- "I was p-grammed to record every little itsy-bitsy teeny-tiny THANG that ever did happen in this canyonay, compadres!"
- —Vic explaining his purpose in his usual way of speaking to Dylan Andrews and Jax Jonez in The Chronicle
The Virtual Intelligence Computer, abbreviated V.I.C., or better known as simply Vic, was a sardonic and frequently unhelpful communications A.I., acting as the Red and Blue Team's contact at Command. He later takes the name Vic Jr. in You Keep Using That Word, when Church accidentally contacts him via radio, stating he's a descendant of Vic in order to explain the time travel.
He aids Omega throughout The Blood Gulch Chronicles, serving as a supporting antagonist, and returns in Season 15 as a supporting character, serving as the A.I. assistant to Dylan Andrews during her investigation and later assistance to the Reds and Blues.
Overview[]
V.I.C. is shown to be an A.I. set up by Project Freelancer to assist Agent Florida in protecting the Alpha A.I., as shown in Why They're Here. Vic resided in a computer in the underground caves of Blood Gulch, where he secretly watched and gave the Red and Blue teams instructions, in order to ensure a never ending conflict. After the Reds and Blues go "into the future", Vic went under the name Vic Jr., in order to go along with the crew's belief that they were in the future. However, the Reds soon discover Vic's underground computer, explaining Simmons' belief that Vic was in the cavern and how he was apparently able to survive the "several-hundred-year-time gap" between seasons, as his vasectomy would seem to rule out any descendants.
During Season 14, V.I.C acts as the narrator for the beginning of most of the Season 14 episodes. It is likely that these narrations are considered non-canon.
Role in Plot[]
Interaction with the Reds and Blues[]
V.I.C. is stationed in the underground caves of Blood Gulch by Project Freelancer in order to assist Butch Flowers in protecting the Alpha A.I. Flowers has V.I.C. go over his mission objectives, in which V.I.C. informs Flowers to make sure the Alpha has no recollection of the events of Project Freelancer and shares a list of Freelancers that will replace Flowers if anything were to happen to him. Flowers then trips over a cable to V.I.C.'s computer and causes V.I.C. to malfunction, changing his personality as well as the list of Freelancers to a list of simulation troopers. Despite this, V.I.C. continued to pretend to be the communications officer for both the Red and Blue teams, though this was later uncovered by Tucker, who then tries to convince both teams that the Reds and Blues are the same and to stop fighting.
However, no member of either team believes Tucker, as he is knocked unconscious when he makes the discovery, and V.I.C. manages to contact Sarge and warn against listening to Tucker before the latter tells everyone. V.I.C. later works with O'Malley to some degree, although he seems to regard O'Malley as more of a necessary annoyance than a partner, and O'Malley hires an assassin called Wyoming to kill Tucker in order to preserve the secret that Red and Blue are the same.
"Future Descendant"[]
”Oh no way dude, Vic's dead. This is Vic's great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandson. Vic Jr.”
When the Reds and Blues travel to the “future”, V.I.C. is presumably replaced by someone who claims to be one of his descendants, Vic Jr. who is secretly only V.I.C. When first contacted by Church after the latter returns to Blood Gulch, V.I.C. scoffs at Church's mention of Blue Command and notes that there is a lot of information to divulge.
In Baby Steps and Sibling Arrivalries, Church attempted to contact V.I.C. for reinforcements, but he was not at his post and his message box turned out to be full after a lengthy and somewhat nonsensical set of instructions. He later contacted Church, telling him to immediately attack the Red Base, going through the caves, then hanging up before Church could get any more information.
Not long after, he is contacted by the Reds but hangs up when he notices Simmons arriving at the surveillance console in the caverns. Having hampered his plans, Simmons, unaware of who Sarge was talking to, maintains that V.I.C. is in the caves somewhere and was using the teams. V.I.C. makes one last appearance in Episode 99, where Flowers, under the influence of Omega, is seen standing in front of the computer screen talking to him.
Rediscovered[]
Following Tex's escape from Blood Gulch, Vic remained active throughout the years. He was later discovered a few years later when Dylan Andrews and Jax Jonez visited Blood Gulch for information on the Reds and Blues. Since the Red and Blue Teams' departures, V.I.C. has been left in disrepair, leading to vocal glitches and skipping. He alternated back and forth between begging to be unplugged and relenting to being a joke. Dylan eventually leaves, claiming Jax is better off not knowing whether she did or did not unplug V.I.C.
V.I.C. on Temple's mainframe
It is eventually revealed that Dylan did not delete V.I.C., but rather took him on as her A.I. assistant, with the agreement that after three favors she would then end his existence. While traveling with Dylan, V.I.C. helps her gain information from Sidewinder, trace the signal that the Blues and Reds set up to draw in the Reds and Blues to Armada 8, and hack into Temple's office computer to find out his motives. However, Temple stops Dylan and takes her, as well as the rest of the crew, hostage. Vic, as a result, releases various pop-up ads on Temple's computer, preventing him from using it.
