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* ToughLove: [[spoiler:He admits after being fatally wounded that his bullying of Grif was because Sarge recognized he had a lot of potential that he was too lazy to use, and Sarge wanted to him to live up to it.]]
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* VitriolicBestBuds: To an extent. It's hinted throughout the later seasons he's grown to care about Grif, and their animosity comes off as being somewhat more playful from Sarge's end. It gets to the point that Sarge is legitimately heartbroken when Grif temporarily abandons the team in Season 15.
to:
* VitriolicBestBuds: To an extent. It's hinted throughout the later seasons he's grown to care about Grif, and their animosity comes off as being somewhat more playful from Sarge's end. It gets to the point that Sarge is legitimately heartbroken when Grif temporarily abandons the team in Season 15. [[spoiler:As he dies, Sarge admits he only bullied Grif because he wanted to force him to live up to his potential, having recognized his intelligence and competence from the beginning.]]
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* CharacterDeath: [[spoiler:Sarge dies halfway though ''Restoration'', saving Caboose from The Meta, being fatally wounded in the process.]]
** The biggest one though is in ''Restoration''. [[spoiler:He finally comes to see Caboose as "one of them" instead of just a Blue. When presented with the chance to abandon Caboose to die to save himself and the Reds, he goes back to save him, being fatally wounded in the process. As he dies, he [[YouAreInCommandNow declares Simmons the new leader of Red Team]], saying [[SoProudOfYou he's proud of him]], and admits to Grif he was always mean to him and hard on him because [[YouAreBetterThanYouThinkYouAre he knew he could be better and never stopped believing in him]], even when Grif didn't believe in himself]].
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* DueToTheDead: He tends to act this way to the bodies of his enemies, insisting that they be treated with a modicum of respect (though only a modicum).
--> Rest in peace... dirtbag.
--> Rest in peace... dirtbag.
to:
* DueToTheDead: DueToTheDead:
** He tends to act this way to the bodies of his enemies, insisting that they be treated with a modicum of respect (though only a modicum).
--> ---> Rest in peace... dirtbag.dirtbag.
** [[spoiler:He gets this himself upon his own death, with Grif and Simmon burying him at Blood Gulch. Simmons even included a button that when pushed plays grief-themed insults in Sarge's southern accent. After the final battle with The Meta, Sarge's broken shotgun is added to his grave.]]
** He tends to act this way to the bodies of his enemies, insisting that they be treated with a modicum of respect (though only a modicum).
** [[spoiler:He gets this himself upon his own death, with Grif and Simmon burying him at Blood Gulch. Simmons even included a button that when pushed plays grief-themed insults in Sarge's southern accent. After the final battle with The Meta, Sarge's broken shotgun is added to his grave.]]
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* ImpaledWithExtremePrejudicem: [[spoiler:The Meta stabs him through a door with Tucker's sword in ''Restoration''. This proves to be a fatal injury, with Sarge having just enough time to say goodbye to Caboose, Simmons, and Grif before dying.]]
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* YouAreInCommandNow: [[spoiler:Simmons is made the new leader of Red Team by Sarge in ''Restoration'' as Sarge himself slowly dies from being stabbed by The Meta.]]
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* AmbiguouslyBi: The only times Sarge has shown any romantic interest with anyone, was with ''Lopez''. Though as it was a fake movie trailer directed by '''Donut''', it should be taken with a grain of salt. He also shouted 'Marry me!' to Kalirama the War Goddess.
to:
* AmbiguouslyBi: The only times Sarge has shown any romantic interest with anyone, was with ''Lopez''. Though as it was a fake movie trailer directed by '''Donut''', it should be taken with a grain of salt. He also shouted 'Marry me!' to Kalirama the War Goddess.Goddess, and was genuinly disappointed when the naked Kaikaina was getting dressed after appearing naked on camera.
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* NeverMyFault: Sarge will practically never see his own faults and will usually find a way of passing the blame to someone else; most likely Grif or simmons or someone else who suffered from his own actions.
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* NeverMyFault: Sarge will practically never see his own faults and will usually find a way of passing the blame to someone else; most likely Grif or simmons Simmons or someone else who suffered from his own actions.
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Trope was cut/disambiguated due to cleanup
Deleted line(s) 250 (click to see context) :
* EatTheDog: In ''Recreation'', he mentions he was once stranded on an ice planet with no supplies thanks to [[MissionControlIsOffItsMeds Command's]] orders, which led to him eating his dog to survive.
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Changed line(s) 152 (click to see context) from:
* NeverMyFault:
to:
* NeverMyFault: Sarge will practically never see his own faults and will usually find a way of passing the blame to someone else; most likely Grif or simmons or someone else who suffered from his own actions.
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** In Season 11, he decided to take half of Red Base for himself as his own "personal space" to reflect on his vast victories and "non-existent" failures, forcing Grif and Simmons to share the other half with each other. Being this close to Grif's disgusting habits causes Simmons to join the Blues ([[TheThingThatWouldNotLeave not that they want him]]) to get away from it all. When Sarge gets confirmation of this, and how Simmons agrees with Grif that it's Sarge's fault for forcing them together in the first place, he deems Simmons a "traitor" for joining the enemy.
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Changed line(s) 129 (click to see context) from:
* IrrationalHatred: His hatred for Grif, ''natch''. While it is fair enough for Sarge to be annoyed by Grif due to the latter's laziness and insubordination often putting the two at odds, Sarge's near never-ending abuse towards Grif goes well beyond the fact that Grif is lazy and is often exaggerated to the point that he can barely go a single conversation without insulting Grif in some way or wishing he was dead, sometimes without even speaking to Grif himself. It is actually shown in "Standardized Testing" that Grif's very presence causes Sarge to get angry. While he is admiring a forklift, Grif runs past past him from behind without him noticing him, only for Sarge to then ask himself why he's so angry all of a sudden.
to:
* IrrationalHatred: His hatred for Grif, ''natch''. While it is fair enough for Sarge to be annoyed by Grif due to the latter's laziness and insubordination often putting the two at odds, Sarge's near never-ending abuse towards Grif goes well beyond the fact that Grif is lazy and is often exaggerated to the point that he can barely go a single conversation without insulting Grif in some way or wishing he was dead, sometimes without even speaking to Grif himself. It is actually shown in "Standardized Testing" that Grif's very presence causes Sarge to get angry. While he is admiring a forklift, Grif runs past past him from behind without him Sarge noticing him, only for Sarge to then ask himself why he's so angry all of a sudden.
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* TookALevelInKindness: After discovering the entire war between the Reds and Blues was a sham, Sarge mellows out somewhat and changes for the better. He's still a deranged hardass, but it becomes much clearer that he legitimately cares about the Blood Gulch Crew and views them as friends, and he's much more prone to PetTheDog moments afterwards.
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* VitriolicBestBuds: To an extent. It's hinted throughout the later seasons he's grown to care about Grif, and their animosity comes off as being somewhat more playful from Sarge's end. It gets to the point that Sarge is legitimately heartbroken when Grif temporarily abandons the team in Season 15.
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* TenMinuteRetirement: After the Reds read from the database that the whole Red and Blue war is a lie and that they only exist to test the skills of the Freelancers, Sarge promptly declares that he quits his role as sergeant. However, shortly afterwards when Caboose receives a Recovery Beacon from Epsilon and begs for help, Sarge agrees to help and gives a heroic RousingSpeech to the others about why they are all still there and will get back at Command for using them..
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* HeroicBSOD: He takes the truth about the Red and Blue war hardest out of all the Blood Gulch Crew. Not only did he learn that he is considered one of the worst soldiers in the army, he finds out that his entire military career has been a lie and he is just considered a human lab rat at best and a living crash test dummy at worst fighting a pointless fake war meant to test the skills of the "real soldiers" in Project Freelancer. He ends up building himself a new Red Base out of junk, declaring he quits. Thankfully though, he recovers quickly by the next episode and rallies everyone to help Caboose rescue Church and Tex and get back at Command for using and lying to them.
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* InsultingFromBehindTheLanguageBarrier: This is Lopez's schtick after realizing how idiotic everyone else is. He constantly makes sarcastic comments and direct insults towards everyone, knowing that they can't understand him anyway since none of them speak Spanish and won't know he's insulting them. By Season 11, he claims this is the one good thing about being on Red Team. The one time this fails him is when it is revealed that [[BilingualBackfire Locus is bilingual]]
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* BecameTheirOwnAntithesis: Very briefly in the finale to ''Singularity'', [[spoiler:once the Labyrinth throws him into the horrors of the Normandy landings, with him experiencing exactly what a [[WarIsHell real war]] is instead of the pretend war he has gotten used to living with the Reds and Blues, he becomes traumatized. He begins acting a lot like ''Grif'', questioning the suicidal orders from his superior in the illusion, and after being rescued when Wash announces they need to confront whatever is Carolina's greatest fear, ''both'' he and Grif immediately begin [[INeedToGoIronMyDog giving excuses]] and/or [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere refusing to participate]], a far cry from Sarge's normal BloodKnight tendencies. However, just like Grif, when Wash underlines how she might die without all their help, both of them [[TrueCompanions reluctantly agree to help, albeit while still complaining about it]].]]
Changed line(s) 41 (click to see context) from:
* BondOneLiner: Spoofed. He frequently attempts to use his {{Catchphrase}} "You just got Sarge'd!" as one of these, but bungles it every time.
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* BondOneLiner: Spoofed. He frequently attempts to use his {{Catchphrase}} CharacterCatchphrase "You just got Sarge'd!" as one of these, but bungles it every time.
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* CatchPhrase:
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* CatchPhrase: CharacterCatchphrase:
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[[Characters/RedVsBlueBloodGulchCrew Blood Gulch Crew]]\\ | [[Characters/RedVsBlueBlueTeam Blue Team]] ([[Characters/RedVsBlueLeonardLChurch Leonard L. Church]])\\
to:
[[Characters/RedVsBlueBloodGulchCrew Blood Gulch Crew]]\\ Crew]]\\
'''Red Team''' | [[Characters/RedVsBlueBlueTeam Blue Team]] ([[Characters/RedVsBlueLeonardLChurch Leonard L. Church]])\\
'''Red Team''' | [[Characters/RedVsBlueBlueTeam Blue Team]] ([[Characters/RedVsBlueLeonardLChurch Leonard L. Church]])\\
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[[Characters/RedVsBlueBloodGulchCrew Blood Gulch Crew]]\\
'''Red Team''' ([[Characters/RedVsBlueDexterGrif Dexter Grif]]) | [[Characters/RedVsBlueBlueTeam Blue Team]] ([[Characters/RedVsBlueLeonardLChurch Leonard L. Church]], [[Characters/RedVsBlueLaverniusTucker Lavernius Tucker]], [[Characters/RedVsBlueMichaelJCaboose Michael J. Caboose]], [[Characters/RedVsBlueAgentWashington Agent Washington]])\\
'''Red Team''' ([[Characters/RedVsBlueDexterGrif Dexter Grif]]) | [[Characters/RedVsBlueBlueTeam Blue Team]] ([[Characters/RedVsBlueLeonardLChurch Leonard L. Church]], [[Characters/RedVsBlueLaverniusTucker Lavernius Tucker]], [[Characters/RedVsBlueMichaelJCaboose Michael J. Caboose]], [[Characters/RedVsBlueAgentWashington Agent Washington]])\\
to:
[[Characters/RedVsBlueBloodGulchCrew Blood Gulch Crew]]\\
'''Red Team''' ([[Characters/RedVsBlueDexterGrif Dexter Grif]])Crew]]\\ | [[Characters/RedVsBlueBlueTeam Blue Team]] ([[Characters/RedVsBlueLeonardLChurch Leonard L. Church]], [[Characters/RedVsBlueLaverniusTucker Lavernius Tucker]], [[Characters/RedVsBlueMichaelJCaboose Michael J. Caboose]], [[Characters/RedVsBlueAgentWashington Agent Washington]])\\Church]])\\
'''Red Team''' ([[Characters/RedVsBlueDexterGrif Dexter Grif]])
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[[Characters/RedVsBlueProjectFreelancer Project Freelancer]] ([[Characters/RedVsBlueSimulationTroopers Simulation Troopers]] | [[Characters/RedVsBlueArtificialIntelligences Artificial Intelligences]]) | [[Characters/RedVsBlueCharonIndustries Charon Industries]] ([[Characters/RedVsBlueFelix Felix]], [[Characters/RedVsBlueLocus Locus]]) | [[Characters/RedVsBlueChorus Chorus]] | [[Characters/RedVsBlueCosmicPowers Cosmic Powers]] | [[Characters/RedVsBlueAllianceOfDefense Alliance of Defense]] | [[Characters/RedVsBlueOthers Others]]-]]]]]
to:
[[Characters/RedVsBlueProjectFreelancer Project Freelancer]] ([[Characters/RedVsBlueSimulationTroopers Simulation Troopers]] | [[Characters/RedVsBlueArtificialIntelligences Artificial Intelligences]]) | [[Characters/RedVsBlueCharonIndustries Charon Industries]] ([[Characters/RedVsBlueFelix Felix]], [[Characters/RedVsBlueLocus Locus]]) | [[Characters/RedVsBlueChorus Chorus]] | [[Characters/RedVsBlueCosmicPowers Cosmic Powers]] | [[Characters/RedVsBlueAllianceOfDefense Alliance of Defense]] | [[Characters/RedVsBlueOthers Others]]-]]]]]
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->[[Characters/RedVsBlueDexterGrif See his page for more info]]
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Donut]]
!Private Franklin Delano Donut
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/donut_s15.png]]
[[caption-width-right:350:''"It's not pink, it's [[InsistentTerminology lightish-red]]!"'']]
