Damn, I remember watching RvB when it was still just cropped gameplay footage with the reticle visible on the screen. I have the Blu-ray box set of seasons 1-10 and the Chorus Trilogy. After Monty died everything kinda started going downhill. Final nail in the coffin I guess.
I was surprised they were still cranking out episodes. I watched one last year out of boredom. It wasn’t even funny. It was just like… CGI doing CGI stuff.
Kovic pranced around naked in the office on cam with a girl he was actively cheating on his wife with.
and Ryan manipulated emotionally vulnerable people into sex to cheat on his wife with. One of which was 17, but iirc she admitted about lying about her age, So while Ryan was a predator, he wasnt a child predator iirc.
These two were just the tips of the iceberg. Roosterteeth has been problematic since damn near the start.
One of their early advertisers was “Alpha Brain”, some sugar pill that was supposed to make you think better to game better. Pure pseudoscience junk.
Much later they started shilling for an online prescription mill to their young audience, and in typical roosterteeth fashion. They got really super pissed off at being called out about it, then had geoff come out and try to twist the valid criticism into an attack on his miraculously convenient Erectile Dysfunction.
They also had MASSIVE issues with bigotry behind the scenes, Which IIRC is why Micah Burton and KDin got the fuck out of dodge. (I strongly suspect that Gavin was one of the worst about this, judging from edits early videos made around him and just my pure supposition, I can totally see him being the kind of person to drop the hard R in casual conversation without warning, and think its a laugh).
Also they spent years exploiting fans for free/low cost labor. Not just at expos and events, but behind the scenes in their animation department.
and anytime there was valid criticism about anything they did, They’d spend an entire post/podcast/etc railing against their “idiot” fans for not knowing better… I think at one point, someone… maybe burnie? told all the old, diehard, complaining fans to fuck off and that the can be replaced with new fans?
Which really turned out well, considering they’ve been floundering for years before the guillotine finally came down.
This is just the shit I can remember. Theres a whole plethora more of bullshit that Roosterteeth has done. Sucks for the behind the scene not-asshole folks to be losing their jobs, but RT deserves its ignominious death.
edit This is all to the best of my recollection, If I have some small details wrong let me know so I can correct.
Aww, Gav’s racist? I hope not, but I can see how someone on staff could be with how quickly Burton came on and left. Unfortunate, I liked her when she was on.
I got no hard evidence, largely cause they edit the shit out of the videos and arent dumb enough to say it in public, but there have been off hand comments referencing gavins awfulness behind scenes and shit and there was one video where they were doing a LOT of editing around what cavin was saying (I think it was an AWHU from a very long time ago, like pre-ryan long ago), that I would 100% put money on the fact that… like I said, he not only says the hard R, he says it with laughter and glee.
and hes probably not the only one, I just think hes the most likely.
They got really super pissed off at being called out about it, then had geoff come out and try to twist the valid criticism into an attack on his miraculously convenient Erectile Dysfunction.
Content creators from the early days when that was a novelty.
Some stuff is legit animation like RWBY, they made the biggest mechinima ever in Red vs Blue, a show made by voicing over video game characters controlled by a player, they made videos showing how to get Xbox achievements called Achievement Hunter, Let’s Play with people just doing fun stuff in video games, and then later podcasts with random stuff like people chatting about current topics RT Podcast, plane crashes in Black Box Down, and Austin in ANMA.
A bunch of other stuff too. But that’s a good summary I think.
I haven’t actively followed their stuff much at all, especially in the last many years, but this one hurts me. Red VS Blue was such a big part of my childhood into my teenage years, with the first ten seasons having gotten more rewatches by me than any other show out there.
Starting to feel those Blood Gulch Blues. Might marathon the whole series, myself.
Were the seasons past 10 any worth watching? I’d heard some mixed views on the latter seasons, and season 10 ends SO strongly with such a good sense of closure to it, it was genuinely confusing to me when I heard they dropped an 11th season.
Gonna try grabbing a buddy and marathoning through the series. I’ve gushed in another comment, but the series meant a lot to me at a younger age during happier times. Maybe now’s as good a time as any to get some closure and finish watching it all.
