Mythology Gag / Red vs. Blue

As this series is both one of the longest-running webseries in history and (partly) inspired by Halo, Red Vs Blue is full of examples. Fair warning for Late Arrival Spoilers in regards to Season 16 and all other seasons beyond this point!

References to Halo

• While not nearly to the extent of Halo itself, Rooster Teeth has frequently played Homage to Bungie's love of the number seven - Sister's claimed that she's had seven abortions, the Red Zealot of the Battle Creek Zealots claimed that Caboose "the Anti-Flag" would rule over them for seven years, the Meta captured seven different A.I. fragments before their defeat in Reconstruction, Grif is on the receiving end of seven different Groin Attacks from Tex during "This One Goes To Eleven," and both Alpha-Church and Epsilon-Church only each lived for seven years In-Universe before they were destroyed.
• Church's time in the past during the "time travel" storyline in Season 3 has him and Gary/Gamma depicted via Marathon: Infinity. Furthermore, both that aforementioned storyline and Season 17 would have their general plots heavily inspired by the events of Marathon: Infinity.
• There's a sneaky reference in Season 5 to the then-recent Halo 3 ad campaign - when Simmons and Grif begin arguing about the plausibility of an ancient race being technologically advanced, Simmons exasperatedly exclaims "Let's finish this fight later!"
• It's heavily implied in the "Fight! Fight!" alternate ending for The Blood Gulch Chronicles that the story of Caboose's life was used by Bungie as their inspiration for the Halo franchise.
• During the Relocated miniseries, Simmons references Orbital Drop Shock Troopers when discussing Sarge's fear of heights with him.
• When talking about the "artifact" (a Forerunner Monitor) that was uncovered in Sandtrap during Recreation, Tucker briefly alludes to the Halo Array when talking about how dangerous the artifact could be if it were to fall into the wrong hands.
  • Later on, when Epsilon-Church is trying to figure out the functions of their new Monitor body, they briefly play some footage from the final cutscene of Halo 3 where 343 Guilty Spark tries to kill the Master Chief.
• Revelation has Sarge mention how the pistol "isn't quite as effective as it used to be." This is meant to be a reference to how the pistol was absurdly overpowered in Halo: Combat Evolved. Furthermore, Sarge also notes that the older models of rocket launchers (which are found in the Freelancer Offsite Storage Facility) have heat-seeking, which is an allusion to how the rocket launchers in the first two Halo games also had that feature in gameplay. In fact, the UI for the original rocket launchers is briefly seen when Simmons fires it at Tex.
• When the rest of the Blood Gulch Crew shows up in a pelican to try and save Tex and Church on Sidewinder during "Reunion", what else would happen but they crash it, as almost every single Pelican in the actual Halo games seem to. In "n+1," a UNSC soldier even mentions that they actually have a budget of one crashed Pelican per mission, which is a reference to how in Halo 3, it seems like at least one crashes per mission.
  • Relatedly, Washington's "...but I've never seen a line of horses crash into the battlefield from outer space" line as the remaining Reds and Blues crash-land with the Pelican could be referencing the way that the Flood invaded the Ark in Halo 3.
• All of the Freelancers were stripped of their real names and were given codenames based on the 50 US states, similar to the SPARTAN-IIs (with the only difference being that the Spartans kept their first names). Similarly, they each had a number system similar to the Spartans, though the only confirmed example is New York - F-12 (Foxtrot-12), with "F" for Freelancer instead of "S" for Spartan or Sierra.
• The Freelancers during The Project Freelancer Saga were supposedly being trained to fight against the Insurrection, in almost the exact same way as the Spartans. It's later subverted upon The Reveal that the "Insurrection" that the Freelancers were fighting was actually Charon Industries' private security force.
• York's recovered personal logs in Season 10 have him mention a "Club Errera" as the place where he first met Carolina.
• The lessons on A.I. theory shown in the Project Freelancer flashbacks during Season 10 are accurate to how the life-cycle of A.I.s played out in the Marathon games.
