Lavernius Tucker

"Bow Chicka Bow Wow!"

- Tucker in Familiar Surroundings

Private First Class Lavernius Tucker is a main character in Red vs. Blue. He is voiced by Jason Saldaña and is one of the members of the Blood Gulch Blue Team. Tucker, along with his teammate Church, debuted in Episode 1.

Overview
Tucker's personality seems to be immature, perverted, and sarcastic, showing his obsession for women as well as making jokes at any opportunity. Although he is the highest ranking army official on his team, he allows others to take command, such as Church. Later in the series, he finds the Great Weapon, which led him to become impregnated by an Alien, giving him a son named Junior. When he returned in Recreation, he is shown to be (slightly) more mature and skilled, due to the fact that an alien race chose him to be their hero.

Misadventures in Blood Gulch
Tucker is first seen with Church spying on the Reds, where the two discover the team's new Warthog. When a rookie named Caboose arrives at Blue base, Tucker and Church order him to wait for the "general", but this action results in Donut stealing the Blue Flag. Tucker and Church, as a result, go after him, with Tucker using the teleporter. When he exits through the other end, however, his armor becomes covered with black material. Because he thinks Donut is initially Sarge because of his red armor color, and Donut calls himself 'Private,' Tucker thinks that he has been sent back in time, but Church corrects him. Grif and Simmons then come to Dount's aid with the warthog and trap Church and Tucker behind a large rock.

Caboose manages to fend off the Reds in Sheila, the tank, but kills Church in the process. Tucker later calls Vic for back-up, and the latter agrees to send Freelancer Tex. Church returns as a "ghost" and warns Tucker not to let Tex get involved. Tucker does not heed Church's warning, and later becomes very frightened by Tex. When she is captured by the Reds, he and Caboose act as a diversion, while Church, as a ghost, rescues Tex. Afterwards, Tex attacks the Reds, but is "killed" by Donut, so Tucker decides that he and Caboose return to base, in which Caboose refers to himself as O'Malley.

A few months later, Tucker and Caboose help Church fit in to his new body. A medic, named Frank DuFresne, soon arrives at Blue base and checks on the team's status. Suddenly, the Blues and Doc are ambushed by the Reds, which results in the two teams making an exchange: the Blues give up Doc as a hostage, and the Reds embarrass Grif. After the ambush, Tucker spots a switch on Church's body and reluctantly flips it, but the action causes Church's body to beep. Caboose and Tucker manage to stop Church's beeping but inadvertently shut down his leg motors. Caboose suggests that Church leave his body so Lopez can fix the leg motors as well as Sheila. Tucker and Church agree and Church leaves Lopez, but the latter escapes.

As Tucker and Caboose run after Lopez, Lopez is attacked by the Reds, causing the latter the blow up their warthog in order to save himself. Lopez, feeling betrayed, helps the Blues fix Sheila but he is then possessed by Tex. Tex makes a plan with the Blues to kill O'Malley and Tucker is left with the responsibility to get the Reds to shut off their radios. Tucker successfully does so, with the help of Sheila and Lopez, but O'Malley infects Doc. After Sheila and Lopez defect themselves from both teams, due to poor treatment, Tucker and Caboose capture Donut and use him to make a deal with the Reds.

Finding the Great Weapon
During the deal, in Episode 38, Tucker discovers that Red and Blue teams are controlled by the same Command when he accidentally overhears a conversation between Sarge and Vic. Before he could divulge the information, Tucker is blasted and injured, while O'Malley, now possessing Doc, kidnaps Lopez. After O'Malley takes Lopez through a teleporter, Tucker remains behind unconscious while the rest of the Reds and Blues go into the teleporter to follow the enemy. Tucker wakes up later and goes through the teleporter with Tex and Donut.

When the Reds and Blues arrive at Sidewinder, Tucker inexplicably exits the teleporter covered in black stuff, which would save his life later when Freelancer Wyoming doesn't recognize him as his target. When the Reds and Blues confront O'Malley, Church's bomb is activated. Tucker attempts to destroy Church's robot body to save the others, but Wyoming snipes the launcher out of Tucker's hands. The bomb detonates and sends everyone but Church supposedly into the future. Later on, Tex regroups with the others and plans a raid on O'Malley's fortress. During the raid, Tucker discovers a sword and quickly uses it to dispatch the Red Zealot.