->''"Who wants to hold my ankles while I stretch out my hammies?"''
-->'''Voiced By:''' Dan Godwin, Jordan Burns (Caboose's Mind, Seasons 2, 5-6), Creator/MilesLuna (radio transmission, Season 11), Barbara Dunkelman (Caboose's Mind, Season 14), Maggie Tominey ("Get Bent")
Red Team's rookie member with some major issues, acting as the team's [[TheDitz Ditz]]. He kicks off the series' Red/Blue conflict after Simmons and Grif send him to "the store" to get some "headlight fluid." Donut accidentally wanders into Blue Base and ends up capturing their flag, prompting the Blues to call in a Freelancer and start the main plot. Originally wearing standard red armor, Donut took one of Tex's grenades to the face and had to be sent away for medical help, returning with his own [[LessEmbarrassingTerm lightish-red]] armor out of recognition for his flag capture.
This, combined with a flair for calligraphy, appreciation of interior decorating, and the "Officer Hot Pants" surprise at Sarge's birthday party helps solidify Donut's status as CampGay by Season Three. Although he has a surprisingly good arm when it comes to throwing grenades, as proven when he killed Tex with a precision throw from across the canyon, in most combat situations he is expected (and ordered) to run around and [[ScreamsLikeALittleGirl scream like a girl]], a role he takes to with gusto.
Like Tucker and Doc, he is PutOnABus before ''Reconstruction'', but returns in ''Relocated''' during an experiment by Sarge to test the capabilities of a new plasma weapon. He's mistaken at first for a holographic Grif clone, but the others soon realize it's him and he passes out, exclaiming that he needs water. He then becomes a main character for ''Recreation'', rejoining the Red team to fight against the remaining Blues (i.e. Caboose).
At the end of the season, he is murdered in cold blood by a post-FaceHeelTurn Washington, setting up the much darker plot for the remainder of the ''Recollection'' saga. In the ''Revelation'' premiere, Doc confirms that he is indeed dead. However, in the sponsors-only ending of Chapter 13, F.I.L.S.S. shutting down the armour lock on the soldiers' armour ends up bringing him back to life. This is confirmed to be canon in Season 10, when the Reds and Blues (and Carolina) return to Valhalla to find that Doc and Donut have set up an organic farm, using Lopez's body as a scarecrow.
He initially isn't involved in the crash landing with the Reds and Blues in Season 11, but eventually makes contact with them in Episode 6. However, when he actually shows up in Episode 10, alongside Doc and Lopez('s head), he forgets to bring the pilot that brought the three there, leaving them also stranded on the planet.
Season 12 has him "kidnapped" by the Federal Army of Chorus, but is revealed to be safe along with Sarge, Lopez, and Washington. After escaping the clutches of the conspiracy that surrounds Chorus, he, along with the rest of the Reds and Blues, convinces the opposing armies of Chorus to stop fighting each other
Season 13 has him take over the weapons depot in Armonia along with Lopez, until Armonia is lost, and later, joins the rest of the Reds and Blues in their effort to stop Chairman Hargrove from killing everyone on Chorus.
In Season 15, after the defeat of Hargrove and death of Epsilon-Church, he retires with the rest of the Blood Gulch Crew, until attacks caused by the Blues and Reds forces him out of retirement. At the end of the season, he's blasted by a stray bolt of lightning from Loco's Machine, [[UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom which has serious consequences in the next two seasons.]]
In Season 16, the lightning that struck him reveals to have completely destroyed his physical body, with [[IdiotHero Caboose]] as the only witness to his "death." His consciousness was saved however, thanks to a mysterious being he calls "God," which then restores his physical form and tells him of the "Devil King." God then tells him to gather the rest of the Reds and Blues to save the universe by traveling in time. When it's revealed the "God" is in fact an evil Titan named Chrovos, Donut still sides with him due to the effects of the time traveling and his anger with the Blood Gulch Crew treating him poorly. When he eventually realizes that Chrovos was only using him, after an extensive fight with O'Malley/Doc, Donut uses the Hammer that he stole from the Cosmic Powers to reseal Chrovos.
Season 17 reveals that though Donut sealed Chrovos away, he still escaped (somewhat) due to the paradox caused by the Blood Gulch Crew. Donut then spends the season trying to save his friends and fix everything, and while he ultimately succeeds in bringing down Chrovos and Genkins, the traumas he dealt with through the arc plus his RageBreakingPoint being pressed due to the Blood Gulch Crew still treating him poorly, causes him to decide to spend some time away from the group by travelling across the universe to try and recover on his own.
----
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Donut]]
!Private Franklin Delano Donut
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/donut_s15.png]]
[[caption-width-right:350:''"It's not pink, it's [[InsistentTerminology lightish-red]]!"'']]
->''"Who wants to hold my ankles while I stretch out my hammies?"''
-->'''Voiced By:''' Dan Godwin, Jordan Burns (Caboose's Mind, Seasons 2, 5-6), Creator/MilesLuna (radio transmission, Season 11), Barbara Dunkelman (Caboose's Mind, Season 14), Maggie Tominey ("Get Bent")
Red Team's rookie member with some major issues, acting as the team's [[TheDitz Ditz]]. He kicks off the series' Red/Blue conflict after Simmons and Grif send him to "the store" to get some "headlight fluid." Donut accidentally wanders into Blue Base and ends up capturing their flag, prompting the Blues to call in a Freelancer and start the main plot. Originally wearing standard red armor, Donut took one of Tex's grenades to the face and had to be sent away for medical help, returning with his own [[LessEmbarrassingTerm lightish-red]] armor out of recognition for his flag capture.
This, combined with a flair for calligraphy, appreciation of interior decorating, and the "Officer Hot Pants" surprise at Sarge's birthday party helps solidify Donut's status as CampGay by Season Three. Although he has a surprisingly good arm when it comes to throwing grenades, as proven when he killed Tex with a precision throw from across the canyon, in most combat situations he is expected (and ordered) to run around and [[ScreamsLikeALittleGirl scream like a girl]], a role he takes to with gusto.
Like Tucker and Doc, he is PutOnABus before ''Reconstruction'', but returns in ''Relocated''' during an experiment by Sarge to test the capabilities of a new plasma weapon. He's mistaken at first for a holographic Grif clone, but the others soon realize it's him and he passes out, exclaiming that he needs water. He then becomes a main character for ''Recreation'', rejoining the Red team to fight against the remaining Blues (i.e. Caboose).
At the end of the season, he is murdered in cold blood by a post-FaceHeelTurn Washington, setting up the much darker plot for the remainder of the ''Recollection'' saga. In the ''Revelation'' premiere, Doc confirms that he is indeed dead. However, in the sponsors-only ending of Chapter 13, F.I.L.S.S. shutting down the armour lock on the soldiers' armour ends up bringing him back to life. This is confirmed to be canon in Season 10, when the Reds and Blues (and Carolina) return to Valhalla to find that Doc and Donut have set up an organic farm, using Lopez's body as a scarecrow.
He initially isn't involved in the crash landing with the Reds and Blues in Season 11, but eventually makes contact with them in Episode 6. However, when he actually shows up in Episode 10, alongside Doc and Lopez('s head), he forgets to bring the pilot that brought the three there, leaving them also stranded on the planet.
Season 12 has him "kidnapped" by the Federal Army of Chorus, but is revealed to be safe along with Sarge, Lopez, and Washington. After escaping the clutches of the conspiracy that surrounds Chorus, he, along with the rest of the Reds and Blues, convinces the opposing armies of Chorus to stop fighting each other
Season 13 has him take over the weapons depot in Armonia along with Lopez, until Armonia is lost, and later, joins the rest of the Reds and Blues in their effort to stop Chairman Hargrove from killing everyone on Chorus.
In Season 15, after the defeat of Hargrove and death of Epsilon-Church, he retires with the rest of the Blood Gulch Crew, until attacks caused by the Blues and Reds forces him out of retirement. At the end of the season, he's blasted by a stray bolt of lightning from Loco's Machine, [[UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom which has serious consequences in the next two seasons.]]
In Season 16, the lightning that struck him reveals to have completely destroyed his physical body, with [[IdiotHero Caboose]] as the only witness to his "death." His consciousness was saved however, thanks to a mysterious being he calls "God," which then restores his physical form and tells him of the "Devil King." God then tells him to gather the rest of the Reds and Blues to save the universe by traveling in time. When it's revealed the "God" is in fact an evil Titan named Chrovos, Donut still sides with him due to the effects of the time traveling and his anger with the Blood Gulch Crew treating him poorly. When he eventually realizes that Chrovos was only using him, after an extensive fight with O'Malley/Doc, Donut uses the Hammer that he stole from the Cosmic Powers to reseal Chrovos.
Season 17 reveals that though Donut sealed Chrovos away, he still escaped (somewhat) due to the paradox caused by the Blood Gulch Crew. Donut then spends the season trying to save his friends and fix everything, and while he ultimately succeeds in bringing down Chrovos and Genkins, the traumas he dealt with through the arc plus his RageBreakingPoint being pressed due to the Blood Gulch Crew still treating him poorly, causes him to decide to spend some time away from the group by travelling across the universe to try and recover on his own.
----
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* AbusiveParents: His mother abandoned the family to run off and join the circus, and his father shut down because of it. Leaving Grif to raise his sister on his own.
* ActionSurvivor: Once the fighting comes to him in ''The Recollection'' and afterwards.
* AmbiguouslyBi: While he has shown attraction towards women, his relationship with Simmons might be ''more'' than VitriolicBestBuds, as suggested by Rooster Teeth. [[spoiler: There was a question at a panel with RT where they got asked what Grif and Simmons were doing in the shade for two hours. Apparently, they'd read a slash fanfic earlier. And they have a CallBack reference to that. So.. take that how you will. What's more, it's implied that when Tucker activated the Temple of Procreation on Chorus, they had sex with each other.]]
* AntiHero: He's a LazyBum and an apathetic jerk, but he always comes through in the end.
* BadBoss: Whenever he's put in a position of authority, he tends to do quite badly due to his laziness and general apathy. He claims that this is because he's just following Sarge's example, but while Sarge may not have been the best commanding officer, he never did anything as blatantly counterproductive as selling the ammo of his men to the opposing side. May be a [[DeconstructedTrope Deconstruction]], however, for as the seasons go on Grif is shown to be a rather good (if eccentric and lazy) leader and is an unusual version of AFatherToHisMen.
* BadassDriver: While he has shown considerable motor skills in seasons one to five and is the Red Team's designated driver, by ''Revelation'', he has completely owned and adopted this trope. He just has trouble ''stopping'' driving sometimes.
* BadassNormal: ButtMonkey status aside, Grif has been [[ActionSurvivor surviving explosions, falls, blunt-force trauma and bullets that should've killed him since Season 2 from both enemies]] [[TeamKiller and allies]], yet he's been shown to make quick recovery! Hell, a normal human would've died dozens of times [[GroinAttack during his fight]] with Tex in ''Revelation''.
