"The Killer was killed and then there was one."
Retour au sommaire de l'enquête
The Cases in Brief
Soldier Island, 1939
In the former home of an American millionaire, ten unlikely dinner guests sat down to dine. Socialite Tony Marston choked on a poisoned glass of whisky and then there were nine. Trapped on the island with no phone, no boat save for the milk delivery expected first thing the next morning, and a storm approaching, one-by-one the remaining guests meet their ends in accordance with the infamous Ten Little Soldiers rhyme:
Ten little soldier boys went out to dine;
One choked his little self then there were Nine
Nine little soldier boys sat up very late;
One overslept himself and then there were Eight
Eight little soldier boys travelling in Devon;
One said he’s stay there and then there were Seven
Seven little soldier boys chopping up sticks;
One chopped himself in halves and then there were Six
Six little soldier boys playing with a hive;
A bumble bee stung one and then there were Five
Five little soldier boys going in for law;
One got into Chancery and then there were Four
Four little soldier boys going out to sea;
A red herring swallowed one and then there were Three
Three little soldier boys walking in the zoo;
A big bear hugged one and then there were Two
Two little soldier boys sitting in the sun;
One got frizzled up and then there was One
One little soldier boy left all alone;
He went and hanged himself
And then there were None.
- Frank Green, 1869[3]
Thus, when a rescue boat eventually does make its way to the island three days later, all that remains of the Soldier Island serial killings (for want of a better term) is ten corpses and an unsolved mystery. Unsolved, that is, until a fishing boat picks up a message-in-a-bottle that apparently contained a written account and confession of the Soldier Island killer.
Rooster Teeth Productions Lot, 2014
In Studio 5 of the Rooster Teeth lot, ten members of Rooster Teeth Productions gathered to dine. Would-be blackmailer Michael Jones choked on some poisoned champagne and then there were nine. Locked in without phones or internet, and with no help arriving until the cleaning lady first thing the next morning, the remaining eight roosters are slowly picked off one by one as foreshadowed by an ominous poem taped to the door.
So far so Soldier Island, and yet unlike the case of Soldier Island, the Rooster Teeth Killer intended for there to be witnesses to their story. As an entertainment production house, Studio 5 stood pre-wired with top-end broadcasting equipment recording each murder and then subsequently releasing each murder weekly to a dedicated international fanbase. At the conclusion of each video the audience is urged by the killer to ‘play detective’, using their knowledge of the participants, previous Rooster Teeth productions, and the production house itself to uncover the truth and to predict who would be killed next. They had, within the framework of the original case found room to creatively manoeuvre. Not only tailoring the murders to suit their own context but tailoring the revelation of the killer to suit their purposes which ultimately served to be their downfall. With 1.5 million views on episode one alone and a dedicated Reddit forum, many minds make light work on the detective front.
Therefore, taking cues from D.I. Chandler and E. Buchan, I intend to employ the parallels of the Rooster Teeth copy-cat murders as a basis for re-examining the historical Soldier Island case and to (hopefully) answer some of the long-standing questions raised.[4] In an attempt to add their own personal flair onto the framework of the Soldier Island killings, the Rooster Teeth Killer[5] instead ended up inadvertently far closer to the truth of Soldiers Island than the original police investigators in 1939.[6]
The Backstory of Rooster Teeth
Founded in 2003, Rooster Teeth Productions, LLC is an American media and entertainment company based in Austin, Texas. Rooster Teeth’s first production, the machinima[7] comedy series Red vs. Blue based on the video game Halo, is now the second-longest running web series to date (2003-2018). Following the success of Red vs. Blue with the Blood Gulch Chronicles (the first five seasons), which received four film festival citations[8] the company began to branch out into live action film shorts, live action series, 2D animated series, reality science and fabrication shows, video game development, entertainment news programs, Let’s Plays[9], and comedy podcasts. Their anime-style series RWBY (2013-present) is arguably their most successful production, boasting both manga and video game tie-ins, international distribution through Netflix and CrunchyRoll, and Japanese dubbing and distribution through Tokyo MX and Warner Bros. Japan, and a spin-off series RWBY Chibi (2016-present). In 2015 Rooster Teeth debuted its first feature film science fiction action comedy Lazer Team in selective theatres worldwide and two years later Lazer Team 2.
