Church (Red vs. Blue)

infobox RvB character
name=Church


caption=Church's character profile images, taken from the rvbep|Season 3 and rvbep|Season 4 DVDs.
fullname=Private Leonard L. Church
affiliation=Blue
color=Cobalt blue
White (as an AI program)
voice_actor=Burnie Burns
first_appearance=1

Private Leonard L. Church is a main fictional character in Rooster Teeth Productions' machinima comic science fiction video series "Red vs. Blue". Voiced by Burnie Burns, co-creator and main writer of the series, he is the de facto leader of the Blood Gulch rvbchar|Blue Team, a group of soldiers engaged in a futuristic civil war against the rvbchar|Red Team. Rooster Teeth often uses Church, who has an irate disposition,Burns, "et al.", 2006, Audio Commentary, episode 76.] to advance the plot by managing the situation at hand.Burns, "et al.", 2003, Audio Commentary, episode 18.] To provide a twist in character development, Burns decided to kill Church early in the series and to return as a ghost. However, this posed filming and post-production challenges for the creators. The series is filmed by capturing video from computer and video games; Church has been filmed in four different games representing the three different eras of the story.

Role in the plot

Church first appears in rvbep|1, spying on the Red Team with his teammate, Tucker.Burns, "et al.", 2003.] The series establishes Church's disposition quickly; annoyed with Tucker's questions about the Red Team, he responds, "You know what? I fucking hate you." After rvbchar|Donut, the Red Team's new recruit, takes the Blue Team's flag in rvbep|4, Church chases him. However, in rvbep|8, rvbchar|Caboose, the Blue Team rookie, loses control of rvbchar|Sheila, the Blue Team's tank, and accidentally kills Church. Church reappears as a ghost in rvbep|10 to warn his teammates about Tex, the mercenary hired by rvbchar|Vic, the team's contact at Blue Command. Tex retrieves the Blue flag in rvbep|12 but is captured by the Reds. Church reappears and explains that Tex is his former girlfriend, now under the control of an evil, psychotic artificial intelligence. He rescues Tex in rvbep|14. However, to slow Tex's progress so that he can remove the AI from her head, he attempts to warn the Reds of Tex's second attack by possessing the Reds' Spanish-speaking robot, rvbchar|Lopez , in the season finale, rvbep|19. However, he fails, and Tex dies at Donut's hands.

In rvbep|season 2, set three months later, Church is still attempting to adjust to his stolen robot body. Eventually, however, he loses control after the body is damaged and he leaves it, to see if Lopez will repair himself. At the end of rvbep|29, Tex takes control of Lopez's body. She uses it as a bargaining chip to convince Church to help her destroy her evil AI, O'Malley. O'Malley had possessed Caboose just before her death. When the team learns of this, Church and Tex remove him from Caboose's mind. In the process, O'Malley escapes into a medic named rvbchar|Doc. Using a captured Donut as leverage, Church forces rvbchar|Sarge, the Red Team leader to build permanent robot bodies for Tex and himself. However, Sarge installs a bomb inside Church's body.Burns, "et al.", 2004.] It explodes in rvbep|43 and sends all the characters into the future except Church, who is sent into the distant past. In episodes rvbep|50|50 and rvbep|51|51, Church travels to his recent past and attempts to prevent the events of the first two seasons. The situation is revealed as a predestination paradox, in which he causes not only the events of the first and second seasons, but also the death of his former captain, rvbchar|Captain Flowers|Butch Flowers. Eventually, Church manages to break the time loop and to travel forward in time to join the other characters.Burns, "et al.", 2005.]

Later in season 3, Church attempts to learn more about a prophecy from a computer, Gary, that he first encountered in the distant past. rvbep|57|Episode 57, the last of rvbep|season 3, ends as Church, unaware that a creature is approaching him, responds to Gary's knock-knock joke with, "Who's there?"Burns, "et al.", 2005.] rvbep|58 reveals that Church has been scared out of his body. After recovering his body, Church meets the rvbchar|Alien and learns about his quest, which involves Tucker's sword. After his teammates leave to help the Alien in his quest, Church returns to Blood Gulch in rvbep|68. He saves rvbchar|Simmons from execution by Sarge, assuming leadership over him. Church takes the Red Team's jeep before Simmons returns to the Reds. In rvbep|71, Church accidentally contacts rvbchar|Vic Jr. (Burns) via radio. This new character scoffs at the mention of Blue Command; as the episode ends, he says that he has much to tell, but the information is not revealed to the viewer.Burns, "et al.", 2006.]