* BecameTheirOwnAntithesis: PlayedForLaughs in Season 12, where he suffers a mental breakdown from the stress of leadership and starts acting like Sarge, who he subconsciously looks towards as a definitive leader. Once he realizes this, he [[WhatHaveIBecome reacts predictably.]]
-->'''Grif:''' [[Film/TheEmpireStrikesBack That's not true! That's impossible! NOOOOOOOOO!]]
* BerserkButton:
** He's pretty fed up with no-one being able to associate orange with him (his true, though difficult to see armour colour). By Season 12, this is fully apparent.
** He's also pretty PO'd by people spelling his surname with two "F"s.
** Don't try to take his weapon. When Dr. Grey tries to examine his Suppressor, he refuses to let her have it and accidentally shoots at Carolina when she tries to pry it away.
* BigBrotherInstinct: Towards Kaikaina, his younger sister.
** He's also had his moments towards Caboose. For instance, both he and Tucker were the first ones to yell at Temple when the latter was rubbing Caboose's face in the fact that Church had been KilledOffForReal. He also checked on Caboose while he was in Valhalla's Blue Base during ''Recreation'', and volunteered to help Caboose rescue Tucker from Sandtrap (though there's admittedly [[LaboriousLaziness ulterior motives there]]).
* BigEater: At the end of Season 11, he ate enough of the New Republic mess hall's rations to force them to close. Lampshaded in the final episode of Season 15.
-->'''Grif:''' I could eat a horse!\\
'''Carolina:''' With you, I'm worried that's not a figure of speech.\\
'''Grif:''' That's a figure of speech?\\
'''Simmons:''' What the fuck is wrong with you?
* TheBigGuy: Fat jokes aside, Grif naturally evolves into this role for the rest of Red Team as the series goes on.
* BizarroUniverse: Epsilon-Grif starts out ''very'' inaccurate, being a NeatFreak who regularly and obsessively cleans the base. It's only when Epsilon-Church gets the idea of being a slob in his head does he become more accurate.
* BookDumb: Grif is actually pretty crafty and intelligent, but can be suicidally dumb whenever he's not using his intelligence to get out of work, believing that electricity is "invisible magic", attempting to clean off the top of the base by throwing a grenade on it while ''he's still on top'', and saving an expired cream pie for years and freaking out when Bitters eats it since he was "saving it for emergencies", among other things.
* BorrowedCatchphrase: Does this by accident when he's having his meltdown over being put in a command position and starts subconsciously imitating Sarge during Season 12. He even calls Bitters a dirtbag without realizing it until after he's said it.
* BosssUnfavoriteEmployee: Grif is the least favorite subordinate of Sarge. Sarge singles him out for dangerous work, openly wishes for his death, and has tried to get him killed on various occasions.
* BrilliantButLazy: Church claims he is this... though [[UnreliableNarrator Church may have been mistaken, exaggerating,]] deliberately trying to screw with Simmons, or only comparing Grif to the other Reds. It is perhaps notable that Simmons doesn't seem to disagree with Church that Grif is the smartest Red other than himself. He is finally confirmed to be legitimately cunning during the final episode of ''Revelation''. During the fight against [[TheJuggernaut the Meta]], Grif bodily throws himself onto the Meta's back. When the Meta throws him down, Grif steals his Brute Shot with a cocky "Yoink!". Considering that the Meta had been owning everyone's asses with the weapon at that point, using it to block all their attacks, it is likely that Grif knew they needed to get it off him, and decided to take advantage of his own mass and weight, putting himself in immense danger just to give his friends an edge. In Season 15, Grif was able to become fluent in Spanish in less than a month just to get Lopez's voice right.
* ButtMonkey: Every Red Team plan involves sacrificing him in one way or another. And that's not even counting the [[GroinAttack horrible,]] [[RunningGag horrible]] [[CurbStompBattle beatdown]] he receives in ''Revelation'' at the hands of Tex.
* TheCallKnowsWhereYouLive: Locus and Lopez's head come to find him after the rest of the Reds and Blues are either captured or defected to the Blues and Reds. Furthermore, his attempts to just get pizza and avoid Donut's time travel quest only result in the plot involving the Cosmic Powers.
* CaptainCrash: Specifically, he's a little fuzzy on the whole concept of "landing":
-->'''Grif:''' Sure! That just means "stop flying", right?
* CarFu: To Agent Washington in Season 8, Episode 3, and to some soldiers in Season 10, Episode 3. On the receiving end of this in ''Reconstruction''.
* CharacterDevelopment: During ''The Blood Gulch Chronicles,'' Grif is a LazyBum who doesn't like to fight and is rather weak compared to the other individuals in the canyon, which doesn't match up well with his [[SourSupporter bitter, apathetic]] attitude and [[DeadpanSnarker snarky]] quips. Come ''The Recollection,'' and it is shown that Grif is rather decent (perhaps above decent) with his battle rifle and has better insight and a bit more initiative, developing a stronger relationship with Sarge and evolving into TheSlacker as well as TheHeart of Red Team. In ''The Project Freelancer Saga,'' Grif displays he does care about the other members of the [[TrueCompanions Blood Gulch Crew]], and his UndyingLoyalty is cemented. And in ''The Chorus Trilogy,'' Grif actually shows care for the men under his command after becoming a Captain, and is the only person besides Tucker that is shown to be teaching them worthwhile lessons. All in all, Grif has subtly become a better person and soldier.
** Compare these lines, first from Season 2, then Season 13:
--->'''Sarge:''' [[BloodKnight TODAY IS A GOOD DAY TO DIE!]]\\
'''Grif:''' Wait! I think today is actually a good day to retreat! Can't we push dying to a week from Friday?
** Meanwhile, eleven seasons later...
--->'''Sarge:''' [[FaceDeathWithDignity (in a far more somber tone)]] Well, fellas, you know what they say. Today, is a good day to die...\\
'''Grif:''' (in an oddly calm voice) Permission to speak freely sir? (camera pans around, revealing that Grif has picked up the recovered Grif Shot) ''[[PrecisionFStrike Fuck that.]]''
** After abandoning the team at the start of Season 15 and undergoing some SanitySlippage, Grif decides to step up and take a more active role within the group, namely teaming up with ''Locus'' and joining the fight against the Blues and Reds.
* CharacterFocus: In Season 15, despite being absent for a good deal of the season. In fact, both he and [[IntrepidReporter Dylan Andrews]] are arguably the main protagonists of the season, much in the same way that Tucker was the protagonist of Season 12.
** Grif is also later the protagonist of ''The Shisno Paradox''.
* CharacterizationMarchesOn: In Season 1, [[LazyBum Grif]] would frequently try to get Simmons to keep on task and actually try to do his work, something that would be absolutely unthinkable for him for the rest of the series.
* TheChewToy: He's on the receiving end of most of Sarge's abuse, and not a few {{Groin Attack}}s from Tex.
* CorruptQuartermaster: In ''The Blood Gulch Chronicles'', he was in charge of Red Team's ammo, and always forgot to bring it with him. In ''Reconstruction'', he actually sells all of the ammunition his new team has to the Blues, resulting in him and Simmons nearly being executed by firing squad before Sarge shows up.
* CowardlyLion: Usually among the first soldier in the Blood Gulch Crew to suggest running away at the first sign of danger (see his page quote), but he has little trouble overcoming his cowardice to help save the day when he really needs to.
* CrouchingMoronHiddenBadass:
** By virtue of being deceptively heavy, which allows him to disarm both the Meta and ''Carolina'' of all people!
** His plan to free the Reds and Blues from Temple's brig? Sneak around the Blues and Reds' lair in plain view of all the security cameras, and then getting stuck in an air vent thanks to his girth. Except this was all according to plan - he needed to get all eyes off of Locus, who successfully sneaks in and frees the Reds and Blues (as well as Wash and Carolina).
* DeadpanSnarker: Even compared with the rest of the Blood Gulch Crew, Grif stands out at being the snarkiest of them all (aside from ''maybe'' Church). Most of it is aimed toward Sarge or Simmons, but no one is immune.
* DecoyProtagonist: A {{downplayed|Trope}} example. ''The Shisno Paradox'' initially seems set up to continue his CharacterFocus from Season 15 by making him the main character. The end of the season however makes clear he isn't the main character, ''Donut is'', and continues to be in ''Singularity''. Grif meanwhile takes the position of {{deuteragonist}}, which he shares with Wash in ''Singularity''.
* {{Deuteragonist}}: He serves as this in Season 15, in spite of being PutOnABus for most of it. A good portion of the season's story revolves around him quitting, and then realizing how much his friends mean to him and how much he took them for granted
* DrillSergeantNasty: When placed in charge of his own squad in ''The Chorus Trilogy'', he becomes one of these due to subconsciously following Sarge's example. When he realizes this, he is horrified.
* TheFaceless: Like almost everyone else in the series, he never removes his helmet.
* FatalFlaw: {{Sloth}} and [[SevenDeadlySins Gluttony]], as one could likely expect.
* {{Flanderization}}: He started off as the most competent of the Reds who occasionally slacked off because the work he would have done would have been complete nonsense anyway, and he came off as the Red Team's version of Church; sane and intelligent, but too cynical to even care that much about his duties. Later on, Grif became an overweight lazy glutton who refuses to any sort of work and flat out admits to hating effort itself, and will go to great lengths to avoid work. It reaches its apex in the middle of ''The Recollection'', where he actually starts going along with Sarge's deranged plans (plans so insane that even ''[[ProfessionalButtKisser Simmons]]'' refuses to go along with them) because of his laziness, something Grif would never do in earlier and later seasons. ''The Chorus Trilogy'' further Flanderizes him, increasing his gluttony and sloth at the expense of his status as Red Team's OnlySaneMan.
* {{Foil}}: To Simmons. Specifically, Simmons is a insecure [[ProfessionalButtKisser suck-up]] who is constantly working, thrives on rigid organization, and takes great pains to appear to be a genius when he really isn't as smart as he likes to think he is. Meanwhile, Grif is a LazyBum who constantly avoids work, [[DeadpanSnarker has no respect for authority]], and is implied to be [[BrilliantbutLazy considerably smarter than he lets on]].
* FoolishSiblingResponsibleSibling: Subverted in terms of his relationship with Kaikaina, as both have elements of the "Responsible Sibling" (Grif's BigBrotherInstinct towards her and Kaikaina becoming an event coordinator) and the "Foolish Sibling" (Grif is a LazyBum ''par excellence'' and Sister was originally written to be a "loud slut").
* FreudianExcuse:
** According to [=Doc/O'Malley=], Grif's adversity to discipline and work stems from his terrible childhood, in which his sister was always the favorite, his father was absent and his mother was too busy at the circus to give him the attention he needed.
-->'''Grif:''' ''(sad)'' It was a nice circus...
** [[spoiler: ''Singularity'' implies that his LazyBum habits were the result of a [[SadistTeacher particularly sadistic gym coach]].]]
* GenderFlip: His Epsilon-Double, along with the rest of the Reds and Tex are all misremembered as being the opposite gender in one of Epsilon-Church's iterations seen in "Get Bent".
* GeniusDitz: Described as "crafty" by Church, Grif is certainly unbeatable concerning inventing methods of avoiding work. One of the [=PSAs=] has Grif scoff at how easy it is to get into Columbia University, adding "I'm a Harvard man."
* GoMadFromTheIsolation: Staying on the moon by himself turns out to be a bad choice. Without anyone to talk to, he goes crazy and pretends [[Film/{{Castaway}} a bunch of volleyballs]] [[ShoutOut are the other Reds and Blues]]. He becomes so desperate for human interaction that, after getting over the shock of seeing him, he's actually excited to talk to ''Locus''.
* GroinAttack: Suffers no fewer than ''seven'' of them at the hands of Tex during their big battle. Two of which are hard enough to ''crack stone''. Poor guy.
* TheHeart: Has surprisingly evolved into this role as the series has gone on.
* HiddenDepths:
** He's a lot smarter than he lets on, which tends to get overshadowed by the fact that he's lazy. Beyond that however, he has shown occasional instances of genuine selflessness that clash with his usual facade of a "Do-Nothing-Slacker".
** In the last episode of ''Reconstruction'' when they are all trying to escape the EMP, Grif yells at Caboose (his ''enemy'') "Get Epsilon out of here! Don't worry about us!" That's right, '''Grif''' was more concerned about the success of the mission than his own safety.
