not on far with the Freelancer arcs, the final season is so phenomenal that it elevates the Chorus Trilogy and solidifies Red Vs Blue as my favorite webseries ever made.

4/5 Stars

My ranking of the Red Vs Blue arcs is:

Project Freelancer > Recollection > Chorus > Blood Gulch

My ranking of the Red Vs Blue seasons is:

10 > 6 >13 > 8 > 5 > 11 > 9 > 3 > 7 > 12 > 2 > 1 > 4

And my ranking of the Red Vs Blue finales is:

10 > 5 > 6 > 13 > 2 > 7 > 8 > 9 > 3 > 1 > 12 > 4 > 11

Favorite Episode: This One Goes To Eleven

Disclaimer: I won't be reviewing the Red Vs Blue seasons after this one as Season 13 is just the perfect end for the series, but here's my general opinion of the later seasons:

• Season 14 is a fun anthology season that's worth watching for pretty much any Red Vs Blue fan even if not every episode hits the mark (4/5). 
• Season 15 has some weak meta humor and bad CGI but the emotional moments and character development for the Reds made it somewhat decent (3/5). 
• Season 16 is pretty unfunny and bland, and furthers proves why I don't like time travel storylines, though the final episode has some surprisingly good special effects and action (2/5). 
• Season 17 is a pretty big improvement on the last two seasons with some solid action and fun character work even if it's still weak on plot (3/5). 
• RvB: Zero is an absolute disaster with poorly-filmed action, cheesy dialogue, and a general disrespect of the show it's based on (1/5).