- “X-Ray and Vav want to be the greatest super heroes ever, but they're the last people you'd want to be saved by. Despite their lack of superhero prowess, the duo is ready to take on any thug, robber or villain who stands in the way of justice. And they'll do it in true X-Ray and Vav fashion; crotch touching and creating chaos to save the day (for the most part)!”
- — Official Description
X-Ray and Vav, also known as X-Ray & Vav, was an American Rooster Teeth 2D animated comedy web series, created by Rooster Teeth Productions with the first episode being released on November 27, 2014 and the final, 14th one, on October 18, 2015. The series surrounds, revolves around and focuses on the comical adventures of the two wannabe titular superheroes on the Super Powered Alter Egos of respective former and current Achievement Hunter cast members named "X-Ray" and "Vav" also known as the "dorktastic duo", who are in turn based on the team and the fictional alter egos of formed by Ray Narvaez, Jr. and Gavin Free from Achievement Hunter (who also provide their voices), with their names originating from the Halo 4 - Terminus Achievement Guide. The animated series was created and directed by Jordan Cwierz, creator of the Rooster Teeth Animated Adventures, and Lindsay Jones, with Patrick Rodriguez acting as the art director and Gray G. Haddock as the producer.
The show was first announced at RTX 2014. A short teaser trailer for the series, displaying its logo, was shown at the end of RWBY Volume 2's eighth episode. A full teaser showcasing its animation was aired alongside the nineteenth episode of Red vs. Blue: Season 12 and ninth episode of RWBY Volume 2. The first episode premiered at the 2014 New York Comic-Con. The trailer for the second season was shown at the 2015 San Diego Comic-Con, being uploaded shortly after.
X-Ray and Vav ended its run following the Season 2 finale. When asked by a fan whether he would return for a third season, Ray Narvaez Jr. replied in the negative, stating he was "[very] happy with how it ended". Much of the production, direction and animation staff have since worked on other RT Animation projects, including Camp Camp which features much of the same creative team as X-Ray and Vav.
Synopsis[]
X-Ray (Ray Narvaez, Jr.) and Vav (Gavin Free) are your typical heroic duo, who are just trying to make the world a better place - the only problem is that they're failing miserably, unable to do the most menial 'superhero' tasks and getting no respect from the general public. However, after a failed robbery attempt and a run-in with a super-intelligent engineer named Hilda (Lindsay Jones) and Orf (Barbara Dunkleman), the duo are given the opportunity to become the greatest superheroes of all time... if they don't destroy the city in the process.
History and creation[]
Possibly the oddest story of a flub in an achievement guide starring two staff members who worked at Achievement Hunter that went from a meme/joke, to shirts, to a Rooster Teeth Animated Adventures-type show, to a full-on animated cartoon. The show X-Ray & Vav’s origin story traces its origins to a Halo 4 achievement guide created by the pair for Achievement Hunter. It can be found in the Halo 4 – Terminus Achievement Guide video with Ray & Gavin. In the video, Ray mispronounces Gavin's name as "Vav" and later Gavin asks Ray, "Do people ever call you 'X-Ray'?". In subsequent achievement guides, the pair would begin to stay "in-character" as their superhero alter-egos, X-Ray and Vav, and make references to them in other videos. The characters became incredibly popular with the Rooster Teeth community, spawning official merchandise, fan art, and cosplays. At RTX 2013, Gavin and Ray themselves, cosplayed as the characters.
Then, as revealed on Achievement Hunter Weekly Update #150 here, Rooster Teeth played into the hype and created & Vav-themed merchandise. The show itself was first announced in the RTAA panel at RTX 2013 and showed a trailer that was featuring RTAA-styled silhouettes of X-Ray & Vav and the words “coming soon.” In other words, at RTX 2013, the company showed an X-Ray & Vav teaser with the working title Animated Adventurers. Free and Narvaez also made a special appearance at the event in some brightly-colored costumes. They were seen wearing these X-Ray and Vav costumes at the Achievement Hunter panel at RTX 2013. (At another RTX female versions of the costumes appeared, worn by The Know employees Ashley Jenkins (X-Ray) and Meg Turney (Gavin's girlfriend, as a female Vav).
