Online entertainment organization RoosterTeeth is not a stranger to creating a web series that starts small and simple, and explodes into popularity over the years. They’ve done it semi-recently with RWBY, but long before that they’d done it with a little sci-fi comedy called Red vs Blue. Originally airing with low visual and audio quality and produced by just a couple of college buddies, Red vs Blue quickly found an audience that catapulted it to the heights of critical acclaim and launched all of RoosterTeeth as a result.
Now, after eighteen seasons and loads and loads of spinoffs and special mini-series, Red vs Blue is bursting at the seams with awesome characters. Here’s a Top 10 list of my Favorites!
10) Caboose
I actually don’t particularly love Caboose, as his overall characterization and plot relevance is a tad weak, but gosh darn it if he isn’t hilarious! He’s a stock standard “dumb character” on paper, but they really lean into his eccentricities and his odd fixations on his friend Church and his love of robot buddies. In a lesser show, a character like Caboose would come across as irredeemably annoying, but Red vs Blue knows when to have him set up a good punchline, and when to pull back on his shenanigans. He ends up being pretty endearing, and featuring in some of the show’s best recurring gags.
9) Sarge
At the height of my obsession with this show upon first discovering it, Sarge was my favorite character. I’ve leaned more towards the solidly written characters in recent years, but I still find Sarge to be extremely entertaining and surprisingly relatable. Despite all his wacky and unorthodox tactics, Sarge is genuinely trying to take his position as a military leader seriously, and I can’t fault him for trying. Even if his plans include building a Spanish-speaking robot when no one around speaks Spanish, stop a string of earthquakes by blowing up the planet’s core, or defend his home base with cardboard cutouts of his troops, Sarge still gets things done. Plus, he’s actually great at motivational speeches!
8) Doc
Doc is a minor character who exploded in importance with relatively minimal warning, quickly becoming a fan favorite amongst the show’s audience. Normally a meek pacifist, Doc becomes infected with an evil AI and transitions into one of the hammiest but surprisingly threatening villains ever seen in a sci-fi show. But, my favorite appearance of Doc is actually in Season 8, wherein he’s a hapless hostage of the season’s antagonists, but spends more time arguing and annoying them than anything else. Those moments with Doc in Season 8 are some of my favorite in the entire show, and are usually my go-to scenes when trying to get someone new into Red vs Blue. I quote Doc very frequently around my friends, and I love his well-meaning bumbling medic persona.
7) Locus
Unlike his partner-in-crime, Locus is a consummate professional who considers himself the “perfect solider”…and therein lies his intriguing complexity. Serving as a deconstruction of what it means to be a soldier, and how military PTSD can affect someone in often unseen ways, Locus is a brilliant addition to the cast of main villains in the show’s best saga, the Chorus Trilogy (Seasons 11, 12, and 13). Locus is the perfect foil to Agent Washington, and the frequent conversations and banter between the two of them are a highlight of the saga. Plus, he’s got a great theme song, and he is very intimidating with his battle prowess and camouflage ability. His partner might be more entertaining, but Locus is more complexly written.
6) Tucker
It’s actually pretty easy to dislike Tucker for the first half of the show, as his contributions are not much more than whining about fighting and making inappropriate jokes. Still, the potential for him to grow and become a better solider was always there lurking under the surface, and the Chorus Trilogy finally brought that aspect to light. Tucker is, for all intents and purposes, the central protagonist of the saga, and the way in which he grows as a person, a solider, and a leader is thrilling to watch. Plus, he never loses that amusingly misguided swagger and comical attitude that defined him since the show’s inception. And I always love seeing him in action with his “swish-swish-stab” energy sword!
