- "I killed them. I. MURDERED. Them. I set my vengeance free upon them and it felt sooo good! But not as half as good as this feels."
- —Temple in Battlescars
Mark Temple is the leader of the Blues and Reds, a group of Simulation Troopers that are very similar to the Reds and Blues of Blood Gulch. He serves as the main antagonist of Season 15. He is voiced by Andrew Matthews.
Role in Plot
Early life
Temple and Biff at Desert Gulch
In his adolescence, Temple befriended another child named Biff and the two soon became close friends. Later on, Temple helps Biff talk to a girl named Georgina and the two begin a relationship with each other. Following high school, Temple and Biff enlist into the UNSC, where they are given to Project Freelancer as a part of their early Red and Blue simulation armies, though Temple and Biff remain unaware of Freelancer's intentions. The two are eventually transferred to Desert Gulch on Armada 8 and placed on separate teams, Temple on the Blue Team and Biff on the Red Team. Despite this, Temple and Biff remain close friends.
Temple watches with both Red and Blue Team as Biff dies after being stabbed by Carolina
After a battle, Temple and Biff have a campfire, where Biff tells Temple about his plan to return home via medical discharge in order to be with Georgina. While uncomfortable with Biff leaving, Temple agrees to help him with his plan. The following day, two Freelancers, Carolina and Texas, arrive at the canyon and help the two teams in a game of Capture the Flag. When Carolina and Tex battle for the Blue team flag, Biff and Temple attempt to initiate their plan but Biff inadvertently gets impaled with the flag, due to Carolina and Tex's battle. Temple tries to comfort Biff but the latter bleeds to death; the other Blues and Reds watch as Biff dies.
Contact with the Reds and Blues
Temple with the blood of a UNSC soldier on his armor
Several years later, Temple and the rest of the Blues and Reds construct an underwater lair below Desert Gulch, recruit other Simulation Troopers into their ranks, and begin a spree of terrorist attacks ten months following the Chorus-Charon War, in vengeance for the UNSC giving them up to Project Freelancer. The group also begin hunting down and killing ex-Freelancers, with Temple locking down their armor and having them die of thirst and starvation. After an attack on a UNSC outpost, Temple leaves his helmet behind at the crime scene.
Temple and the Blues and Reds meet the Reds and Blues
The group eventually lead the Reds and Blues, as well as two IDA reporters, to Desert Gulch and confront them. Temple fabricates a story involving the UNSC capturing Church and hunting down Freelancer personnel in order to gain the Reds and Blues' trust when suddenly UNSC aircraft attack both groups. The sim troopers defeat the UNSC soldiers and later bond after a trip to gather supplies for a machine Loco is constructing. Afterward, the two groups follow a beacon to Wash and Carolina, where Tucker introduces them to the Blues and Reds. After Temple explains his "story" to the Freelancers, Carolina suggests they have Dylan publicize it, in order to avoid a physical confrontation.
Temple traps Carolina and Washington
However, once Temple has Wash and Carolina alone he reveals his true plans and proceeds to lock them in their armor. He then explains that he was worried Carolina would recognize his voice before locking the two inside a room with the other Freelancer corpses. Moments later, Temple threatens Loco to complete work on his device that he told the Reds and Blues was a cloaking device. After hearing a sound, the two Blues stop talking and discover a doll behind a pile of crates, leading Temple to question Jax of Dylan's whereabouts. He eventually finds Dylan searching through his network computer and takes her and Jax hostage. He then explains his early deployment on Desert Gulch and traps the two in the basement.
Assault on the UNSC
The Reds and Blues soon confront the Blues and Reds about their motives and quickly realize their sinister goals. Temple snaps at them when they refuse to cooperate, berating them for making friends with Freelancers. He further reveals that the Grunts have joined their cause as well and that the Red and Blues are the only ones yet to join. After all but Sarge and Doc refuse their offer, the Reds and Blues become imprisoned. Afterward, the Blues and Reds discover an intruder: Grif, though Temple briefly mistakes him for Biff. They capture Grif and imprison him with the other Reds and Blues, where Temple tauntingly reveals that the distress call from Church was actually an old log from Blood Gulch and that Loco edited the call to lure the Reds and Blues to him.