After Tucker, Caboose, and Andy return to Blood Gulch in rvbep|73, Tucker becomes ill for an unknown reason, and Church calls Doc for help. In rvbep|76, Doc reveals that Tucker is pregnant, but Church refuses to believe him until he learns from Andy that the Alien impregnated Tucker with a parasitic embryo. Church then returns to the Blue Base to help Tucker. When the ship that Blue Command sends to Blood Gulch crashes, he claims it as his own, threatening the Reds with Sheila. However, Sheila abruptly leaves, forcing Church to abandon the ship.In rvbep|80 Church meets Junior for the first time, and quickly says that he should be killed. Believing the Reds may have reinforcements or weapons on the ship, he unsuccessfully attempts to contact Vic Jr.

Some time after, however, Grif brings over Sister who was the new recruit on the Red team, explaining that she is actually a Blue, and Church accepts her as part of the Blue team. Following this, Church, with Caboose and a newly-returned Tex in tow, attempts to fix Sheila by rebooting her; when turning her back on proves to be impossible, he makes the decision to move her into the ship.

While moving Sheila into the ship, Vic Jr. contacts Church and orders them to kill the Reds. Church sends Doc, Sister, and Junior through the caves as per the orders, and he infiltrates Red Base with Tex and Tucker. After a brief search of the base, they find it empty. Tex is contacted by Caboose and, after an unheard conversation, points her gun at Church demanding that O'Malley not move. Church quickly learns that Caboose and Sheila identified O'Malley as inside the Blue leader, which cannot be him as he was never officially promoted.

He then accurately guesses that the real host of O'Malley is a revived Captain Flowers. Church and Tucker proceed to battle bounty hunter rvbchar|Wyoming and hunt down O'Malley, but ultimately fails as O'Malley enters Tex's mind and takes off in a spaceship, which then explodes in rvbep|100. This episode also has several different endings in which Church has various roles.

After the conclusion of the "Blood Gulch Chronicles", Church is transferred out of Blood Gulch to another base, where he was the sole inhabitant for 14 months until rvbchar|Washington and Caboose arrived to ask for help on the matter of the Omega AI. Church is still much of a neurotic and initially refuses to leave until Washington mentions they found the crashed ship Tex took, and Church decides to go with them. After learning from a heavily-damaged Sheila on how the ship crashed, Church originally attempted to head over to the Valhalla Blue Base to see Tex's body, but was stopped short of this idea when Washington receives a distress signal stating that rvbchar|South and rvbchar|Delta are under attack by rvbchar|The Meta. After fighting it off, they pursue it to the windmill facility, where Caboose is injured and Church becomes a ghost to try and find out why he cannot wake up. He then finds a recording left behind by Delta which tells him to tell Washington that "Memory is the key." When Church relays the message, Washington informs him that they must return to command to reactivate Alpha. Upon returning to Valhalla, Church attempts to locate Tex's body. He manages to find her body, but cannot locate her ghost. Disheartened, Church leaves with Washington to infiltrate Project Freelancer. When they reach the Command center, Wash takes Church to locate his own AI, Epsilon. During the explanation, he reveals to Church why he was placed in backwater canyon, and then by himself, why he could possess others, why Church wasn't acting differently when Omega infected him, and why he agreed with all of Delta's explanations. He reveals to Church that he is not only an AI, but the Alpha itself.

At PAX 08', Rooster Teeth showed a preview of an upcoming animated Red vs Blue Series with Grif, Simmons, and Church.