• The "sarcophagus" that Project Freelancer spends most of Season 9 hunting for is eventually revealed to contain an Engineer/Huragok, which proves to be vital in cultivating the Freelancer A.I.s.
• Pillman's grabbing and equipping of Connie's helmet near the end of Season 10 is very similar to the ending sequence of Halo: Reach.
• Wash's obstacle course in Season 11 contains two campaign levels from Halo: Combat Evolved and Halo 4 — Namely, "The Maw" from the former and "Reclaimer" from the latter.
• When it turns out that Lopez 2.0 can only speak in Spanish, Grif angrily complains why it's always Spanish and why couldn't it have been "French, or German, or Sangheili?!" This is a reference to the Sangheili/Elites of the Halo series, who are almost only referred to as just "the aliens" in Red vs. Blue.
• According to "The Federal Army of Chorus", Donut's safeword is "Chrysanthemum." In the canon of the Halo games, Project CHRYSANTHEMUM was the name for the bio-augmentation process used in the development of the SPARTAN-IIIs.
• In "Fed vs. New," Locus claims that being a soldier and a human are two completely different things, echoing a similar sentiment made by John-117 in the epilogue to Halo 4.
• The security guards aboard the Tartarus in Season 13's "Prologue" have Marathon logos on their arm bands.
  • Relatedly, while the name of the Tartarus is likely just an allusion to Classical Mythology, it could also be a reference to the Brute Chieftain of the same name in Halo 2.
• When the Blues and Dr. Grey are hiding in the ice caves during "Temple of the Key," they initially mistake Doc's moans for "alien zombies or something" in a reference to the Flood, the Greater-Scope Villain of the Halo franchise.
• According to Red vs. Blue: The Ultimate Fan Guide, Wash completed his basic training in the Leonis-Minoris system before becoming an Army Corporal in the UNSC and eventually joining Project Freelancer. The Leonis-Minoris system is an actual star system in Halo canon, and it was all but destroyed by the Covenant in 2537.
• In "Fifty Shades of Red", all of the Blood Gulch Red Team sergeant candidates comment on how surprisingly sturdy the Warthog is after it survives a car bomb with nary a scratch. This is an allusion to how the Warthog is actually invulnerable in Halo: Combat Evolved.
• The Windows 7 startup sound (with the software in question being created by Microsoft, the same company that the Halo series has been an exclusive for since the first game) can be heard in "Why They're Here" when Captain Flowers boots up Vic.
• When the Reds are trying to come up with alternative names for the rocket launchers in Season 14's "Red vs. Blue: The Musical", Simmons suggests "Gjallarhorn." The Gjallarhorn is the name of a popular rocket launcher in Destiny (which is also made by the original creators of Halo, Bungie).
• Season 15 has a few particularly noteworthy examples:
  • The official synopsis given to the season is very similar to the premise for the first season of HUNT the TRUTH.
  • Everything on Temple's computer screen indicates he is using default Microsoft Windows. The Recycling Bin in the top left, the Internet Explorer icon labelled "Internet", the Xbox icon labelled "Scorpio X", Excel, and Bing Search, are all made by Microsoft, which also makes Halo.
  • "Belly of the Beast" has Temple keep Tucker distracted from investigating where Wash and Carolina have gone by giving him a "battlefield simulator" - Halo Wars 2 (specifically, the level "A New Enemy").
  • Biff's Cruel and Unusual Death from getting Impaled with Extreme Prejudice with the Blue Team flag may be a reference to how the "Capture the Flag" team flags in Halo multiplayer are always a one-hit kill when used to melee someone.
• In a sense, the Cosmic Powers introduced in The Shisno Paradox can be seen as RvB's interpretation of the Forerunners, in that they're immensely powerful ancient entities worshiped as gods that overthrew their own creator, are heavily reliant/based-on sophisticated A.I.s, and are generally far less divine than they may first seem.
  • Additionally, Singularity reveals that Chrovos, the creator of the Cosmic Powers, is literally older than the current universe, which can be seen as an allusion to how the Precursors from Halo were also somehow older than the current universe (albeit Chrovos has this status due to a Stable Time Loop, while the Precursors are "just" Eldritch Abominations).
• In the background of "Schrödingin'", a golden statue of an Unngoy/Grunt can be seen at the side of the elevator going into Wash's penthouse.

