Dick Simmons

Richard "Dick" Simmons is one of the main characters from the Red vs Blue web-animation series.

Dick is usually the level-headed, straight man of the Red Team, although he is also a compulsive sycophant towards Sarge, despite the latter's delusional leadership. He also spends much time with Grif, who he has a complex friendship with.

Personality
Simmons is portrayed as a stereotypical nerd as he enjoys working, thinks logically, and tells jokes that only he seems to find amusing. Simmons is also a very considerate person, as he has been shown to be very compassionate and kind to other characters. In addition, Simmons has expressed enjoyment in physical combat, as he was ecstatic when the Reds attacked the Blues in 1.21 Giga-Whats?? and Everything Old is New Again, and the Wyoming clones in Repent, the End Is Near. He also enjoys cleanliness and order as he believes it makes things more efficient and peaceful.

Simmons seems to also be very forgiving, such as when he returned to the Red Team in Season 4 and gave Washington, Carolina, and Epsilon second chances. Though he has many positive traits, Simmons is not without his flaws. He is very self-conscious has a questionable psyche, which causes him to breakdown and sometimes cry. Also, it's shown that he easily becomes jealous and annoyed, which caused him to leave and once betray his team during Season 4. It's even shown that Simmons hates robots, as validated in Heavy Mettle. However, Simmons is still a caring soldier who will do what he can for his team and friends as he has shown many times.

At the start of the Chorus Trilogy, Simmons originally relied on others for emotional support and had difficulties talking to women due to his nervousness when girls focus on him. However, because more people showed appreciation for his intellect and by interacting with his female squad (specifically Jensen), Simmons' self-confidence and psyche improved, causing him to suck up less to Sarge, talk to girls (a bit more) properly, and share his ideas without a doubt. Over time, Simmons has become a confident captain who is proud to help those in need or his own friends.

Weaponry
Simmons has been shown to have some skills as a soldier, defeating some of the Wyoming clones and Recovery soldiers with some degree of ease using the Warthog's turret. He also claims to be an expert at handling rocket launchers, as shown in Recreation, Revelation, and Season 10. Simmons' skill with the rocket launcher is basic yet effective as he was able to force the Meta onto the defensive in n+1, which made the Metatarget him as the prime threat, and was also able to eliminate several Tex drones with the weapon in True Colors. Simmons was able to kill several Feds in Season 11 with the turret on the Blues' tank.

While facing the Space Pirates during the battle of Crash Site Alpha, he uses the Heavy Machine Gun Turret on the Warthog throughout the battle with no struggle. Because of his skills with both the machine gun turret and rocket launcher, Simmons could be considered the heavy weapon specialist of the Red Team and Reds and Blues. However, Simmons is shown to have skills with pistol-like weapons as well, specifically near the end of Season 13. He uses Needlers during the final confrontation with the Space Pirates and Chairman's forces and even wounds Felix by shooting him in the shoulder. Most notably, Simmons later takes Felix's Sticky Detonator to prevent the latter from using his Hardlight Shield, resulting in Felix's death.

Combat
Simmons is also physically fit, for example: in Season 1, after running back to Red base, Grif is clearly out of breath but Simmons isn't; in Season 5, he successfully lands on his feet from dropping hundreds of feet from the air when entering the caves; in Recreation, he was shown to out run the Meta's blasts; and in Revelation, he was able to hold on to the warthog while being dragged by it and after the Meta destroyed it. Also, Simmons has quick reflexes as shown throughout the series, such as when facing the Meta, where he was able to avoid the Meta's fire and quickly blocked the Meta's brute shot blade with his own rocket launcher. In Training Daze, it's shown that Simmons is physically fit, as he keeps up with all of Tucker's forms of training the group goes through.

Simmons also displays some skill with knives, as he was able to pull out his knife before Gene and was almost able to overpower him, and he would have had Gene not called for Grif to help them.

