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Sword

The Great Key being held by Tucker, its longest lasting owner

"So it is a sword. It just happens to function like a key in very specific situations."
Church
"Or it's a key all the time, and when you stick it in people, it unlocks their death."
Caboose in Under the Weather

The Great Key, also referred to as the Great Weapon or simply the sword, is one of several keys forged by aliens that possess the ability to activate alien temples throughout the galaxy. When one of these temples is activated, the bearer of the key gains access to the temple's treasures and capabilities.

Initially believed to be an energy sword during its first appearanceTucker finds the key in a hole under the windmill in Zanzibar while the Reds and Blues tried to assassinate O'Malley. It is later revealed by Gary to be a relic of a long lost civilization and is further explained upon by Santa in Season 13. Although not constructed to be a sword, the key has been shown to act as an efficient combat weapon.

Role in Plot[]

Tucker 2

Tucker wielding his sword.

The Alien needed the sword to fulfill a prophecy to become leader of his race. At the end of the long quest, the sword is revealed to be a key to unlocks a door to an alien ship, which Tucker comments on "The sword is a key? Just when I thought this quest couldn't get any lamer." After Wyoming kills the alien and destroys the ship, Tucker and co. return to Blood Gulch where the sword becomes his main weapon of choice. At the end of Season 5, Tex steals the sword and kidnaps Junior, because only he and Tucker can use it. When Andy blows up the ship they were on, it was believed to be destroyed.

Fire 00010

At some point, Tucker reclaims his sword and in the meantime acquired a great deal of skill with it, as he was able to use it to kill several of the "excavation team" members with ease, albeit off-screen, as well as timing the swings in order to completely destroy a warthog being driven by C.T. and cutting a giant crate in half thrown by Tex.

It can be assumed that since Gary lied, the great weapon may not be as great as the prophecy foretells. However, the sword is proven to be a key that can unlock alien temples, as shown in You Keep Using That Word and Tourist Trap. During You Better Watch Out, the alien A.I. construct Santa reveals that there is more than one key in the universe, one of which is located on Chorus. He explains that the key only responds to the individual who first takes possession of it until that individual dies.

In The Shisno Paradox, Atlus grants Grif a sword similar to Tucker's, albeit with a different color shade. Because Grif's sword was not created by Santa's creators, it is unknown if it has the same functions as Tucker's sword. Atlus later bestowed similar swords upon the other Reds and Blues (with the exception of Carolina and Caboose), only to take them back a few moments later to serve as rewards for defeating Chrovos. After creating a time paradox and later fixing it, the Reds and Blues return to a time before meeting the Cosmic Powers, causing them to not receive their swords after defeating Chrovos, which also caused Grif to lose the sword he earned separately.

In Red vs. Blue: Zero, Zero begins his search for an unknown ultimate power. After defeating a temple Guardian with his partner Phase, he claims the first key needed to access the Ultimate Power. Though having a very different design, it is presumed to have similar functions as the other keys established in the "Legacy" series. Later, him and the rest of his squad travel to Starlight Laboratories, allowing Diesel to claim the staff-like key located there. After the defeat of Shatter Squad at Starlight, Zero proclaims he only needs one more key to claim ultimate power, causing him and his crew to track down Tucker in hopes of killing him. After another fight with Shatter Squad, Tucker is found and stabbed by Phase's Holo-Echo East. The two re-fuse and claim Tucker's sword.

Viper then travel to an alien temple with their claimed keys and activate the temple, in hopes of claiming the ultimate weapon stored inside. Unknown to Viper, Tucker was resuscitated after flatlining, though without the ability to activate his sword. Later on, Shatter Squad track down Viper one last time in an attempt to prevent Zero from obtaining the Ultimate Power. Carolina decides to fight Diesel on her own while One, Raymond, and Axel take on Zero. Carolina seemingly manages to kill Diesel, allowing her to claim his weapon. Not long after, Zero is defeated by Shatter Squad and the Black Lotus takes him away, leaving his sword behind, allowing One to claim it as her own.

In Restoration, it is revealed that the legend behind the great destroyer wasn’t one that led to the end of Alien civilisation, but rather a form of salvation where both sword and wielder are a means of leading the aliens in another war to finish off humanity. The recording of Epsilon reveals this while also explaining how the Meta returned after the Battle of Chorus, showing how rightly bad things were for the Reds and Caboose was at that moment of time

Known Wielders[]

Current[]

Former[]

Trivia[]

  • Tucker is the longest lasting single owner of a Great Key, having acquired his in Heavy Metal and retaining it until Sideways, where he loses it to Phase.
  • The key appears to have other functions such as allowing Tucker to retain his memory after having Wyoming's temporal distortion armor ability used on him.
    • The blades present in Zero are shown to have the abilities of shooting energy beams, spawning alien-like creatures, having the ability to be used by the wielders' mind, and being able to teleport to its wielder.
  • Despite Tex taking the sword with her on the ship in Why Were We Here?, Tucker somehow regained it upon his return in Well Hello. It’s likely that Junior was the one to return his father’s sword, as they were reunited prior to the events of Reconstruction as read in Red vs. Blue: The Ultimate Fan Guide.
  • In Lost But Not Forgotten, Caboose compares Tucker's sword to a lightsaber. Church makes a similar reference, commenting he felt like “a fucking Jedi“ after wielding it inside Caboose's Mind in Why Were We Here?.
  • In For Power Pt. 2, Zero is taken away by the Black Lotus, allowing One the chance to claim his key, but Zero is never killed to allow someone to gain possession of his key. It's possible that One can only hold the key but not access any of its abilities.
  • Kalirama, and later Donut, wield the Green “Infected” variant of the energy sword.
  • Grif is given the Vorpal Talon variant of the energy sword.
  • Zero and Diesel's keys are assets from the Unreal Engine instead of the standard energy sword.
  • The Xbox Marketplace offers an Energy Sword Prop for your RvB Grif Avatar.[1]

References[]

External links[]

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