Sarge

From Red vs Blue: The Blood Gulch Chronicles

Sarge
Statistics
Name:	Sarge
Full Name:	Unknown
Affiliations:	Red Team
First Appearance:	Red vs Blue Episode 1
Armor Color(s):	Red
Occupation(s):	Red Team Staff Sergeant
Weapon(s):	Shotgun
Voice Actor:	Matt Hullum

"I've got a boner for murder!"

—Sarge

Sarge is a main fictional character in the machinima series Red vs. Blue. Sarge is the staff sergeant^[1] and leader of the Blood Gulch Red Team. He is voiced by Matt Hullum, co-creator of the series, and first appeared at the end of Episode One. A military man with a Southern United States accent, Sarge exhibits more discipline than the other Reds (and most of the Blues, for that matter), but is also somewhat sociopathic, bloodthirsty, eccentric, and the only Blood Gulch soldier on either team that is actually serious about the war (or training exercise). Sarge's name is unknown; he is just called Sarge throughout the series.

[edit] Character overview

Rooster Teeth has noted that they initially modeled Sarge after Full Metal Jacket's Gunnery Sergeant Hartman, but, by the middle of Season 2, the character had evolved into, in the words of voice actor Matt Hullum, "every 1950s in film stereotype character...melted down into one", exhibiting characteristics of a mad scientist, used car salesman, and "grumpy old dad".^[2]

Matt Hullum states that he initially modeled Sarge's voice on that of R. Lee Ermey, the actor who portrayed Hartman in Full Metal Jacket, but by Season Three, the character's voice became more gruff and less nasal. The change in voice is such that people will often ask who voiced Sarge in the initial episodes, believing that Hullum himself did not.^[3]

[edit] Role in Plot

Introduced in the first two episodes, Sarge's disposition (and particularly his relationships with Grif and Simmons) is quickly established in a conversation (which the writers modeled on one that they themselves had) regarding the resemblance of the Warthog to a puma.^[4] After naming the jeep and informing Grif and Simmons about the arrival of a rookie, Sarge leaves for Command for orders. After some time, he radios his team from a Pelican to inform them of his return, only to find that they are being attacked by Sheila. He then launches an air strike, disabling Sheila for some time. In the aftermath, he sent Lopez to shoot Grif, whom he blames for the ruined jeep.

During Tex's first attack on Red Base, Sarge and Lopez corner her, knock her out, and take her prisoner. When the Blue Team launched a rescue attempt, Sarge was possessed by Church, the Blues' deceased leader. Under Church's control, he knocked Simmons out and escorted Texout of the base, only to be shot in the head by the Blue rookie, Caboose. He then hallucinates a meeting with Church in the afterlife, where he laments his inability to torture Grif more. Grif revives Sarge using CPR. Sarge initially thanks Simmons; upon hearing that it was Grif who saved him, he berates Grif at length for attempting to treat a bullet wound with CPR.

Later, Donut returns with a voice card for Lopez. Sarge damages the card while trying to install it, such that Lopez is only able to speak Spanish. Tex later attacks Red Base again, this time with Sheila's assistance. Sarge and Simmons again attempt to fight her, but fail. He then watches proudly as Lopez apparently pursues Tex, believing the act to be a suicide run (in reality, Church had possessed Lopez and was attempting to assist Tex).

In Season 2, Sarge is forced to build two permanent robot bodies for the Blues; he implants a microphone in one and a bomb in the other, as well as a voice command which causes the robot to punch Grif. The bomb, however, leads to both teams being blasted into the distant future during Season 3. Once there, Sarge leads both teams in an assault on a fortress occupied by O'Malley, the common enemy of both teams. During a battle against O'Malley and a robot army, Sarge and the Red Team leave the Blues to battle alone, in order to go in search of the source of a distress signal; they end up returning to Blood Gulch.

In Season 5, Sarge and the rest of the Reds return to their base, where they reunite with Lopez. From late in Season 2, Sarge had been attempting to retrieve the orders from Red Command that are stored in Lopez's head. Sarge, in an attempt to translate those orders from Spanish, kidnaps Andy, the Blue Team's talking bomb; the orders turn out to be useless. The Reds are then attacked by the Blues, and Sarge radios command reinforcements. When a ship arrives, the pilot (Sister) informs them that she was sent to replace a dead commanding officer. Sarge's undying trust in command causes him to believe that he is in fact dead, and the other Reds bury him.