Rooster Teeth content is released regularly on their website and app with the majority of their free to watch catalogue also available through YouTube channels. As of August 2018, the RT channels on YouTube boast a collective 45 million subscribers[10]. The Rooster Teeth annual convention, RTX, is held in several cities around the world.
Characters and personalities from the RT universe often cross series, genres and the realm of plausibility as the in-house cast maintain multiple roles throughout multiple productions almost simultaneously. Fan favourite Ryan “Mad King” Haywood for example, appears across multiple RT channels, series, and content simultaneously appearing as:
Himself on the gaming podcasts Off Topic and Off the Spot, gaming series Achievement Hunter, and Heroes and Halfwits, ghost hunting series Achievement Haunter, movie critic series Theatre Mode, comedy game shows Million Dollars, But, Schooled and science/gaming series Immersion.
Fictionalised versions of himself in the animated superhero series X-Ray and Vav, gaming series Let’s Play GTAV and Battle Buddies, live-action murder-mystery series Ten Little Roosters, sequel Eleven Little Roosters and several Rooster Teeth Shorts.
Voice actor for several original machinima and animated characters such as, Agents Miller in Camp Camp, Peter Port in RWBY and RWBY Chibi, Jethro in Nomad of Nowhere, and several recurring secondary characters in Red vs Blue.
This versatility results in a near constant state of hyper-reality where-in a Rooster Teeth personality when presented as “themselves” is more often than not presenting an on camera persona or a version of themselves that is fictionalised to a certain degree. Often these personas are simple exaggerations of a single trait for which the performer becomes well known for. In the case of Ryan Haywood his “Mad King” persona – a virtual socio or psychopath with homicidal tendencies – which originated in the Achievement Hunter series Let’s Play Minecraft and fully coalesced as the maniacal genius villain in X-Ray and Vav is a far cry from his “regular” or “normal” persona of a drama and IT major with two kids who voice acts and plays video games for a living. In this way he jumps from reality to fiction, to hyper-realityand back again.
The ‘Copy-Cat’ Murders: Ten Little Roosters
Michael Jones, Gavin Free(s), Chris Demarais, Burnie Burns, Gustavo Sorola “(but put please, call him Gus)”, Adam Ellis, Lindsay Jones, Miles Luna, Barbara Dunkleman, and Ryan Haywood serve as the ten little roosters in order of disappearance.[11] Each death is specifically tailored around the ethos of the Rooster Teeth Production company and its subsidiary programs and departments. Unlike the Soldier Island case there can be little question as to the true identity of the RT Killer for the killer’s plan was to be the survivor, framing a similarly likely suspect, doctoring or erasing camera footage and walking away free. A plan that failed.
Michael and Gavin, whom “Mad King” Ryan had so often fantasised about killing – and had virtually killed on numerous occasions in various Rooster Teeth content (most notably X-Ray and Vav, Let’s Play GTAV and Let’s Play Minecraft) – are quickly disposed of first. Michael chokes on a glass of poisoned champagne whilst attempting to extort blackmail from the assembled guests. Michael is well known for his rage-induced rants, having fronted the popular series Rage Quit in which he plays video games specifically designed to infuriate the player to the point of giving up and refusing to ever make another attempt.
Ten little roosters all gathered to dine
One choked on his rage and then there were nine
Gavin and his clone, Gavin2[12] run into a minefield of deadly mouse-traps, and their snappy death(s) are captured on high-speed film (1000 frames per second) as a homage to his backyard science show The Slow Mo Guys which features no less than four mousetrap-centric episodes to date.[13]
Nine Little roosters now running from fate
One tripped over themselves and then there were eight
At this point Ryan starts to wonder if he has spontaneously developed the ability to kill via telekinesis. Miles argues that it is far more likely that Ryan’s sociopathic tendencies have begun to manifest themselves into a murderous alter-ego of which he is unaware.[14] Ryan counters this argument by attempting to kill Miles via telekinesis and fails.
