Tucker (Red vs. Blue)

infobox RvB character


caption=Tucker as seen when using the "" and "Halo 2" engines respectively.
name=Tucker
fullname=Private First Class Lavernius Tucker
affiliation=Blue
color=Cyan
voice_actor=Jason Saldaña
first_appearance=1

Private First ClassRooster Teeth Productions (2005). Character profiles. In "rvbep|season 3|Red vs. Blue Season Three" [DVD] . Buda, Texas: Rooster Teeth Productions.] Lavernius Tucker is a main fictional character in the machinima science fiction comedy video series "Red vs. Blue". He is voiced by Jason Saldaña. Tucker is one of the members of the Blood Gulch Blue Team, and, along with his teammate rvbchar|Church, debuted in rvbep|1.

Role in the plot

Born in Detroit,Rooster Teeth Productions (2005). Character profiles. In "rvbep|season 3|Red vs. Blue Season Three" [DVD] . Buda, Texas: Rooster Teeth Productions.] Tucker has been in Blood Gulch the longest of the main Blue Team members - Church joined him and rvbchar|Captain Flowers after the massacre on Sidewinder. This loss of another base resulted in three Blues remaining in Blood Gulch, as Tucker and Flowers previously intended to pull out.Rooster Teeth Productions (2005). Character profiles. In "rvbep|season 3|Red vs. Blue Season Three" [DVD] . Buda, Texas: Rooster Teeth Productions.] After Flowers's death, Tucker took his cyan-colored armor for himself and apparently allowed Church to assume command.

Throughout Season One, Tucker poses as a supporting character to the rest of the cast, owing to his aversion to work; the plot would focus only on him for the sake of a joke, some of which become running gags (see below). This continues in Season Two, until he is ordered by Church and rvbchar|Tex, a mercenary and Church's ex-girlfriend, to interfere with the Reds and their radios while they conduct a mission to destroy a renegade AI named rvbchar|O'Malley. Tucker is thus forced to use his own initiative for the first time.

Not long after, in rvbep|38, Tucker discovers that Red and Blue are controlled by the same Command when he accidentally overhears a conversation between the Red Team's rvbchar|Sarge|sergeant and their contact rvbchar|Vic, who is also the Blue's contact, though this revelation is dismissed by everyone else. Tucker was then knocked unconscious before he could divulge the information. Vic contacted Sarge and told him that Tucker would make things up about the respective armies. Sarge believing Vic, told that to the other Reds. Church, too, does not believe the claim, as he believes Vic to be the one who invented the story, though Tucker maintains the belief regardless of what the others say. Nonetheless, Vic convinces O'Malley to kill Tucker so the information cannot spread; to that end, O'Malley hires a bounty hunter known as rvbchar|Wyoming.

During a raid on O'Malley's fortress, Tucker discovers a sword which he immediately puts to good use, dispatching the rvbchar|The Red Zealot|Red Zealot. He takes a liking to the sword and refuses to let anyone else touch it. In rvbep|64, after the Blues befriend an rvbchar|Alien, it informs the Blues that only the first person who discovered Tucker's sword can activate it. Even though the Alien had originally come to claim the sword for itself to fulfill its sacred quest, Tucker is forced to unwillingly join the quest as the sword is now joined to him. It is later revealed, to his disbelief, that the sword is actually a key to a gate to a spaceship, which is soon destroyed with the alien inside.

In rvbep|73, after returning from the quest, Tucker falls ill for an unknown reason. Caboose thinks that Tucker might have contracted the disease from a swamp, while Church hypothesizes that it might have come from the sword, and rvbchar|Andy, the Blue Team's sentient bomb, suggests poor personal hygiene. Doc performs a diagnosis on Tucker and comes to the conclusion that he is pregnant, which Church does not believe. However, Doc's diagnosis proves correct, and Andy confirms that the Alien had the ability to impregnate a host with a parasitic embryo. Near the end of rvbep|77, Tucker gives birth to a creature that immediately speaks a language similar to the Alien's in a high-pitched tone.

For the first few episodes of rvbep|season 5, Tucker is comatose, finally waking up in episode 82. In rvbep|84, upon meeting his "baby" it is revealed that his idea of an "ideal father/son relationship" is that of a divorced person with visitation rights. From then on though he shows a little more compassion for it, naming it "Junior" and even defending it when Church insults it. He then aids Tex and Church when they infiltrate the Red Base, and all three are cornered by Wyoming. In rvbep|98, Tucker begins to act strangely, asking how he and Church are being held hostage by Wyoming and a rvbchar|Gary-possessed tank (which arrived during the previous episode). It is revealed that Wyoming has been using his A.I's power to loop time, but only Tucker seems to realise while other characters get a sensation of déjà vu (he says later his understanding of the time loops comes from the sword). After three (recorded) loops, Tucker stabs Wyoming from behind with his sword, killing him. He and Church escape into the basement where they encounter seven other Wyomings (similar to when Church was stuck in a loop). But still knowing the events that will occur, Tucker helps Tex and Church hold off the Wyomings until the Reds save them, and downloads Gary into the ship, where he is placed behind a firewall by Sheila.