References to Both Red Vs Blue Itself and Other Rooster Teeth Productions

• Episode 4 of Revelation is titled "Recovering One", referencing both Sarge and Grif's rescue mission to Valhalla in order to save Simmons from Wash and the Meta and the Recovery One miniseries that started off the Recollection. It's given further weight since Wash was the main protagonist of Recovery One, whereas here he's the main antagonist.
  • Another miniseries, Out of Mind, has its title recycled for the episode where Epsilon takes Carolina to where that miniseries ended.
• "Revenants" shows a split-second still of Rooster Teeth Animated Adventures.
  • Theta's skateboard, as seen in "What's the 'I' Stand For?", has the Rooster Teeth logo on it.
• The hull classification symbol of the Mother of Invention is RT-636, which is an allusion to Rooster Teeth's second-oldest address of 636 Ralph Ablanedo Drive, Austin, Texas.
  • The original address, 619 Congress Ave., is why Washington's prisoner number from during Recreation is 619-B.
• During the "Getting Away From It All" PSA, Caboose tells Sarge that he always wanted bunk-beds, just like Weiss Schnee.
• In "Training Daze", when Tucker, Caboose, Grif, Simmons, and their squads are practicing on Felix, Tucker shouts this when he jumps out at Felix (only to fall into a nearby pit):
  Tucker: Surprise, motherfucker!
• During Locus and Felix's conversation with Hargrove in "Along Came A Spider," a stock ticker in the background of Hargrove's office includes a couple of companies labeled JNPR and RWBY.
• In "The End", Tucker dismissively tells Hargrove that the Reds and Blues will "wing" their survival aboard the Staff of Charon. This is likely an allusion to Tucker saying the same thing to Kimball in the canon Season 12 Teaser Trailer.
• "The No. 1 Movie in the Galaxy: 3" has the Reds and Blues coming together to watch Lazer Team 3 at the end.
• During the DEATH BATTLE! between the Meta and Carolina, Wiz quotes the tagline to Season 9 when he starts describing the Meta's mental breakdown ("Before there was Red vs. Blue, there was Project Freelancer").
• The number "040103" can be seen at the bottom left hand corner of the film reel in "Fight the Good Fight". This is an allusion to how the first episode of Red vs. Blue aired on April 1st, 2003.
• In "Caboose's Guide to Making Friends," Caboose can be seen reading a book with both a key and the word "Memory" on the cover, referencing the Arc Words of The Recollection.
• Starting in Season 14, Sarge occasionally expresses a desire to be a movie star, a trait carried over from the "#1 Movie in the Galaxy" PSAs.
• There's numerous examples during Season 15.
  • When Dylan lists random acronyms to trick her way into the crime scene, she states they're expecting an "RT double-A" in the next few minutes. Rooster Teeth Animated Adventures (or RTAA) is another show produced by Rooster Teeth that regularly features the creators of RvB.
  • Carlos suggests that Dylan report on "those monster-fighting sexy teenagers" instead of the Reds and Blues is certainly a reference to RWBY.
  • Jax wants to use Blood Gulch's tank as a dolly. The early seasons did indeed use the tank to make tracking shots.
  • "Nightmare on Planet Evil" contains a reference to another Rooster Teeth production — Day 5. In it, Sarge becomes unstable as he goes 5 days without sleeping, stating he'll die if he does. This is immediately followed by a small dig at that show since Jax responds that it sounds like a "weak premise." Though on a more serious note, another Day 5 reference is made in "Grif Does A Rescue," when Carolina's urging Wash to stay awake while they're both trapped in armor-lock.
  • In "Battlescars," Temple taunts Carolina by claiming the longest record for surviving in armor-lock is 8 days and 11 hours. Season 8, Episode 11 was the first episode to introduce the concept of armor-lock.
  • During the insane list of Shout Outs by Sarge in "Belly of the Beast," he mentions Lazer Team 2, another Rooster Teeth production. Jax then claims that Sarge just made that one up.
  • The titles of Episodes 19 and 20 are "Red vs. Red" and "Blue vs. Blue" respectively. These are also some of the lyrics to the series' first Theme Tune "Blood Gulch Blues": "It's Red vs Red / And Blue vs Blue...".
• The first place Caboose visits while time-traveling during The Shisno Paradox is Reach. This is a nod to the Season 9 RvB PSA "How I Spent My Summer Vacation," where Caboose stumbled through the singleplayer campaign of Halo: Reach.
• An enraged Atlus shatters a moon at one point in Season 16, just like the one seen in Rooster Teeth's own RWBY.
• The episode "Docudrama" from the same aforementioned season has the interview segments list the occupations of the interviewees. Caboose is referred to by the title cards as "Your Best Friend", the name of Caboose's Image Song from the Revelation soundtrack.
• Genkins The Trickster (a member of the Cosmic Powers) is one massive example of this trope in action - His name, green armor, and CQB helmet all reference Jenkins, a Blue Team member of questionable canonicity that was first introduced in the "Ruby Slippers" Alternate Ending to season 5 finale "Why Were We Here?". Post-Time Crash, he replaces Church, so he may well actually be Jenkins.
• The official episode description for the episode "Finally" from Singularity is "Caboose's Guide to Re-Zipping Time," which is a reference to both the (possibly) non-canon Season 14 episode "Caboose's Guide to Making Friends" and non-canon PSA "Caboose's Guide to Finding Your Home".
• In Season 17's "Killing Time", the past version of Donut shouts "I'm gonna blow you... away!" This is referencing a recurring lyric from "Donut: The Musical".
• The Grifball theme is playing in the background during Grif's Blood Sport Labyrinth illusion in Season 17's "Omphalos".
• One episode of Family Shatters shows Shatter Squad purchased their dinner at Ashley B's Burger Shack, a reference to Ashley Burns (née Jenkins), the current wife of the series' creator Burnie Burns.