Yeah I can’t deny that seasons 6 and 7 were a drag, especially 6. Not as much comedy and it’s overall dryer, but I did appreciate the effort put into them trying to do some actual story telling and world building. One COULD argue the necessity of a goofy internet comedy show having world building, but for me I liked the story enough that I was able to push through the dryness.
Season 8 held much of that focus on story, but made up for it with CGI action scenes that, at least when I last saw them at a younger age, were rad as fuck. They prolly haven’t aged heaps well, but hey, coming from an internet comedy show about a buncha moronic dorks in Halo, it was unexpected and WELL appreciated. Can’t remember how the comedy held up given that it’s been at least a decade since I last saw it, unfortunately.
Seasons 9 and 10 were genuinely pretty well written and enjoyable, in my memory! Lots more of those CGI action scenes, cut in between story bits with the Freelancer project and goofy happenings with the main cast. Season 10 especially had an impact on me at the time, and to this day I still refuse to tell my loved ones goodbye. It’s too final, too certain.
Never saw anything past that. Season 10’s ending was open ended for the Blood Gulch crew, but all the big story beats they’d worked towards over the years had been given the closure they needed. Just felt odd to me that they took that closure and just, kept going. Maybe I’ll finally check the later seasons out.
Whether or not you’d enjoy it I can’t say, I don’t know your preferences and it’s been SO long since I’d last touched the series. I think I’m gonna go marathon the series with a buddy of mine, go on one final trip to Blood Gulch and give a large part of my childhood that kinda closure.
‘Previously On’ from Series 11 is worth a watch. And possibly the episode prior to it if you want context - but the main reason is just because it’s a load of stupid RvB humour and it’s brilliant.
They shifted over the years. From RvB, to Achievement Hunter, Rage Quit, and Let’s Play, to RWBY, to podcasts. It seems like the current move is just cutting out the non-pod stuff since that’s what is successful right now.
They had alleged abuse. I think part of it was the start up mentality of working long hours and expecting others to do the same even after they had become a stable company.
Some alleged slurs also from people who were a lot more comfortable than they probably should have been with coworkers. At least one of the people alleging slurs also definitely used slurs. May or may not be connected to how comfortable they were saying the types of things they did.
Honestly, that’s kind of scratching the surface. There were a couple predators that were ousted when they were caught. One dude was ousted when he went off the deep end with conspiracy theories and was too crazy to work with. One guy was an alcoholic but got better.
They seemed to gradually get better. But they really seemed to have a new controversy every couple of years.
Ok I’m pretty sure I understand most of who you are talking about, but can you tell me who the conspiracy theorist was?
And with the alcoholic I assume you mean Geoff? It’s funny, because he ultimately became one of the only few people I actually really wanted to listen to in the last 4ish years, I don’t think his sabbatical and ultimate recovery is much of a controversy, more just personal issues that he dealt with. He seemed to be one of the few that really still believed in the company.
Omg you meant Joel. Wow, I can’t believe he had been out for so long I forgot about him.
I thought I had heard that he was problematic when he was drinking. I figured I would at least mention it.
I’m glad he got better though. Once Gus stepped away from the RT Podcast I went and listened to all of ANMA. And now that’s one of only 3 or 4 podcasts I will listen to every episode of.
People on the internet: Oh my god, they were my childhood, I will miss them so much, they were like family and friends whom I loved and talked to me everyday and made me laugh.
People who actually worked on the place: Most toxic environment I’ve ever worked in, got bullied, harassed and physically assaulted by misogynist, racists, sexists hooligans everyday, management encouraged them and frequently joined on.
oh, people on the internet know. The people who don’t know are the ones who disengaged a long time ago. I stopped watching years ago and can’t be bother to keep up with every piece of drama that they put out.
RWBY’s a big enough IP that a bunch of companies will likely be interested. I wouldn’t be surprised if Disney, Paramount, Netflix, Amazon, and Sony (Crunchyroll) all made bids of some kind for it.
They’ll have to keep making the same juvenile milquetoast commentary and regurgitated gaming news on a different youtube channel. Half of their traffic can be attributed to Alanah and her drama that has nothing to do with their content.
The podcasts were the main thing I interacted with nowadays so I’m glad those are sticking around, but I grew up with the company and it’s sad to see it go. I hope the roost can continue but I don’t see how this doesn’t hurt the remaining talent.
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