Red vs. Blue: The Ultimate Fan Guide
Reviews (115)
Five Stars
Everyone, everyone, look unto me! I posses the Ultimate Fan Guide! I have seen the wondrous pages, and you will envy me, as though I were a victorious red and not a dirty blue! I regret nothing about buying this book, for I have purchased a guide which few fans have dared to buy! My fanatic quest is over. I can read Caboose's wisdom. It's so... stupid. This is the best ultimate fan guide... of all time.
It Helps When There Are Pictures!
Red vs. Blue started back in 2003. In the Dark Ages before YouTube made uploading easy and viral videos spawned overnight. So when they started Red vs. Blue they had to create their own servers and went viral the old-fashioned way, by word-of-mouth. Television shows and series in general seem to follow a pattern. The show will start out with complex and varied characters. If the show goes on long enough those characters devolve into one-note characters whose entire personalities are defined by one quirk. Red vs. Blue defied this trend by starting out with goofy characters that could easily have stayed stuck in their one-trait ruts. Rooster Teeth evolved their characters and story lines to create a complex and rich universe. They went from four guys in a room (bow chicka bow wow) to holding their own conventions (RTX) and expanding their body of work to include another hit show, RWBY. Red vs. Blue also holds the honor of being the longest running American Sci-Fi series. Another thing I find interesting is that Halo and Red vs. Blue co-exist peacefully together. There have been no lawsuits over Rooster Teeth using Halo's property. In fact, there are some Red vs. Blue easter eggs hidden in some of the Halo games. You're not here to hear me ramble about Red vs. Blue the series (which I could happily do all day), you're here to read a review of the Red vs. Blue Fan Guide. I could have wished for a bit more in-depth bios on the characters. especially the Freelancers. However, the Freelancers are somewhat of a mystery and I don't think that writers Burnie Burns (creator of Red vs. Blue) and Eddy Rivas wanted to take that away from the Freelancers. The rest of it is great. I love the asides from Delta, sometimes humorous and sometimes actual info on how they created particular scenes. Now knowing how they do some of them it impresses me that much more that they were able to do a new Red vs. Blue episode every week. I can also see why the weekly Red vs. Blue episodes are on the short side. I would recommend watching them as an entire season, the flow is much more smooth. The character chart is hilarious and so are the character focused tidbits at the back. Such as Simmons' text based video game: The Maroon Hero and Tucker's debriefing after the events at the dig site. The notes from the Chorus rebels are interesting and a little sad. I would have liked a segment from the Federation side as well, though. I also wouldn't have minded a bit more on Felix and Locus but since they were writing the book while doing season 13 I can see why they would want to keep them more of a mystery. The timeline is actually quite helpful since Red vs. Blue can be a little 'loopy' in their chronology. For fans of Red vs. Blue it's certainly worth a look. I would recommend getting the physical book. Not only is it a nice-looking book but it might be easier to read. I read it on the Kindle and I had to hold it side-ways to read it, which was a bit uncomfortable. The lettering is rather small on the e-book, even with the 'tap to-enlarge feature.
A must-have for the RvB fan - just make sure you've watched through S13 first!
Whether you've been a loyal follower of the Reds and Blues since the early days of Blood Gulch or you've only recently discovered the franchise, you're sure to enjoy this guidebook. Yes, most of the information about everyone's favorite hilariously incompetent space marines can be found at online wikis for free, but that's not the point. The point is that this book presents all of that (let's face it, often convoluted and confusing) information in a well-written, well-organized, and highly entertaining manner, while offering enough brand new material to keep readers from feeling ripped off. One giant warning: INSIDE THERE BE SPOILERS. I mean, this should be obvious from the "guidebook" title, I suppose, but from the very first pages, major series plot twists are revealed and discussed in depth without much fanfare, so if you haven't finished watching all 13 seasons of this amazing show yet, you might want to hold off on purchasing/opening this book, just to avoid ruining all the great surprises that are still in store for you. If I have one small complaint, it is that the book focuses heavily on the Freelancer and Chorus portions of the series while treating the Blood Gulch years as little more than background information. Don't get me wrong; I love the direction and scope the storyline took in the later seasons, but I would have appreciated more content devoted especially to the series' quirky, meandering beginnings. All in all, though, this book is a must have for any true RvB fan. Makes a great gift for the holidays!
Great book, be careful who you buy it from!
Great book! Love learning about the characters of RVB. The five stars are for the book itself. The rest of this review is for the seller Green Street Books. I was super excited to get this book! I've looked at it from a friend, and wanted one for myself, but I was a little sad when I opened the package. My book arrived with a sticker on the FRONT. It could have had it on the back by the barcode or something, but the reason why this is a big deal is because when I took the sticker off carefully, it peeled the book cover. This was super irritating and upsetting. This is a brand new book and it looks terrible. I am not happy. I looked closer at the book where the sticker was, and the paper (paperback book of course) looked wrinkled, as if they used the sticker to hide damage. This seller had great reviews, so I trusted to get a nice new book, but I guess next time I will not buy anything from this seller. I suggest to buy this book from Rooster Teeth's website or from Amazon itself. It may be more money, but it would probably arrive in better condition. I already gave some seller feedback, but DO NOT buy from Green Street Books.
Get it
If you love RvB this is your book! I still can't figure out where we discovered Someone was Someone Else's mother (You know what I'm saying if you have watched RvB a few times thru); it's not on the show except a vague reference to it when Epsilon Church says "You better be happy
A fun fan indulgence for RvB
Eddy Rivas did some brilliant work on this book, capturing memorable moments from the series up through Season 13, and giving us even more humorous tidbits and fun facts from so many favorite characters. I actually have turned my copy of the book into my way of collecting signatures at conventions from the folks who have worked on the series. If you don't buy it here on Amazon like I did, you can also buy direct from Rooster Teeth at store.roosterteeth.com alongside other RvB merch.
Not really complete
It's a great supplement, lots of stats and interesting tid-bits about RvB, but it only goes through Season 12. Season 13 is where the story ended.
Amazing well worth the money!
That being said there are some things that the book itself is missing, in the character dossier section there is no entry for Agent Florida/Butch Flowers, Junior, or any of the AI programs. I would have loved to have seen some information about Flowers and his decent from Freelancer, into the canyons at blood gulch. The lack of a profile for Junior also feels like a wasted opportunity. I also think that some additional information about the AI fragments would have been interesting to read about. Regardless the book is well put together that the lack of what is listed above doesn't distract from the book. Regardless the book provides and excellent inside look to the daily lives of our favorite characters and provides additional information about characters back stories which had been previously undisclosed (or not officially confirmed until this book). The insights provided are more then worth buying the book,. What adds to the value is the design and layout of the book and the pictures/illustrations are also fitting and add to the experience of the book in general. But in conclusion the book is great and definitely something every Red vs Blue fan should add to their collection!
Worth the money, trust me.
Hubby is a HUGE fan of Red vs. Bleu and all things Rooster Teeth. He blew through this book in two days as a good chunk of the information was something he'd already known based on being a fan of them for so long. He enjoyed it, and now it's part of his ever growing Rooster Teeth collection and he's happy as a clam because of it. No need to repurchase, but if anyone is a RT/RvB fan - this is a good little guide to have.
and anyone who loves the TV series will love this book
Didn't take long for me to start laughing out loud reading this alone. Rooster Teeth are comedic geniuses, and anyone who loves the TV series will love this book. I was hoping it would have a brief overview of the story, perhaps in chronological order, as the story can be pretty hard to follow at times, but other than that I loved this!
Comments
Post a Comment