By Episode 85, he has disappeared from his grave, having fallen into the underground cavern. He mistakes the cavern for Hell; Donut's arrival confirms his suspicion. The two are soon contacted and rescued by Simmons and Grif.

As of Reconstruction's second episode, Sarge is the only Red left in Blood Gulch; he vowed not to leave until all the Blues were wiped out (even though the only Blue left is Sister, whom he can't attack because she is a girl), even though his refusal to leave with the rest of his team would be considered going AWOL. It should also be noted that he has repaired Lopez, who now has his entire body.

Later on, the Meta deceives him into thinking that the Blue Team has been reassembled under Washington's command. He appears again in Episode 8 with Grif and Simmons, attacking Washington and Church on sight in his fanatical attempts to wipe out the Blues once and for all. In episode 9, Sarge saves Grif and Simmons from death by firing squad. Sarge couldn't come to terms with the fact that Grif was now the same rank as him, preferring to assume that their real commander was invisible. After an incident where the Meta threw a Warthog at Grif, he agreed to work with Washington after the latter guessed his secure codeword that only Command knew (it turned out to be "codeword").

It is revealed in Chapter 3 of Relocated that Sarge now understands a bit of Spanish, since he apparently knew that Lopez was giving him an answering machine message and disabled Lopez's lying ability. In previous series, Sarge would just ramble on and assume Lopez was either agreeing with him or complimenting him. In Chapter 4 of Relocated, Sarge tests out his new EMP-firing warthog (portrayed as a Gauss Warthog) on some "Holo-Grifs" in the new simulation room built by Lopez. Grif notices errors in a hologram's appearance, commenting that it's "all lightish red". Sarge tells Grif and Donut to stop talking, since the "lightish red" guy was actually Donut, who then collapses from dehydration. Sarge asks Grif what Donut said.

In Recreation, Sarge announces a attack on the Blues. Sarge calls up the new command (the UNSC) for advice, but Command has no files on blue team since Sarge deleted them. Simmons reminds Sarge of what happened; Sarge remembers Simmons deleting the Blues, Sarge killing Grif, and Simmons turning into a Mongoose. Sarge later joins Caboose's mission to find Tucker, because if there were more Blues, then Command would re-instate them so that they could keep fighting. Sarge, Grif, and Caboose go on the mission only to land in a desert surrounded by landmines. Sarge and company later meet up with Tucker and congregate inside the Temple. The four have a brief discussion and Sarge and Grif pretend they suspected Church was an AI after Tucker says he knew that. After that, Sarge and the others find Caboose, who wandered off, with a floating robot who is later revealed to be Epsilon. Sarge and Grif later kill an Elite sent into the Temple by C.T. and meet up with Tucker, Caboose and Epsilon.

[edit] Relationships with other characters

Sarge's relationships with his team members are often strained by his disregard for their safety, particularly Grif. From the beginning of the series, Sarge has held a deep dislike of Grif for unknown reasons. If an opportunity for Grif's removal presents itself, Sarge tries to take it. He has ordered others to kill Grif, devised strategies involving Grif's death, and attempted to kill Grif in his sleep. Sarge has expressed his hatred for Grif on an uncountable number of occasions, including (but certainly not limited to):

• In Episode 18, it is stated that in the event that Sarge dies before Grif, he has recorded fifty hours of random insults toward Grif. If Sarge does die first, Grif is to recover the tape and play it whenever he starts feeling good about himself.
• It is mentioned that Sarge has thirty-seven different plans for a zombie attack. Thirty-six of those plans involve using Grif's fresh corpse to distract the zombies. The thirty-seventh involves Sarge deliberately getting infected so that he can devour Grif.
• In Episode 78, after Sister crash lands a ship onto Donut, Sarge asks Simmons, "No one accidentally got shot in the face when someone else's shotgun just accidentally went off during the incredible distraction of a spaceship crash landing? Purely by coincidence? No one orange?" When Grif says that he is okay, Sarge replies, "Dammit, I really need to adjust the sights on this thing."
• In an alternate ending to Episode 100, Sarge is said to have died very shortly after killing Grif; it is noted that "Sarge died exactly the way he wanted to: after Grif."

Nevertheless, when Tucker severely injures Grif by accidentally running him over with Sheila in Episode 33, Sarge does save Grif's life by transplanting Simmons' organs into him.