The first indication of an animated show based on X-Ray and Vav was at RTX 2013, during which a brief teaser was shown at the RTAA panel. The show was revealed under the title of Animated Adventurers and differed from the final show significantly, in that the animation bore a heavier resemblance to Jordan's distinctive art style, rather than the more polished cartoon look of the show proper.
At the following RTX, RTX 2014, Jordan (who makes the RTAAs) showed some footage of it on the RTAA panel. Also at RTX 2014, a new animated show called X-Ray and Vav was announced, starring Ray Narvaez, Jr. as X-Ray and Gavin Free as Vav. The show ended up having a much-loved “Saturday Morning Cartoon” feeling. The writing and plot were almost entirely driven by inside jokes from AH lore. The show is directed by Lindsay Jones (who also voices Hilda) and Jordan Cwierz, with art direction by Patrick Rodriguez. A trailer was released to YouTube here on November 6, 2014. An article was released on Tube filter the next day on November 7, 2014. It can be found here. The first episode premiered and was released on November 27, 2014,[1] and was aired every Thursday on the Rooster Teeth website. The previous week's episode would then be available on YouTube. Season 1 ran for four episodes from November 27, 2014 until December 18, 2014.
The intro for season two premiered on March 26, 2015. On April 10, 2015, Narvaez, the main voice actor, announced his departure from Achievement Hunter in favor of and in order to focus on dedicating his time and attention towards full-time Twitch livestreaming and officially quit and left on April 17, 2015. However, despite Narvaez's departure from Achievement Hunter in April of that year, he continued to frequently return to the Rooster Teeth offices and recording studios do continue voice work for his character in the series during Season 2 (however, when asked by fans, he said he was "not interested" in returning to voice the character again should they do a third season). The Season 2 trailer had premiered on July 11, 2015 at the San Diego Comic Con. On July 13, 2015, another article on Tubefilter was released about the event. A second season began on 18 July 2015 (you can watch the new intro trailer here, and a Comic Con trailer. X-Ray and Vav Season 2 initially premiered July 18, 2015, with a total of ten episodes to be released in two batches of five each. Rooster Teeth sponsors got to see the first episodes a day before they're released to the public on July 19. The second season premiered to the public audience for non-sponsors on July 19, 2015. Narvaez and Free reprised their roles as the show's titular heroes (with Lindsay, Barbara and Gray reprising their roles well), and Season 2 is also bringing on board new characters voiced by Adventure Time’s Jessica DiCicco as news reporter Ash Samaya and Parks & Recreation’s Colton Dunn (who's also starring in Rooster Teeth's Lazer Team film), with the addition of Michael Jones as the anti-hero Mogar (also starring in Lazer Team with Colton and Gavin). Though Season 2 would be longer than Season 1 with a total of ten full episodes, Rooster Teeth opted to split it in half, with the second season of The Strangerhood (one of the many stretch goals for funding Lazer Team) airing between the first and second halves. After running for another 10 episodes, Season 2 officially ended on October 18, 2015.
One short video, titled "X-Ray & Vav: Posi-Choices 101 – Short" was released on November 22, 2015. The last, and final short video, titled "The X-Ray & Vav Holiday Special! – Short" was released on December 13, 2015.
Episodes[]
- See main article: w:c:xrayandvav:List of episodes.
Season 1[]
| No. | Episode Title | Original Air Date | Run time | Link |
| 1 | "X-Ray & Vav Rise" | November 27, 2014 | 11:18 | [1] |
| X-Ray and Vav's quest to become the greatest superheroes ever isn't going as well as they hoped. But a chance encounter with a scientific genius may put them on the path to greatness! ...Or maybe not.
CAST: Ray Narvaez Jr. ... X-Ray (voice) Gavin Free ... Vav (voice) Lindsay Jones ... Hilda (voice) Barbara Dunkelman ... ORF (voice) Patrick Rodriguez ... The Mayor (voice) Maggie Tominey ... Little Girl (voice) Ashley Jenkins ... Female Passerby (voice) J.J. Castillo ... Male Passerby (voice) Miles Luna ... Robber #1 (voice) Chris Demarais ... Robber #2 (Frank) (voice) Kdin Jenzen... Henchman (voice) CREW:
| ||||
| 2 | "Operation: Rescue Friend" | December 4, 2014 | 8:39 | [2] |
| Crime waits for no one! X-Ray and Vav barely have a moment to relax before more justice needs serving. When an ally goes missing, it's up to the duo to take back what's theirs.
