Lavernius Tucker

"Bow Chicka Bow Wow!"

- Tucker

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.

Misadventures in Blood Gulch
Tucker is first seen with Church spying on the Reds, asking "What are they doing?" every five minutes and regarding pimping out the Warthog and their own tank in hopes of picking up women. Later, when Donut steals the Blue Flag, Tucker and Church go after him, with Tucker using the teleporter and coming out of the other end some time later covered in 'black stuff'. Because he thinks that Donut is Sarge due to the red armor color, and Donut calls himself 'Private,' Tucker thinks that he has been sent back in time, only to be corrected by Church.

Later, Grif and Simmons come to Dount's aid with the warthog and trap Church and Tucker behind a large rock. When Church is killed, he seems more annoyed than sad. Later, when Tucker calls Vic for back-up, he accepts the "in an hour" solution and has Blue Command send for 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 go through the teleporters to turn their armor black so they could act as a diversion for the Reds while Church, as a ghost, goes to save Tex. When Tex goes to attack the Reds again, he and Caboose act as Church's eyes while he goes to warn the Reds, and is the first person to witness Caboose refer to himself as 'O'Malley'.

Into the Future
Not long after, in Episode 38, Tucker discovers that Red and Blue are controlled by the same Command when he accidentally overhears a conversation between the Red Team's Sarge and their contact Vic, who is also the Blue's contact. This revelation is dismissed by everyone else; Tucker was soon knocked unconscious, and before he could divulge the information, Vic contacted Sarge and told him that Tucker would make things up about the respective armies; believing Vic, Sarge told the other Reds the same thing. 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 the bounty hunter known as Wyoming. Tucker remains behind unconscious (after being shot by a rocket launcher) while the rest of the Reds and Blues go into the teleport and into O'Malley's trap. He wakes up later, and goes through the teleporter that was fixed by Donut under the supervision of Simmons. When the Reds and Blues arrive at Sidewinder, Tucker inexplicably exits the teleporter covered in black stuff, which would save his life later when Wyoming doesn't recognize Tucker as his target. When Church's bomb is activated, Tucker picks up O'Malley's rocket launcher to destroy Church's robot body. However, Wyoming meddles by sniping the launcher out of Tucker's hands (which would have never worked, as stated by one of the Church time-copies), and the bomb detonates, sending everyone but Church supposedly into the future.

Finding the Great Weapon
During a raid on O'Malley's fortress, Tucker discovers a sword which he immediately puts to good use, dispatching The Red Zealot. He takes a liking to the The Great Weapon and refuses to let anyone else touch it. Next thing they know, O'Malley, with his extremely slow robot army, attack, and the Reds make a run for it. Tex asks Tucker if she could borrow his sword, with him saying "no" which led him soon unconscious by Tex. Tucker wakes up later by Church and finds the army of robots eliminated. When Tex rejoins them, Tex says "I have been in the basement all this time trying to work this thing out". In Episode 64, after the Blues befriend an Alien, it informs the 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 hidden spaceship hangar; the alien ship itself is destroyed seconds later by Wyoming.

Pregnancy
In Episode 73, after returning from the quest, Tucker falls ill for an unknown reason. Caboose thinks that Tucker might have contracted the disease from the Great Swamp, while Church hypothesizes that it might have come from the sword, and 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: he is pregnant. 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 Episode 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 Season 5, Tucker is comatose, finally waking up in Episode 82.

In Episode 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.

The trio was able to survive and best Agent Wyoming due largely in part to Tucker. Wyoming's armor enhancement and AI allowed him to freeze and temporally displace a segment of time in case anything occurred that would result in his defeat leaving only him and his AI's memories unaffected. Tucker was somehow unaffected by the displacement's memory lost and retained his memories with each jump. This allowed Tucker to predict and counter all of Wyoming's movements and save his fellow teammates. This may be be in part due to Tucker's Sword and maybe connected to the same reason why the sword only functioned for him. It is also worth noting that it seems Wyoming was unable to continue jumping after he was stabbed by Tucker with the sword. But this could just be because the Rooster Teeth team did not want to continue showing each temporal jump or Wyoming choose different moments to jump too. When Tex betrays them she 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.

Later Adventures
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 while Washington and Church are infiltrating the AI Sub-level. The voice on the other end seems to be Tucker, and tells Grif to deliver the message that they "Found what [they] were looking for" and that it was "under the sand". When Grif states he will "slip them the message", the voice makes a double entendre and delivers Tucker's catchphrase (see Below).

Donut's mysterious appearance in Valhalla revives Tucker's mission. Donut tells Caboose that he was dispatched to the area where the teams "landed" after the bomb went off in Season 3, and found a distress signal from Tucker, saying to get help immediately.