Characteristics

From the outset, Rooster Teeth establishes that Church is often angry. Burns has said that, in this way, Church was modeled after Gustavo Sorola, who voices the character rvbchar|Simmons; at the time, Sorola was frustrated with his job.Smith.] To emphasize this trait, Caboose, for whom Rooster Teeth did not have a plan originally, was basically "a catalyst for getting Church pissed off."Burns, "et al.", 2003, Audio Commentary, episode 4.] When Church and Tex explore Caboose's mind as ghosts, Caboose's mental image of Church, Leonard, is portrayed as over-the-top, vulgar, and Caboose's best friend. During season 1, Rooster Teeth made a conscious decision to reduce vulgarity in "Red vs. Blue", partly inspired by "Homestar Runner"Burns, "et al.", 2003, Audio Commentary, episode 16.] and partly in response to requests to make the videos safe for work. However, response to this change was worse,Burns, "et al.", 2004, Audio Commentary, episode 20.] and Leonard's excessive vulgarity was Rooster Teeth's response to criticism that they had eliminated too much foul language.Burns, "et al.", 2004, Audio Commentary, episode 33.] In the audio commentary for the season 4 DVD, Rooster Teeth has noted, however, that they had portrayed Church as less angry in later episodes. Church expresses great sorrow when Caboose was killed by Gary and Wyoming in rvbep|98; Burnie Burns explains this as genuine sadness, although Matt Hullum notes it may be because Church never killed Caboose himself, [Episode 98 commentary.] and in Reconstruction Chapter IV, set after 14 months of isolation, Church greets Caboose by trying to kill him with sniper fire. He and Tex have had a prior relationship that is referenced through the run of the series and at times shows to still care deeply for her. He reacts with shock when Tex is initially killed by Donut in Season 1 and is left shocked by her death at the end of the Series, becoming speechless at what he witnessed. In chapter 16 of , it is revealed that Church is the Alpha AI, which is why Church wasn't affected by Omega, was assigned to out of the way military bases (Blood Gulch and High Ground), is able to survive without a body and always agreed with Delta. However, it has yet to be explained how he has memories prior to Project Freelancer, or why he had feelings for Tex. Additionally, an explanation of how Church is able to function as a supposedly fragmented A.I is yet to be found.

Filming

In the commentary for season 1 DVD, Burns recalls that he decided to have Church killed in episode 8 because he thought that having a dead character return as a ghost would give that character more personality.Burns, "et al.", 2003, Audio Commentary, episode 8.] Writing for the "Honolulu Star-Bulletin", Wilma Jandoc stated that this turn of events made it apparent that "Red vs. Blue" was no "normal army story."Jandoc.] However, this plot twist made filming more difficult. To achieve the transparency effect, Rooster Teeth filmed the scene once with Church and once without him. The video from the two takes was then dissolved together. However, this process caused other characters in the scene to appear transparent as well. To correct this, they had to be edited back in as fully opaque at the end.Burns, "et al.", 2003, Audio Commentary, episode 10.] Sometimes, Rooster Teeth forgot to shoot the second take before moving to the next scene. As it was nearly impossible to return to the exact camera position, this required the entire scene to be filmed twice more. Another complication was that dissolution worked poorly against certain backgrounds.Burns, "et al.", 2004, Audio Commentary, episode 29.]

Voice acting

When Burns decided to have Church possess other characters as a ghost, he debated whether he should attempt to sound like the character, or have the other character's voice actor attempt to sound like Church. When the possession occurs in rvbep|14, he found that having Hullum tweak his Southern accent normally used for Sarge was too complicated and thus attempted to sound like Sarge during the possession.Burns, "et al.", 2003, Audio Commentary, episode 14.] On the other hand, he found that attempting to mimic Donut's voice result in a voice too similar to the one used for Vic; as such, when he had Church possess Donut in rvbep|37, he merely used Church's voice.Burns, "et al.", 2004, Audio Commentary, episode 37.]

Other Rooster Teeth personnel have commented that some sound effects that Burns made while voicing Church were noticeably exaggerated. In commenting on rvbep|6, Geoff Ramsey, who voices the character rvbchar|Grif, noted the heavy breathing that Church makes while running.Burns, "et al.", 2003, Audio Commentary, episode 6.] Another sound that Rooster Teeth noted was a grunt made while jumping off a ledge in episode 33.

Notes

References

*cite video|people=Burns, Burnie (Writer, Director), et al|year=2003|title=Red vs. Blue Season One|medium=DVD|location=Buda, Texas|publisher=Rooster Teeth Productions
*cite video|people=Burns, Burnie (Writer, Director), et al|year=2004|title=Red vs. Blue Season Two|medium=DVD|location=Buda, Texas|publisher=Rooster Teeth Productions
*cite video|people=Burns, Burnie (Writer, Director), et al|year=2005|title=Red vs. Blue Season Three|medium=DVD|location=Buda, Texas|publisher=Rooster Teeth Productions
*cite video|people=Burns, Burnie (Writer, Director), et al|year=2006|title=Red vs. Blue Season Four|medium=DVD|location=Buda, Texas|publisher=Rooster Teeth Productions
*cite web|last=Jandoc|first=Wilma|date=December 5, 2004|url=http://starbulletin.com/2004/12/05/features/story4.html|title="Red vs. Blue" mines game for comedy gold|work=Honolulu Star-Bulletin|accessdate=2006-10-12
*cite web|last=Smith|first=Bryan|date=February 21, 2006|url=http://halogrid.com/download/burnieint.html|title=Burnie Burns Interview|work=HaloGrid.com|accessdate=2006-07-02