CAST:
Gavin Free ... Vav (voice) Lindsay Jones ... Hilda (voice) Barbara Dunkelman ... ORF (voice)
Ryan Haywood ... The Mad King (voice) Geoff Ramsey ... Corpirate (voice) Kdin Jenzen ... Henchman (voice) Patrick Rodriguez ... Security Guard (voice) CREW:
| ||||
| 3 | "Evil Unlocked" | December 11, 2014 | 7:58 | [3] |
| X-Ray and Vav are fresh off of their most recent serving of justice, but it's not long before the Mayor comes calling (literally) with a new mission. Are our heroes awesome enough to handle the task before them?
CAST:
Gavin Free ... Vav (voice) Lindsay Jones ... Hilda (voice) Barbara Dunkelman ... ORF (voice) Jack Pattillo ... Mrs. Terwiliger (voice) Gray G. Haddock ... Rusty Bonjour (voice) Geoff Ramsey ... Corpirate (voice)
CREW:
| ||||
| 4 | "Storm the Tower" | December 18, 2014 | 9:41 | [4] |
| With the city under siege and an egotistical evildoer in power, the future looks bleak. X-Ray & Vav! The world needs you!
CAST: Barbara Dunkelman ... ORF (voice) Gavin Free ... Vav (voice) Gray G. Haddock ... Rusty Bonjour (voice) Kdin Jenzen ... Henchman (voice) Lindsay Jones ... Hilda (voice) Ray Narvaez Jr. ... X-Ray (voice) Josh Ornelas ... Guard (voice) Geoff Ramsey ... Corpirate (voice) Patrick Rodriguez ... The Mayor (voice) CREW:
| ||||
Season 2[]
| No. | Episode Title | Original Air Date | Runtime | Link |
| 1 | "The Dawn of Mogar" | July 18, 2015 | 8:47 | [5] |
| Mogar, um... dawns! And with the help of intrepid reporter Ash, X-Ray and Vav are out to learn as much as they can about the secretive savage!
CAST: Ray Narvaez Jr. ... X-Ray Gavin Free ... Vav Jessica DiCicco ... Ash Gray G. Haddock ... Rusty Bonjour Kdin Jenzen ... Paper Boy Michael Jones ... Mogar Miles Luna ... The Winer Kerry Shawcross ... Dragonface Kyle Taylor ... Some Guy Meg Turney ... Woman CREW: Written & Directed by Jordan Cwierz & Lindsay Jones | ||||
| 2 | "Enter the Dragonfic" | July 25, 2015 | 8:30 | [6] |
| When Dragonface, X-Ray and Vav's biggest fan/stalker, gets his hands on an experimental invention of Hilda's, things get a little fan-fictional.
CAST: Ray Narvaez Jr. ... X-Ray Gavin Free ... Vav Jessica DiCicco ... Ash Gray G. Haddock ... Rusty Bonjour Barbara Dunkelman ... ORF Kerry Shawcross ... Dragonface Maggie Tominey ... Little Girl Jack Lee ... Judge CREW: Written & Directed by Jordan Cwierz & Lindsay Jones | ||||
| 3 | "My Dinner With Ash" | August 1, 2015 | 8;43 | [7] |
| Vav has a dinner date with Ash, and he needs X-Ray's help to not screw it up. However, fate has other plans, and the three of them get caught in the middle of Mogar's mission. | ||||
| 4 | "Coal & Order" | August 8, 2015 | 9:33 | [8] |
| X-Ray and Vav solicit the aid of a grizzled private eye to help trace down Mogar. | ||||
| 5 | "The Madness of the King" | August 16, 2015 | 9:37 | [9] |
| Our dynamic duo find themselves face to face with The Mad King, trying to interrogate him for information. However, little do the two idiots know, the Mad King has plans of his own. | ||||
| 6 | "It's a Crazy Mad World" | September 19, 2015 | 8:42 | [10] |
| With his new partner in crime Mogar alongside him, The Mad King stages a coup to get back what was once his, while X-Ray and Vav stumble on to his plot. | ||||
| 7 | "The Anti-Vav Ray' | September 26, 2015 | 10:19 | [11] |
| X-Ray and Vav try to stop the Mad King from getting an award, but little do the foolish duo know, the Mad King has his a sinister agenda of his own plans. He turns X-Ray and Vav against each other, creating a rift between the duo. | ||||
| 8 | "Divide & Conquer" | October 3, 2015 | 9:51 | [12] |
| With X-Ray and Vav split up on bad terms and they aren't friends anymore, it's up to Hilda and Rusty to step up to the plate and make them reconcile. Meanwhile, Mogar becomes impatient for Mad King to hold up his end of the bargain. | ||||
| 9 | "No You in Team" | October 10, 2015 | 9:36 | [13] |
| The Mad King's plan moves forward; Ash tries to get X-Ray and Vav to put aside their differences so they can stop the Mad King. | ||||
| 10 | "Reign Down" | October 17, 2015 | 10:30 | [14] |
| X-Ray and Vav must stop the Mad King's plan, save Mogar, and patch up their friendship before it's too late. Too bad the deck is stacked against them.
