Lopez the Heavy

"¿Por qué usted me hace preguntas si usted nunca entiende las respuestas?"

- Lopez, referring to the others inability to understand Spanish in Retention Deficit

Lopez the Heavy (Lopez La Pesado in Spanish, as seen in Points of Origin)is a main character in Red vs. Blue and is voiced by the series' co-creator Burnie Burns. Lopez is a robot, built by Sarge and has a damaged speech unit, which allows him to only speak in Spanish. Lopez is also one of the few original characters to appear in the series, first appearing in Red Gets a Delivery. He's also been referred to as Señor El Roboto by Sarge.

Overview
Throughout the series, Lopez has been shown to be an efficient mechanic, as he was able to build a robot army in Defusing the Situation and a holographic chamber within seconds in Relocated: Part Three. Lopez is also shown to be a competent soldier, being able to fend off the Meta in The Installation and rescue Tucker from a Federal Army soldier in Fire. According to Rooster Teeth, Lopez wasn't intended to be a robot, as Burnie Burns states he was just a character who never talked and the idea of him turning out to be a robot came later so to add more comedy in the series.

Unfortunately, many characters cannot understand Lopez. Donut, however, thinks he can, but usually ends up saying the wrong thing, much to Lopez's frustration. The only characters who can fully understand Lopez are Sheila, Andy, O'Malley, Doc, Sister, Lopez 2.0, and Locus. Tucker can with the aid of a dictionary, although in Episode 33 he seems to understand him perfectly. Sarge understood him for a short time Relocated, however afterward he went back to not understanding him.

Misadventures of Blood Gulch
Lopez was created by Sarge at Blood Gulch using the robot kit that was sent to him by Command. Lopez made his first appearance in Episode 2 in which he drove the Warthog to the Red Team. After a quarrel with Blue Team, Lopez fixes the damaged Warthog with Sarge, until Tex attacks the Reds. Sarge and Lopez manage to capture Tex, but the Blues help her escape. Afterwards, a speech unit is sent from Command for the mute Lopez but Sarge damages it, causing Lopez to only speak Spanish. Lopez is then possessed by Church, who attempts to warn the Reds but fails to do so.

As a result, Church stays in possession of Lopez's body and has his team paint it blue. However, when Church accidently deactivates the leg motors, Caboose suggests that Church leave Lopez so he can fix the motors and Sheila. As a result, Church jumps out of Lopez, but the latter runs off. Lopez then notices the Reds' warthog heading towards him and is forced to activate it's remote self-destruct sequence to save himself. Feeling betrayed, Lopez agrees to help the Blues repair Sheila, and successfully does so.

Lopez and Sheila quickly fall in love with each other, causing tension for the Blue team. Church tries to possess Lopez again, but Tex intervenes. She explains that they must kill her A.I., Omega, and Church and Tex enter Caboose's mind to do so, while Lopez, Tucker, and Sheila convince the Reds to turn off their radios. The three are successful but O'Malley enters the medic, Doc. Afterwards, Lopez and Sheila decide to disband from both teams and build their own robot army. When they depart, the Blues discover a note from them stating to meet at the center of the canyon at 0600.

Alliance With O'Malley
At the time of the exchange, Lopez (now his normal armor color) and Sheila arrive at the center of the canyon, where Lopez becomes angered to see another robot being used against him. When he approaches the robots Doc/O'Malley kidnap Lopez and escape with him through the Red base's teleporter, forcing the Reds and Blues to work together. On Sidewinder, O'Malley installs a weather control device inside Lopez and has him use it against the Reds and Blues. However, a bomb inside Church's robotic body explodes. The result of the explosion destroys Lopez's body, leaving him as just a head.

O'Malley finds him at the beaches of Zanzibar and they move in to an abandoned fortress. When the Reds and Blues infiltrate the fortress, Lopez shoots and pins down the group, but Tex shoots Lopez's head off his turret. Lopez soon recovers and builds a robot army for O'Malley. Gathered on the beach, O'Malley commands the army to attack, but they move incredibly slow. As the army attacks they are bombarded with plasma grenades and destroyed. Saddened, Lopez mourns for his robot army, until he and O'Malley are ambushed by an Alien.

They survive the encounter with the Alien and, at some point, move into a new evil lair. Church suddenly calls them to find out what was wrong with Tucker, as he had recently became ill. When they arrive at Blood Gulch, O'Malley/Doc enters the Blue base to diagnose Tucker, leaving Lopez behind. Not long afterwards, the Reds reunite with Lopez and Sarge uses an override code to get Lopez to replay intel from Command. Because the recording is in Spanish, the Reds steal Andy, the Blue Team's bomb, to translate it. The Reds successfully translate the message, but find it to be completely useless.