Intelligence
Simmons' greatest strength is his intellect and proves to be one of the smartest characters in the series. Sarge considers Simmons the Red Team's unofficial science officer, something Simmons approves of. He has keen computer skills, as he was able to control the teleporters in reuniting with everyone and was able to hack into Project Freelancer's main computers. Simmons also seems to have knowledge of physics, sometimes quoting Einstein's Theory of Relativity and making scientific observations of situations that others, such as Grif and Sister, find incomprehensible.

Simmons has some skills in engineering as well, as shown when he successfully insert an armor enhancement on Grif in Revelation was able to install Epsilon into Carolina's mongoose in Season 10 (with Caboose's help) and was able to dismantle Lopez in order to get him out of a Pelican's engine in Season 13. Also it's shown in Season 3 that Simmons can use holographic projections by unknown means. When the Reds and Blues find out that they are only simulation troopers, Grif asks why Simmons would be with them, since he seems so smart. Simmons states that time tests are not fair as it's not how fast you know the information, but that you know it at all. This, along with other skills Simmons has, made him possibly the only Blood Gulch soldier worth any actual military status.

Simmons is very creative when using his intellect to solve issues the Reds and Blues face. For example, in +1 Follower, Simmons creates Basebookto allow the Reds and Blues to easily communicate across Crash Site Bravo, and in Training Daze, he makes Helmet Cameras with Jensen's aid, which became key in stopping the conflict at Armonia. Notably in Temple of the Key, when the Chorus forces were surrounded by the Space Piratesat Crash Site Alpha, Simmons devises a successful plan of escape by using the ship's engine to create a large smokescreen to cover them, resulting in all the remaining forces surviving.

Simmons is also shown to have great preparation skills for various scenarios, such as packing extra ammunition knowing Grif would fail to do so and was even prepared to have his mind invaded by Omega with preplanned activities.

Leadership
Due to having a great deal of skill, compassion, and a high intellect for a simulation trooper, Simmons has shown a great degree of leadership. Such as in Make Your Time, where he not only leads the Reds, but the Blues as well, and together briefly defeated O'Malley using the Grunts; or in Recreation, he took command of the Red Team in Valhalla and was able to defend against the Meta with no casualties until Washington appeared. Sarge even states that command would've given him his own squad to lead. In the Season 11 finale, Simmons, along with the remaining Reds and Blues, takes leadership of the young New Republic soldiers. Unfortunately, this leadership is somewhat stunted by his problems with talking to women.

Trivia

 * "Dick" is short for "Richard", making Simmons' name "Richard Simmons", a reference to the famous exercise video actor.
 * In The Rookies, Grif's story about Simmons not wanting to go to the Vegas quadrant is a real-life reference to when Gustavo Sorola didn't want to go to Las Vegas with his fellow employees.
 * Simmons is the first cyborg introduced in the series and is one of the only three shown.
 * Simmons is the first character shown in the series to have an armor color scheme consisting of two colors: blue with maroon trim (Disregarding early versions of episodes from season 3).
 * Simmons is shown on the Season 4 DVD box art in his blue armor, the first time he had appeared on a season DVD box art.
 * Simmons doesn't use anyone's toilet except his own, even though he's been in 'the war' for nearly 3–4 years. In Simmons' own words "It's going to be a very eventful homecoming."
 * Sheila and Church have called Simmons "tomato can", which he takes offense to.
 * Simmons suffers from ophidiophobia, the fear of snakes, as validated in Episode 89.
 * Simmons is one of the few smart characters of the Blood Gulch soldiers (examples: explaining Einstein Theories of Relativity, being the most logical of the Reds, able to hack into the Freelancers files, etc.), the others being Lopez, Church, and Tex.
 * Simmons spoke both the first and last lines of the Blood Gulch Chronicles. His first line ("Hey?") asking Grif "Why they were here?" and his last line ("Fuck!") was exclaimed after Grif called shotgun on the Reds' new vehicle at the end of Episode 100.
 * Simmons has the most appearances in the first saga of the series out of all characters (94 episodes).
 * When the series moved onto the Halo 3 engine, Simmons armor color was changed to crimson as maroon wasn't a selectable color. In the series, the two colors are considered the same.
 * According to Sarge in Upon Further Review, Simmons code name is Maroon One, which relates to his armor color (maroon) and his original rank (Private First Class).
 * Like everyone else in the series, Simmons is right handed in video game format. However, in This One Goes to Eleven, while animated in poser, he appears to be left handed, possibly meaning that he's ambidextrous. This is further supported in The End, where he dual wields two weapons.