Tucker finally reappears in Recreation Chapter 12, when he opens a temple that he had locked himself in and provides cover against the false excavation team to help Caboose, Sarge, and Grif. He displays exceptional skill with his sword, that was somehow recovered after the ship exploded. He closes the door behind Sarge, Grif, and Caboose and explains what is happening.



Tucker explains that both him and Junior, who also somehow survived the explosion, go around acting as ambassadors between the humans and the aliens whenever they find ancient technology, such as 'giant rings' and 'cubes'. They came to the desert because of the energy source, which is another weapon, but C.T. showed up and killed the dig team and was about to kill him but he quickly ran into the ruins. When he asks Caboose about the 'rescue team', and where Church is, he reveals that he knew of Church's identity of being an AI (though he might have been lying). He then tells the Reds and Caboose that they must destroy the weapon before C.T. and his men get to it. Later, Caboose would activate the weapon and put Epsilon in it.

When C.T. and his men got in the temple, C.T. says how she should kill Tucker right there, only to see Epsilon-Church in his new Monitor body. A soldier name Jones deactivates him, which causes the Aliens to turn on the humans, seeing as they think Church is a god. C.T. grabs Epsilon and runs, and the aliens, Reds and Caboose follow. When the others jeep gets deactivated next to some members of the desert dig team, Tucker heroically yells, "Hey assholes!" and jumps over a hill towards the dig team members on a Chopper. He misses however and Caboose instead shoots them, they regroup and Tucker tells them the aliens gave him the Chopper as a present. The group find C.T. and starts chasing her.



Tucker flies over a hill, and slashes at C.T.'s jeep with a sword, causing it to explode. Grif tells Tucker that C.T. is still alive, as he witnesses her run away, and Tucker goes after her, and orders the others to get Church. Tucker runs across the top of the temple, and C.T. comes up behind him. Tucker asks that before he dies, who C.T. is working for, but C.T. says "Sorry, you'll never know!" Just then, Church flies up and shoots C.T. with his laser. Sarge, Grif, and Caboose meet-up with Tucker and Church and look down to see that lots of Aliens are waiting for them.

It's revealed during Chapter 5 of Revelation, that he seems to have learned some of the alien language, communicating with one of the aliens who worship Epsilon-Church. After Caboose ditched him to find Epsilon-Church, he ran to the pillar to get away from the aliens. However when the Reds were leaving, he took the opportunity to escape.

Freelancer Offsite Storage Facility


He later got into the Freelancer Offsite Storage Facility, and promptly took the Red Team's side in a relatively one-sided brawl against a recently revived Tex. He fought with Tex one on one briefly, but despite his sword skill he is eventually beaten and knocked away by Tex (and the Reds, because the black soot on his armour made them think he was Tex briefly). After he and the others were unlocked from stasis, he, Church, and Caboose debate with the Reds on unlocking Tex. He made an insult that made Tex mad enough to punch him once she was unlocked. Later, when Caboose asks Sarge and the Reds to help him rescue Epsilon Church and Tex after Epsilon's recovery beacon has been activated, Sarge makes a speech about why they are all there and admits that Tucker is a good soldier.



This prompts him along with Grif, Simmons, and Caboose to go rescue Epsilon and Tex. After Tex was captured in the memory unit at the end of her epic fight with Wash and the Meta, He is seen along with the Reds and Caboose on board a damaged pelican that flies straight at Washington and the Meta. The Pelican crashes but stops right before hitting Doc. When Wash agrees to get Tex out of the memory unit on the condition that Epsilon must go with him, he orders Tucker and Caboose to search in the base to find any tools while the Reds are ordered to find anything that has power.

Freelancer Base


In the finale n+1, Tucker, along with Sarge, Grif, Simmons, and Caboose, rushes outside to fight the Meta. Tucker tells Caboose to stay with Church and joins the Reds in their attack. He throws a couple of plasma grenades at the Meta, which leads to no effect as the Meta uses his energy shield armor enhancement to block the explosions. The Meta then jumps and fires two shots from his Brute shot, causing Grif to fall to the side and Tucker rolling to the side. Simmons tries to take the Meta out by firing his rocket launcher, but the Meta deflects the rocket and slices Simmons' Rocket launcher in half. Tucker draws his energy sword and tries to slash the Meta, only to be quickly knocked away. However, Tucker quickly manages to stab the Meta in the chest with his energy sword, though this does little to slow him down. As Tucker calls out for help from the others, the Meta beats him down to the ground. The energy sword, no longer held by Tucker, deactivates and falls from the Meta's chest.