The Reds then leave Lopez behind when Church shows up with Sheila, due to the trouble occurring at Blue base. Much later, Lopez is found in the caves by Doc and Sister, who inform him of Omega's disappearance. Suddenly Captain Flowers (infected by O'Malley) shows up with a Green Alien and captures Doc and Sister, but Lopez is left behind, again. In order to destroy the ship, the Reds bring Andy and Lopez back to the surface, where Lopez is finally reunited with Sheila (now in the ship). However, their reunion was short-lived, as the ship was subsequently blown up by Andy as Tex tried to escape in it.

Return to the Red Team
A year later, Agent Washington arrives in Blood Gulch, now almost devoid of soldiers, to find information about the Omega A.I. When Wash meets Sarge, the latter has Lopez, now with an entire body, provide him with the intercepted Blue Team relocation orders. Later on, Sarge receives the Meta's fake message and decides to go find Grif and Simmons. Lopez is suspicious about it, but allows Sarge to leave regardless, having already packed up his gear. Sarge then gives an emotional goodbye to Lopez before departing, leaving Lopez alone in the canyon. While alone, he allegedly manages to kill Sister, winning Blood Gulch for the Reds.

After the teams relocate to Valhalla, Sarge calls Lopez over to help him build an EMP-powered Warthog. Lopez then immediately shows up and gets to work. Shortly afterwards, Lopez informs the Reds of his completed work: a holographic simulation chamber, which Sarge uses to test the new design for the warthog. Inside the chamber, the Reds soon discover Donut, who informs them that he needs help, before going comatose. Later on, Sarge and Grif decide to go with Caboose on his mission to rescue Tucker, leaving Lopez, Simmons, and Donut at Valhalla.

After Simmons convinces Lopez to build him vehicles to go help the others, Lopez builds two Mongooses for him, but Simmons immediately crashes one and takes the remaining to Blue base. However, he quickly returns after seeing the Meta and the two arm themselves with large weapons to fend him off. As the Meta prepares to kill Simmons, Lopez uses a missile pod launcher to stop him and the two then retreat inside the base. Donut regroups with them and the three defend the base, but realize that they're out of ammo. Believing that the Meta arrived in a hidden vehicle, the Reds initiate their plan to capture it. As the Reds run out to find it, they discover the Meta's cloaked warthog but are unable to start it.

The three then spot the Meta approaching them and run in front of the jeep to face him; when suddenly Washington appears. However, the latter doesn't fight the Meta, but instead demands the Reds hand him the Epsilon unit, with Simmons realizing the two are working together. Impatient, Washington shoots Lopez in the face, rendering him inactive. As time passes, the Red's return to Valhalla, where Sarge and Simmons witness Lopez being used as a scarecrow by Donut, in order to keep birds away from Donut's garden.

Stranded On Chorus
As time passes, Lopez is reactivated as a head, when Donut receives a distress call from the Reds and Blues. Donut brings Lopez and Doc along with him to rescue the group, but has the pilot depart, stranding them there with the teams. While there, Lopez encounters Lopez 2.0 and the two robots stick together. After they are approached by a mysterious soldier, who tells them to hold on until he can get them out of the jungle, Lopez 2.0 tries to warn Sarge. However, Lopez tells the latter to give up as Sarge will never be able to comprehend and proceeds to tell his story with the Reds to him. When Sarge calls over Lopez 2.0 to help him, Lopez takes this opportunity to show Lopez 2.0 how to insult Sarge in Spanish, prompting Lopez 2.0 to do the same.

Afterwards, the two are sent to repair C.C. where Lopez gets the idea that he and Lopez 2.0 take control of her in order to get revenge on the Reds and Blues. However, Lopez 2.0 betrays him and takes control of C.C. himself. When the Federal Army attack the group, Tucker enters the Red base and is held at gunpoint by one of the Feds. Fortunately, Lopez, having taken Lopez 2.0's body, kills the Fed and the two return to battle. Unfortunately, Lopez is quickly shot by a sniper and is rendered inactive. Despite their efforts, Simmons, Grif, Tucker, Caboose, and Felix are forced to retreat without the others, with Sarge, Donut, Wash, and Lopez being taken by the Federal Army.

After the battle, Lopez, Wash, Sarge, and Donut are sent to F.A.C. Outpost 37, where the latter three agree help the faction defeat the New Republic when Fed General Donald Doyle explains that the Feds are not the enemy. Lopez was revealed to be thrown in the garbage after his limbs stopped working. After Lopez is fully repaired by the Feds, he regroups with the others and the four prepare to rescue Tucker, Simmons, Grif, and Caboose. However, they unexpectedly run into them at the compound weeks later. They tell each other the truth behind why the rebels and Feds are fighting each other, and come up with a plan to end the war between the two factions.