Chris dressed as Frodo from The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the King “got Boromir’ed”; taking a quiver of arrows to the chest instead of the intended target.
Eight little roosters two others in heaven
One was martyred and then there were seven
Burnie meets his end in parallel to his character Church from the foundational Rooster Teeth series Red vs Blue; stung by a scorpion set loose from co-worker Joel’s office. In RvB, Church is killed by a run-away tank set loose by his team-mate Caboose. Caboose was voiced by Joel Heyman, and the tank was a Scorpion Mark II Battletank.[15]
Seven little roosters one liked to draw dicks
Life imitated art and then there was six
A garden pitch-fork impales Gus mirroring the cutlery fork that “slipped” into Baby Gus.[16]
Six little roosters some often streamed live
One died to scale and then there were five
Note that the murders of Chris, Adam, and Gus (the only murders where the killer is seen in plain view on camera committing the act) were all committed by a tall person wearing Ryan’s iconic Vagabond costume from GTAV, a series in which he revels in the persona of a psychopathic criminal mastermind.
Ryan’s Diet Coke is then drugged to the point where not only is he hallucinating a full-sized Creeper from Minecraft but said Creeper once decapitated reveals itself to be Ryan himself – a la the Dagobah cave scene in Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back – and awakes in the sunken prop room – a reference to Ryan’s famously keeping a cow he names Edgar in the floor of his house in Minecraft.
Man, what was in that Diet Coke? That’s the last time I drink one of those… today. Wait, where am I? No no no, no no no. I’m in an Edgar hole![17]
It is also interesting to note that Ryan is already dressed similarly to his Minecraft persona, the maniacal Mad King.
Although Ryan was slowly running out of air, it is Adam who meets his end first when strangled with his own computer mouse shortly after Ryan’s escape.
Five little roosters one trapped in the floor
One ran out of air and then there were four
Lindsay the cat lover lures the puma set loose from containment away from Ryan, resulting in a fatal mauling.
Four little roosters still trying to flee
One got what they wanted and then there were three
Miles then ends up superglued to a treadmill and the speed increased until the point of death whilst Barbara and Ryan watch via a live camera feed. “I guess you could say he couldn’t go the extra mile…s?”[18]
Just three roosters left
One died of a pun
This leaves just Barbara and Ryan; the guilty and the innocent. For the actual murderer to walk free someone else must be framed for the murders and Ryan is adequately framed. Given bodies to match the riddles and Ryan’s history the assumption would be an open and shut case without too much digging into murky areas such as the following:
- Barbara’s blackmail envelope contained a photograph of co-worker Blaine slumped (assumingly dead) over a table with a half-drunk protein shake in his hand, and the caption “Pumped up! More like bumped… off! Am I right… Barbara?!” This is the only clearly implied instance of poisoning amongst the blackmail material. Indeed, it is the only implied instance of pre-meditated murder.
- During the time in which the poisoned glass could have been placed, everyone else has a direct line-of-sight and conversational alibi except for Barbara. Chris is having a conversation with Gus. Lindsay with Michael. Ryan with Gavin and Gavin2. Simultaneously Ryan can see Lindsay, the Gavins and Burnie. Miles can see Adam and Burnie. Only the sound of the cat piano and its absence can tell as to Barbara’s movements.
- Ryan has no in-depth knowledge of Red vs Blue despite voicing four characters over twenty episodes as called out by Burnie. Certainly not to the extent needed to engineer Burnie’s convoluted death. He even admits to never having watched the show.
- Ignoring the fact that someone who went to this much trouble to plan a series of murders is unlikely to wear an iconic outfit of their own to do so, Ryan had no physical access to the pitch-fork that killed Gus. Adam leaves the pitch-fork leaning against the puma enclosure after his brief conversation with Barbara. Ryan was trapped in the prop room/Edgar Hole during the murder.
- Ryan did not have the time to, once out of the prop room, run across the building to Mo Cap to strangle Adam, run back into the prop room, turn around again and then go back out in time to get chased down the corridor by the puma.
