Sarge (Red vs Blue)

Super Colonel Sarge is a main character in Red vs. Blue animation.

Sarge is the aggressive and illogical leader of the Red Team and is the only one to take the battle against the Blues seriously. He has appeared as a main character in nearly every season, with the exception of Season 9, where he only appears at the very end of the season. He briefly becomes an antagonist in Season 15, joining the Blues and Reds due to his desire to fight in a war. He returns to the Reds and Blues not long after, regretting his betrayal.

Personality
Sarge is one of the more eccentric characters in the series, as most of his actions and ideas involve violence, even when it's illogical. Although far from being as detached from reality as Caboose, Sarge's constant military rambling, illogical solutions, and irrational tendencies have suggested that he is one of the less sane characters in the series.

Being a military man, Sarge is very determined, mostly to unreasonable levels, as he still persists to fight the Blues despite knowing the truth of both sides. Sarge is also incredibly adamant as he refuses advice from others while believing that he is right. However, Sarge has the ability to be a loyal and compassionate leader, as he explains all the positive traits of others with a bold speech in Rally Capand Reckless and has come to rescue his troops and others from mortal danger as seen in Upon Further Reviewand True Colors.

Excluding Caboose, it could be argued that Sarge is one of the least sane members of the Reds and Blues. The vast majority of his time is spent focused on violence and the upcoming battles, even when there is no battle to look forward to. If there is no conflict in sight, Sarge will try his best to incite a conflict somewhere, in some way. Sarge is impulsive and borderline sociopathic in his attitude and words to other characters, particularly Grif, but not limited to him. He will often come up with needlessly complicated and violent ways to kill Grif or harm him. He is incapable of adjusting to a peaceful life, going as far as creating an evil robot army and declare war on gravity, just to have an enemy to fight. This makes him very susceptible to insanity, paranoia, and manipulation. The Blues and Reds take advantage of this and made Sarge allied with them in their plan to destroy the UNSC, betraying their own friends just for the chance of fighting an enemy, even if he doesn't any grudge against them.

He also has a large ego. He refuses to acknowledge flaws in his plans, and it is clear he values Simmons over Grif primarily due to the fact that Simmons sucks up to him and compliments him, whereas Grif insults Sarge often, which may hurt his pride. In recent events however, Sarge seems to have been humbled slightly, and treats Grif slightly better, only arguing with him seemingly out of habit.

Combat
Sarge is a skilled soldier, having managed to capture Tex as well as fight off, with the assistance of Caboose, the attacking hordes of soldiers in Battle Creek. In the episode True Colors, he (along with his fellow Reds and Blues) managed to eliminate several Tex drones, showing some skill in combat and survived unharmed afterwards. Sarge later uses his shotgun to kill several Federal Army soldiers, and was able to eliminate a Space Pirate in hand-to-hand combat, with the assistance of Grif and Simmons. In Relocated: Part One, it is revealed that Sarge jumped out of ships during the Human-Covenant war, later identifying himself as a former ODST.

Mechanics and Engineering
Sarge is also skilled in mechanics, though his skill level and success fluctuates from flawed to almost revolutionary genius, having built three separate robots, two of which were assembled simultaneously in a short period of time from color-coded robot kits. He has also created a fully functional weather control device into Lopez, though he never used it as he was unable to find a set of D batteries. Although he initially claims that he is unable to repair their jeep, he later manages to fix a derelict near-identical jeep by installing a solar/cold fission power source with little equipment in the wasteland.

However, his work is not flawless, as when he turned Simmons into a cyborg, the latter claimed that he would occasionally shoot himself in the foot for some unknown reason, which Sarge claims is "user-error". He has also claims to have developed a levitation device. Sarge has a passion for making ridiculously complicated and impressive devices and often uses any technical problem as an excuse to develop them, only to be disappointed when others (usually Grif) point out much simpler solutions. Sarge had also built a new robot body for Lopez before Reconstruction.

He also admits his skills aren't in the same league as Tex's or Lopez's.