He takes a liking to the weapon and refuses to let anyone else use it. Afterwards, O'Malley makes a second attack with his extremely slow robot army. Tex knocks Tucker out and steals his sword, but is unable to use it. Tucker wakes up later by Church and finds the army of robots eliminated. When realizing that Tex didn't destroy the army, the Blues soon discover that an Alien was responsible. The alien informs them that only the first person who discovered the sword can activate it. So as a result, Tucker is forced to unwillingly join a quest as the sword is now joined to him. It is later revealed that the sword is actually a key to a hidden spaceship hangar. However, after the Alien enters the ship it is destroyed by Wyoming.

Pregnancy
After returning from the quest, Tucker falls ill for an unknown reason. While Church hypothesizes that it might have come from the sword, Andy, the Blue Team's sentient bomb, suggests poor personal hygiene. Doc performs a diagnosis on Tucker and comes to the conclusion that shocks the Blue Team: Tucker is pregnant. Andy later confirms that the Alien had the ability to impregnate a host with a parasitic embryo. Near the end of Episode 77, Tucker gives birth to a miniature alien creature and quickly falls comatose. When Tucker recovers, he is introduced to his son and reveals that his idea of an "ideal father/son relationship" is that of a divorced person with visitation rights.

From then on though, Tucker shows a little more compassion for it, naming it "Junior" and even defending it when Church insults it. He then aids Tex and Church in infiltrating the Red Base, but all three are cornered by Wyoming and his A.I. Gamma. Because Tucker becomes unaffected by Wyoming's Armor Enhancement of Time Distortion, he is able to predict and counter all of Wyoming's movements and save his fellow teammates. Afterwards, the Blues, and a sudden help from the Reds, manage to eliminate all of the Wyoming clones. However, Tex betrays them, knocks Tucker unconscious and steals his sword and Junior. After Tex and O'Malley escape with Junior, Gamma and the Green Alien in Sheila, Tucker and the rest of the Blues return to base.

Confronting the Dig Team
After the events of The Blood Gulch Chronicles, Tucker, along with most of the Reds and Blues, was relocated. During Reconstruction: Chapter 17, Grif discovers a distress signal from Tucker, and the latter tells him to deliver the message that they "Found what [they] were looking for, and it's under the sand". In Recreation, Donut tells Caboose that he found a distress signal from Tucker, saying to get help immediately. Tucker finally reappears in Well Hello, where he provides cover against the false excavation team to help Caboose, Sarge, and Grif.

He closes the temple door and explains the situation to Sarge, Grif, and Caboose. Tucker explains that both him and Junior, who also somehow survived the explosion, go around acting as ambassadors between humans and aliens whenever they find ancient technology. They came to the desert because of the energy source, but "C.T." showed up and killed the original dig team. He then tells the Reds and Caboose that they must destroy the weapon before C.T. and his men get to it, but Caboose activates the weapon and installs Epsilon. C.T. and his men soon break into the temple and C.T. steals Epsilon.

The Aliens then turn on the humans, believing Epsilon to be a god, and follow C.T., prompting the Reds and Blues to do so as well. The group find C.T. and start chasing him. Tucker flies over a hill in his Chopper and slashes C.T.'s jeep with his sword, causing it to explode. When C.T. flees Tucker goes after him, but the latter ambushes him from behind. Tucker asks who C.T. is working for, but C.T. doesn't reveal a thing. Just then, Epsilon flies up and kills C.T. with his laser. Afterwards, Epsilon begins having memory flashes and journeys to a facility with Caboose for answers, prompting the Reds and Tucker to follow.