Temple and the Blues and Reds then leave to Earth to initiate their plan of drilling into UNSC headquarters. Unfortunately, the Reds and Blues manage to pursue them and infiltrate their lair. When Loco finally activates his machine, Temple defends it to ensure his plan is successful. When the Reds and Blues confront Temple, having defeated the rest of his teammates, Temple locks their armor and taunts them. Grif attempts to stop Temple but fails, prompting Temple to hold him at gunpoint. However, he is unable to shoot Grif, allowing Grif to distract him and Dylan freeing the crew from armor lock.
Tucker holds Temple hostage with his sword, later turning him over to the UNSC along with the surviving Blues and Reds
Temple then accidentally shoots Loco and is incapacitated by Tucker. As the machine grows unstable, a portal forms, with Church on the other side. After the Reds and Blues say goodbye to Church and stabilize the machine, with Vic's help, the machine disappears. Tucker then prepares to kill Temple but Carolina tells him not to, explaining they're not like him. As a result, Temple is left imprisoned by the UNSC alongside Buckey and Cronut, where they are served fish much to his dismay.
Personality
At first, Temple appears to be a reasonable, if somewhat awkward, version of Church. However, he later reveals himself to be a manipulative and highly sociopathic individual, obsessed with getting revenge on everyone involved with Project Freelancer. His manipulative side is demonstrated when he turns Tucker against Dylan and even turns Sarge against his own friends. He also seems to be very unstable, as shown when he states very passionately he has to "cut the head off" whoever is responsible for what happened to him and the other Simulation Troopers. Temple is so devoted to his revenge that he does not care for the consequences of his actions, such as when he stole a generator from a colony of refugees, which caused the inhabitants to perish and gained Locus as an enemy. This is also evident as his plans to use the Loco's Machine to tunnel and attack UNSC headquarters would have caused a global catastrophe, but continued due to disbelief and inability to do so.
Temple considers the Simulation troopers to have been sold as cannon fodder to Project Freelancer in a game of target practice for super soldiers. His rage is shown immensely, even terrifying, as his need for revenge against the UNSC for selling not only his friend and himself to Project Freelancer, but for the life of every Sim Trooper that was killed in the training program, goes beyond pathological. Even so, he does not care for the lives of his own men, mocking the frozen Reds and Blues that he "would weep for them", threatening Loco, desiring to flush Bucky out the airlock, and using Surge as cannon fodder to buy time. While Temple sincerely considers himself to be the hero of his story, he is ultimately a man who let his more than understandable anger drive him insane and attempt to put others through greater torment than he endured, despite the fact it makes him just as bad or worse. It was Temple's lust for revenge which eventually led to his downfall. While he just wanted to get justice for what happened to Biff and all the other Simulation Troopers, his campaign led to more death and loss as he turned into a sadistic killer who became something much worse than the people he was fighting against and had him being sent to prison possibly for the rest of his life.
Temple is not above taunting his opponents either and finds pleasure in doing so. After locking Wash and Carolina he stated that the record for survival was 8 days 11 hours and dared Carolina to try harder since she was so competitive. He even let Caboose and the remaining crew hear the unedited version of Church's message (a plee to control for a plumber) and told Caboose that Loco, whom Caboose was very fond of, was the one who edited it.
Temple also has a liking to classic villains and dramatic performances, having researched good evil lair, Shakespeare, and villains on Bing. Upon exiting the brig after his speech in Grif Does a Rescue, he whispers "nailed it" showing he actively tries to act like a pulp villain. He even has his own music theme specific for telling monologues. He is also willing to credit other's strength, as he admitted Carolina could easily defeat him and that Tucker fights just like the Freelancers and is, therefore, hesitant to directly face them in combat. He even was willing to praise Loco for his accomplishment of making the machine work, even being curious to what the "door" was. This indicates that despite his obvious mental instability that Temple is a very self-aware individual, readily realizing the limitations of his own skills and abilities when in comparison with others.