Medical Experience
Sarge also appears to act as the Red Team's medical officer, as he has performed surgery on both Simmons and Grif in a relatively short amount of time, and both seem to be healthy. However, Sarge clearly knows very little about bodily functions, as he uses a diagram of a cow as an aid during Grif's surgery, claims that the body can produce any oxygen it needs when under stress without breathing, claiming that "the chest is strictly reserved for digestion", and advises Caboose to lift a heavy weight with his back as opposed to his legs.

Battle Plans
Sarge seems to be capable of planning out attacks quite well as demonstrated when he and Grif outsmarted Washington during Upon Further Review and when he and Lopez captured Tex in Down, but not Out. However, most of the time, he suggests plans that either protect him, kill Grif, or involve the construction of a complicated device in favor of one that actually achieves their goals, or all three. However, the aforementioned succeeding plans Sarge had come up with were not very complex nor did they guarantee victory, suggesting dumb luck may have been a factor.

Attention to Detail
Despite formulating unnecessarily complicated plans and wanting to protect solely him, Sarge appears to be attentive to his own team. As seen in Drink Your Ovaltine, Sarge was quickly able to realize his team was in jeopardy after he noticed several differences in behavior than what he normally expects from them: Simmons not responding to a call with the usual Red reply, Donut missing his daily wine and cheese hour, and being informed of the radio being in a state of disrepair, something Lopez would never let happen.

He was also able to figure out Doc was with them, though how he did this is unknown. He was also able to discern who was responsible for this when given only a description of the weather, being able to figure out that rainier weather was actually a hidden message for Mt. Rainier, the largest landmass in Washington. Going on this, he was able to figure out that Wash along with the largest mass associated with him, the Meta, were the ones responsible for "killing" his teammates and holding the sole survivor hostage. However, part of this may have been due to dumb luck as Simmons did not think he had revealed any of this information to Sarge in their exchange.

Kills
Proving his skills and rank, Sarge has killed many opponents: he was able to defend himself against several Grunts in Visiting Old Friends and, with the help of Grif and Simmons, was able to kill the Meta in n+1. He also killed two Wyoming clones and slayed several Tex drones with his shotgun. In Fire, Sarge uses his shotgun and the tank's cannon to kill several Feds. He has also killed Lemons. In Season 15 he kills a number of simulation troopers and unintentionally lets his counterpart, Surge, fall into lava. In Red vs. Blue: The Shisno Paradox, Sarge shoots a Film Actor portraying Temple, after mistaking him for the real one.