CAST: Jessica DiCicco ... Ash (voice) Barbara Dunkelman ... ORF (voice) Gavin Free ... Vav (voice) Gray G. Haddock ... Rusty Bonjour (voice) Ryan Haywood ... The Mad King (voice) Lindsay Jones ... Hilda (voice) Michael Jones ... Mogar (voice) Ray Narvaez Jr. ... X-Ray (voice) Kerry Shawcross ... Dragonface (voice)
| ||||
Specials/Trailers[]
| No. | Title | Air Date | Runtime |
| 1 | "X-Ray & Vav: OFFICIAL TRAILER" | November 6, 2014 | 1:15 |
| Your favorite superhero duo is here to save an internet near you! X-Ray & Vav, the newest animated show from Rooster Teeth, airs November 27, 2014 on roosterteeth.com | |||
| 2 | "X-Ray & Vav: Season 2 Intro" | March 26, 2015 | 0:58 |
| The dorktastic duo of X-Ray & Vav will return!! Check out the opening animation and full theme song for the upcoming episodes! Coming to you this Summer from Rooster Teeth Animation. | |||
| 3 | "X-Ray and Vav: Season 2 Trailer" | July 11, 2015 | 1:29 |
| It's the return of X-Ray & Vav! The superhero wannabes may have saved the city, but a new mystery man threatens to steal their thunder! Whatever will the dorktastic duo do! ...Besides bitch and moan about it | |||
| 4 | "X-Ray & Vav: Posi-Choices 101 – Short" | November 21, 2015 | 4:04 |
| X-Ray and Vav are here to SCHOOL you in the art of positive life choices, AKA posi-choices. With the help of Mogar and friends, there's no lesson that can't be taught! | |||
| 5 | "The X-Ray & Vav Holiday Special! – Short | December 12, 2015 | 4:27 |
| It's the holiday season, and X-Ray and Vav are getting set to throw the best party ever! But when X-Ray realizes he forgot to get Vav a gift, it's a last minute dash to find something for his best buddy. | |||
Cancellation and conclusion[]
Before being cancelled, there were initially high hopes and plans for a Season 3, even as early as when Season 2's debut in the summer of 2015. Rooster Teeth's Lindsay Jones said at the SDCC panel the company would like to continue X-Ray and Vav beyond Season 2 if fan reception is positive. At the X-Ray and Vav panel at RTX 2015, when they talked about how "interesting and engaging" Season 2 was, Lindsay and Jordan also said "At present, we currently don't have plans for a Season 3 yet or another third season in development production yet, but who knows? You never know!"
Ultimately, however, the series was not renewed following the airing of the Season 2 finale.[2][3] The rest of the creation, direction, production and the animation team behind the show has moved over to working on Camp Camp. According to the website status, it states that the show is "Retired."
When asked by a fan on his Ask.fm if he would return to Rooster Teeth for a third season, Ray Narvaez, Jr. (who had left Achievement Hunter prior to Season 2 to become a full-time Twitch streamer), replied in the negative, stating that he was "happy with how it ended".[4][5]
Voice Cast and Characters[]
Main Cast[]
Heroes[]
- Ray Narvaez, Jr. as the voice of X-Ray (14 episodes, 2014-2015), a well-intentioned but ill-tempered man with glasses that shoot beams
- Gavin Free as the voice of Vav (14 episodes, 2014-2015), a well-mannered British that exudes slow-motion beams
- Lindsay Jones as the voice of Hilda (10 episodes, 2014-2015), a purple-haired inventor who X-Ray and Vav meet during one night of crime fighting.