Secrets Revealed
Suddenly, the compound is attacked by Locus and a group of mercenaries, prompting Lopez, Donut, and Sarge to investigate. After the Space Pirates destroy their Warthog, with Lopez narrowly escaping, they force the Blood Gulch Crew to stand down. As Locus prepares to kill them, Felix arrives and betrays the group, revealing that he and Locus used them as a means to cause further conflict in the Chorus Civil War, all due to their superior wanting the planet free of it's inhabitants. Fortunately, Carolina emerges from hiding, disguised as a mercenary, and uses a Teleportation Cube to escape with the group.

Arriving at a secret Forest Base, Carolina and Epsilon explain that their ship was purposely crashed on Chorus by the Space Pirates, who are mass-producing advanced versions of the ship's Freelancer equipment. Unable to contact their respective Chorus armies, the Blood Gulch Crew decide to analyze Grif's Suppressor, where they soon discover a connection between it and the Teleportation Grenades. At this point, Lopez brings up how Doc was teleported away by the cubes, but is misunderstood by the others. After the group discover that someone supplied the grenades on the ship, the Reds search for the ship's manifest at Crash Site Bravo while the Blues search the other half of the ship at Crash Site Alpha.

When both teams return, with the Reds obtaining the manifest, the group interrogate a space pirate named Zachary Miller, who teleported back with the Blues. During this time, Epsilon reveals to the Reds that the manifest is locked, due to Doc accessing it without clearance. After Wash and Carolina gain info from Zachary, more space pirates attack the base, forcing Wash to teleport the group to the fueling station, where he reveals that Freckles' storage chip contains a tracking device. After Epsilon removes the tracker, Felix and Locus contact the Blood Gulch Crew and offer them a first-class trip off Chorus. Distrustful of the two, the group are forced to decide on whether they stop the Space Pirates and save the Chorus armies or take the Pirates' offer and return home.

Going to War
It is later revealed that the crew chose the former, as they execute a sneak attack on the mercenaries at Radio Jammer Station 1C. There, Donut and Lopez battle a Space Pirate, who of which shoots Lopez's head off. Fortunately, Lopez, noticing he still has control over his body, gets up and knocks out the mercenary just before he attacks Donut, and resumes to reattach his head. After Felix reveals the Pirates' plans to Tucker, Lopez and the other Reds and Blues disable the radio jammer, allowing Epsilon to send Felix's recorded words from Tucker's helmet cam to the Feds and Rebels at Armonia, who finally learn secret behind the Pirates' involvement in the war. Because of this, Felix and Locus teleport away, vowing that they will return.

After the Feds and Rebels form a truce, they pick up the Blood Gulch Crew from the radio jammer station and thank them for their efforts. Regrouping at the New Republic HQ, the crew learn the true identity of Control: Chairman Malcom Hargrove. When the Chairman declares war on Chorus, the Blood Gulch Crew, Federal Army, and New Republic, accept.

Personality
Initially, Lopez showed great loyalty to the Red Team, until he was possessed by Church. When Lopez tried to escape back to the Reds they attacked him, believing him to be a Blue, leaving Lopez betrayed. With nowhere else to go, Lopez was eventually kidnapped by O'Malley and worked for him for a lengthy period of time. Throughout this period, Lopez's loyalty to the Reds diminished as he grew a more pessimistic view on things.

Lopez's personality has changed since his return to Red Team. He's no longer glad to take orders nor does he praise the Reds as a superior team, but instead questions the majority of the instructions given to him. He now has taken up the habit of making sarcastic remarks about most of the things people say to him, since nobody understands what he's saying and therefore don't realize he's insulting them. Nonetheless, he still follows Sarge's orders and assists the Reds and Blues, even having to save them at times.

However, due to the multiple traumas and disrespect he has received throughout the series, Lopez has developed a grim, apathetic view on life. By Season 5, he had seemingly given up the will to exist, and by Season 11, he had openly resigned himself to the misery the Blood Gulch Crew cause him. In a rare display of fear however, Lopez appeared extremely alarmed when he discovered Locus was in fact able to understand his insults (a first, as nobody up until then could genuinely understand him), begging the mercenary to not kill him.

Relationships
Lopez's relationships with most characters is strained due to the fact they can't understand him.

Spanish
As mentioned before, Lopez has a damaged speech unit that only allows him to speak Spanish, which prevents characters to understand him. Since then, he has used this to get away with insulting other characters when they think Lopez is supporting or praising them. However it has cost him dearly, such as when giving away important information or explaining a simple situation, characters misunderstand and misinterpret him. Despite this, Lopez has shown a desire to fix his speech unit in order to speak with others, as he was annoyed with Sarge when, instead of fixing it, he got an app that allowed him to make fart noises and thinks that if it wasn't broken he would be happier.