** In ''Revelation'', his first thought after hearing that Simmons and Doc are being held prisoner by Wash and the Meta are "We have to help them!" Keep in mind that Grif is scared '''''to death''''' by the Meta and for good reason considering the thing is a OneManArmy that [[HeroKiller gives all the other One Man Armies nightmares]]. And yet his first instinct is to go right over there and try to save his friends. Later on, Grif plays perhaps the most crucial role in the Meta's death by getting the Brute Shot away from him, crippling his defense.
** Later in the same season, he throws Sarge out of the way of an incoming Warthog. Keep in mind, Sarge is a guy he ''hates'' and by trying to save Sarge, Grif ran the risk of being crushed by the Warthog as well.
** When Kaikaina arrives at Blood Gulch, having joined the army because [[TheDitz she wanted to see Grif]], his first response is to tell her to go home, as he doesn't want her to get hurt, and he even threatens to beat her up and force her back into the ship. Because she can't leave, he instead actively looks out for her and tries to protect her, despite her being on the enemy team. Becomes even more touching when she says he became her guardian after their mother left and has always looked after her.
** In Season 15, Dylan brings up all these previous examples to light, telling Grif that - despite his claims to the contrary - he does care deeply for those around them. Far more than he is willing to let on. [[ShutUpKirk All this does is piss him off and make him decide to quit.]] [[SubvertedTrope Only for him to regret this decision]] to the point where made volleyball versions of his friends for him to talk to, showing that despite his previous claim, he ''does'' truly care for them.
* HiddenDisdainReveal: Played with in Season 15. He repeatedly declares that he hates the Blood Gulch Crew before quitting, but once he reappears it becomes clear that he deeply regrets abandoning them and he truly does consider them to be his friends.
* HilariouslyAbusiveChildhood: His horrible childhood is usually used to mock him. Grif himself seems more embarrassed of his horrendous upbringing than anything.
* {{Hypocrite}}: ''Singularity'' reveals that Grif was never actually drafted into the army - He actually enlisted on his own since he realized his life needed more structure than what his horrible parents and school could give him. That being said, it's likely that him being constantly forced into [=life-threatening=] situations might've changed his outlook on the whole situation.
* HypocriticalHumor: He's the most likely to call out Donut for calling his pink armor "lightish red", but Grif himself hates it when people mistake his orange armor for yellow.
* IJustWantToBeNormal: Grif was drafted into the army and does not like getting involved with the adventures Red Team and eventually the Blood Gulch Crew find themselves in. If he had his way, he would spend everyday just snacking and taking naps. The only reason he decides to stay with everyone is because they are the closest thing he has to a family. This finally comes to a head in Season 15 though, when Dylan and Jax track down the Blood Gulch Crew to tell them that impostors of them are attacking the [=UNSC=] and they are given an apparent distress message of Church. Grif doesn't want to come out of retirement to get involved in another adventure revolving around Church '''again''' and even quits the team. He eventually comes back, though. It also later turns out that he actually ''enlisted'' in the military since he realized that he needed more of a structure than what his AbusiveParents and public school could offer him.
-->'''Grif''': I don't wanna go on another adventure! I don't wanna listen to Sarge! I don't wanna get shot at! I don't want to shoot at other people! I want to chill! I want to sit and chill!
* IncorruptiblePurePureness: Well... Incorruptible Pure Laziness anyway. When O'Malley goes on a body-surfing excursion through the Reds and Blues, he transfers into Grif, who immediately gets the impulse to take over the universe... only to decide he doesn't feel like following through because that would actually take work. As a result, he's the only character O'Malley abandons by choice, rather than being punched out. Not even the AI personification of malice and hostility can convince Grif to get off his ass.
* InformedDeformity: {{Justified|Trope}}. Everyone's making comments on how Grif is fat, yet, due to the limitations of the ''Halo'' game engine, Grif appears as lean as any other character (which carries over into the CGI sequences for consistency). Completely averted in "Room Zero," however, where Grif is actually chubby.
* InsistentTerminology: His armor color.
--> '''Grif:''' I am not gold, I am not yellow, I am '''fucking ORANGE!'''
* IResembleThatRemark: When Wash calls the Reds and Blues the most immature soldiers he's ever met during ''Reconstruction'', Grif responds with "[[NoYou Your]] ''[[NoYou face]]'' [[NoYou is immature]]."
* IronicName: His first name, "Dexter," is an name of Latin and Old English origin meaning "fortunate." He's the ButtMonkey of Red Team and suffers probably the highest number of AmusingInjuries out of any other character in the whole series.
* {{Irony}}:
** For his constant griping about getting dragged into new life-threatening adventures and claiming that he was drafted into the military, [[spoiler:he actually enlisted of his own free will since he was running away from his terrible home life]].
** In the near-end of Season 13, Grif quips after seeing Locus go "If I ever see another mercenary again, it'll be too soon.", but then by the time he sees Locus again in Season 15. He is almost overjoyed to see him. Granted he was stranded in a moon all on his own without anyone living to interact with.
* IronButtMonkey: Grif takes a lot of punishment over the course of the series, including [[NoHoldsBarredBeatDown his]] GroinAttack [[NoHoldsBarredBeatDown filled fight]] with Tex, being blasted by a tank shell, and being blown 80 feet into the air by a grenade blast and falling back down unto the ground, somehow managing to get out mostly unharmed.
* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Despite his laziness and general uncaring attitude, Grif will occasionally help his teammates and those he respects, and is shown to genuinely care for the other members of the Blood Gulch Crew outside his jerkish personality. He's just rather pissed off that Sarge brushes him off all of the time and would rather chill than get wrapped into [=life-threatening=] shenanigans. Deconstructed in Season 15, where he quits the team because of both his attitude and the aforementioned anger at being dragged into adventures all the time, only for it to be reconstructed when he rejoins them and tries to help because he was ridden with guilt over abandoning them.
* KarmicTransformation: In Season 12, the stress of leadership causes him to have a mental breakdown and start unconsciously acting like Sarge. When he finally realizes this, he understandably freaks out.
--> '''Grif:''' Tucker, tell me I'm cool and don't play by the rules!\\
'''Tucker:''' What?\\
'''Grif:''' ''(wailing)'' I DON'T ''WANT A'' SOUTHERN ACCENT!
* LaboriousLaziness: He takes to this in Season 16 to get out of going on another adventure. His methods include deliberately crashing a Pelican to avoid hearing Locus' message and deliberately taking a longer walking route because it looks more peaceful than the shorter, scarier looking one. Unfortunately for him, TheCallKnowsWhereYouLive.
* TheLancer: Plays this role for the Reds, until ''Revelation'' where he becomes both TheHeart and TheBigGuy. He usually serves as Sarge's Lancer, but also becomes this to Tucker in ''The Chorus Trilogy''.
* LaserGuidedKarma: [[invoked]] An amusing variant - According to WordOfGod, the reason why Grif was subjected to so many {{Groin Attack}}s by [=Epsilon-Tex=] during "This One Goes To Eleven" is because she remembers from when she was part of Epsilon and Grif kicked away the Monitor Epsilon was housed in like a soccer ball during "Fourth and Twenty" (which apparently ''really'' hurt).
* LazyBum: He goes to great lengths to avoid doing anything, whenever possible. Or at least to convince Simmons to do it for him. Deconstructed in Season 15, where he quits because, as he points out, he has no real personal obligation to help the Blood Gulch Crew and he just wants to "sit and chill" rather than be dragged into anymore adventures.
* {{Leitmotif}}: Gains one in Season 15 entitled "Hateglue."
* LikeAnOldMarriedCouple: With Simmons, naturally.
--> '''Tucker:''' [[ShipperOnDeck I've only been listening for ten minutes and I can already tell they're really in love. Why can't they see it?]]
* MadeOfIron: No matter what he goes through, courtesy of [[UnfriendlyFire Sarge]], [[GroinAttack Tex]], or [[TheJuggernaut the Meta]], Grif will simply not die, [[ButtMonkey no matter how much he may want to]]. He was even hit by a tank shell with barely any injuries. As it turns out this is a familial trait, as Sister survived when Lopez tried to choke her to death, backing up Grif calling bullshit on it back in ''Relocated''.
* TheMcCoy: Definitely a parody. Again, although the more emotional of the trio, Grif is way too lazy to act on his conscience or change the status quo.
* MilitaryMaverick: Subverted. He considers himself this trope and outright refers to himself as a maverick in Season 12, but in reality he's just really lazy.
* MotorMouth: After going insane from loneliness on Iris, he gained this trait, as Locus finds out first-hand.
* MundaneUtility: In Season 8, Grif tries to install a Freelancer armor module that turns the user invisible so that he can nap whenever and wherever he wants. [[GoneHorriblyWrong Unfortunately, the module he installs induces]] SuperSpeed [[GoneHorriblyWrong instead.]] HilarityEnsues.
* MyGodWhatHaveIDone:
** The time he spends [[GoMadFromTheIsolation stuck alone on the Reds and Blues' moon Iris]] shows that he clearly feels guilty for not coming with the rest of his friends on their quest to find Church again.
** As he later admits to Kaikaina in "Theogeny," he's never really forgiven himself for essentially running away from her to join the army before the series began.
* NonActionGuy: For ''The Blood Gulch Chronicles''.
* OddFriendship: Forms one with ''[[EnergyBeings Huggins]]'', of all people, during ''The Shisno Paradox.''
* OhCrap: [[spoiler:He's completely horrified when he realizes during ''The Shisno Paradox'' that Genkins actually '''wants''' the Reds and Blues to save Wash from his brain injury]].
* OOCIsSeriousBusiness:
** In Season 10, Grif (who usually takes any and all insults Sarge throws at him with either snark or apathy due to being a LazyBum) is the first to call out Epsilon when the latter starts acting like a complete jerk with his plan to take on the Director.
** In the Season 13 finale, when the Chairman begins his invasion of Chorus just barely after the Reds and Blues managed to broadcast a message to the [=UNSC=] about the Chairman's duplicity, Grif starts cursing around and screaming in frustrated rage about how they were '''so''' close to winning. It bears repeating: Grif, LazyBum extraordinaire, is ''actually displaying an emotion other than apathy.''
** In Season 15, he gets really angry with Dylan for spurring everyone else out of retirement by delivering Church's message. Also, when he quits, he's almost completely devoid of his usual snark, instead being very blunt and straightforward with the crew.
** In the finale of ''The Shisno Paradox'', he realizes that there is another time traveler in the base with him and the others and goes to investigate alone while the others proceed with the mission. He finds Genkins and interrogates him for answers, ignoring the ''pizza'' Genkins brought with him for almost the entire time. Instead of taking a moment to enjoy the one meal he has wanted for the entire season, he holds Genkins at gunpoint and demands answers from him. When he realizes Genkins ''wants'' them to save Wash so it will create a paradox, Grif, the LazyBum of the team, runs as fast as he can to warn everyone while still ignoring the pizza right next to him. When he reaches everyone he screams for them to stop, but is too little too late.
* PromotedToParent: Sister reveals that Grif did this for their family after their mother left, displaying his HiddenDepths.
* RefusalOfTheCall: He was against going on another adventure after Church once more when a message that appeared to come from him reached them, and left the Blood Gulch Crew to stay behind on the moon they'd been living on for 10 months. [[TheCallKnowsWhereYouLive Then Locus and Lopez found him.]]
* RunningGag: [[CorruptQuartermaster Him misplacing Red Team's ammunition]] during both ''The Blood Gulch Chronicles'' and ''The Recollection''. And him getting a GroinAttack from Tex.
* SanityBall: The role of OnlySaneMan on Red Team is either Grif, Simmons or Lopez, depending on the circumstances. However, he does move away from this by ''The Chorus Trilogy'' (Simmons takes his place).
* SanitySlippage:
** In Season 12, the stress of being thrust into a position of command causes him to eventually have a mental breakdown and start subconsciously acting like Sarge. His horror at this fuels his actions for a good chunk of the season.
** In Season 15, a combination of remaining isolated on the planet and his guilt over quitting results in him going crazy and pretending that volleyballs are the Reds and Blues. He eventually seems to get better, but Season 16 shows his mental state is still pretty fragile, and he tries to kill himself after pizza is erased from existence.