However Temple is not without his weaknesses, as he ignores Surge's advice on killing the Reds and Blues before they become a major threat to their plans. In addition, much like Felix, he monologues before killing his enemies, which eventually ends up hurting him. Grif also reminding him of Biff, as he mistakes them for one another when he first sees Grif, brings out vulnerability in Temple, as he becomes hesitant to shoot him. Finally when he comes to the realization that his plans have failed and allies have all been disposed of, he attempts to flee and begs Tucker not to kill him. This shows that when the odds are turned against him, Temple can go from a vengeful killer to a spineless coward, as he even went as far to agree with Carolina to spare him.
Skills & Abilities
Camaraderie
Temple is shown to be capable of camaraderie, as evidenced by his lifelong friendship with Biff. The two of them were constantly ribbing each other throughout their lives and when Biff finally asked out Georgina after two years in high school, Temple managed to get the entire cafeteria to initiate a slow clap in response. This shows that despite his homicidal demeanor, Temple is capable of caring for others and that his intense rage is likely a result of the tragedies that befell himself and his friend. It is also later shown that Temple managed to rally the Grunts on his side, displaying some degree of leadership by motivating others to fight with him. In addition, Temple seems to care for the sim troopers he recruits, at least to a degree, though this could be because of his hatred for Project Freelancer and their treatment of the sim troopers. When the Reds and Blues refuse to join him, Temple is shown to be visibly hurt and angry by this, calling the crew traitors for befriending Freelancers.
Combat
Temple appears to lack any sort of skill when using the sniper rifle, much like his Blood Gulch counterpart Church. The one time he managed to land a shot, was proceeded by many missed attempts beforehand. As shown in Battlescars when he brings Washington and Carolina to the trophy room and later in Belly of the Beast when he notices Dylan is spying on him and Loco, he tends to switch to his Tactical Magnum to fight closer opponents. He admits his lack of combat skills when trapping Agents Carolina and Washington in his lair, and went around it by locking the Freelancers in their armor and leaving them to die. His lack of combat skills is further shown when he accidentally shoots Loco instead of Tucker, who later easily disarms him and knocks him out.
Unlike Church, however, he is an effective leader, as he led several successful raids on UNSC outposts, but he admits to taking the job only because of an absence of legitimate leadership, as Church had before him.
Kills
Temple has been responsible for many deaths since he started his vendetta against the UNSC, such as an entire colony according to Locus and several Freelancers.
Trivia
- A temple is a holy place of prayers like a church which fits the similarities to his counterpart.
- Like Church, Temple has really bad aim, confirmed in Blue vs. Red - Part 2
- Temple is the third antagonist with a sadistic nature with Malcolm Hargrove being the first and Felix being the second, although Agent Wyoming had in his first appearance expressed regret at not having time to torture a captive. Additionally, Temple is shown having a strong motive behind his sadism, as opposed to Hargrove's selfish, materialistic, and entitled nature and motivations, and Felix's greed for power and money. Temple resembles Felix more as he often taunts his enemies and is usually dramatic. His fate however is more similar to the Chairman, as both were imprisoned for their crimes.
- Temple is also similar to Sharkface as both are tragic villains who want revenge on Project Freelancer (Carolina being the main target) for the death of their friends (Biff for Temple and The Insurrection for Sharkface) and their desire for vengeance became their undoing.
- Temple acts as the opposite of Church as the series goes by.
- He presents himself as a kind individual while Church presents himself as a jerk, but deep down Temple sees his men as expendable while Church does actually care for his team.
- Church let go of his desire for revenge against Project Freelancer, while Temple never did.
- Lastly, Temple ends up team killing Loco, as opposed to Caboose's frequent team killings of Church.
- Temple is the third main antagonist in the series not to have been killed, the first two being Locus (who ended up reforming) and Malcolm Hargrove (who was arrested).
References
| Blue Team |
|---|
| Blood Gulch: Leonard L. Church · Epsilon · Lavernius Tucker (ε) · Michael J. Caboose (ε) · Tex (ε) Washington · Sheila · Butch Flowers · Andrew D. Kaboom (ε) · Junior · Kaikaina Grif · Freckles |
| Desert Gulch: Mark Temple · Buckey · Loco |
| Coloblind: Wynn · Squatch · Deuce |
| Other: Jimmy · Jacob J. Jenkins · Mickey · Miller · Jones · Blue Grunt Leader · Phil (Falcon) |
| Vehicles: M808V Main Battle Tank · Chopper |