Learning the Truth
Arriving at the Freelancer Offsite Storage Facility Tucker and the Reds fight against a recently revived Epsilon-Tex, but are defeated. Caboose then has F.I.L.S.S. deploy the soldiers with armor lock, but Epsilon quickly releases everyone. Epsilon soon leaves with Tex to a secret facility, while Tucker and Caboose stay behind. Later, when Caboose asks Sarge to help him rescue Epsilon and Tex after Epsilon's recovery beacon activates, Sarge makes a speech regarding each soldier's admirable qualities and admits that Tucker is a good soldier. This prompts everyone to go rescue Epsilon and Tex.

The group arrive at the facility on board a damaged pelican. After it crash lands, the teams regroup. Wash orders Tucker and Caboose to search inside the base for tools while the Reds are ordered to find anything that has power. Suddenly, the Meta attacks Wash and Epsilon, so Tucker and the Reds engage him in battle. Tucker manages to briefly fight the Meta off, but is knocked down. Fortunately, the Reds eventually kill the Meta by dragging him down a cliff with a Warthog.

Meanwhile, with the Tex trapped inside the storage unit, Epsilon follows her inside before it shuts down. Afterwards, the Reds and Blues are interrogated by UNSC Police, where Wash is revealed to have joined the Blue Team, after the group help him fake his death. When Wash asks why they are helping him, Caboose says that Wash helped them before and that they're just repaying past favors, while Tucker says it's because they're one man short on their team. Nonetheless, Wash thanks them for their help.

Conflict With Carolina
Some time later, Tucker went on a mission to rescue Epsilon from the UNSC Archives with the other Reds and Blues, along with Carolina. After the group successfully rescue Epsilon, they leave the archives and make a pit stop at Zanzibar. Epsilon is placed inside Tucker's A.I. slot for the trip and the two witness Washington run inside the facility, where he talks with Carolina. The two briefly spy on them, until Tucker blows their cover. Carolina threatens them to leave as a result. Tucker soon questions Epsilon about his memories about the A.I., and his difficulty determining which of his personalities they come from.

Afterwards, the group arrive back at the desert to find C.T., where the Reds propose a truce in order to discuss their concerns about Carolina. Epsilon states that they need to find out what Carolina isn't telling them, so the group decides to install Epsilon into Carolina's Mongoose. Carolina soon calls Tucker over to discuss the location of an artifact, which Tucker recognizes as Epsilon's former monitor. After Tucker explains that the monitor is at a Freelancer facility, Carolina decides to depart to an island, unknowingly taking Epsilon with her. When she returns, she tells the group that they are heading to Outpost 17-B.>

When the group arrives at Valhalla, Tucker angrily confronts Epsilon about his unusual relationship with Carolina. Epsilon tellls him that she is more complicated than they thought and he needs to stay close in order to find out information. When Carolina decides to leave, Tucker and Caboose speak with Epsilon again, infuriated at the fact that he has gathered no information. Epsilon tells them to back off, and finally decides to have a word with Carolina alone.

After talking to Carolina and accessing C.T.'s data chip, Carolina and Epsilon gather everyone in the Red Team's holographic chamber, where the final plan to kill the Director is discussed. However, the group refuses to help Epsilon and Carolina on their mission, due to their their attitudes towards them. When Carolina threatens to shoot Tucker after he refuses to follow her orders, Washington stops her by holding her at gunpoint. As the team is divided, Epsilon becomes furious and blames the teams for all of his problems in the past. Disgusted and hurt, Tucker, followed by the others, walks out on Carolina and Epsilon.

Rescue Mission
As the Reds and Blues continue their shenanigans, Doc reminds them on how much they have changed since they first met. Following Doc's speech, the Reds and Blues decide to go help Epsilon and Carolina, Tucker being the first to take action, but Wash reminds them that the mission will be dangerous. Sarge, however, tells Washington that despite their troubles with Freelancers, the Reds and Blues have always managed to overcome them because of their trust in each other. Wash, as a result, agrees to help.

Suddenly, a trio of UNSC Police Hornets surround the group and attempt to arrest them, but the Reds and Blues steal the Hornets and fly off to help Carolina and Epsilon. The group finds them being attacked by an army of robotic Tex drones and quickly come to the rescue. The group soon then go into battle against the army, but become overwhelmed. Epsilon successfully manages to shut down the drones and then tells the group that he and Carolina must complete the next task alone. After Carolina and Epsilon confront the Director, they decide to relocate the Reds and Blues to a place where they can call home. However, on their way back, the Reds and Blues crash land a pardoned ship in an unknown location and settle at their new makeshift bases as a result.