Lack of a Body
From Seasons 3 to 5, Lopez lost his body after being sent into the 'future'. This was a visual running gag as Lopez was able to perform actions that seem impossible in the state, such as making a robot army or firing a machine gun turret, and has confused several characters. He seems far more depressed as well without his body and often complained about it, as when he and Doc/O'Malley discovered the Red Zealot, he asked if they could simply take his torso and shoulders. This gag is later referenced in Season 9 when his Epsilon double becomes a head in Son of a Bitch. In Season 11 he once again appears as a head and states that unless the Reds are building him a new body he doesn't care what they say. When Lopez 2.0 transferred himself into Cyclops, Lopez took his body, but was shot and rendered immobile a few moments later, causing Lopez to yell "Seriously!? I just got this fucking body!" In Season 12, Lopez is shown to be be capable of controlling his body even after his head has been severed, as well as capable of re-attaching his own head.

Combat
Lopez has shown to be skilled with weaponry and tactics on several occasions. After Tex arrived he was able to aid Sarge in capturing her and (when he was only a head) was also able to use a turret to hold off the teams at Zanzibar. In The Installation, when the Meta attacks Valhalla, Lopez shows that he's proficient at combat by chasing the Meta away with a missile pod launcher and later helped Simmons and Donut defend the Red base against him. He was able to save Tucker from a Federal Army soldier. He later knocks out a mercenary, while headless, during a surprise attack on the Space Pirates at Radio Jammer Station 1C, saving Donut in the process.

Durability
Being a robot, Lopez can take serious injuries, that would kill any human, and live. This is best shown in Season 3, where Lopez was still functional as a head after the bomb in Church's body exploded. He's also survived several explosions and a sniper shot in the head by Tex as well. After Washington shot him in Think You Know Someone, Lopez was briefly rendered inactive until his return in Long Live the King, which he appeared once again as a head. However, he later transferred himself into Lopez 2.0's body, but was shot in the head again, this time by a sniper, and was rendered inactive.

He was later reactivated in The Federal Army of Chorus. During the Blood Gulch Crew's sneak attack on the mercenaries at Radio Jammer Station 1C, Lopez's head is shot off by a mercenary. However, unlike before, he still had control over his body and put his head back on after knocking out the merc.

Mechanical Engineering
Following his creation, Lopez has built and repaired many objects, such as Sheila, the "EMP" Warthog, the motorcycle, the Hologram Chamber and two Mongooses. It's shown that without his body, Lopez was able to create an entire army of robots for O'Malley/Doc. He has also learned to make two of every vehicle for Red team, as one will undoubtedly be broken (as exemplified with Simmons' near-instant destruction of a Mongoose).

Kills
Though not shown, Lopez states that he killed Sister prior to coming to Valhalla in Relocated: Part Three. In Fire, Lopez kills a Federal Army soldier with his pistol, saving Tucker.

Trivia

 * Lopez's primary objectives, according to In Stereo Where Available, are:
 * Fix everything.
 * Hate the orange one.
 * Call mom more often.
 * Lopez's ability to speak Spanish is almost always flawed, and many times what he says does not match the captions on the screen. This could have been added on purpose for comedic effect for those who know Spanish, and/or to mimic a digital translator which frequently contains the same translation errors.
 * The Spanish is revealed to be translated by Babelfish in The Blood Gulch Chronicles, and by Google Translate in the Recollections, the Project Freelancer Saga, and the fourth saga.
 * Lopez speaks Spanish formally, saying "Usted," the formal version of 'you'.
 * Lopez's Spanish dialogue did not have subtitles in Season 1 until he was possessed by Church. He would never be without them afterwards.
 * When Lopez is just a head, he is able to build a Robot Army, but, surprisingly, is unable to build a body for himself.
 * Lopez was also able to transfer himself into Lopez 2.0's body, but still unable to build one for himself.
 * It is unclear when Church talked to Lopez and Sheila during the time loop in Season 3, as it happened after Sheila was repaired but before Grif was ran over, but as soon as Sheila was fixed, Tex came back and Lopez and Sheila immediately went to Red Base, with no time in between where they could have held a casual conversation.
 * Lopez is the only member of the Red Team who did not appear in Revelation in any way. Although, he was mentioned in Drink Your Ovaltine.
 * In Relocated: Part Three, Lopez was depicted with a CQB chest piece. However, in Part Four and every other episode following, his configuration was changed to the default Mark VI chest piece.
 * In the Halo 4 engine, after transferring himself to Lopez 2.0's discarded body, Lopez' armor configuration consists of a Mark VI helmet, Defender shoulders, Stalker torso, XV-27 Shifting forearms and LG-50 Bulk legs. Aside from Caboose's helmet, this makes him the only member of the Blood Gluch Crew to have a unique armor configuration.
 * Out of all the robots introduced in the series, Lopez has lasted the longest, first appearing in Red Gets a Delivery and still being currently active by Season 12.
 * Due to his romantic interest in Sheila, Lopez is one of the few non-evil A.I.s that Caboose never tried to befriend.