 * In Check Your Local Listings, Simmons states that he becomes very nervous when girls pay direct attention to him. This is further shown in Season 12 where he has a hard time communicating with his team due to it entirely consisting of girls.
 * Ironically, Simmons is shown to have more females romantically attracted toward him then any other character in the series (with a total of three canon love interest), as Sister is shown to consider Simmons hot in Season 5, while both of his lieutenants show they have a crush on him in Season 12.
 * Simmons was presumably sent to Project Freelancer for low test scores. When questioned on this by Grif, Simmons replies that the time limits weren't fair.
 * The rocket launcher seems to have become Simmons' signature weapon since Recreation, as he has used it in several battles, such as the battles against Epsilon-Tex, the Meta, and the robotic Tex-drones. He also appears with the rocket launcher on the "Simmonsisms" poster, the Red Team artwork, and uses it in Red vs. Blue: Animated.
 * However, during the Chorus Trilogy, Simmons seems to use the rocket launcher less and mainly uses pistol-like weapons, as he uses a Magnum in the Season 12 Teaser Trailer, he uses Needlers near the end of the saga, and he later killed Felix using the Sticky Detonator. He even takes Carolina's pistol from the Chairman's trophy room in The End before giving it to Donut.
 * As shown in Deja View PSA where the Reds and Blues are temporarily shown in Hemorrhage, Simmons gained the ability to project holograms of himself through his Armor Ability, though the holograms will become "self aware" if not deactivated within a few minutes.
 * Simmons, along with Grif, is one of the only characters in the series to appear in all types of animation forms used in Red vs. Blue (machinima, 2-D animation, animation using Poser, and stop motion). They also currently have the longest series lifespan than any other character, with both being first introduced in Red vs. Blue Trailer.
 * Simmons has, at one point, been described to be capable of farming cabbage.
 * Simmons created the websites Simmons and Basebook, which is used by several characters in Season 11. They're also parodies of the popular websites, Google and Facebook.
 * With his promotion to Captain in Season 12, Simmons is now one of the highest ranking characters encountered in the series, along with fellow captains Flowers, Grif, Caboose, and Tucker. He is only behind Colonel Sarge, General Kimball, and General Doyle.
 * In several instances, it has been mentioned that Simmons plays Dungeons & Dragons, a fantasy tabletop role-playing game.
 * In Training Daze, it's shown that Simmons knows how to use military hand signals.
 * According to Match Breaking, Simmons uses multiple dating websites, currently Tinder, to find possible relationships. Along with this, a previous date of his confirms his username is ScilonSlayer19.
 * In the comic book series, Dead Rising: Road to Fortune, there is a soldier named Simmons, who appears to know another soldier very well, who he calls "Sarge".
 * According to special episodes and advertisement at the end of some episodes on YouTube, Simmons is in charge of running and organizing the Red vs. Blue YouTube channel.
 * As said in Previously On, Simmons learned Esperanto, which is a dead language in this time.
 * Both Simmons and Church briefly appear in RED vs BLUE, a video by Corridor Digital, with Gustavo Sorola and Burnie Burns reprising their roles.
 * Simmons is one of the only characters on Red Team to not become an antagonist at some point. The only other member being Grif.
 * Every time Simmons has joined Blue Team has been Sarge's fault. When he first joined them, it was because Sarge believed he was crazy and no longer respected him. The second time was when he forced Simmons and Grif to share a room together. He then sent them on a recon mission where Simmons heard about Washington making Tucker clean the base and maintain order, causing Simmons to leave Red Team.