* ScrewThisImOuttaHere:
** In Season 15 Episode 6, upon finding out that Church is alive again, and everyone packing up to go rescue him, Grif finally decides he's done with adventures and quits. It doesn't last.
** And as he later admits to Kaikaina during ''Singularity'', he was never actually drafted - he enlisted since he wanted to run away from the terrible home life he got saddled with.
* ShellShockedVeteran: By the time of Season 15, he appears to have some form of PTSD from the Reds and Blues' adventures, which is part of the reason he chooses to leave while they go on another adventure.
* ShutUpKirk: Gives one of these to Dylan Andrews when she tries to convince him he's a JerkWithAHeartOfGold. He later regrets this.
* SkewedPriorities: Grif cares more about food than anything else. During the war on Chorus, Grif freaks out when an expired cream pie he had was eaten by Bitters (though he was having a mental breakdown at the time) and he confronts Kimball about how he wants more food, ignoring that food and rations are scarce during war, and he spends the entirety of Season 16 on his own quest to restore pizza just so he can eat at Sammie Raphaelo's, his favorite restaurant, even when the universe is in danger.
* TheSlacker: Grif self-identifies as and takes pride in being lazy, has no real goals outside of eating, sleeping, and relaxing, and ignores and[=/=]or tries to weasel his way out of any work assigned to him.
* SleptThroughTheApocalypse: Pre-Blood Gulch, he slept through a devastating Covenant attack on a human colony during the Great War. Allies and enemies both left him alone because they thought he was dead.
* SmokingIsNotCool: It is a sign of Grif's terrible health (he does it inside his helmet). He even smokes after having most of his organs being replaced by Simmons' after being crushed by Sheila. In fact, he might have started smoking ''more'' just to piss off Simmons.
* SourSupporter: He may not like most of the people he spends his time with, but he still sticks with them through thick and thin. Even when he leaves them behind in Season 15, he comes back later, more willing to help out than ever before.
* TokenMinority: [[invoked]] Downplayed, but due to his younger sister's name being "Kaikaina" (which is an actual Hawaiian name) and his own voice actor [[WordOfGod Geoff Ramsey]] claiming that Honolulu was the Grif siblings' hometown, {{Fanon}} has interpreted this to mean that both he and Kaikaina are native Hawaiians. By consequence, most fan art depicting the Grif siblings has them as Hawaiian.
* TooDumbToLive: Invoked by Simmons, who once uses this trope by name to insult [[BookDumb Grif]], though he's not actually an example.
* TookALevelInBadass:
** In ''Revelation'', he smashes through the wall at Valhalla and nearly kills Wash with a Warthog.
** During the fight against the Tex Drones, he doesn't do the best out of the group but still manages to take quite a few of them down with the Brute Shot. Considering how lazy he's been, that's one hell of an accomplishment.
** There are examples even earlier than that. By the time of ''Recreation'', we don't see Grif purposefully ignore facts or events to avoid work anymore. He was the first to note that "something doesn't feel right" at Sandtrap. We also see Grif actively using his weapon and taking the initiative in coming up with a plan. He even tackled the Meta and took his bruteshot. Considering how the Meta can throw Warthogs without even sweating (and Grif should know this better than anyone), getting into such close proximity raises the chance of him getting crushed into a pulp quite high.
** He does it again in ''The Chorus Trilogy'', where he seems to have become the NumberTwo to Tucker and is actively shown to give the New Republic training and information that will benefit them on the battlefield (without losing his personality).
* TrademarkFavoriteFood: Pizza, to the point where he tries to ''[[DrivenToSuicide blow himself up]]'' when the timeline is altered during the events of ''The Shisno Paradox'' so that [[RetGone pizza was never invented.]]
* TheUnfavorite: His parents allegedly always preferred his sister, as revealed by [=Doc/O'Malley=]'s TheReasonYouSuckSpeech in Season 13.
* UniversalDriversLicence: In ''Revelation'', Grif flies a Pelican and a Hornet with no training whatsoever. He ''crashes'' the Pelican, but it's still quite an accomplishment. [[spoiler: He later pilots Dylan's ship when the Reds and Blues attack the Blues and Reds' Earth base, and successfully dodges some (but not all) of the enemy's missile defenses]].
--> '''Sarge''': There they are! Land right next to 'em!\\
'''Grif''': Right... "Land"...\\
'''Sarge''': You do know how to land this thing, right?\\
'''Grif''': Sure! [[CaptainCrash That just means stop flying, right?]]\\
'''Sarge''': [[OhCrap Brace for impact!]]
* UnwillingRoboticization: A variant. In ''The Blood Gulch Chronicles'', when Simmons is turned into a cyborg, Sarge has his "negative emotion centers" put in Grif, most likely against his will. This only comes up once, though, due to RuleOfFunny.
* VitriolicBestBuds: With Simmons due to very different personalities, which causes them to bicker frequently, but despite their tendency to argue, they're actually very good friends (at the least).
* VocalEvolution: In the first season, Grif's voice was gravelly, deeper, and somewhat gruff, though this vanished by the season finale and was replaced with his more high-pitched voice. He has also gotten increasingly higher-pitched throughout the series.
* WeakButSkilled: Is one of the more low level soldiers in regards to the other Blood Gulchers and is definitely no match for a Freelancer or Space Pirate, but Grif is shown to be at least a better shot than Simmons and Donut and is rather a nice tactician on the battlefield. However, his best kills still come from when he is in the possession of a car.
* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: Part-way through Season 8, Grif takes on an armor modification that grants him super-speed. After its introduction it is then never used again, though it's arguably justified in that the Project Freelancer armor modifications need an AI to use properly and it was shown to be malfunctioning whenever he tried to use it.
* WhatHaveIBecome: After realizing that his stress-induced mental breakdown in Season 12 is making him act like Sarge, Grif has a heavy meltdown.
--> '''Grif:''' ''(wailing)'' I DON'T ''WANT'' A SOUTHERN ACCENT!
* WhyDidItHaveToBeSnakes: On top of Grif's pretty understandable natural reluctance to help Sarge in Season 5 when he falls in a cave, he then exposes a fear of his that was never brought up before due to lack of exposure: bats.
--> '''Simmons:''' Okay idiot, let's assume I'm wrong. Let's assume there ''are'' bats. So what? You're wearing [[PoweredArmor state-of-the-art, bio-mechanical body armor]]. It's designed to deflect bullets and absorb explosions. What kind of five-ounce flying rodent possibly do?\\
'''Grif:''' (beat) [[ComicallyMissingThePoint ...So basically you're saying that you think there's bats?]]\\
'''Simmons:''' [[SarcasmMode Sure, why not...?]]\\
'''Grif:''' ''(in panicky tone)'' I'm getting the fuck outta here!
* WhyWontYouDie: Or more accurately, "Why Won't You Stay Dead?" In Season 15, he is fed up with Church apparently coming back to life once again and everyone rushing to go on another adventure to help him. Since he has already spent "half his life" on adventures revolving around Church and Church has already "died more times than ComicBook/JeanGrey" he is in no hurry to help him again. Furthermore, he and Church were, while friends as members of the Reds and Blues, never really developed beyond a distant respect, which further helps explain why he's so unenthused to save Church yet ''again''. However, it's clear from his conversation with the Volleyball!Blues in "Objects in Space" that he's changed his mind and regrets thinking this way.
* WrongGenreSavvy: In ''The Shisno Paradox'', Grif thinks he can avoid adventures altogether if he ignores {{Inciting Incident}}s. He didn't take into account stories that [[RefusalOfTheCall involve characters ignoring]] [[TheCallKnowsWhereYouLive the incident]].
* YouKillItYouBoughtIt: During the fight with the Meta, Grif steals his Brute Shot, and after Meta's death Grif keeps it as his own, renaming it the "Grif Shot". However, he doesn't have anything better to do with it except mount it on the wall as a trophy... until the end of Season 10, that is.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Donut]]
!Private Franklin Delano Donut
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/donut_s15.png]]
[[caption-width-right:350:''"It's not pink, it's [[InsistentTerminology lightish-red]]!"'']]
->''"Who wants to hold my ankles while I stretch out my hammies?"''
-->'''Voiced By:''' Dan Godwin, Jordan Burns (Caboose's Mind, Seasons 2, 5-6), Creator/MilesLuna (radio transmission, Season 11), Barbara Dunkelman (Caboose's Mind, Season 14), Maggie Tominey ("Get Bent")
Red Team's rookie member with some major issues, acting as the team's [[TheDitz Ditz]]. He kicks off the series' Red/Blue conflict after Simmons and Grif send him to "the store" to get some "headlight fluid." Donut accidentally wanders into Blue Base and ends up capturing their flag, prompting the Blues to call in a Freelancer and start the main plot. Originally wearing standard red armor, Donut took one of Tex's grenades to the face and had to be sent away for medical help, returning with his own [[LessEmbarrassingTerm lightish-red]] armor out of recognition for his flag capture.
This, combined with a flair for calligraphy, appreciation of interior decorating, and the "Officer Hot Pants" surprise at Sarge's birthday party helps solidify Donut's status as CampGay by Season Three. Although he has a surprisingly good arm when it comes to throwing grenades, as proven when he killed Tex with a precision throw from across the canyon, in most combat situations he is expected (and ordered) to run around and [[ScreamsLikeALittleGirl scream like a girl]], a role he takes to with gusto.
Like Tucker and Doc, he is PutOnABus before ''Reconstruction'', but returns in ''Relocated''' during an experiment by Sarge to test the capabilities of a new plasma weapon. He's mistaken at first for a holographic Grif clone, but the others soon realize it's him and he passes out, exclaiming that he needs water. He then becomes a main character for ''Recreation'', rejoining the Red team to fight against the remaining Blues (i.e. Caboose).
At the end of the season, he is murdered in cold blood by a post-FaceHeelTurn Washington, setting up the much darker plot for the remainder of the ''Recollection'' saga. In the ''Revelation'' premiere, Doc confirms that he is indeed dead. However, in the sponsors-only ending of Chapter 13, F.I.L.S.S. shutting down the armour lock on the soldiers' armour ends up bringing him back to life. This is confirmed to be canon in Season 10, when the Reds and Blues (and Carolina) return to Valhalla to find that Doc and Donut have set up an organic farm, using Lopez's body as a scarecrow.
He initially isn't involved in the crash landing with the Reds and Blues in Season 11, but eventually makes contact with them in Episode 6. However, when he actually shows up in Episode 10, alongside Doc and Lopez('s head), he forgets to bring the pilot that brought the three there, leaving them also stranded on the planet.
Season 12 has him "kidnapped" by the Federal Army of Chorus, but is revealed to be safe along with Sarge, Lopez, and Washington. After escaping the clutches of the conspiracy that surrounds Chorus, he, along with the rest of the Reds and Blues, convinces the opposing armies of Chorus to stop fighting each other
Season 13 has him take over the weapons depot in Armonia along with Lopez, until Armonia is lost, and later, joins the rest of the Reds and Blues in their effort to stop Chairman Hargrove from killing everyone on Chorus.
In Season 15, after the defeat of Hargrove and death of Epsilon-Church, he retires with the rest of the Blood Gulch Crew, until attacks caused by the Blues and Reds forces him out of retirement. At the end of the season, he's blasted by a stray bolt of lightning from Loco's Machine, [[UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom which has serious consequences in the next two seasons.]]
In Season 16, the lightning that struck him reveals to have completely destroyed his physical body, with [[IdiotHero Caboose]] as the only witness to his "death." His consciousness was saved however, thanks to a mysterious being he calls "God," which then restores his physical form and tells him of the "Devil King." God then tells him to gather the rest of the Reds and Blues to save the universe by traveling in time. When it's revealed the "God" is in fact an evil Titan named Chrovos, Donut still sides with him due to the effects of the time traveling and his anger with the Blood Gulch Crew treating him poorly. When he eventually realizes that Chrovos was only using him, after an extensive fight with O'Malley/Doc, Donut uses the Hammer that he stole from the Cosmic Powers to reseal Chrovos.
Season 17 reveals that though Donut sealed Chrovos away, he still escaped (somewhat) due to the paradox caused by the Blood Gulch Crew. Donut then spends the season trying to save his friends and fix everything, and while he ultimately succeeds in bringing down Chrovos and Genkins, the traumas he dealt with through the arc plus his RageBreakingPoint being pressed due to the Blood Gulch Crew still treating him poorly, causes him to decide to spend some time away from the group by travelling across the universe to try and recover on his own.