5) Dr. Emily Grey
Through a combination of irresistible charm, quirky and quotable dialogue, and an impeccable vocal performance, I think it might genuinely be impossible to dislike Emily Grey. She makes such an immediate impact as a fast-talking, slightly nutty doctor, only to prove herself to be significantly more unhinged (and therefore, hilarious) once she gets her hands on the enemy. She’s a brilliant portrayal of a manic quirky protagonist, managing to strike the perfect balance of dangerous and innocence. It’s no surprise she’s a fan favorite and received extra attention in Season 13. Also, I cannot stress enough how perfect her voice actress’ performance is.
4) Vanessa Kimball
I won’t try to deny that I’m a sucker for “small rebel group fighting big corrupt empire” stories, especially those that really twist the formula and make it more complex (Star Wars doesn’t do that, sadly, but it still gets a pass for popularizing the trope). In those sorts of stories, I naturally tend to find myself drawn to the stressed-out, desperate-for-victory, weary rebel leader types. Kimball fits that bill to a tee.
Kimball doesn’t wince words when she’s introduced, as she explains how downtrodden the rebels are and the losses they have suffered lately. But, she still places her trust in our main protagonists, and specifically takes the time to try and mentor Tucker into being a better leader. She’s not afraid to get her hands dirty in a ight either. But she isn’t perfect, which is demonstrated by her spiteful inability to work alongside her former enemies in Season 13. She still has growing she needs to do, and has to reconcile with the skewed perspective she’s held so firmly for years.
3) Felix
Even if you try to force yourself to hate this terrible, smug, snarky, sadistic excuse for a human being, you just can’t. There might not be a better example of a “love to hate” villain in anything I’ve ever seen before. There’s hardly a villain out there more entertaining than him either!
Felix is an exceptionally simple person wrapped in a thousand layers of lies and deceit. He’s a abject coward who has gaslight his old partner into a toxic co-dependent relationship just so that Felix himself can feel important. He’s obsessed with money not because he’s greedy, but because his ego won’t allow him to ever be inferior to anyone else in any way. He loves murder just as much as he loves being a snarky jerk, and his habit of talking too much screws him over more than once in the Chorus Trilogy. But man…no matter how many innocent lives he claims, he never stops being so funny and arresting to watch!
2) Agent Carolina
Though a late arrival to the main cast of Red vs Blue (first appearing in Season Nine), Carolina quickly establishes herself as someone to pay close attention to. She’s an exceptionally talented solider in the Project Freelancer organization (told through gorgeously animated flashbacks), and a more mysterious figure in the present day.
I’ll admit that I’m also a huge sucker for the “tough, strong character learns to rely on friends instead of doing everything themselves” archetype. Carolina embodies this trope full-stop. She’s incredible, but she starts making rash and reckless decisions once someone even more skilled than her shows up. It’s painful to watch Carolina’s competitiveness drive her away from her own family in pursuit of being better than everyone else, and her crash back to reality is humbling. After that, it’s equally great to watch her grow alongside the eclectic crew of our main protagonists, initially finding them annoying but eventually growing to respect them. Plus, she never stops kicking butt!
1) Agent Washington
From the first moment I saw Washington in an episode, something about him just resonated with me. He’s the first true “straight-man” to appear in the show, and his arrival also signals Red vs Blue‘s shift from comical shenanigans to more plot-driven sci-fi endeavors. Which, of course, isn’t to say that Washington isn’t funny, because he certainly is. He plays off the main protagonists extremely well, whether by shooting down their silliness or being ridiculed for his own eccentricities.
Washington just does everything right, and his continual arc of character development from Season 6 to Season 13 is a joy to watch. He’s a serious person, but knows when to lighten up with a quip. He’s a competent fighter, but never beats down his foes effortlessly or anything. He’s a great leader and mentor, but he doesn’t demean those who work alongside him. Whether it’s during his time as a anti-hero, misguided antagonist, or active hero, Washington is amazing to see in action, and I love that Red vs Blue never dropped him as a character after his introduction.
Also, LOVE his color scheme!
But hey, that’s just my opinion!
The Contrarian Corner 