Trivia

 * Despite appearing at the end of Why Are We Here?, Sarge's appearance is discounted by Rooster Teeth as on his DVD bios it states his first appearance was in Red Gets a Delivery, the following episode.
 * According to the PSA, Planning to Fail, Sarge wields a shotgun at most times in order to be prepared for a zombie attack, although it is also his preferred weapon, despite his lack of proficiency with it.
 * According to the Season 2 DVD, Sarge's hometown is Moscow, Iowa.
 * Sarge has appeared on more season DVD box arts than any other character to date (7 total).
 * According to Tenth Percentile, Sarge's preferred nickname is S-Dog.
 * While Sarge prefers the shotgun, he has used a Magnum many times, particularly during Seasons 1 and 2. This is largely due to the fact the idle pose used to depict head-bobbing with lowered weapons while wielding two-handed weapons in the Halo 1 engine results in an exaggerated bent-over pose. With the Lower Weapon function introduced in Halo 2, this is no longer an issue.
 * As shown in Reconstruction: Chapter 4, when the Meta forges the transmission to Red Base, in the right hand corner it says Sarge is a Staff Sergeant.
 * According to The Man, The Myth, The Legend, Sergeant Johnson was once Sarge's mentor (or so he claims). It should be noted that the PSA, in question, was a Gamestop advertisement and is non canon.
 * Sarge has developed a fear of heights from jumping out of ships from orbit due to his previous experience as an ODST, which has been touched upon at random points and in the Red vs. Blue: The Ultimate Fan Guide book.
 * Sarge was the first of the main characters to appear as a Poser-animated character, during Holiday Plans, Part Three: Chestnuts Roasting....
 * During Episode 15, Sarge meets Church in "the afterlife", even though Church is actually an A.I. At the time, the "Alpha Church idea" did not exist, and the scene was presented as the genuine afterlife. However, series creator and writer Burnie Burns confirmed in the Revelation Creator Commentary that the scene had been retconned behind the scenes into Sarge's armor having entered recovery mode (as seen in Snooze Button) after being shot.
 * Sarge claims to have never hit a girl, despite bashing Tex in the head with his shotgun during Down, but not Out, although at the time, due to Tex's voice modifier, he didn't know she was a woman.
 * Since the series first premiered, Sarge's name has never been revealed. In the Season 14 episode Fifty Shades of Red, Sarge states that his real name is just "Sarge," although the episode suggests he had actually changed his name for the sake of obtaining the rank of Sergeant. According to Jax and Sarge himself, his name is 13 syllables long, requires a Mandarin keyboard to spell and that the fifth letter is an emoji. Before then, any attempt to reveal his real name was either vocally pre-empted or visually obscured. Series creator Burnie Burns stated that he and Matt Hullum know his real name but never plan to reveal it.
 * Sarge's gamertag is GrifKilla51, as seen in the PSA, You Know What We Mean.
 * When Church first possesses Sarge in Season 1 and attempts to tell Tex that it's him, she replies by saying he is too short to be Church. This is most likely poking fun at the fact that all of the spartan models in the Halo Engine are exactly the same height. It should also be noted that because of this, Sarge appears significantly shorter than everyone else in Luke Mckay's Red vs. Blue drawings. It could also be a reference to Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope in which Princess Leia says to Luke Skywalker "Aren't you short to be a Stormtrooper?"
 * Sarge, along with Caboose and Grif, is one of the only characters in the series to appear in every season.
 * Sarge will often utter the words "Ruh-roh" when presented with overwhelming danger, a reference to Hanna-Barbara cartoon star Scooby-Doo. Sarge's voice actor, series producer Matt Hullum, had worked as a visual effects production manager on the 2002 Scooby-Doo film.
 * At the end of Grifball Highlights, Sarge cries, "I'm so sad, I don't think I can go on. End it now, end it now," because the ball-carrier (A.K.A. Grif) scores without dying.
 * Sarge appears in the animated RT Recap alongside characters from RWBY, RTAA, and Achievement Hunter, making Sarge the only character to appear outside of Red vs. Blue.
 * With his "promotion" to Colonel, Sarge is the highest-ranking member of the Reds and Blues and, tied with Surge and Turf, the highest-ranked member of the Red Army and the second highest ranked character in the series, behind Donald Doyle and Vanessa Kimball, who are Generals.
 * Sarge has had the most promotions and demotions of any character in the series, tied with Grif at three. He was a Lieutenant before he was sent to Blood Gulch, then demoted to a Staff Sergeant, and was later promoted to Colonel by Doyle.
 * According to the Red vs. Blue: The Ultimate Fan Guide Sarge was transferred to Project Freelancerbecause he used parts of the ship he was stationed on to make a robot body for the ship's onboard A.I. unit.
 * According to the Red vs. Blue: The Ultimate Fan Guide Sarge has his own three laws of robotics meant to keep a robot uprising from happening, but his own laws are what can cause a robot uprising.
 * It is hinted in the special episode Meta vs. Carolina: Dawn of Awesome that Boomstick is Sarge's son. Though, ultimately, the episode is non-canon.
 * Sarge refuses to eat food of a losing military faction, with Italy being an exception due to Italy joining the allies mid-war.
 * During the Red vs. Blue Panel at RTX Sydney 2017, Burnie Burns stated that Sarge was originally intended to be the mysterious blue soldier in Season 10 instead of Butch Flowers. This idea would have caused multiple complications to the story, however, as Sarge had always been presented as completely unaware of the truths involved in Project Freelancer.
 * While Sarge's appearance beneath his armor is largely unknown, he mentions his "iconic eyebrows" in Belly of the Beast.
 * During the director's commentary of Season 15, director Joe Nicolosi states that he doesn't believe Sarge is "entirely white" due to needing a mandarin keyboard to type out his real name, hinting that Sarge may be of Chinese descent.