----
!!Associated Tropes:
* ActionSurvivor: Once the fighting comes to him in ''The Recollection'' and afterwards.
* AmbiguouslyBi: While he has shown attraction towards women, his relationship with Simmons might be ''more'' than VitriolicBestBuds, as suggested by Rooster Teeth. [[spoiler: There was a question at a panel with RT where they got asked what Grif and Simmons were doing in the shade for two hours. Apparently, they'd read a slash fanfic earlier. And they have a CallBack reference to that. So.. take that how you will. What's more, it's implied that when Tucker activated the Temple of Procreation on Chorus, they had sex with each other.]]
* AntiHero: He's a LazyBum and an apathetic jerk, but he always comes through in the end.
* BadBoss: Whenever he's put in a position of authority, he tends to do quite badly due to his laziness and general apathy. He claims that this is because he's just following Sarge's example, but while Sarge may not have been the best commanding officer, he never did anything as blatantly counterproductive as selling the ammo of his men to the opposing side. May be a [[DeconstructedTrope Deconstruction]], however, for as the seasons go on Grif is shown to be a rather good (if eccentric and lazy) leader and is an unusual version of AFatherToHisMen.
* BadassDriver: While he has shown considerable motor skills in seasons one to five and is the Red Team's designated driver, by ''Revelation'', he has completely owned and adopted this trope. He just has trouble ''stopping'' driving sometimes.
* BadassNormal: ButtMonkey status aside, Grif has been [[ActionSurvivor surviving explosions, falls, blunt-force trauma and bullets that should've killed him since Season 2 from both enemies]] [[TeamKiller and allies]], yet he's been shown to make quick recovery! Hell, a normal human would've died dozens of times [[GroinAttack during his fight]] with Tex in ''Revelation''.
* BecameTheirOwnAntithesis: PlayedForLaughs in Season 12, where he suffers a mental breakdown from the stress of leadership and starts acting like Sarge, who he subconsciously looks towards as a definitive leader. Once he realizes this, he [[WhatHaveIBecome reacts predictably.]]
-->'''Grif:''' [[Film/TheEmpireStrikesBack That's not true! That's impossible! NOOOOOOOOO!]]
* BerserkButton:
** He's pretty fed up with no-one being able to associate orange with him (his true, though difficult to see armour colour). By Season 12, this is fully apparent.
** He's also pretty PO'd by people spelling his surname with two "F"s.
** Don't try to take his weapon. When Dr. Grey tries to examine his Suppressor, he refuses to let her have it and accidentally shoots at Carolina when she tries to pry it away.
* BigBrotherInstinct: Towards Kaikaina, his younger sister.
** He's also had his moments towards Caboose. For instance, both he and Tucker were the first ones to yell at Temple when the latter was rubbing Caboose's face in the fact that Church had been KilledOffForReal. He also checked on Caboose while he was in Valhalla's Blue Base during ''Recreation'', and volunteered to help Caboose rescue Tucker from Sandtrap (though there's admittedly [[LaboriousLaziness ulterior motives there]]).
* BigEater: At the end of Season 11, he ate enough of the New Republic mess hall's rations to force them to close. Lampshaded in the final episode of Season 15.
-->'''Grif:''' I could eat a horse!\\
'''Carolina:''' With you, I'm worried that's not a figure of speech.\\
'''Grif:''' That's a figure of speech?\\
'''Simmons:''' What the fuck is wrong with you?
* TheBigGuy: Fat jokes aside, Grif naturally evolves into this role for the rest of Red Team as the series goes on.
* BizarroUniverse: Epsilon-Grif starts out ''very'' inaccurate, being a NeatFreak who regularly and obsessively cleans the base. It's only when Epsilon-Church gets the idea of being a slob in his head does he become more accurate.
* BookDumb: Grif is actually pretty crafty and intelligent, but can be suicidally dumb whenever he's not using his intelligence to get out of work, believing that electricity is "invisible magic", attempting to clean off the top of the base by throwing a grenade on it while ''he's still on top'', and saving an expired cream pie for years and freaking out when Bitters eats it since he was "saving it for emergencies", among other things.
* BorrowedCatchphrase: Does this by accident when he's having his meltdown over being put in a command position and starts subconsciously imitating Sarge during Season 12. He even calls Bitters a dirtbag without realizing it until after he's said it.
* BosssUnfavoriteEmployee: Grif is the least favorite subordinate of Sarge. Sarge singles him out for dangerous work, openly wishes for his death, and has tried to get him killed on various occasions.
* BrilliantButLazy: Church claims he is this... though [[UnreliableNarrator Church may have been mistaken, exaggerating,]] deliberately trying to screw with Simmons, or only comparing Grif to the other Reds. It is perhaps notable that Simmons doesn't seem to disagree with Church that Grif is the smartest Red other than himself. He is finally confirmed to be legitimately cunning during the final episode of ''Revelation''. During the fight against [[TheJuggernaut the Meta]], Grif bodily throws himself onto the Meta's back. When the Meta throws him down, Grif steals his Brute Shot with a cocky "Yoink!". Considering that the Meta had been owning everyone's asses with the weapon at that point, using it to block all their attacks, it is likely that Grif knew they needed to get it off him, and decided to take advantage of his own mass and weight, putting himself in immense danger just to give his friends an edge. In Season 15, Grif was able to become fluent in Spanish in less than a month just to get Lopez's voice right.
* ButtMonkey: Every Red Team plan involves sacrificing him in one way or another. And that's not even counting the [[GroinAttack horrible,]] [[RunningGag horrible]] [[CurbStompBattle beatdown]] he receives in ''Revelation'' at the hands of Tex.
* TheCallKnowsWhereYouLive: Locus and Lopez's head come to find him after the rest of the Reds and Blues are either captured or defected to the Blues and Reds. Furthermore, his attempts to just get pizza and avoid Donut's time travel quest only result in the plot involving the Cosmic Powers.
* CaptainCrash: Specifically, he's a little fuzzy on the whole concept of "landing":
-->'''Grif:''' Sure! That just means "stop flying", right?
* CarFu: To Agent Washington in Season 8, Episode 3, and to some soldiers in Season 10, Episode 3. On the receiving end of this in ''Reconstruction''.
* CharacterDevelopment: During ''The Blood Gulch Chronicles,'' Grif is a LazyBum who doesn't like to fight and is rather weak compared to the other individuals in the canyon, which doesn't match up well with his [[SourSupporter bitter, apathetic]] attitude and [[DeadpanSnarker snarky]] quips. Come ''The Recollection,'' and it is shown that Grif is rather decent (perhaps above decent) with his battle rifle and has better insight and a bit more initiative, developing a stronger relationship with Sarge and evolving into TheSlacker as well as TheHeart of Red Team. In ''The Project Freelancer Saga,'' Grif displays he does care about the other members of the [[TrueCompanions Blood Gulch Crew]], and his UndyingLoyalty is cemented. And in ''The Chorus Trilogy,'' Grif actually shows care for the men under his command after becoming a Captain, and is the only person besides Tucker that is shown to be teaching them worthwhile lessons. All in all, Grif has subtly become a better person and soldier.
** Compare these lines, first from Season 2, then Season 13:
--->'''Sarge:''' [[BloodKnight TODAY IS A GOOD DAY TO DIE!]]\\
'''Grif:''' Wait! I think today is actually a good day to retreat! Can't we push dying to a week from Friday?
** Meanwhile, eleven seasons later...
--->'''Sarge:''' [[FaceDeathWithDignity (in a far more somber tone)]] Well, fellas, you know what they say. Today, is a good day to die...\\
'''Grif:''' (in an oddly calm voice) Permission to speak freely sir? (camera pans around, revealing that Grif has picked up the recovered Grif Shot) ''[[PrecisionFStrike Fuck that.]]''
** After abandoning the team at the start of Season 15 and undergoing some SanitySlippage, Grif decides to step up and take a more active role within the group, namely teaming up with ''Locus'' and joining the fight against the Blues and Reds.
* CharacterFocus: In Season 15, despite being absent for a good deal of the season. In fact, both he and [[IntrepidReporter Dylan Andrews]] are arguably the main protagonists of the season, much in the same way that Tucker was the protagonist of Season 12.
** Grif is also later the protagonist of ''The Shisno Paradox''.
* CharacterizationMarchesOn: In Season 1, [[LazyBum Grif]] would frequently try to get Simmons to keep on task and actually try to do his work, something that would be absolutely unthinkable for him for the rest of the series.
* TheChewToy: He's on the receiving end of most of Sarge's abuse, and not a few {{Groin Attack}}s from Tex.
* CorruptQuartermaster: In ''The Blood Gulch Chronicles'', he was in charge of Red Team's ammo, and always forgot to bring it with him. In ''Reconstruction'', he actually sells all of the ammunition his new team has to the Blues, resulting in him and Simmons nearly being executed by firing squad before Sarge shows up.
* CowardlyLion: Usually among the first soldier in the Blood Gulch Crew to suggest running away at the first sign of danger (see his page quote), but he has little trouble overcoming his cowardice to help save the day when he really needs to.
* CrouchingMoronHiddenBadass:
** By virtue of being deceptively heavy, which allows him to disarm both the Meta and ''Carolina'' of all people!
** His plan to free the Reds and Blues from Temple's brig? Sneak around the Blues and Reds' lair in plain view of all the security cameras, and then getting stuck in an air vent thanks to his girth. Except this was all according to plan - he needed to get all eyes off of Locus, who successfully sneaks in and frees the Reds and Blues (as well as Wash and Carolina).
* DeadpanSnarker: Even compared with the rest of the Blood Gulch Crew, Grif stands out at being the snarkiest of them all (aside from ''maybe'' Church). Most of it is aimed toward Sarge or Simmons, but no one is immune.
* DecoyProtagonist: A {{downplayed|Trope}} example. ''The Shisno Paradox'' initially seems set up to continue his CharacterFocus from Season 15 by making him the main character. The end of the season however makes clear he isn't the main character, ''Donut is'', and continues to be in ''Singularity''. Grif meanwhile takes the position of {{deuteragonist}}, which he shares with Wash in ''Singularity''.
* {{Deuteragonist}}: He serves as this in Season 15, in spite of being PutOnABus for most of it. A good portion of the season's story revolves around him quitting, and then realizing how much his friends mean to him and how much he took them for granted
* DrillSergeantNasty: When placed in charge of his own squad in ''The Chorus Trilogy'', he becomes one of these due to subconsciously following Sarge's example. When he realizes this, he is horrified.
* TheFaceless: Like almost everyone else in the series, he never removes his helmet.
* FatalFlaw: {{Sloth}} and [[SevenDeadlySins Gluttony]], as one could likely expect.
* {{Flanderization}}: He started off as the most competent of the Reds who occasionally slacked off because the work he would have done would have been complete nonsense anyway, and he came off as the Red Team's version of Church; sane and intelligent, but too cynical to even care that much about his duties. Later on, Grif became an overweight lazy glutton who refuses to any sort of work and flat out admits to hating effort itself, and will go to great lengths to avoid work. It reaches its apex in the middle of ''The Recollection'', where he actually starts going along with Sarge's deranged plans (plans so insane that even ''[[ProfessionalButtKisser Simmons]]'' refuses to go along with them) because of his laziness, something Grif would never do in earlier and later seasons. ''The Chorus Trilogy'' further Flanderizes him, increasing his gluttony and sloth at the expense of his status as Red Team's OnlySaneMan.
* {{Foil}}: To Simmons. Specifically, Simmons is a insecure [[ProfessionalButtKisser suck-up]] who is constantly working, thrives on rigid organization, and takes great pains to appear to be a genius when he really isn't as smart as he likes to think he is. Meanwhile, Grif is a LazyBum who constantly avoids work, [[DeadpanSnarker has no respect for authority]], and is implied to be [[BrilliantbutLazy considerably smarter than he lets on]].
* FoolishSiblingResponsibleSibling: Subverted in terms of his relationship with Kaikaina, as both have elements of the "Responsible Sibling" (Grif's BigBrotherInstinct towards her and Kaikaina becoming an event coordinator) and the "Foolish Sibling" (Grif is a LazyBum ''par excellence'' and Sister was originally written to be a "loud slut").
