- "You bastards stay away from my men! If anybody is going to kill them, it's going to be me!"
- —Sarge in Fire
Sarge has developed many relationships with many characters in Red vs. Blue. He is rather attached to the Blood Gulch Crew (though he would deny it) which is especially apparent when the Federal Army attacks them.
Red Team[]
Sarge likes most members of the Red team (with the exception of Grif), but when making plans to go into battle or on a mission, they usually lead to most of his squad getting killed. However, he does seem to have some genuine care for them.
Grif[]
Sarge's relationships with his team members are often strained by his disregard for their safety, particularly Grif. Since the beginning of the series, Sarge has openly held a deep hatred towards Grif arguably outweighing that of the Blue Team. The reasons being extreme laziness, disrespect, insubordination, and arguably his very existence. 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. He even went as far as making one of Lopez's prime objectives is to hate him. Sarge has expressed his hatred for Grif on an uncountable number of occasions, including (but certainly not limited to):
- In Red Gets a Delivery, Sarge repeatedly tells Simmons to kill Grif, including slitting his throat in his sleep and poisoning his meal.
- At the ending of Check out the Treads on That Tank, the narrator announces someone will die in the next episode, with Sarge hoping it to be Grif.
- When coming up with a plan to besiege O'Malley's base in Season 3, Sarge told the Reds and Blues to line up in a single-file and charge, with the least important person (Tucker) at the front and the most important person (Sarge) at the back. When Grif points out that he's happy that for once Sarge hadn't placed him first to die, Sarge replied that he was saving him for blocking the giant windmill blades obstructing their path with his dead body later. Sarge's other plan for breaking into the fortress was to make a cannon out of Warthog parts and use it to launch Grif into the fortress.
- In You Can't Park Here, 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 Why Were We Here?, when Sarge was told that one of them may be infected by O'Malley/Omega, his first reaction was to execute his "emergency plan" which was to shoot Grif. When it's revealed it's Simmons who is infected by O'Malley/Omega, Sarge has Donut execute another of his emergency plans. This results in Donut shooting Grif, but Sarge says that Donut executed the wrong plan, to which Donut replies "Where am I gonna get a steam roller?"
- In Hang Time, it is stated that in the event that Sarge dies before Grif, he has recorded fifty-seven 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.
- In Out of Body, Sarge reveals that late at night he would go to the top of the base to look for a shooting star so he could wish for Grif's death and wrote a jingle about it.
- In Neighborhood Watch, Sarge attempts to "beat the living pulp out of Grif" to make "orange juice" as punishment for losing several parts to their new robot.
At the same time, there have been multiple occasions where Sarge would praise his comrades for an action and belittle Grif for the same one. This can be seen in Episode 15 when Sarge thanks Simmons for saving his life, but insults Grif upon hearing that he saved him. Also, in Biting the Hand, when the Reds discover a large television screen in the caves, all three Reds tell Sarge an obvious description of it, but Sarge only insults Grif's (who actually provides the most useful information).
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 (Sarge probably wanted to keep Grif alive until he got a chance to kill Grif himself). Also, in Episode 40, after becoming extremely annoyed at Caboose, Sarge says that he had never thought that he would reach the moment in his life when he would actually miss Grif, but there it was.
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 Caboose'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?"
In Revelation, Sarge's relationship with Grif seems to have improved slightly. Sarge claims he doesn't want to insult Grif's intelligence, agrees with Grif's ideas at several points, refuses to fire at the Meta while Grif was wrestling with him, treated Grif's apparent death at Sidewinder with indifference instead of happiness and relied on Grif to defeat Wash at Valhalla, then the Meta at Sidewinder.
The two seem to have developed some respect for each other, even if it is strained. Sarge seemed willing to listen to Grif, and will even follow his suggestions, and occasionally, even follow his orders at once. This was demonstrated during a battle on Chorus when Grif told the reds they were regrouping with Wash and Carolina, and Sarge simply said, "You just have to suck the fun out of everything, 'don't' you?", but never actively protested. Another example of the two showing respect to one another in the final battle in The End, where Grif displays an unusual level of bravado and defiance, to which Sarge chuckles at, and the team begins preparing for the final fight.
The two seem to have mended their relationship to a certain degree, and only seem to fight out of habit. It is unclear if any genuine hatred is felt between the two anymore.
Simmons[]
Sarge's relationship with Simmons is more peaceful, although it is also strained, akin to a somewhat dysfunctional father-son relationship. In one case, after Church had taken over Lopez's body, Sarge decided to make a cyborg out of one of the characters on Red Team—he chose Simmons, because he is the most faithful soldier and could never be turned against the reds. 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 (unintentionally) saved both Grif and Simmons from execution then recruited them for his "secret mission" from "command", which may indicate that he has forgiven them for their "betrayal."
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." Also, Simmons sees Sarge as a father figure hoping one day that Sarge will consider Simmons his son.
After the Blood Gulch Chronicles, Simmons slowly begins to believe that Sarge has no respect for him and begins to disobey several of his orders at times. However, Sarge does in fact have a high respect for Simmons' intellect and leadership qualities, saying that Command would have given Simmons his own squad a dozen times over, in Rally Cap.