- Barbara Dunkelman as the voice of O.R.F. (4 episodes, 2014-2015), Hilda's Orbicular Robotic Friend, who acts as her trusty companion, alerting her to any happenings that could hurt her research.
- Patrick Rodriguez as the voice of The Mayor (4 episodes, 2014) and other characters
- Gray G. Haddock as the voice of Rusty Bonjour (10 episodes, 2014-2015), the duo's homeless friend
- Jessica DiCicco (IMDb) as the voice of Aishwarya "Ash" Samaya (9 episodes, 2015), a newspaper reporter who covers X-Ray and Vav's stories and romances the latter.
- Kerry Shawcross as Dragonface (5 episodes, 2015), a young boy who is X-Ray and Vav's number-one fan.
- Michael Jones as the voice of Mogar (10 episodes, 2015), a mysterious and feral bear-man
Villains[]
- Ryan Haywood as the voice of The Mad King (7 episodes, 2014-2015)
- Geoff Ramsey as the voice of The Corpirate (3 episodes, 2014).
Cameos[]
- Ashley Jenkins and J.J. Castillo as passersby
- Miles Luna and Chris Demarais as robbers; Miles also voices the Winer in the Season 2 opener
- Kdin Jenzen as a henchman
- Colton Dunn as Flynt Coal, a private eye hired to figure out more about Mogar.
- Gus Sorola as X-Ray's Mother
- Shannon McCormick as the editor of Ash's newspaper
- Margaret Tominey as Little Girl
- Jen Brown as Die-Mond
Crew[]
Series Directed by []
Series Writing Credits []
| Jordan Cwierz | ... | (also creator) (14 episodes, 2014-2015) |
| Lindsay Jones | ... | (also creator) (14 episodes, 2014-2015) |
| Eddy Rivas | ... | (2 episodes, 2014) |
| Kerry Shawcross | ... | (2 episodes, 2014) |
| Gavin Free | ... | (1 episode, 2015) |
| Gavin Free, Ray Narvaez, Jr. | ... | (characters) |
Series Produced by []
| Gray G. Haddock | ... | producer / supervising producer |
| Burnie Burns & Matt Hullum | ... | executive producer |
| Maggie Tominey | ... | assistant producer / production coordinator |
Series Music by []
| Alex Abraham | ... | (14 episodes, 2014) |
| Steve Goldshein | ... | (14 episodes, 2014) |
| Jeff Williams | ... | (14 episodes, 2014) |
| Micah Risinger | ... | composer: theme music |
| Josh Ornelas | ... | rescue hotline ringtone (1 episode, 2014) |
Series Editing by []
| Jordan Cwierz | ... | editor |
| Cole Gallian | ... | assistant editor (season 2) |
Series Art Department []
| Patrick Rodriguez | ... | art direction / backgrounds / concept art / backgrounds/storyboards / character design / storyboard artist / storyboards |
| Peter Sorensen | ... | character supervision / character asset creation / asset creation |
| James Porter | ... | series layout artist (season 2) |
| Laurin Crozier | ... | storyboards/additional character design (season 2) |
| Yssa Badiola | ... | asset creation (season 2) |
| James Porter | ... | asset creation (season 2) |
Series Sound Department []
| Clayton de Wet | ... | re-recording mixer / sound engineer |
| Daniel Fabelo | ... | sound editor (season 1) |
Series Animation Department []
| Peter Sorensen | ... | lead animator |
| Jeff Yohn | ... | technical director |
| Sean Baird | ... | animator (season 1) |
| Ian Kedward | ... | animator (season 1) |
| Joel Mann | ... | animator (season 1) |
| Dustin Matthews | ... | animator (season 1) |
| Jordan Battle | ... | series animator (season 2) |
| Jason Fisher | ... | series animator (season 2) |
| Johnathan Floyd | ... | series animator (season 2) |
| Alan Pickett | ... | series animator (season 2) |
| Jimmy Tovar | ... | series animator (season 2) |
| Luis Vazquez | ... | technical assistant (season 2) |
| Yssa Badiola | ... | series animator (season 2) |
Theme Song[]
- “
They’re best of buds, they prowl the night;
As super studs, they fight for good;
They’re awesome guys, who kick crime in the butt!