Although Sarge's solution is usually to have Grif killed, he has been heard on one occasion to tell Grif, when the latter asked to quit, that if he could, he would make it happen. Also, in a PSA, his Xbox 360 gamertag is shown to be "GrifKilla51". A common line of dialogue in the series starts with Grif asking to do something, ("Permission to <action>?") only to hear Sarge reply, "Permission denied". In Recreation Chapter 7, Grif asks to join Donut's mission to find Tucker; Sarge responds, "Permission granted", leaving a dumbfounded Grif to remark, "Um, you've never actually said that to me before -- that means 'yes', right?"

Sarge's relationship with Simmons is more peaceful, although it is also strained. In one case, after Church had taken over Lopez's body, Sarge decided to make an android out of one of the characters on Red Team -- he chose Simmons, who complied in order to save Grif. It is revealed that Sarge made several mistakes; among other things, Simmons occasionally shoots himself in the foot by accident.

Despite Simmons' sycophantic attitude toward Sarge, Sarge is quick to turn against him when a disagreement occurs. Sarge demoted and exiled Simmons when the latter suggested that they look for Sheila. In Chapter 2 of Reconstruction, Sarge calls Grif and Simmons traitors for following their reassignment orders when the battle in Blood Gulch "wasn't over". However, the flashback in Episode 9 reveals that he saved both Grif and Simmons from execution, which may indicate that he has forgiven them for their "betrayal".

Sarge has a more complex relationship with Agent Washington. At first believing him a Blue, he calms down after finding out this isn't the case, and helps Washington by giving him Caboose's location. After the Meta sends him a false transmission, Sarge immediately flies into a rage, believing Wash an enemy. He later shows a degree of respect for Wash in the final episode, though he still refuses to help him against the Meta.

Sarge has criticized Grif and praised Simmons for the same action. When Grif saves Sarge's life by performing CPR after being shot in the head by Caboose in season 1, Sarge initially thanks Simmons. However, upon learning who had actually resuscitated him, Sarge proceeds to berate Grif at length for the illogicality of using CPR "for a bullet wound in the head". Rooster Teeth had initially considered making this event a turning point in Sarge's relationship with Grif, but decided in the end that friendship would be too far-fetched.^[4]

Sarge also generally despises the Blues, assuming that everything that goes wrong in the canyon is their fault. Despite this, he is willing to submit to the various truces that the Reds and Blues hold over the course of the series. This can be seen as taking on a common foe, such as O'Malley or the Meta, although the Reds skipped out on the battle with O'Malley in order to investigate a distress call, and took the opportunity of breaking into the Freelancer base to delete all the Blue details from the system, much to the annoyance of Church. Despite their differences, in the final episode of Blood Gulch Chronicles after Tex and Tucker's Alien son were killed by a Red planted bomb, Sarge allowed them to leave, noting lightly that "they've had their asses kicked enough for one day" - an amazingly marked change from normal behaviour, especially given that in the Insert Quarter alternate ending he immediately tries to get reinforcements or an airstrike from Vic to wipe out the blues, while in the Fight, Fight! ending he taunts the Blues over the deaths of Tex and Junior - and is shot dead by Church and Tucker for it.

He seems to have a liking to one of the Blues, Caboose, referring to him as "A little rascal" in Episode 41. In Reconstruction his willingness to sacrifice himself for Church genuinely impressed Sarge, who badgered Grif and Simmons about it. This has angered Simmons, who has told Caboose to stay away from Sarge, and threatened to kill him in Reconstruction. Sarge's hatred for him seems to reignite however, as he makes no objection when Simmons and Grif try to lure him out of hiding to kill him in episode 100, and even tries to help find him. More often Sarge, like everyone else, just gets exasperated, commenting during battling the Grunts that Caboose actually made him miss Grif.

Sarge also seems to respect Church to a degree, not making any complaints when he is asked to rescue him, and helping Church 'disable' the ship that crashes in Blood Gulch, even as far as letting him walk away from them when Church is grieving over the loss of Tex.

Sarge regards Tucker as crazy, believing that he is making things up when he says Red and Blue are the same, as Vic told him to. He's also shown in a PSA, telling Tucker he should be ashamed of himself for hiding something "special" in the basement.

Sarge seems to respect Tex as a fighter, even as far as asking her to join the Reds, saying Black is "just a really dark shade of Red", even though she nearly killed one of his men and beat down one of them, the other one however, fainted.

