- "There's nothing, more important to me, than the safety, and well-being, of my men. Or my name, isn't Captain Butch Flowers."
- —Captain Flowers in Silver Linings
Captain Butch Flowers, also known as Freelancer Agent Florida, was the Blue Team's previous commanding officer at Blood Gulch. Despite Flowers' few appearances, his roles in The Blood Gulch Chronicles, the Project Freelancer Saga, and Season 14 have had a significant impact to the series. He is also the main antagonist of the prequel episodes in Season 14.
Role in Plot[]
Project Freelancer[]
Agent Florida alongside Agent Wyoming.
Flowers is present during a briefing in Planning the Heist, but isn't assigned to a team. He is then present on the Pelican that picks up Carolina, after the battle with Insurrectionists on the highway in order to retrieve a briefcase. Flowers returns in Oversight, spying on C.T. and other Insurrectionist soldiers with Freelancer Wyoming. Later, he and Wyoming attempt to ambush the Insurrectionist Leader and C.T. when they retreat into a bunker. But, before the two can initiate their attack, Florida is spotted by the Leader and is struck from afar by his thrown, collapsible tomahawk. After being struck, the other Freelancers arrive.
Agent Florida is hit by the Insurrectionist Leader with an axe
Flowers survives the injury and pulls the embedded tomahawk out of his shoulder, with Wyoming remarking; "Good show, mate! That's the spirit. Still have a bit of fight in you." Flowers then proceeds to throw the tomahawk at the Chain Guy and Chain Girl but falls short. After taking cover from the incoming fire, he then proceeds to shoot the crane's arm in the complex using an under barrel grenade launcher. As a result, the crane collapses, causing its cargo to knock the two chain gunners off of the platform and crush them.
"Ready for duty, Sir. And, might I say, pleased as punch you picked me."
Later on, following a break-in initiated by Freelancer Texas, the Director decides to move the Alpha A.I. to a location where nobody would find him and suggests someone whom they could trust to guard him. The Counselor recommends Flowers as the prime candidate, in which Director corrects him by stating "You mean Agent Florida?" Flowers then walks into the room and happily accepts the responsibility. The Director then states that they need a way to explain Agent Florida's disappearance, in which Counselor replies that he already has it handled. In order to cover Flowers' tracks, the Director and Counselor erase all records of Florida and prepare to send him to a secluded box canyon with Alpha.
Transfer to Blood Gulch[]
Flowers as the commanding officer of the Blue Team.
In order to ensure the Alpha's safety, Flowers oversees a Red army boot camp and recruits three candidates that he believes will be perfect to act as the Blood Gulch Red Team: Privates Simmons and Grif and their C.O. Sarge. Flowers also recruits Private Tucker as the third member of the Blood Gulch Blue Team. For the final step, Flowers forcibly implants the Alpha into Private Jimmy, giving Alpha full control over Jimmy's body and believing it to be his own. Flowers then greets Alpha, now calling himself Church, and introduces him to Tucker. With both teams set for a never-ending conflict, Flowers relays his progress to the Director and speaks with V.I.C., a secret computer residing under the canyon.
Vic informs Flowers to make sure that the Alpha has no recollection who his true identity or the events of Project Freelancer and shows him the backup Freelancers to take his place if he shall die. Confident that nothing will go wrong, Flowers leaves but trips over a plug connected to Vic's computer. This, unfortunately, swaps the names of the Freelancers with Simulation Troopers and changes Vic's personality, making him eccentric and erratic.
Butch is accidentally killed by Church.
While at Blood Gulch, Flowers plans to lead a Blue offensive to destroy the Red Team and knows the key to the Blues' victory. Unfortunately, Flowers soon dies from what Church and Tucker assumed was a heart attack in his sleep, possibly caused by an allergic reaction to aspirin. Upon finding his dead body, Tucker takes Captain Flowers' armor for himself.
Return and Demise[]
A revived Flowers with Tucker before being shot in the head and killed again
In The Wrong Crowd, it is revealed that Flowers was revived by and allied with the Green Alien and O'Malley, where the latter inhabited him. Upon meeting Doc, Sister, and Junior in the underground caves, Flowers is seen wearing the standard blue armor - most likely Tucker's old armor — and speaks under the influence of Omega. In Why Were We Here?, O'Malley leaves Flowers unconscious. After Doc heals him, returns to the surface and reunites with Tucker to explain the situation. He announces that he has information that could win them the war, but dramatically pauses before he reveals the information and is sniped by, what is later revealed to be, a future version of Tucker by accident, when he forgets the safety is off. After the time-traveling escapades were undone, it is unknown if this is still the origin of the bullet that killed Flowers.
Personality[]
When he first appeared in the series, Flowers was down to earth, treated the Blues with kindness, and was protective of them, making him a complete opposite to Sarge. He's shown to be very positive most of the time and strangely speaks about the Reds as if they were kids as he calls them "old rascals". He also seems to have much humility as he doesn't mind being called by his name without his rank, acting quite informal with his troops.
Later episodes, including those showing off his time as Agent Florida of Project Freelancer, depict Flowers as both a loyal soldier and a deadly yet taciturn combatant, never speaking whilst in battle. He was also eager to accept his new mission to assist in the relocation of the Alpha AI. Despite his seemingly-positive traits, Flowers is also shown to be completely detached and outright sociopathic should his mission call for it; he allowed Sarge to kill Lemons despite his plea for help, and he forcibly implanted Church into the unwitting Jimmy to provide the former with a human body to aid in his cover story, readying his gun to kill Jimmy/Church at the first sign of the implantation failing. This sociopathic behavior suggests his outwardly-caring personality is merely an act, though he was shown to be genuinly cordial with his superiors.