* FreudianExcuse:
** According to [=Doc/O'Malley=], Grif's adversity to discipline and work stems from his terrible childhood, in which his sister was always the favorite, his father was absent and his mother was too busy at the circus to give him the attention he needed.
-->'''Grif:''' ''(sad)'' It was a nice circus...
** [[spoiler: ''Singularity'' implies that his LazyBum habits were the result of a [[SadistTeacher particularly sadistic gym coach]].]]
* GenderFlip: His Epsilon-Double, along with the rest of the Reds and Tex are all misremembered as being the opposite gender in one of Epsilon-Church's iterations seen in "Get Bent".
* GeniusDitz: Described as "crafty" by Church, Grif is certainly unbeatable concerning inventing methods of avoiding work. One of the [=PSAs=] has Grif scoff at how easy it is to get into Columbia University, adding "I'm a Harvard man."
* GoMadFromTheIsolation: Staying on the moon by himself turns out to be a bad choice. Without anyone to talk to, he goes crazy and pretends [[Film/{{Castaway}} a bunch of volleyballs]] [[ShoutOut are the other Reds and Blues]]. He becomes so desperate for human interaction that, after getting over the shock of seeing him, he's actually excited to talk to ''Locus''.
* GroinAttack: Suffers no fewer than ''seven'' of them at the hands of Tex during their big battle. Two of which are hard enough to ''crack stone''. Poor guy.
* TheHeart: Has surprisingly evolved into this role as the series has gone on.
* HiddenDepths:
** He's a lot smarter than he lets on, which tends to get overshadowed by the fact that he's lazy. Beyond that however, he has shown occasional instances of genuine selflessness that clash with his usual facade of a "Do-Nothing-Slacker".
** In the last episode of ''Reconstruction'' when they are all trying to escape the EMP, Grif yells at Caboose (his ''enemy'') "Get Epsilon out of here! Don't worry about us!" That's right, '''Grif''' was more concerned about the success of the mission than his own safety.
** In ''Revelation'', his first thought after hearing that Simmons and Doc are being held prisoner by Wash and the Meta are "We have to help them!" Keep in mind that Grif is scared '''''to death''''' by the Meta and for good reason considering the thing is a OneManArmy that [[HeroKiller gives all the other One Man Armies nightmares]]. And yet his first instinct is to go right over there and try to save his friends. Later on, Grif plays perhaps the most crucial role in the Meta's death by getting the Brute Shot away from him, crippling his defense.
** Later in the same season, he throws Sarge out of the way of an incoming Warthog. Keep in mind, Sarge is a guy he ''hates'' and by trying to save Sarge, Grif ran the risk of being crushed by the Warthog as well.
** When Kaikaina arrives at Blood Gulch, having joined the army because [[TheDitz she wanted to see Grif]], his first response is to tell her to go home, as he doesn't want her to get hurt, and he even threatens to beat her up and force her back into the ship. Because she can't leave, he instead actively looks out for her and tries to protect her, despite her being on the enemy team. Becomes even more touching when she says he became her guardian after their mother left and has always looked after her.
** In Season 15, Dylan brings up all these previous examples to light, telling Grif that - despite his claims to the contrary - he does care deeply for those around them. Far more than he is willing to let on. [[ShutUpKirk All this does is piss him off and make him decide to quit.]] [[SubvertedTrope Only for him to regret this decision]] to the point where made volleyball versions of his friends for him to talk to, showing that despite his previous claim, he ''does'' truly care for them.
* HiddenDisdainReveal: Played with in Season 15. He repeatedly declares that he hates the Blood Gulch Crew before quitting, but once he reappears it becomes clear that he deeply regrets abandoning them and he truly does consider them to be his friends.
* HilariouslyAbusiveChildhood: His horrible childhood is usually used to mock him. Grif himself seems more embarrassed of his horrendous upbringing than anything.
* {{Hypocrite}}: ''Singularity'' reveals that Grif was never actually drafted into the army - He actually enlisted on his own since he realized his life needed more structure than what his horrible parents and school could give him. That being said, it's likely that him being constantly forced into [=life-threatening=] situations might've changed his outlook on the whole situation.
* HypocriticalHumor: He's the most likely to call out Donut for calling his pink armor "lightish red", but Grif himself hates it when people mistake his orange armor for yellow.
* IJustWantToBeNormal: Grif was drafted into the army and does not like getting involved with the adventures Red Team and eventually the Blood Gulch Crew find themselves in. If he had his way, he would spend everyday just snacking and taking naps. The only reason he decides to stay with everyone is because they are the closest thing he has to a family. This finally comes to a head in Season 15 though, when Dylan and Jax track down the Blood Gulch Crew to tell them that impostors of them are attacking the [=UNSC=] and they are given an apparent distress message of Church. Grif doesn't want to come out of retirement to get involved in another adventure revolving around Church '''again''' and even quits the team. He eventually comes back, though. It also later turns out that he actually ''enlisted'' in the military since he realized that he needed more of a structure than what his AbusiveParents and public school could offer him.
-->'''Grif''': I don't wanna go on another adventure! I don't wanna listen to Sarge! I don't wanna get shot at! I don't want to shoot at other people! I want to chill! I want to sit and chill!
* IncorruptiblePurePureness: Well... Incorruptible Pure Laziness anyway. When O'Malley goes on a body-surfing excursion through the Reds and Blues, he transfers into Grif, who immediately gets the impulse to take over the universe... only to decide he doesn't feel like following through because that would actually take work. As a result, he's the only character O'Malley abandons by choice, rather than being punched out. Not even the AI personification of malice and hostility can convince Grif to get off his ass.
* InformedDeformity: {{Justified|Trope}}. Everyone's making comments on how Grif is fat, yet, due to the limitations of the ''Halo'' game engine, Grif appears as lean as any other character (which carries over into the CGI sequences for consistency). Completely averted in "Room Zero," however, where Grif is actually chubby.
* InsistentTerminology: His armor color.
--> '''Grif:''' I am not gold, I am not yellow, I am '''fucking ORANGE!'''
* IResembleThatRemark: When Wash calls the Reds and Blues the most immature soldiers he's ever met during ''Reconstruction'', Grif responds with "[[NoYou Your]] ''[[NoYou face]]'' [[NoYou is immature]]."
* IronicName: His first name, "Dexter," is an name of Latin and Old English origin meaning "fortunate." He's the ButtMonkey of Red Team and suffers probably the highest number of AmusingInjuries out of any other character in the whole series.
* {{Irony}}:
** For his constant griping about getting dragged into new life-threatening adventures and claiming that he was drafted into the military, [[spoiler:he actually enlisted of his own free will since he was running away from his terrible home life]].
** In the near-end of Season 13, Grif quips after seeing Locus go "If I ever see another mercenary again, it'll be too soon.", but then by the time he sees Locus again in Season 15. He is almost overjoyed to see him. Granted he was stranded in a moon all on his own without anyone living to interact with.
* IronButtMonkey: Grif takes a lot of punishment over the course of the series, including [[NoHoldsBarredBeatDown his]] GroinAttack [[NoHoldsBarredBeatDown filled fight]] with Tex, being blasted by a tank shell, and being blown 80 feet into the air by a grenade blast and falling back down unto the ground, somehow managing to get out mostly unharmed.
* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Despite his laziness and general uncaring attitude, Grif will occasionally help his teammates and those he respects, and is shown to genuinely care for the other members of the Blood Gulch Crew outside his jerkish personality. He's just rather pissed off that Sarge brushes him off all of the time and would rather chill than get wrapped into [=life-threatening=] shenanigans. Deconstructed in Season 15, where he quits the team because of both his attitude and the aforementioned anger at being dragged into adventures all the time, only for it to be reconstructed when he rejoins them and tries to help because he was ridden with guilt over abandoning them.
* KarmicTransformation: In Season 12, the stress of leadership causes him to have a mental breakdown and start unconsciously acting like Sarge. When he finally realizes this, he understandably freaks out.
--> '''Grif:''' Tucker, tell me I'm cool and don't play by the rules!\\
'''Tucker:''' What?\\
'''Grif:''' ''(wailing)'' I DON'T ''WANT A'' SOUTHERN ACCENT!
* LaboriousLaziness: He takes to this in Season 16 to get out of going on another adventure. His methods include deliberately crashing a Pelican to avoid hearing Locus' message and deliberately taking a longer walking route because it looks more peaceful than the shorter, scarier looking one. Unfortunately for him, TheCallKnowsWhereYouLive.
* TheLancer: Plays this role for the Reds, until ''Revelation'' where he becomes both TheHeart and TheBigGuy. He usually serves as Sarge's Lancer, but also becomes this to Tucker in ''The Chorus Trilogy''.
* LaserGuidedKarma: [[invoked]] An amusing variant - According to WordOfGod, the reason why Grif was subjected to so many {{Groin Attack}}s by [=Epsilon-Tex=] during "This One Goes To Eleven" is because she remembers from when she was part of Epsilon and Grif kicked away the Monitor Epsilon was housed in like a soccer ball during "Fourth and Twenty" (which apparently ''really'' hurt).
* LazyBum: He goes to great lengths to avoid doing anything, whenever possible. Or at least to convince Simmons to do it for him. Deconstructed in Season 15, where he quits because, as he points out, he has no real personal obligation to help the Blood Gulch Crew and he just wants to "sit and chill" rather than be dragged into anymore adventures.
* {{Leitmotif}}: Gains one in Season 15 entitled "Hateglue."
* LikeAnOldMarriedCouple: With Simmons, naturally.
--> '''Tucker:''' [[ShipperOnDeck I've only been listening for ten minutes and I can already tell they're really in love. Why can't they see it?]]
* MadeOfIron: No matter what he goes through, courtesy of [[UnfriendlyFire Sarge]], [[GroinAttack Tex]], or [[TheJuggernaut the Meta]], Grif will simply not die, [[ButtMonkey no matter how much he may want to]]. He was even hit by a tank shell with barely any injuries. As it turns out this is a familial trait, as Sister survived when Lopez tried to choke her to death, backing up Grif calling bullshit on it back in ''Relocated''.
* TheMcCoy: Definitely a parody. Again, although the more emotional of the trio, Grif is way too lazy to act on his conscience or change the status quo.
* MilitaryMaverick: Subverted. He considers himself this trope and outright refers to himself as a maverick in Season 12, but in reality he's just really lazy.
* MotorMouth: After going insane from loneliness on Iris, he gained this trait, as Locus finds out first-hand.
* MundaneUtility: In Season 8, Grif tries to install a Freelancer armor module that turns the user invisible so that he can nap whenever and wherever he wants. [[GoneHorriblyWrong Unfortunately, the module he installs induces]] SuperSpeed [[GoneHorriblyWrong instead.]] HilarityEnsues.
* MyGodWhatHaveIDone:
** The time he spends [[GoMadFromTheIsolation stuck alone on the Reds and Blues' moon Iris]] shows that he clearly feels guilty for not coming with the rest of his friends on their quest to find Church again.
** As he later admits to Kaikaina in "Theogeny," he's never really forgiven himself for essentially running away from her to join the army before the series began.
* NonActionGuy: For ''The Blood Gulch Chronicles''.
* OddFriendship: Forms one with ''[[EnergyBeings Huggins]]'', of all people, during ''The Shisno Paradox.''
* OhCrap: [[spoiler:He's completely horrified when he realizes during ''The Shisno Paradox'' that Genkins actually '''wants''' the Reds and Blues to save Wash from his brain injury]].
* OOCIsSeriousBusiness:
** In Season 10, Grif (who usually takes any and all insults Sarge throws at him with either snark or apathy due to being a LazyBum) is the first to call out Epsilon when the latter starts acting like a complete jerk with his plan to take on the Director.
** In the Season 13 finale, when the Chairman begins his invasion of Chorus just barely after the Reds and Blues managed to broadcast a message to the [=UNSC=] about the Chairman's duplicity, Grif starts cursing around and screaming in frustrated rage about how they were '''so''' close to winning. It bears repeating: Grif, LazyBum extraordinaire, is ''actually displaying an emotion other than apathy.''
** In Season 15, he gets really angry with Dylan for spurring everyone else out of retirement by delivering Church's message. Also, when he quits, he's almost completely devoid of his usual snark, instead being very blunt and straightforward with the crew.