But what if Ryan had run out of air in the prop room and became dead rooster number five? Simple: Adam would become the scapegoat killer. Beard hairs on the murder glass, the Gavins, and on the puma cage, Chris shot by the bow and arrow from his office, his Grifball in the prop room, and his fingerprints on the pitch-fork left with Barbara at the puma cage. Either way the ‘killer’ would be killed, in ‘self-defence’ leaving Barbara to play the part of the lucky survivor.
The killer was killed
And then there was one[19]
Let us just imagine that Barbara did not forget that ties are slip-knots and Ryan was indeed framed and killed as the killer instead of killing the actual killer. Would Barbara’s ‘confession’ as to the ‘true’ events of the night as the sole survivor simply allow the timeline inconsistencies and conflicting evidence to be glossed over in lieu of the easier, simpler explanation? After all, the killer was killed, even if it were not the killer. A whole string of murders just to mask the killing and framing of one.
Which circles us back to Soldier Island; for after investigating the Rooster Teeth copycat one factor wedges itself firmly in mind necessitating a re-examination into the original case. The killer was killed and then there was one. Perhaps much like Barbara’s RT killings the original design for the Soldier Island murders went astray resulting in a smokescreen solution disguising the true villain. What if Justice Wargrave like Ryan is simply a suitable scapegoat framed by the mastermind for the murders? The killer was killed but was the killer the killer?
Soldier Island: And Then There Were None
Justice Wargrave’s confession needs to be taken with a bit of salt – it was thrown into the sea, after all. The result is just a little too tidy; and yet, there are still too many variables simply glossed over. A confession can be used to reveal the truth, but it can also be used to mask it. The ‘confession’ was partly a contingency plan, written in the case of a catastrophic failure of the primary to be left for or handed to authorities in the event of survivors. The already dying Wargrave would shoulder the burden of guilt – for what are they going to do? Hang him? – and in the event of total success would simply be discarded in the sea to be forgotten or found, it would not matter which. For I contest that Soldier Island was not dealing with a single mastermind murderer but with a mastermind, a killer, and a scapegoat and all in the name of justice and revenge and all for the benefit and framing of one.
To begin with, Wargrave by his own account is old, dying and on medication for pain. It is unlikely that this man who spends the majority of his time curled inwards on a chair like an old tortoise is the same man running around an island bumping off fit younger people in a manner so as not to be observed doing so. His forte, as Lombard describes, is masterly inactivity[20] and of course why not? Wargrave does not need to do anything. That’s what Lombard was hired for.
Lombard, the man of action and dubious morality, who willingly declares a total lack of regard or pity towards human life. An experienced climber who moves like a panther, carries a revolver and a torch and who knows what else on his person at all times. A man who perhaps would be more than willing to execute a couple of criminals to a set schedule for a substantial pay packet. He even goes so far as to off-handedly let slip to Blore that if he (that is, Blore) were the next to die, he wouldn’t get paid. Blore assumes that he means it figuratively – that he is betting on his survival. But perhaps Lombard meant it literally? If Blore were next to die, that death would be an out of order death, voiding the rhyme and therefore Lombard’s terms of contract.[21] After-all it is Lombard who leads the group to discover the gramophone and the holes drilled into the wall for the sound to travel. Who else would have thought to look closely at the wall under the cone for freshly drilled holes other than someone who already knew they would be there?
How though would Lombard have spiked Marston’s drink, and when? The answer is alarmingly simple: The cyanide was in Lombard’s glass. After his death, Doctor Armstrong “picked up the glass from which Anthony Marston had been drinking”[22] but it is not specified at this point that is was his, that is, Marston’s glass. As frequently demonstrated in detective fiction and by magicians it is easier to switch a glass sitting on a table undetected than it is to pour a vial of poison into one. A mere fraction of a second vs several. Unsuspectingly he “looked round vaguely for his glass, picked it up off a table […] and helped himself to another whisky and soda.”[23] With only residue in the glass, one looks very much like another. Simple enough too to slip an overdose of sleeping tablets into the unattended brandy given to Mrs. Rogers.