Shipwrecked
Soon afterwards, Caboose informs Tucker of Sarge's proposition for them, which ultimately leads to Sarge using the Blues' tank on Red base. After Wash regains the tank, he and Caboose return to Blue base to confront Tucker. When Tucker is confronted, Wash scolds him for allowing the Reds to use their tank and makes him perform exercises as a result. After performing several strenuous exercises, Tucker assists Wash in repairing the comm tower and questions why they haven't been found yet, explaining that the ship's GPS would have informed command about their crash. Reluctantly, Wash agrees with Tucker.

After their repairs, Wash and Tucker attempt to activate the radio, but do not prevail. When the Reds arrive to help, Lopez 2.0 manages to complete the comm tower's repairs, allowing the group get in contact with Donut. The group successfully explain their situation to Donut and tell him to call command for help. After Donut agrees, the Reds and Blues rejoice until Caboose arrives to introduce his "pet" Freckles. Back at Blue base, Tucker and Wash get acquainted with Freckles and question why he is considered a Mantis. As Wash leaves to check their food rations, he orders Tucker and Caboose to continue training.

While training, Tucker spots Grif and Simmons spying on them. Wanting to see Wash's methods, Simmons joins the Blue Team, but when Wash returns he questions Tucker on why Simmons is at Blue base. Fed up with constantly being blamed for things, Tucker begins a heated arguement with Wash, resulting in Caboose mistakenly taking the leadership position of Blue Team. Suddenly, the Reds attack in an attempt to rescue Simmons, but Freckles destroys their Warthog. As things heat up, Donut suddenly arrives with Doc and Lopez and informs everyone that they were dropped off. Realizing that Donut allowed the pilot to leave, the group attacks him.

Stranded
With Caboose now the mistaken leader, Tucker is ordered to repair the comm tower, but ultimately fails to do so. As he returns to Blue base, Simmons asks Tucker about the base's grav lift, in which Tucker informs Simmons that because the base is directly under the ship, they have limited access to its power supply.

Personality
Smart-aleck, sarcastic, rude, prone to juvenile humor and obsessed with women, Tucker has many characteristics of an unruly teenager. Like Grif, he had an extreme aversion to combat and work. Although he sometimes lacks prudence and common sense, Tucker has become somewhat smarter as the series has progressed. In Season 3, when the group try to tell him that the present is destroyed and they're in the future because Church was facing forwards when the bomb went off, Tucker pointed out that we're always in the present and that you can only face forwards. He has since become more mature and trustful, always coming to join the battle to help his allies.

Relationships
Tucker has developed many relationships with other characters in the series.

Ethnicity
In Episode 54, when Tucker reveals his first name as Lavernius, Church asks whether Tucker is black. Tucker asks why and acts insulted that Church never learned his first name, deflecting any additional questions. Caboose later refers to Tucker as "the other black one" - the first being the black-armored Tex - and refers to Andy as an Explosive-American, leading Tucker to angrily ask if he is being made fun of. When Tucker's armor is covered in black stuff in This One Goes to Eleven, Tex punches him and "knocks the black off him." Tucker can be heard replying, "That's racist."

Sniper Rifle
Due to the scarcity of the sniper rifle, Tucker has never been able to use one. He was originally supposed to get one ordered from Captain Butch Flowers, but because of the captain's death, the order was never placed, ironically because Church accidentally killed Captain Flowers with Aspirin. 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. During Episode 94 Tucker begs Church to use the sniper rifle; Church agrees to Tucker's request in exchange for his sword. Tucker then displays his unfamiliarity with the device by unloading a round into Tex's ass, and manages to switch weapons again before she catches him which makes Tex blame Church.

Teleporting
Whenever Tucker goes through a teleporter, he always emerges with his armor covered in "black stuff", which appears to be soot. 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. 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. It is uncertain why this happens to Tucker only later in the series.