Sarge seems to hate Doc, beleiving he is annoying, the rest of Red Team take on this opinion as well. It is unknown if he holds a grudge against him for crashing into him twice in the warthog.

Sarge also seems to forget Andy is a bomb, seeing as he needed to ask Lopez where to get one while both him and Andy were in the same cave. Sarge, after picking up Andy for the second time, notes that he is much lighter, which pleases Andy.

Sarge seems to regard Lopez as his best friend and machine, despite Lopez constantly insulting him and the Reds, saying he would delete memory of them when they were gone. Sarge, not knowing spanish, thinks all the insults are compliments to his crazy plans and Sarge overall.

[edit] Themes

[edit] Delusions

Sarge's battle plans tend to be delusively grandiose and seriously flawed, and he favors overly complicated plans that involve heavy casualties in his own forces, primarily Grif, sometimes making suicidal plans even when there is no actual problem to solve. Even if his plans rely on the strength of numbers, he may see fit to have Grif killed anyway.^[5] He displays frequent periods of nostalgia and compares his plans to notable figures from film, such as John Wayne and Indiana Jones. At other times, he devises plans that take ideas from popular culture, most of which are purely fiction anyway, including the Incredible Hulk, Star Wars and Spider-Man. Sometimes he makes incompetent blunders in his plans that are not immediately evident to him, but the rest of the team will criticize him for. He is also rather paranoid, and often concocts implausible theories to explain simple events. Many of these will revolve around the Blues as their primary antagonists, as a result of Sarge's intense hatred of them.

Recently, a complete dependence on command has been showcased; when a new arrival in the canyon, who the Reds think has joined their team, informs them that command sent her to replace a dead commanding officer, Sarge at first refuses to believe it, but when Grif makes a few clever comments about how command could be wrong about other things which Sarge staunchly believes in, he believes that he is dead and due to his complete trust in red command, allows the other Reds to bury him alive. Sarge also has some deluded memories when he deleted the Blues, he believes, Simmons deleted the Blues, Sarge killed Grif and Simmons turning into a Mongoose.

[edit] Skills

Sarge has skill as a soldier, having managed to capture Tex as well as fight off, with the assistance of Caboose, the attacking hordes of soldiers in Battle Creek. In episode 99 he kills several Wyoming clones with his shotgun despite the Freelancer's skill. His rank suggests that he is a veteran of combat. In addition, during one of the Episode 100 endings, he is explained to have commanded many Red forces over the years after his tour in Blood Gulch. He is also skilled to some degree in mechanics, having built three separate robots, two of which were assembled simultaneously in a short period of time from color-coded robot kits. Although he initially claims that he is unable to repair their jeep,^[6] he later manages to fix a derelict near-identical jeep with little equipment in the wasteland. However, his work is not flawless, as when he turned Simmons into a cyborg, the latter claimed that he would occasionally shoot himself in the foot for some unknown reason, which Sarge claims is "user-error".

Sarge also appears to act as the Red Team's medical officer, as he has performed surgery on both Simmons and Grif in a relatively short amount of time, and both seem to be healthy. However, Sarge clearly knows very little about bodily functions, as he uses a diagram of a cow as an aid during Grif's surgery, claims that the body can produce any oxygen it needs when under stress, claiming that "the chest is strictly reserved for digestion" and advises Caboose to lift a heavy weight with his back as opposed to his legs, although, Sarge maybe deliberately attempting to injure Caboose.

[edit] Weak Passwords

Sarge seems to have a habit of making weak passwords. (i.e. Making his password, "password" or the access code, "access code".) This annoys Simmons greatly.

[edit] Rank

As shown in chapter 4 of Red vs Blue Reconstruction, when the Meta forges the transmission to Red Base, in the right hand corner it says Sarge is a Staff Sergeant.

[edit] Trivia

• Sarge wields a shotgun at most times.
• He enjoys the pain of Grif
• A common speculation is that Sarge may actually be the creative AI Sigma, due to his ability to come up with elaborate battle plans and build robots and high-tech weapons from scratch. Another clue is that when killed from a headshot in the original Red vs Blue, he is teleported to a alternate "ghost" realm, and physically contacts Church. This has not been proven, however, as Sigma hasn't even been mentioned since Red vs Blue Reconstruction.

[edit] References

Red Team
Sarge · Dick Simmons · Dexter Grif · Franklin Delano Donut · Lopez the Heavy · Chupathingy · The Motorcycle