In the case of General Macarthur’s murder, Lombard has means and opportunity twice over. First, during the search of the island where the cliffs are reached and Blore is sent back into the house to fetch a length of rope, Lombard wanders off “to test some theory or other.” Leaving Doctor Armstrong at the cliffside.[24] During this time, Lombard has – given his state of fitness – ample time to round the island, bludgeon the General, and make it back in time for Blore’s return. Another theory is, whilst apparently checking the cliff-face for caves and other such hidey-holes, Lombard instead scales around to Macarthur, kills him, and then scales back again. He is a proficient enough climber to do so and is unobserved for the majority of the climb. The weight on the rope provides not only an alibi but a means to ensure neither Armstrong nor Blore look too far over the sheer edge for fear of going over themselves. The ease with which he climbs and the relatively slackness of the rope could indicate that once out of sight he untied himself, and the sudden excessive weight and pull of the rope could indicate Lombard reattaching himself. As no one else ventures out to Macarthur until Doctor Armstrong just before dinner, the first theory is by far the more plausible.
Certainly, on the morning of Rogers’ death, Lombard cannot account for his movements between waking at daybreak and returning to sleep at eight-am. At nine-thirty “the time has come to do something about this.” and five minutes later he is knocking at Blore’s door to front a search for the missing Rogers. The next death cannot be prepared if the previous one has not been revealed. He cannot be the one to discover the body of Rogers and yet the fact that Rogers has not yet been discovered compels him to act. Again, Lombard is forced to steer the events along the directions planned.[25]
As for miss Brent, the events laid down in the confession simply require the replacing of Wargrave with Lombard. Both has sufficient means and opportunity.
At breakfast I slipped my last dose of chloral into Miss Brent’s coffee when I was refilling her cup. We left her in the dining room. I slipped in there a little while later – she was nearly unconscious and it was easy to inject a strong solution of cyanide into her. The bumble bee business was really rather childish – but somehow, you know, it pleased me. I liked adhering as close as possible to my nursery rhyme.[26]
Wargrave’s death is the last that can be easily attributed to Lombard. Distracted by Vera and the seaweed upstairs, no one notices that Wargrave does not follow them upstairs until after Lombard leaves and returns with an unopened bottle of brandy. In the confusion, Lombard could easily have hung back, shot Wargrave and then bolted up the stairs to join the others who would be none the wiser with the commotion of screaming and shouting and running muffling the sound of the shot. A shot is far more likely to go unnoticed in those circumstance than in the quieter space when Lombard fetches the brandy.[27] Or, what is more likely, is – as the confession states – Wargrave did enlist the help of Doctor Armstrong to fake his death and Lombard was genuinely surprised that his theory was wrong. It is at this point that Lombard truly realises that, when they spoke of the killer being among them, they were not just referring to him as the hired killer, but to his employer – the mastermind behind the plot. It was at this moment that Lombard realises that he was never meant to collect his pay-check; for even if he manages to leave the island he has been perfectly stitched up to be handed over to the police and hanged for murder.
And so, the final murders follow the confession. Doctor Armstrong is pushed into the sea. Blore is crushed by a clock pushed from an upstairs window; and finally the killer is killed when Lombard is shot by Vera. Vera is hanged and Wargrave tidies up. Afterwards Wargrave commits suicide himself leaving his body as it was described in the diaries, leaving the assumption that he had in fact been dead the entire time. In order to accomplish this, he describes a plan in which he will attach the elastic cord from his glasses around the revolver, looping it around the door handle to the room, and after laying the weight of said revolver on the glasses will pull the trigger with a handkerchief so the revolver will recoil and fall into the doorway. This is remarkably implausible. Setting aside issues such as, how remarkably long and strong this replacement eyeglasses cord must be to achieve such a feat, and how close to the door the bed must be, shooting yourself in the centre of the forehead with a service revolver whilst lying face-up on a bed must be fairly difficult on its own. Which leaves the question, if Wargrave did not shoot himself, then who did? And if Wargrave was already dead when Vera was hanged then who tidied away the chair from which she stepped? There must be another person unaccounted for.