Relationships[]
Wyoming[]
Florida and Wyoming seem to work well together. The two are shown spying on the Insurrection and C.T. in Oversight, where Florida seems to act as a sidekick to Wyoming. The latter later compliments Florida on his strength after he gets back up from a strike from a tomahawk in the shoulder. Florida seems to be one of the only characters who isn't annoyed by Wyoming, maybe even appreciating his company.
Tucker[]
In Silver Linings, Tucker is shown to like Flowers. However, after Flower's (first) death, Tucker takes his armor for his own. In Why Were We Here? Tucker briefly speaks to Flowers before he dies a second time, after which Tucker states that he was still going to keep his armor. Responsible for Tucker ending up in Blood Gulch, Flowers seemed to enjoy Tucker's company, even once stating that the latter has "metrosexual good looks".
Church[]
Church seemed to like Captain Flowers, at least a little, as he displayed respect for him as a Captain and tried to save him when he believed he went back in time (though he accidentally ended up killing him). He did find some of the Captain's comments awkward, though. Unbeknownst to Church, however, Flowers was actually meant to keep the Reds and Blues in a never-ending conflict, in order to ensure his safety due to the fact that he was in actuality the Alpha AI. Flowers also made sure that Church never knew his true origins or the Meta, under orders from the Director. Despite this, Flowers seems to genuinely like Church and befriended him, though this may have been an act in aid of his mission, as he was fully prepared to shoot the Church-possessed Jimmy should his cover story not match up.
V.I.C.[]
Flowers was Vic's partner in the mission to keep Church safe in Blood Gulch. He is also responsible for V.I.C's eccentric personality after accidently disconnecting a wire from his main computer.
Sister[]
Flowers is responsible for Sister ending up in Blood Gulch after corrupting Vic's list. Unlike Donut and Caboose, Sister was aware that she was sent to replace Flowers. The two briefly met after Flowers was revived by the Green Alien. Sister then tried to convince Doc to help Flowers after Omega fled his mind.
Director[]
The Director seemed to trust Flowers enough to let him guard the Alpha and orchestrate the Blood Gulch simulation. This is later revealed to be a mistake as Flowers accidently corrupted Vic's list and personality, assembled the team that would eventually take down Project Freelancer, and got himself killed twice. Despite this, Flowers highly respected the Director, being one of the few Freelancers who did not go rogue.
Skills and Abilities[]
Combat[]
Though he has only been shown in combat on rare occasions, Florida seems to be a very formidable opponent. While he may lack the same strength or specialties as the other Freelancers, he is a very smart fighter, using his surroundings to his advantage. An example of this is first shown in C.T. when he, York, Washington, and Wyoming were all pinned down by the rapid gunfire of the Twin Insurrectionist Chain Gunners, with seemingly no way out.
Though he was not strong enough to strike the gunners with a tomahawk, the throw bought him enough time to take cover. He quickly discovers a way to take the upper hand in the situation by malfunctioning a nearby crane and causing the box it was holding to crush the Chain Gunners to death. Florida also seems to have the trust of the Counselor to protect the Alpha and the Director showed no doubt in his decision.
Kills[]
Before he was sent to Blood Gulch, Agent Florida killed Chain Guy and Chain Girl.
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- According to Burnie Burns Flowers was present at the Freelancer training facility, shown in the flashback of Out of Mind: Part II.[1] In the Project Freelancer Saga, it was not revealed who the Blue Soldier working for Project Freelancer was until Don't Say It, revealing him as both Butch Flowers and Agent Florida. Flowers had no recorded dialogue in any appearances in his Freelancer armor prior to this episode, not even grunts of exertion when in battle, likely to keep his identity a secret until the reveal. Before then, many fans of the series called him MBG (Mysterious Blue Guy). This is referenced in one of the songs from the Season 10 Soundtrack called "Mystery Blue Guy".
- Due to his rank of Captain, Flowers is the soldier in Project Freelancer with the highest stated rank seen in the series and the only Freelancer agent given a rank at all.
- Flowers is the first Blood Gulch Blue Team member to permanently die in the series.
- Coincidentally, Flowers' real name relates to his assigned Freelancer name, as the Latin translation of Florida is flowery or filled with flowers.
- Flowers is the only Freelancer Agent whose full name is revealed, aside from Tex (Allison Church).
- Flowers currently has the second highest amount of armor changes in the series, having three different types: aqua colored Mk. V armor, blue colored Mk. VI armor, and blue colored ODST armor with ammo rounds wrapped around.
- As of the Head Cannon episode he, Tex and Doc are the only people Omega enters whose minds weren't depicted on screen.
- Flowers is the third highest ranking soldier in the series, tied with Tucker, Simmons, Caboose, and Grif, and behind Colonel Sarge, General Doyle and General Kimball.
- Flowers, along with Washington, are one of the only known Freelancers who did not go rogue and personally disband from Project Freelancer.
- They are also the only Freelancers who became the leaders of a Blue Team.
- Flowers decides to tell time in reference of the four seasons; spring, summer, fall, and winter. Instead of the traditional Gregorian calendar.
- Flowers believed that the "war" would last 14 seasons, about 3 ½ years. But this was reference to the amount of seasons Red vs Blue had by that point at the time.
- According to V.I.C. Flowers was a fan of the Barenaked Ladies. This plays on the fact that his voice actor, Ed Robertson, is the lead singer of the band.
- In the fourth episode of The Shisno Paradox it is revealed that the person that sniped Flowers in Blood Gulch was a future version of Tucker.
- This means that both times Flowers has died have been the result of his teammates time travelling and accidentally killing him. However, the first was later proven to be just a simulation created by Gamma.