After the crew escape imprisonment, Dylan retrieves Vic from the base's computer and reveals him to the Reds and Blues, who show dismay upon seeing him again. Vic shows the group Temple's plan against the UNSC, prompting them to make chase to Earth to stop him. The crew successfully manage to subdue Temple but are unable to stop Loco's Machine. As a result, Dylan uploads Vic into the machine's systems, allowing Vic to stabilize the machine and ultimately stop it. Vic then makes a speech to the Reds and Blues, stating how happy he is to finally die and threatens to hurt anyone who made a backup of him. Vic is then destroyed as the machine disappears.
Other Versions[]
Epsilon counterpart[]
Much like the character he's based on, this Vic also works for Command. When called by Tex in Mid-Game Substitution, he begins to talk to her about her mission in Blood Gulch. He makes another appearance in MIA: Episode 3 when Sarge contacts command regarding Grif's disappearance. Vic advises Sarge that Grif was most likely captured by the Blues and decides to send a medic, Doc, to assist them.
Personality[]
V.I.C. behaves like an annoying, ineffective technical support guy, constantly calling people "dude" and often offering obtuse and unhelpful advice and biting insults. He can be quite inappropriate, at one point forcing Doc into a lengthy conversation about his sterility in Episode 34. Burnie Burns notes that V.IC. was intentionally portrayed to be over-the-top annoying from Episode 20.
Although he acts confident on the radio, it's shown when things don't go according to his plans, he becomes a coward. For example, when Tucker intercepts his call with Sarge and when Simmons found him in the caves, he goes into a panic and attempts to avoid facing them.
When Dylan Andrews finds him, he has become slightly unstable, sometimes glitching and became even more eccentric than he already was, but quickly shows a desire to be "killed" as after she asks for all records of the Reds and Blues, he asks that she pull the plug. At first he makes it sound like he's kidding, but immediately afterwards he is much more forceful and practically begging. It is possible that he was undergoing rampancy, though it is unknown how long he has been in commission since Kaikaina Grif was left by herself at Blood Gulch.
Themes[]
Communication Skills[]
Although Vic is a communications officer, his talkative nature, such as using the word "dude" often and weird dialog, proves to hinder several characters' goals. Because of this, many characters are annoyed by him. It's even shown that his answering machine is annoyingly long and filled with old messages, preventing anyone else from leave any more. The only person who he seems to not annoy is Omega, who ironically annoys him.
In season 14, it is shown that the reason V.I.C. gained his personality was because of Agent Florida. After discussing which Freelancer would be appropriate to place in Blood Gulch in the event of Florida's death, Florida accidentally trips on one of V.I.C.'s plugs which disconnects it. This caused V.I.C.'s calm personality to glitch into a more eccentric one. The disconnection of this plug is also the reason Donut and Caboose were assigned to Blood Gulch.
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- Vic is the first non-helmet wearing character seen in the series.
- Vic's speech before he sacrifices himself is a parody of the speech Epsilon gave before he sacrificed himself in Season 13. Both characters are voiced by Burnie Burns.
- In his first appearance, Vic was voiced by "Warthog Jump" creator Randall Glass, and lacked his trademark personality. Starting in season 2, he was voiced by Burnie Burns, with his eccentric personality slowly building over time.
- Vic was originally animated by manipulating screenshots of the player model he was derived from talking at the appropriate speed to mimic his lines. Later seasons, however, used a static image with sophisticated morphing to both provide lip-synch for his lines and additional facial movements to add to his personality. This method was also used when reshooting the past seasons for the Remastered editions.
- When Vic appears as "Vic Jr", his model is digitally recolored with a more yellow color. This color was applied to subsequent appearances placed prior to the events of Season 4 however.
- Vic has a cameo appearance in an Easter Egg of Spartan Ops Episode 4 "Didact's Hand", Chapter 2 Rally Point.[1]
- In The Best Red vs. Blue DVD Ever. Of All Time., Vic was voted the "Best of the Rest", and his name was displayed as "V.I.C.", further supporting that he is possibly an A.I., which would be confirmed in Season 14.
- In Baby Steps, it's revealed that Vic has a jingle to help remember his phone number. As sung by Doc the jingle goes: "If you want to talk, don't email. And don't you click, click, click, click. Just call me up at 555-V-I-C-K!" to which Church responds, "You know, it probably would've been more memorable if it rhymed... or if his name actually ended in a 'K'".
- Vic appears in the second alternate ending of Why Were We Here?, where Sarge calls him for reinforcements. Vic tells Sarge that he ruined the plan by destroying the ship, making Sarge go to the caves and destroy the computer in anger, seemingly killing him.
- According to Burnie Burns, Vic was based on a real person and one-time roommate of Burnie's, also named Vic, who had the same distinctive voice and speaking mannerisms, like over-using the word "dude".[2]
- In Red vs. Blue: The Musical it was revealed that before he died, Flowers uploaded 5000 songs into Vic's computer, Vic says that all of them are stuck in his head.
- In Belly of the Beast, it is said that Dylan has asked Vic for two favors so far - including him hacking into Temple's computer. However, this is inconclusive given what Vic appears to have done so far - the tracking on Sidewinder, tracing the signal the Blues and Reds set up, and hacking into Temple's computer, seems to indicate Vic has already performed three favors. Then, Vic does another favor for her in Desolation - which should be Vic's third and final favor. However, Dylan didn't erase him at that point. Considering Vic was having difficulty recalling what wish number they were on prior to hacking Temple's computer, it is highly likely Dylan used this to her advantage in order to secure a couple of extra favors.