It is also worth noting that Simmons knew of the Battle of Broken Ridge, and that it was Sarge's first major failure, meaning that Sarge must have told him about it at some point.
Lopez[]
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. Lopez also once stated he would instead die than listen to Sarge and rejoices initially after Sarge leaves in Reconstruction.
Donut[]
Sarge seems to like Donut, never directly insulting him and respecting him as a teammate. However, he is sometimes disturbed by his strange sayings and actions like other characters. Sarge also considers Donut to be the Grenadier of the Red Team and it shows how useful he can sometimes be.
In Recovering One, Sarge states that he misses Donut. In Season 10 when Donut is discovered living at Valhalla, Sarge points out that they seem to assume Donuts death a little too often. By Season 11, Sarge attacks Donut with the other Reds and Blues for his "rescue" attempt, being the one to shout "Kill him!". Though later Sarge seems to trust Donut enough to have him guard the base while the others go aboard the crashed ship.
Surge[]
Being Sarge's counterpart of the Blues and Reds, Surge gets along great with Sarge due to their similar personalities. Sarge even betrays his comrades and helps Surge imprison them during Season 15, though he quickly regrets this. After Sarge comes to his senses, Surge saw him as a traitor and attempted to kill him. However, Sarge saves Surge from falling to his death and gives a speech about honor, only to let go to salute and drops Surge to a painful death.
Blue Team[]
Sarge 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, but still treats them as enemies such as when he took the opportunity of breaking into the Freelancer base to delete all the Blue details from the system. However, by Season 11, he admits that he sees the Blues as true allies, but will still look for any excuse to go to war with them.
Caboose[]
Despite being on opposite sides and hating him out of principle rather than any personal grudge, Sarge is often shown to be on friendly terms with Caboose. His behavior towards the Blue Team soldier often times appears almost fatherly, especially whenever he recognizes Caboose is way in over his head. This has angered Simmons, who has told Caboose to stay away from Sarge, and even threatened to kill him in Reconstruction. This does not prevent Sarge from actively making attempts on Caboose's life however, whenever Sarge's perception of the Red vs Blue war takes control.
In Reconstruction, Caboose's willingness to sacrifice himself for Church impressed Sarge, who badgered Grif and Simmons about it. More often Sarge, like everyone else, just gets exasperated with Caboose's behavior, commenting during battling the Grunts that Caboose actually made him miss Grif. In Rally Cap, Sarge speaks out for those present during his speech, but can't think of anything meaningful or positive to say for Caboose, merely greeting him in a friendly manner.
Church[]
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 in Why Were We Here? Church in turn tends to regard Sarge as annoying more than anything else, though he believes the fact he leads the Red Team is for the best, as he does not consider him a good leader.
Epsilon[]
Sarge seems to have the same relationship with Epsilon that he had with (Alpha) Church. Even though the two don't get along or when Epsilon said the Reds and Blues are just a problem to him that he has to deal with, Sarge was willing to rescue him from mortal danger, such as in Rally Cap and Reckless.
Tucker[]
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. Although in Revelation, Sarge has told Tucker that he is actually quite good at being a soldier, despite his immaturity, showing that Sarge has some respect for him.
Tex[]
Sarge's relationship with Tex got off to a rough start when they first met, as Sarge knocked her out with his shotgun, leading Tex to insult him when she woke up and sarcastically asked if the Reds had ever seen a girl in Blood Gulch before. She also never showed any signs of concern about the fact that Sarge was nearly killed by Caboose. At the end of the Blood Gulch Chronicles, Sarge convinced Andy to blow up her ship, which lead to her being captured by the Meta. Much later in season 8, she fought the Reds and beat them all up. Despite this, 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.
Sister[]
Unlike her brother, Grif, Sarge does not seem to openly dislike or look down upon her, though does think she is a tramp. When she first arrived in Season 5, Sarge questioned her being in the army, as she was female, and asked if her gun "shot brownies". Also, when Sister went over to the Blue Team and was having a physical lead by Doc, he was not above seeing her naked and expressed some disappointment upon her getting redressed. In Reconstruction, he refuses to kill her, even though she was the final Blue left at Blood Gulch, simply because she was female. Sister thinks Sarge is old and gross.
Washington[]
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 to be an enemy. He later shows a degree of respect for Wash in the final episode of Reconstruction, though he still refuses to help him against the Meta. In Revelation, Sarge considers Wash an enemy just like his fellow soldiers, but accepts him as an ally without question in the finale.
He reacts indifferently when Wash becomes a member of Blue team, but starts to warm up to him, saying that despite that he's part of the Blue Team, "that Wash fella isn't too bad." In Change of Plans, Washington decides to stick with the Reds and the Blues instead of following Epsilon and Carolina to kill the Director. When Epsilon calls out that Washington's actions aren't surprising, Sarge steps in, finding that Epsilon's accusations are kind of cruel, showing that he has some respect for Washington.