Tucker's Rock
It is implied several times throughout the series that Tucker either frequently masturbates around or has had sex with a rock. In Season Two, when Tex reappears, Tucker asks if she watches the team while they are alone, and the camera flashes to a boulder spray-painted "Keep out! Tucker's rock!" to which Tex responds that Tucker should be very ashamed of himself. During Tucker's pregnancy in Season Four, Caboose offers to guard a rock from Tucker, because he thought "that's how this whole thing got started." In Recreation, during an argument with the Reds, Grif tells Tucker "You had sex with a rock!" to which Tucker replies "Your sister's name is Rock?"

In Season 11, Tucker yells to Wash "I'm going to spit in your next meal! And it's not going to be spit, if you know what I'm talking about!"

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 is "Hey good idea, and the next time Caboose decides to go team killing you can take that one." 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.

Bow-Chicka-Bow-Wow
Tucker had the sudden urge in Season 4 to start using this phrase, "Bow-Chicka- Bow-Wow", and has continued to use it throughout the series. The phrase has garnered much popularity and has been variated by other characters and in many ways; most of which by Tucker himself. This quote was also voted to be Tucker's most memorable quote by fans in The Best of Red vs. Blue Awards special.

Recovery
Tucker has been shown to survive brutal punishment, such as when he was struck by a rocket and quickly made a full recovery all by himself. After the Alien attacks him in Episode 63, he also makes a quick recovery. In This One Goes to Eleven, Tucker seemed to be the most capable in fighting Tex, as her attacks were not that much of a problem for him and he actually joked most of the time while she was hitting him, though he was left semi-conscious on the floor repeatedly before making a speedy recovery.

Swordmanship
Although Tucker was initially reluctant to do battle and was willing to always stall his involvement in fighting before Recreation, Tucker was shown to be something of a capable fighter, able to quickly kill a Zealot with his sword and well-trained Wyoming clones with both his sword and his sniper rifle. In Recreation it is shown that Tucker has become a remarkable fighter, able to take on a large group of heavily armed soldiers and aliens all by himself.

It is clear from C.T's attitude towards him that Tucker has proven to be a formidable opponent. He was even able to blow up C.T.'s jeep with a single strike from his sword. In n+1, he took on the Meta and managed to stab the Meta with his sword straight in the chest, though this didn't seem to affect him. It also appeared that his main basis in attacking with the sword were the words "swish, swoosh" or "stab". In True Colors, he manages to eliminate several Tex drones with his sword, but does not make any witty comments while fighting.

Kills
Tucker has killed many enemies using his energy sword, such as the Red Zealot, Wyoming, and the Tex drones. He was also able to kill several Wyoming clones using the sniper rifle and he possibly killed some of C.T.'s men.

Trivia

 * Up until Episode 54, Church never knew Tucker's first name.
 * As shown in Season 4 when teaching Crunchbite English, Tucker has horrible handwriting.
 * Tucker has developed both superb eyesight and hearing in Season 5. While at Blue Base, Tucker, without the use of the sniper rifle, is able to clearly identify the new yellow soldier at Red Base as female. Additionally, he is inside Blue Base when he overhears the discussion between Church and Tex, who were far away from the base at that time. (Tucker claimed to have developed his eyesight after not being able to use the sniper rifle in so long).
 * Tucker is superior in rank to Church, although he clearly has no problems with Church as the Blue leader.
 * Tucker's armor wasn't originally his. He stole Captain Flowers' armor after he died when Church's negligent attempt to save his life actually killed him.
 * During his converstion with Carolina in Out of Body, Tucker did not seem to know the color of his armor, (calling it "greenish-blue", "aqua-marine", and "turquoise") despite the fact that he once correctly called it "aqua" in Previous Commitments.
 * When the series moved onto the Halo 2 engine, Tucker's armor color was changed to teal as aqua was not a selectable color. However, aqua returned in later games, allowing Tucker to have his original color.
 * Paul Demarco, from Halo 4's Spartan Ops, has shown some similarities with Tucker, the most notable traits being his womanizing attitude and skill with the Energy Sword.