X-Ray and Vav!
He's a popular guy, a parkour master,
And might know some Kung fu...
X-RAY AND VAV!
He's delightfully British, a hero for justice,
And cares how you feel!
X-Ray and Vav"”
- —
Trivia[]
- The names X-Ray and Vav come from an Achievement Hunter video which Gavin and Ray were in. In this video, Gavin accidentally calls himself "Vav" instead of "Gav".Later in the same video, Gavin jokingly asks Ray if anyone has ever nicknamed him "X-Ray". This became a running gag between them until Gavin made a joke in another video about how X-Ray and Vav could be crime fighters and the Rooster Teeth community loved the idea.
- Two of the enemies in the first two episodes are based on creations from achievement hunter videos, just like X-Ray and Vav. The Corpirate comes from one of Geoff's creations and is voiced by Geoff in the series. The Mad King is in reference to Ryan's personality and evilness towards cows (and is voiced by Ryan).
- Season 2 debuts Mogar, a bear-themed warrior voiced by his own inspiration, Michael. Mogar and the Mad King both come from Minecraft, one of Achievement Hunter's longest-running Let's Plays; the Corpirate came from WWE '13.
- The first episode we see Hilda in season two, when she's talking to X-Ray you can see Yang's gauntlets Ember Celica on the board behind her.
- Hilda's voice is Lindsay, who voices Yang's younger half-sister Ruby; Yang's voice actress provides ORF's voice.
- A 30-second promo of the show was shown after the finale of Red vs. Blue: Season 12, and RWBY Volume 2 Episode 9.[6]
- In RWBY, characters are sometimes seen reading an X-Ray and Vav comic, with the Achievement Hunter logo in the top corner.
- The team name started in the Halo 4 "Terminus" achievement guide, in which Gavin signed in as 'Vav' and then asks Ray if he's ever been called 'X-Ray'.
- The heroes wear similar outfits with different color schemes: the main suit of X-Ray is green, with a white circle containing two green thunderbolts crossing in an X formation on the chest, plus black gloves, boots, cape, and crotch protector, while Vav has blue where the green is, red where the black is, and a V under a bowler hat both in British flag coloration on his chest. Both of their logos inspired Rooster Teeth T-shirts, which depict the logo on a shirt the same color as the respective hero's main outfit.
- Some of the character elements are based on prior Rooster Teeth and Achievement Hunter videos: Vav's "Slow-Mo Hands" power is based on Gavin's role in the Slow Mo Guys, Ryan's 'Mad King' character name (and his outfit) are from Achievement Hunter's Let's Play Minecraft series, in which Ryan is often dubbed the "Mad King" (and his Minecraft Skin, Scottish Steve, is the basis for his outfit), and Geoff's character "The Corpirate" is based on his custom character from the Let's Play WWE '13/2K14 video. These continued in Season 2 with the additions of Mogar (Michael's warrior alter ego, also from Minecraft, and with the bear hood sharing the same basis as The Mad King's outfit), Flynt Coal (also of Minecraft origin, but as a recurring joke whenever flint or coal is found), and Dragonface (Kerry, who has it as his main nickname). Only X-Ray, Rusty, Ash, Hilda, ORF, and the randoms don't have a confirmed RT or AH-linked aspect, though X-Ray's name may be due to Ray wearing glasses and X-Ray having a special red-lens pair.
References[]
- ↑ RTX (10 July 2014). "RTX 2014: Mission Complete!". Rooster Teeth. Retrieved 12 July 2014.
- ↑ https://www.reddit.com/r/roosterteeth/comments/4rl9qq/is_xray_and_vav_cancelled/
- ↑ https://www.reddit.com/r/roosterteeth/comments/4fcumg/xray_and_vav_going_to_have_a_season_3_and_if_so/
- ↑ Askfm. (7 June 2016). "if Xray and Vav were to have a 3rd season in production would you still voice Xray?".Ray Narvaez, Jr.. Retrieved 23 June 2016.
- ↑ http://ask.fm/RNarvaezJr/answers/140877319543
- ↑ Youtube (30 September 2014). X-Ray & Vav Teaser Trailer. Blake Shortland. Retrieved 4 October 2014.