Between the search of the house, the discovery of the loft room, and the storm seems to be one of only two feasible opportunities to attempt to reach the island from the seaward side or the mainland. With everyone busy looking inwards it might just be possible for a small craft to sneak around close to the cliffs and have someone come ashore. After ascertaining that no one could have previously entered or left the loft room without emerging noticeably dirtied, it is unlikely to be checked a second time. Especially once the inhabitants are convinced that they are in fact alone. Going unnoticed for nearly two days is entirely possible considering the size of the house, and the fact that everyone either tended to band together into groups and a few rooms. Not to mention the clearing of the servants’ quarters of living inhabitants first thing.
Alternatively, on the moonlit night Doctor Armstrong went wandering is the only other possible opportunity for someone to sneak onshore – dangerous as it would be. Or did Armstrong see someone come ashore on that moonlit night? Did he see the approach from his window and left his room in the hopes of rescue? Did whoever come ashore that night drown Doctor Armstrong, break back in through the dining room window, and secrete themselves away in the loft ready for the next day. That someone would have to have been absolutely determined to get to the island in spite of the storm. Partially, for perhaps Justice Wargrave did not leave his room at all that night. In light of the storm the eleventh party member had to have been dancing just outside our field of vision and he did so to watch Vera Claythorn suffer. And that person was Hugo Hamilton.
Hugo who has more reason than most for seeking to punish Vera for the crime the courts failed to. Primarily the loss of his young nephew Cyril who drowned whilst in the care of Vera Claythorne. Vera purposely delayed her intervention until it was deemed too late so Hugo would inherit the family estate and finally be in a position to marry. In spite of the acquittal of the Coroner’s Inquest and proclamations of courage Hugo saw beyond the veil of Vera Claythorne’s rescue attempt. His second and perhaps most shattering loss followed this realisation that his beloved Vera willingly led a child to his death for money. One could argue for ultimately love but penultimately for money.
“You’re right. Murder isn’t what most people think – giving someone a dollop of arsenic – pushing them over a cliff – that sort of stuff.” […] “I’ve known a murderess – known her, I tell you. And what’s more I was crazy about her… God help me, sometimes I think I still am… It’s hell, I tell you – hell. You see, she did it more or less for me… Not that I ever dreamed… Women are fiends – absolute fiends – you wouldn’t think a girl like that – a nice straight jolly girl – you wouldn’t think she’d do that, would you? That she’d take a kid out to sea and let it drown – you wouldn’t think a woman could do a thing like that?”
I said to him:
“Are you sure she did do it?”
He said and in saying it he seemed suddenly to sober up:
“I’m quite sure. Nobody else ever thought of it. But I knew the moment I looked at her – when I got back – after… And she knew that I knew… What she didn’t realize was that I loved that kid….”[28]
Thus meeting of Judge Wargrave and the unhappy Hugo Hamilton on the Atlantic crossing heralds the meeting of the two halves of the same plot; justice and revenge. Vera Claythorne is the last to be listed in the collection of gathered victims, I believe her to be the catalyst for the beginning and the end. The rhyme, the riddles, the seaweed, all the sort of cruel pranks a child would play – the revenge of a child for a child. “Hugo was there.”, Vera comments.[29] Perhaps he was.
J. Elise Pryor.
Pour citer cet article :
J. Elise Pryor, "The killer was killed and then there was one", Intercripol - Revue de critique policière, "Grands dossiers : réouverture de l'affaire des Dix Petits nègres", N°001, Décembre 2019. URL : intercripol.org/fr/thematiques/critique-policiere/theywerenone/the-killer-was-killed-and-then-there-was-one.html. Consulté le 22 mars 2020.
References
Christie, Agatha. And Then There Were None: Previously published as Ten Little Indians. Harper paperback 2011. New York: Harper, an Imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers, 1939. Paperback.
Dawkins, Kevin. "Dissociative identity disorder : 'persons', 'personalities' and criminal responsibility." New Zealand Law Review 3 (1998): 557-570. Article. 20 September 2018. <https://www-heinonline-org.ezproxy.newcastle.edu.au/HOL/Page?handle=hein.journals/newzlndlr1998&div=36&start_page=557&collection=journals&set_as_cursor=0&men_tab=srchresults>.
