Thank You, Rooster Teeth

I have a habit of becoming a fan of something fairly early on and thinking of myself as a latecomer for many years afterwards. In Rooster Teeth’s case, I became aware of them around the time of the sixth season of Red vs Blue, their first show. To put that into perspective, I’ve been a fan of this company and some of its many productions for fifteen of the twenty-one years they’ve been around. Across their many shows, channels and podcasts, I’ve probably spent hundreds if not thousands of hours alongside these internet personalities and fictional characters throughout the greater half of my life so far. That’s not an easy thing to say goodbye to, even if I never knew any of people involved personally. In a parasocial sense, I’ve spent more time with these people than I have with some of my closest friends. That means something.

It hasn’t always been easy or perfect. There’s been loss. There’s been over corporatisation. There have been letdowns. Some of my favourites grew late into the people that I’d hoped they already were. But the internet has a long memory, and isn’t kind to those who make mistakes. Ultimately, I chose to stick around. Because contrary to popular belief, it is possible to condemn someone’s past actions, and to also acknowledge their growth and reward change. But we’re not here to talk about old smudges on the record.

I recently re-watched the first ten seasons of Red vs Blue, and while not all the comedy has aged like fine wine, I found myself grinning more often than not. I’ve often said that re-experiencing narratives at later stages of your life is important because you come to it as a different person, and take away something different each time. With this latest rewatch of Red vs Blue, I found myself marvelling at what was made with the technical limitations at play. My first exposure to Halo, the games which the series is filmed in, was through the show itself, and I wouldn’t play my first game until 2019. So to see this show through fresh eyes, knowing the context of the multiplayer maps they chose for specific locations and limitations of the software they used to machinimate, I found myself newly impressed. Not only that, but the shift from pure comedy to a comedic/drama focus from season six onwards is one rarely seen in stories anywhere, and the show only got bigger and better for it.

I was a latecomer to Achievement Hunter as well. It wasn’t until the seventh episode of Fails of the Weak that I finally decided to check out whatever this little Red vs Blue side project was all about. And while I didn’t know who this Jack guy was, this Geoff guy sounded awfully familiar. Was that Grif’s voice actor?! He was… a real dude?? That’s wild! And so began many years of Achievement Hunter fandom. I actually rolled my eyes when they started their Minecraft Let’s Play series because so many other people had beaten them to the punchline on that one. I remember when they started playing multiplayer GTA IV, which was an older game at the time, and all I could think about was how this was the kind of stuff I’d wanted to make for years, this was the way I played these games too. I remember being uneasy whenever a new personality was introduced, be they Michael or Gavin or Ray or Jeremy or Matt or Fiona or BK or countless others, only to go on to watch hundreds of hours of content from them, loving every minute.

There were already nearly a hundred episodes of the Rooster Teeth Podcast when I discovered that, so of course I had to go all the way back to the start. Which was such a long way. I remember listening through them to stay sane when doing gardening, one specific chore which I absolutely loathed. I associate certain games or certain areas in certain games with the podcast. I was playing an old RC racing game called Re-Volt while listening to Geoff and Gus talk about the achievement hunting bet which would eventually inspire Geoff to start Achievement Hunter itself. That conversation and those virtual racetracks are inseparable. I listen to a plethora of podcasts today, but the RT Podcast was my very first, and while I was at first apprehensive at the idea of listening in to a conversation from some random dudes I couldn’t even see, it has of course become second nature.

As an anime fan, I was curious about RWBY, and a little sceptical as well. The company was experiencing rapid growth at this point, and I remember feeling that they were growing too fast too quickly, and moving away from what we already loved them for. But I’ve tuned into every season of RWBY, and while those first seasons are certainly a little underbaked in terms of budget (remember when all crowds were presented as silhouettes?), one could not fault the effort and love poured into that thing from the very start. It’s been wild to see that show grow and mature much like Red vs Blue and the company itself has over the years, and last year I found RWBY Volume 9 to be particularly poignant and special to me personally. I really, really hope they get to continue telling that story.

Another Rooster Teeth production that will always hold a special place in my heart is Always Open. I only tuned into the occasional episode during the original run of this podcast, but I was present for every episode of the second. This podcast was like a healing balm for the troubled mind. Whatever was going on in my life, I knew I could tune into an episode of Always Open and hear friends having frank, open conversations about where they came from, the hardships they’ve faced in life, and how they’ve overcome them. (That and the occasional pussy slay joke.) Some of the topics about mental health, neurodivergence and bisexuality specifically have been really vindicating and self-affirming, and I’ll always keep them with me. Barbara, if you happen to be reading this, thank you.

I am also a regulation listener and comment leaver of F**kface. For those of you who haven’t heard the podcast, it has been fittingly described as being deep lore about nothing. I was beyond delighted when two of my favourite personalities and a familiar name banded together to make what has consistently been the highlight of my week. The amount of times I’ve struggled to keep a straight face in work while listening to some of the most absurd bollocks has been too many to count. The podcast feels “Old RT” in the best way possible, and while I was already a fan of Gavin and Geoff, Andrew Panton quickly became a new favourite. The man is uniquely qualified to make me laugh, I swear to god.

There’s so much else I’m not even mentioning, not even recalling right now. I wave my hand towards Off Topic, The Real Canon podcast, the old Inside Gaming podcast and channel, the So… Alright podcast, Extra Life, various others. It still hasn’t quite hit me that Rooster Teeth is going away, and I don’t think it will until a few weeks into closure. But I write this post on the back of watching the final six hour livestream in which many of the cast and crew got to share their memories and say their final goodbyes. I know I was not alone in crying at my monitor. For all its flaws, Rooster Teeth really was something special and I don’t know that I’ll ever be ready to say goodbye.

I dabble in content creation myself. Well, I say dabble. I sink a decent chunk of my free time into it. And it isn’t successful by most people’s measurements. It’s growing, slowly, but I’ve certainly put far more time into it than is reasonable compared to someone who would only care about success. And while Rooster Teeth is not the only online media group to have inspired me to want to do this from a young age, the sense of perseverance with which many of its hires poured their hearts into their passion projects certainly inspired me to keep going with mine. I hope I can continue to find them doing so with whatever projects they pursue next.

So thank you, Rooster Teeth, and everyone involved. I don’t know if any of you will read this. I’ll be posting it on the subreddit, but that is currently being flooded with similar sentiments. Because I’m not alone in being touched by your many shows and productions. I’m not alone in being inspired by the many wonderful people that made up the company, both on and off camera. So whether you see this or not. Thank you so much. For everything.