The Meta was then defeated by the Reds, who dragged him off of a cliff into the ocean below by using a Warthog. Tucker is then interrogated along with the others by a UNSC officer. Tucker puts the blame on the Meta for the crashed Pelican in the water. When the UNSC officer comments on Washington's "death," Wash is revealed to be alive, due to the help of the Reds and Blues, who helped fake his death by getting Wash to switch his armor with Epsilon's. 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.

Rescuing Epsilon
Some time later, Tucker went on a mission to rescue Epsilon with the other Reds and Blues, along with Carolina. He was seen arriving with Simmons in an extraction Warthog, complaining about how Simmons follows the traffic laws, even in a high speed chase and that next time, he wants to go with Grif. He, along with the other Reds and Blues, are confused by Carolina's orders, resulting in Wash having to simplify it for them.

Epsilon was then placed inside Tucker's A.I. slot for the trip and, while at a pit stop at a Wind Power Facility, he begins to complain about how dirty his helmet data was, saying he had to delete 50GB of things just to make room for himself. Tucker gets into an argument with Epsilon about his "home movies". Soon after, Tucker and Epsilon witness Washington run inside the facility, where he talks with Carolina. The two spy on them, until Tucker yells out his catchphrase and 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.

Back to the Desert
The Reds, Blues, and Carolina arrive back at Sandtrap to find C.T. While there, Epsilon and Tucker reminisce about their experience at the desert. Later, the Reds walk up to them in order to discuss their concerns about Carolina. Epsilon states that they can't trust 'them', causing Tucker to question who 'them' are. Epsilon states they can't trust Wash while he is with Carolina. Epsilon then states that they need to find out what Carolina isn't telling them, and Caboose asks what they want to ask her.

Tucker jokingly tells Caboose to ask her if she has the hots for him, due to feeling an emotional connection the last time she hit him. Carolina soon calls Tucker over to discuss the location of an artifact, which Tucker recognizes as Epsilon's former monitor. Tucker, and Caboose, tells her that the monitor is at a Freelancer facility. After Carolina hears this information, she, along with Epsilon, departs to an island. When she returns, she tells the group that they are heading to Outpost 17-B.

Search at Outpost 17-B
When the group arrives at Valhalla, Tucker angrily confronts Epsilon about his new found and 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 Epsilon leaves, Caboose departs for the Blue base, wishing to see it again. Tucker stands alone, feeling abandoned. Caboose shows Tucker their new Blue base, explaning all the wonderful things about it. When Carolina decides to leave, Tucker and Caboose speak with Epsilon, 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 CT's memory chip, Church remembers everything about Project Freelancer and the Director. Carolina and Church then gather everyone in the Red Team's holographic chamber. The final plan to kill the Director is discussed but nobody wants to do it as both the reds and the blues have grown dispossessed with both Carolina and Church's attitude towards them. As Carolina's squad crumbles, she threatens Tucker when he tells her that he doesn't have too follow her orders anymore. Carolina takes aim at him, threatening to shoot him for his insubordination. Washington however, saves him, pointing to Carolina with his magnum. As the team is divided into an 'us and them', Church becomes furious at his friends from Blood Gulch saying that each and every one of them is a problem that he has to deal with on a daily basis. Disgusted and hurt, Tucker, followed by Sarge, Grif and Simmons, walk out quietly. As Epsilon starts to realize the damage he has done, Washington starts to walk out but waits to see what a surely heart broken Caboose would do. Dispite Epsilon's regrets, Caboose walks out on his best friend, leaving Washington to comment that Carolina (and Church) should start telling apart their friends from their enemies.

Personality
Smart-aleck, sarcastic, rude, prone to juvenile humor and obsessed with women, Tucker has many characteristics of an unruly teenager. Like Grif, 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, Tucker has become somewhat smarter as the series has progressed. In Season 3, when Simmons, Sarge, Caboose and Grif 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 conceived a few decent plans and enjoyed a couple of heroic moments.

Race
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."

Fighting Skill
Although Tucker was initially shown 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 kill well-trained Wyoming clones with both his sword and his Sniper Rifle. He's also been able to survive brutal punishment, such as when he was struck by a rocket and quickly made a full recovery all by himself.

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. He was even able to blow up C.T.'s jeep with a single strike from his sword In This One Goes to Eleven, Tucker also 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 she was hitting him, though he was left semi-conscious on the floor repeatedly before making a speedy recovery. 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 the Meta. It also appeared that his main basis in attacking with the sword were the words "swish, swoosh" or "stab".

Running Gags
Tucker has been the focus of a few running gags throughout the series.

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?"

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.

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 Season 10: Episode 11, 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 Episode 64.