Kennett, Jeanette and Steve Matthews. "Identity, control and responsibility: the case of Dissociative Identity Disorder. ." Philosophical Psychology 15.4 (2002): 509-526. Article. 20 September 2018. <https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09515089.2002.10031978>.
r/roosterteeth. n.d. blog/forum. 20 September 2018. <https://www.reddit.com/r/roosterteeth/>.
Rooster Teeth Productions, LLC. <https://roosterteeth.com/>
Sachs, Adah. "Who Done It, Actually? Dissociative Identity Disorder for the Criminologist." International Journal for Crime, Justice and Social Democracy 4.2 (2015): 65-76 . electronic resource. 20 Septmber 2018. <https://doaj.org/article/34af77da2adc44e284ee3eb097a81837 >.
Ten Little Roosters. Writ. Joshua Flanagan. Dir. Joshua Flanagan. Rooster Teeth Productions. November 4 - December 23 2014. Web Series. <https://roosterteeth.com/series/ten-little-roosters>
u/Edible_Pie. r/roosterteeth: I recently conducted an interview with Josh Flanagan about Ten Little Roosters. n.d. blog/forum thread. 20 September 2018. <https://www.reddit.com/r/roosterteeth/comments/2uty0n/i_recently_conducted_an_interview_with_josh/>.
Notes :
[3] Christie, 33
[4] Whilst attempting to uncover the identity of a Jack the Ripper copy-cat who uses the historical cases as a handbook, the investigation inadvertently discovers the identity of the original Jack the Ripper. “Series 1” Whitechapel. ITV – Independent Television, ITV1, London. February 2 – February 16 2009.
[5] Henceforth known for the remainder of this document as ‘The RT Killer’
[6] Interview with Josh Flanagan conducted by reddit user Edible_Pie posted February 5 2015 [excerpt] “EP: How often did you look at Ten Little Indians for source material?
JF: Not too much, actually. I did some research as I was writing -- which I do for any project -- so I read Ten Little Indians and watched the movie from the 40s (along with Clue and a handful of others). But there are things that story does that wouldn't work with the interactive setup, like faking the killer's death and having no survivors. So I stole the structure and borrowed a few of the character archetypes, but that's about it.”
[7] The use of real-time computer graphics engines to create a cinematic production.
[8] Winner Best Writing, Best Picture Academy of Machinima Arts & Sciences Film Festival; Sundance Film Festival Special Presentation; SXSW Interactive Festival Official Selection; New York Video Festival Official Selection
[9] A video documenting the playthrough of a video game, usually including commentary or criticism by the player or players and focusing on subjective experience. Often the intent is more geared towards humour and enjoyment rather than information and instruction.
[10] 9.5 million on Rooster Teeth, the company’s primary channel. 1.6m on the Achievement Hunter channel. 3.8 on LetsPlay
[11] “Episode 8: And Then There Were Two & None” Ten Little Roosters.
[12] a call-back to a Rooster Teeth short film where Gavin discovers a room full of his own clones.See Secret Door. Rooster Teeth Productions. September 5, 2010
[13]Mouse Trap Finger Challenge. The Slow Mo Guys. July 12, 2011; Mousetrap Chain Reaction in Slow Motion. March 27, 2014; Mousetrap Chain Reaction in Slow Motion. February 8, 2016; Diving into 1000 Mousetraps in 4K Slow Motion. May 10, 2017.
[14] “Episode 3: And Then There Were Seven.” Ten Little Roosters.
[15] Red vs Blue. Rooster Teeth Productions. 2003-2018
[16] Baby Gus. Rooster Teeth Productions. March 10, 2011
[17] “Episode 5: And Then There Were Five” Ten Little Roosters, 0:19
[18] “Episode 8: And Then There Were Two & None” Ten Little Roosters
[19] “Episode 1: And Then There Were Nine.” Ten Little Roosters, 05:50
[20] Christie, 119
[21] Christie, 191
[22] Christie, 75
[23] Christie, 68
[24] Christie, 131
[25] Christie, 181
[26] Christie, 294-295
[27] Christie, 220
[28] Christie, 290-291
[29] Christie, 269