In rvbep|100 he and Church attempt to stop Tex from chasing O'Malley but Tex knocks out Church and O'Malley jumps into Caboose's mind. Church tells Sarge and Tucker to disable the ship so Tex can't use it and Sarge immediately gets Andy to blow it up. When Church knocks O'Malley out of Caboose Tex knocks Tucker out and steals the sword. Tucker is then talking to Capt. Flowers who melodramatically pauses about his vital info before being shot. In the canon ending to episode 100, Tucker is only seen in the background talking to Sister while Church and Caboose converse.

After the conclusion of the Blood Gulch Chronicles, Tucker is transferred out of Blood Gulch to another location, like much of the main cast. His current whereabouts are unknown.

Characteristics

Sarcastic, rude, prone to juvenile humor, and obsessed with women, Tucker has many characteristics of an unruly teenager. In the third season, Church asks him his first name; he replies, "Lavernius", causing Church to wonder whether he is black. Church thinks he should have picked up on his race earlier, Tucker is more upset that his long-time team mate did not know his name. Tucker claims to be a virgin in the non-canonical ending to episode 100, in a bid to get rvbchar|Sister to sleep with him before they die, although in episode 65, when Church asks him if he has kids, Tucker responds with "Probably". Like Grif of the red team, he has an extreme aversion to combat and work, and often complains and tries to stall when ordered into battle. Although he sometimes lacks prudence and common sense, which leads him to jump to conclusions, Tucker has become somewhat smarter as the series has progressed. He has conceived a few decent plans and enjoyed a couple of heroic moments, one of the most notable being in rvbep|99, when he concocts a plan to get Gary out of the tank by trapping him within a firewall.

Running gags

"Bow Chicka Bow Wow"

Whenever Tucker hears a double entendre, he says his catchphrase, "Bow Chicka Bow Wow!", mimicking the musical style of 80's porno films. The first instance of this was when he interrupted Church's attempt to explain how he was knocked out in Episode 58. Rather than contribute anything, he repeatedly inserted sexual innuendos, followed by saying "Bow Chicka Bow Wow!" in a singsong voice. After this point, Tucker would say "Bow Chicka Bow Wow" whenever anyone made a double entendre, intentionally or not. This greatly annoys his teammates, especially Tex. Over time, this ability has developed to the point where he can hear a double entendre from great distances away, running in to drop his catchphrase, even interrupting the title sequence of episode 69 to deliver it. It is also apparently genetic, as Tucker's alien child also seems to be able to deliver the catchphrase as "Bow Chicka Honk Honk", a mixture of the phrase and the aliens own native language at the age of three days. Near the end of the series, Caboose attempts to deliver the catchphrase in Tucker's stead, but mangles the phrase as "Hey Chicka Bum Bum!" to Tucker's annoyance.

niper rifle

Due to the scarcity of the sniper rifle, Tucker has never been able to use one. This gag began in the first episode of the series, when he is berated by Church for questioning him about the activity of the Reds; Tucker's response is one of irritation as Church has a sniper rifle and he, Tucker, does not. This gag is repeated numerous times throughout Seasons One and Two, eventually being phased out in Season Three after he accidentally discovers the sword during the attack on O'Malley's base. After using the sword to kill the Red Zealot, he declines an offer by Tex to trade his sword for her sniper rifle. The gag is mentioned early in Season 5, where it is demonstrated he has excellent eyesight, on account of he "never get [s] to use the fucking sniper rifle". During rvbep|94 Tucker begs Church to use the sniper rifle, which he does. Tucker then displays his unfamiliarity with the device by shooting Tex, and gives it back in time for Church to get blamed for it and hit by Tex. In Episode 98, Tucker stabs rvbchar|Wyoming with his sword during the third time loop and claims his sniper rifle, which he uses to coax Caboose to get out of the way from being shot by Gary. In the following episode, Tucker uses it to fight off the army of Wyomings. He kills a lot of them with headshots, even from close range.

Teleporting

Whenever Tucker goes through a teleporter, he always emerges with his armor covered in "black stuff", which appears to be soot. Apparently the experience is also painful. Barring a single occurrence involving Caboose in episode 14, this has never occurred to any of the other characters; he comments on this in Season Three, after noticing that none of the other characters have been coated with the "black stuff", exclaiming "Just me? What the fuck?" in confusion. Because of this black covering, however, Tucker's life is inadvertently saved, as Wyoming fails to recognize him in rvbep|42, a fact of which Tucker was unaware. This was briefly touched on in episode 89, when Church mentions rebooting several devices to repair them, listing the teleporter as one, and Tucker expresses his concern that this was not really successful.

Being knocked out

Tucker also has an unlucky tendency to get knocked unconscious. Having been knocked unconscious by friend and foe alike, he suggests to Church that they should rotate knock-outs in Season 3, although Church's response reminds Tucker that he, at least, has not been killed yet, and Tucker retracts the suggestion. The Rooster Teeth Team have asked Jason Saldaña how many times he has had to say, "Oh, what happened?", and jokingly remarked that Tucker for most of Season 4 can be summed up with moaning.Rooster Teeth Productions (2006). Audio commentary. In "rvbep|season 4|Red vs. Blue: Season Four" [DVD] . Buda, Texas: Rooster Teeth Productions.]

References