The five stages of grief, a term to describe how people go through loss, was a model developed by Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, originally intended for terminal people facing their deaths. However, it was quickly readapted as a way to process grief. It should be noted that the five stages of grief are in no way linear, and people can experience different aspects of grief at any given time. These feelings and reactions are also distinct for everyone, according to Kübler-Ross. That brings us to Red vs. Blue, a show created using the Halo games (Combat Evolved to Halo 6). It started as a comedy between 2 groups of mostly idiotic soldiers and remained that way, but shifted into the themes of memory, grief, and the ripple effects of that grief. This happens mainly because of a single man, Dr. Leonard Church, who’s unable to let go of his wife, Allison, who died during the Human-Covenant War.
The first stage of grief is denial, the feeling that you know someone has died but refuse to believe it happened at all. It leads to someone hearing the voice of the deceased or seeing them, and in some cases, their presence can also have a strong warmth or smell for those close to them. These experiences might be intensified if the death was particularly traumatic, which can result in someone reliving memories and a higher chance of seeing or hearing the person. Anger is the second stage, an emotional reaction to death being unfair and cruel. This comes about when people feel that the deceased’s time was cut short, their plans for the future were unfulfilled, or they feel angry at the person passing away or themselves for regrets over things they did or didn’t do before the death. Bargaining is the third stage in the process, in which a person attempts to make deals with themselves (or God, if religious) or asks themselves how things could’ve gone differently if they had the chance to change time. Our second to last stage is depression, the intense waves of sadness and longing we feel due to the magnitude of a loss, which can last for years. Finally, there is acceptance, where our pain over a loss eases, and we learn to move on with the memories we have of them.
Leonard Church is the main catalyst for Red vs. Blue, as he created Project Freelancer, which was initially about studying soldiers with A.I. implants. However, this project turned into an experiment on A.I. fragments by abusing the Alpha A.I.’s emotions and pushing these boundaries in multiple attempts to bring Allison back. In the process, Church increasingly treated all agents (including his daughter, Agent Carolina) as expendable resources to further his experiments. In these efforts, he caused a lot of damage, aside from parental neglect and using his agents like tools to be thrown away. He also wiped Florida off the map to hide the Alpha A.I. and used Simulation Troopers, soldiers with poor test scores and field skills, as experiments for the Freelancers to test equipment. Even after getting an arrest warrant, he refused to turn himself in and continued with the experiments to bring back Allison until a group of Simulation Troopers led by his daughter brought an end to the whole thing.
The methods Church used to attempt to resurrect his wife show his states of denial and bargaining, as he refused to accept Allison’s death and continuously tried to bargain with life itself to bring her back. In those endeavors, he created a path of destruction and chaos in his wake, filled with greed and loss. It’s those memories of the Director’s denial and bargaining we follow first to set the stage for the entire story.
References
“Seeing, Hearing or Sensing Someone Who Has Died.” Cruse Bereavement Support, 11 Oct. 2022, www.cruse.org.uk/understanding-grief/effects-of-grief/seeing-hearing-or-sensing-someone-who-has-died/?_gl=1%2As23mlt%2A_gcl_au%2AMjAyNzY3OTMzMC4xNzM2MDA1OTY4%2A_ga%2ANDkyNTc0MzMzLjE3MzYwMDU5Njk.%2A_ga_HTQE3RK2B6%2AMTczNjAwNTk2OC4xLjAuMTczNjAwNTk2OC42MC4wLjA.
“Understanding the Five Stages of Grief.” Cruse Bereavement Support, 26 Sept. 2023, www.cruse.org.uk/understanding-grief/effects-of-grief/five-stages-of-grief/#:~:text=When%20we%20are%20in%20pain,could%20have%20turned%20out%20differently.
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