When Washington got shot in Temple's underwater base, Sarge immediately ran out of cover with Caboose to kill the remaining Zealots, risking his life to save Wash before the freelancer bled out.
Freckles[]
The large robot frightens Sarge and makes him paranoid about the Blues possibly planning to attack them. During the Reds' poorly executed attack on the Blues, Freckles attacks Sarge, leading him to be infuriated and swear revenge on him. Freckles is mutually against him, seeing him as an "enemy soldier". Later on, Freckles develops a sense of sarcasm, as he dismisses a comment made by Sarge without threatening him.
Freelancers[]
Sarge generally hates them, as does all of his allies.
Meta[]
Sarge has had little interaction with the Meta, though in his brief encounters, he does seem to show a great dislike for him, seeing him as an enemy like the rest of the reds and blues. He assisted in fighting the Meta with Grif, Simmons, and Tucker during the final chapter of Revelation. Sarge even went as far as to fight him one on one. Sarge contributed to his death by tying him to a car that Grif and Simmons pushed off a cliff.
Carolina[]
Carolina sees Sarge as an idiot, along with the rest of the Reds and Blues, and Sarge shows great fear towards Carolina and her actions. Sarge also has a clear dislike for her, calling her "Miss Fussy-Britches" and bluntly refusing to sacrifice himself or his squad on account of her vendetta. However, he eventually comes to her rescue at the Freelancer Offsite Storage Facility, believing that she deserved a second chance.
A.I.[]
Omega[]
Sarge, like most others, sees O'Malley as a common enemy. When he was possessed by the A.I., Sarge became a more ruthless, sadistic military man who laughed at the idea of hitting his own soldiers, then demanded the world to "drop and give [him] infinity!"
Lopez 2.0[]
Referring to him as "Lopez Dos Point O", Sarge seems to treat Lopez 2.0 similar to his predecessor. Upon his activation, Sarge was delighted by Lopez 2.0's default Spanish language setting, seeing it as familiar. Because Lopez 2.0 didn't repair the radio tower immediately, Sarge and the Reds assumed that the robot was stupid. Unlike with Lopez, Sarge doesn't assume that everything Lopez 2.0 says is a compliment and instead dismisses everything he says as idiotic "yammering". Sarge also considers the new Lopez useless and says he's about as useful as a "box full of Grifs". Sarge also seemed surprised by 2.0's betrayal, as he was seen being chased by 2.0, while screaming at him to cease fire and, "No mas! No mas!"
Other[]
Doc[]
Sarge seems to hate Doc, believing he is annoying, with most of the Red team taking on this opinion as well. It is unknown if Sarge holds a grudge against Doc for crashing into him twice in the warthog or if he considers him a traitor, as Doc aided the group. In Season 11, Sarge seems to treat Doc better, but gives Doc an inane explanation about how even a pacifist like him has a "natural lust for murder."
He and Doc betray the Reds and Blues for the Blues and Reds, before defecting back for personal reasons.
Vic/Vic Jr.[]
It's shown in K.I.T. B.F.F. that Sarge relies on Vic to provide resources for his team. Sarge also blindly trusts Vic, as Sarge believes Tucker is lying about Red and Blue being the same simply because Vic told him so in Let's Get Together. When Sarge learns of his "future descendant", he treats Vic Jr. the same as Vic, despite Simmons stating Vic's family switched sides in Season 4 and later discovering Vic Jr. has been manipulating the two teams in Season 5.
Andy[]
Sarge 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. After Simmons suggest they use Andy to destroy the Pelican in Why Were We Here?, Sarge agrees and has Andy detonate, much to the latter's joy.
Felix[]
Although they haven't been shown to interact much, Sarge was excited when Felix told the Reds and Blues they were considered some of the galaxy's greatest soldiers in FAQ. However, when Felix revealed he manipulated them and works with Locus, Sarge angrily calls him a "dirty liar." Felix then taunts him by stating he only lied about the group's reputation being correct.
Locus[]
Sarge is shown to truly despise Locus, as in The Federal Army of Chorus he states Locus is "a numero uno dirtbag," for attacking them. When Locus confronts them about Freckles' fate, Sarge states that the latter's presence gives him an "itchy trigger finger". Locus tries to make him understand that his attack on the Blood Gulch Crew was only intended to capture them, but Sarge doesn't listen. In Cloak and Dagger, because Locus attempted to kill them it can be said that Sarge still hates Locus.
Boomstick[]
Sarge gets along really well with Boomstick over their mutual love of "the finer things in life" (shotguns). Sarge refers to Boomstick as "the son [he] never wanted," and Boomstick, in turn, refers to Sarge as "the pappy [he] never had." Boomstick reveals that his father had run out on him as a child to join the army and never came back. After hearing this, Sarge awkwardly backs away, leaving everyone except the oblivious Boomstick to ponder their connection. Interestingly, Boomstick also seems to share Sarge's pleasure for hurting Grif as throughout the special he shoots Grif with a brute shot and an assault rifle, blows him up with a tank and hits him in the head with the brute shot.