** In the finale of ''The Shisno Paradox'', he realizes that there is another time traveler in the base with him and the others and goes to investigate alone while the others proceed with the mission. He finds Genkins and interrogates him for answers, ignoring the ''pizza'' Genkins brought with him for almost the entire time. Instead of taking a moment to enjoy the one meal he has wanted for the entire season, he holds Genkins at gunpoint and demands answers from him. When he realizes Genkins ''wants'' them to save Wash so it will create a paradox, Grif, the LazyBum of the team, runs as fast as he can to warn everyone while still ignoring the pizza right next to him. When he reaches everyone he screams for them to stop, but is too little too late.
* PromotedToParent: Sister reveals that Grif did this for their family after their mother left, displaying his HiddenDepths.
* RefusalOfTheCall: He was against going on another adventure after Church once more when a message that appeared to come from him reached them, and left the Blood Gulch Crew to stay behind on the moon they'd been living on for 10 months. [[TheCallKnowsWhereYouLive Then Locus and Lopez found him.]]
* RunningGag: [[CorruptQuartermaster Him misplacing Red Team's ammunition]] during both ''The Blood Gulch Chronicles'' and ''The Recollection''. And him getting a GroinAttack from Tex.
* SanityBall: The role of OnlySaneMan on Red Team is either Grif, Simmons or Lopez, depending on the circumstances. However, he does move away from this by ''The Chorus Trilogy'' (Simmons takes his place).
* SanitySlippage:
** In Season 12, the stress of being thrust into a position of command causes him to eventually have a mental breakdown and start subconsciously acting like Sarge. His horror at this fuels his actions for a good chunk of the season.
** In Season 15, a combination of remaining isolated on the planet and his guilt over quitting results in him going crazy and pretending that volleyballs are the Reds and Blues. He eventually seems to get better, but Season 16 shows his mental state is still pretty fragile, and he tries to kill himself after pizza is erased from existence.
* ScrewThisImOuttaHere:
** In Season 15 Episode 6, upon finding out that Church is alive again, and everyone packing up to go rescue him, Grif finally decides he's done with adventures and quits. It doesn't last.
** And as he later admits to Kaikaina during ''Singularity'', he was never actually drafted - he enlisted since he wanted to run away from the terrible home life he got saddled with.
* ShellShockedVeteran: By the time of Season 15, he appears to have some form of PTSD from the Reds and Blues' adventures, which is part of the reason he chooses to leave while they go on another adventure.
* ShutUpKirk: Gives one of these to Dylan Andrews when she tries to convince him he's a JerkWithAHeartOfGold. He later regrets this.
* SkewedPriorities: Grif cares more about food than anything else. During the war on Chorus, Grif freaks out when an expired cream pie he had was eaten by Bitters (though he was having a mental breakdown at the time) and he confronts Kimball about how he wants more food, ignoring that food and rations are scarce during war, and he spends the entirety of Season 16 on his own quest to restore pizza just so he can eat at Sammie Raphaelo's, his favorite restaurant, even when the universe is in danger.
* TheSlacker: Grif self-identifies as and takes pride in being lazy, has no real goals outside of eating, sleeping, and relaxing, and ignores and[=/=]or tries to weasel his way out of any work assigned to him.
* SleptThroughTheApocalypse: Pre-Blood Gulch, he slept through a devastating Covenant attack on a human colony during the Great War. Allies and enemies both left him alone because they thought he was dead.
* SmokingIsNotCool: It is a sign of Grif's terrible health (he does it inside his helmet). He even smokes after having most of his organs being replaced by Simmons' after being crushed by Sheila. In fact, he might have started smoking ''more'' just to piss off Simmons.
* SourSupporter: He may not like most of the people he spends his time with, but he still sticks with them through thick and thin. Even when he leaves them behind in Season 15, he comes back later, more willing to help out than ever before.
* TokenMinority: [[invoked]] Downplayed, but due to his younger sister's name being "Kaikaina" (which is an actual Hawaiian name) and his own voice actor [[WordOfGod Geoff Ramsey]] claiming that Honolulu was the Grif siblings' hometown, {{Fanon}} has interpreted this to mean that both he and Kaikaina are native Hawaiians. By consequence, most fan art depicting the Grif siblings has them as Hawaiian.
* TooDumbToLive: Invoked by Simmons, who once uses this trope by name to insult [[BookDumb Grif]], though he's not actually an example.
* TookALevelInBadass:
** In ''Revelation'', he smashes through the wall at Valhalla and nearly kills Wash with a Warthog.
** During the fight against the Tex Drones, he doesn't do the best out of the group but still manages to take quite a few of them down with the Brute Shot. Considering how lazy he's been, that's one hell of an accomplishment.
** There are examples even earlier than that. By the time of ''Recreation'', we don't see Grif purposefully ignore facts or events to avoid work anymore. He was the first to note that "something doesn't feel right" at Sandtrap. We also see Grif actively using his weapon and taking the initiative in coming up with a plan. He even tackled the Meta and took his bruteshot. Considering how the Meta can throw Warthogs without even sweating (and Grif should know this better than anyone), getting into such close proximity raises the chance of him getting crushed into a pulp quite high.
** He does it again in ''The Chorus Trilogy'', where he seems to have become the NumberTwo to Tucker and is actively shown to give the New Republic training and information that will benefit them on the battlefield (without losing his personality).
* TrademarkFavoriteFood: Pizza, to the point where he tries to ''[[DrivenToSuicide blow himself up]]'' when the timeline is altered during the events of ''The Shisno Paradox'' so that [[RetGone pizza was never invented.]]
* TheUnfavorite: His parents allegedly always preferred his sister, as revealed by [=Doc/O'Malley=]'s TheReasonYouSuckSpeech in Season 13.
* UniversalDriversLicence: In ''Revelation'', Grif flies a Pelican and a Hornet with no training whatsoever. He ''crashes'' the Pelican, but it's still quite an accomplishment. [[spoiler: He later pilots Dylan's ship when the Reds and Blues attack the Blues and Reds' Earth base, and successfully dodges some (but not all) of the enemy's missile defenses]].
--> '''Sarge''': There they are! Land right next to 'em!\\
'''Grif''': Right... "Land"...\\
'''Sarge''': You do know how to land this thing, right?\\
'''Grif''': Sure! [[CaptainCrash That just means stop flying, right?]]\\
'''Sarge''': [[OhCrap Brace for impact!]]
* UnwillingRoboticization: A variant. In ''The Blood Gulch Chronicles'', when Simmons is turned into a cyborg, Sarge has his "negative emotion centers" put in Grif, most likely against his will. This only comes up once, though, due to RuleOfFunny.
* VitriolicBestBuds: With Simmons due to very different personalities, which causes them to bicker frequently, but despite their tendency to argue, they're actually very good friends (at the least).
* VocalEvolution: In the first season, Grif's voice was gravelly, deeper, and somewhat gruff, though this vanished by the season finale and was replaced with his more high-pitched voice. He has also gotten increasingly higher-pitched throughout the series.
* WeakButSkilled: Is one of the more low level soldiers in regards to the other Blood Gulchers and is definitely no match for a Freelancer or Space Pirate, but Grif is shown to be at least a better shot than Simmons and Donut and is rather a nice tactician on the battlefield. However, his best kills still come from when he is in the possession of a car.
* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: Part-way through Season 8, Grif takes on an armor modification that grants him super-speed. After its introduction it is then never used again, though it's arguably justified in that the Project Freelancer armor modifications need an AI to use properly and it was shown to be malfunctioning whenever he tried to use it.
* WhatHaveIBecome: After realizing that his stress-induced mental breakdown in Season 12 is making him act like Sarge, Grif has a heavy meltdown.
--> '''Grif:''' ''(wailing)'' I DON'T ''WANT'' A SOUTHERN ACCENT!
* WhyDidItHaveToBeSnakes: On top of Grif's pretty understandable natural reluctance to help Sarge in Season 5 when he falls in a cave, he then exposes a fear of his that was never brought up before due to lack of exposure: bats.
--> '''Simmons:''' Okay idiot, let's assume I'm wrong. Let's assume there ''are'' bats. So what? You're wearing [[PoweredArmor state-of-the-art, bio-mechanical body armor]]. It's designed to deflect bullets and absorb explosions. What kind of five-ounce flying rodent possibly do?\\
'''Grif:''' (beat) [[ComicallyMissingThePoint ...So basically you're saying that you think there's bats?]]\\
'''Simmons:''' [[SarcasmMode Sure, why not...?]]\\
'''Grif:''' ''(in panicky tone)'' I'm getting the fuck outta here!
* WhyWontYouDie: Or more accurately, "Why Won't You Stay Dead?" In Season 15, he is fed up with Church apparently coming back to life once again and everyone rushing to go on another adventure to help him. Since he has already spent "half his life" on adventures revolving around Church and Church has already "died more times than ComicBook/JeanGrey" he is in no hurry to help him again. Furthermore, he and Church were, while friends as members of the Reds and Blues, never really developed beyond a distant respect, which further helps explain why he's so unenthused to save Church yet ''again''. However, it's clear from his conversation with the Volleyball!Blues in "Objects in Space" that he's changed his mind and regrets thinking this way.
* WrongGenreSavvy: In ''The Shisno Paradox'', Grif thinks he can avoid adventures altogether if he ignores {{Inciting Incident}}s. He didn't take into account stories that [[RefusalOfTheCall involve characters ignoring]] [[TheCallKnowsWhereYouLive the incident]].
* YouKillItYouBoughtIt: During the fight with the Meta, Grif steals his Brute Shot, and after Meta's death Grif keeps it as his own, renaming it the "Grif Shot". However, he doesn't have anything better to do with it except mount it on the wall as a trophy... until the end of Season 10, that is.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Donut]]
!Private Franklin Delano Donut
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/donut_s15.png]]
[[caption-width-right:350:''"It's not pink, it's [[InsistentTerminology lightish-red]]!"'']]
->''"Who wants to hold my ankles while I stretch out my hammies?"''
-->'''Voiced By:''' Dan Godwin, Jordan Burns (Caboose's Mind, Seasons 2, 5-6), Creator/MilesLuna (radio transmission, Season 11), Barbara Dunkelman (Caboose's Mind, Season 14), Maggie Tominey ("Get Bent")
Red Team's rookie member with some major issues, acting as the team's [[TheDitz Ditz]]. He kicks off the series' Red/Blue conflict after Simmons and Grif send him to "the store" to get some "headlight fluid." Donut accidentally wanders into Blue Base and ends up capturing their flag, prompting the Blues to call in a Freelancer and start the main plot. Originally wearing standard red armor, Donut took one of Tex's grenades to the face and had to be sent away for medical help, returning with his own [[LessEmbarrassingTerm lightish-red]] armor out of recognition for his flag capture.
This, combined with a flair for calligraphy, appreciation of interior decorating, and the "Officer Hot Pants" surprise at Sarge's birthday party helps solidify Donut's status as CampGay by Season Three. Although he has a surprisingly good arm when it comes to throwing grenades, as proven when he killed Tex with a precision throw from across the canyon, in most combat situations he is expected (and ordered) to run around and [[ScreamsLikeALittleGirl scream like a girl]], a role he takes to with gusto.
Like Tucker and Doc, he is PutOnABus before ''Reconstruction'', but returns in ''Relocated''' during an experiment by Sarge to test the capabilities of a new plasma weapon. He's mistaken at first for a holographic Grif clone, but the others soon realize it's him and he passes out, exclaiming that he needs water. He then becomes a main character for ''Recreation'', rejoining the Red team to fight against the remaining Blues (i.e. Caboose).
At the end of the season, he is murdered in cold blood by a post-FaceHeelTurn Washington, setting up the much darker plot for the remainder of the ''Recollection'' saga. In the ''Revelation'' premiere, Doc confirms that he is indeed dead. However, in the sponsors-only ending of Chapter 13, F.I.L.S.S. shutting down the armour lock on the soldiers' armour ends up bringing him back to life. This is confirmed to be canon in Season 10, when the Reds and Blues (and Carolina) return to Valhalla to find that Doc and Donut have set up an organic farm, using Lopez's body as a scarecrow.
He initially isn't involved in the crash landing with the Reds and Blues in Season 11, but eventually makes contact with them in Episode 6. However, when he actually shows up in Episode 10, alongside Doc and Lopez('s head), he forgets to bring the pilot that brought the three there, leaving them also stranded on the planet.
Season 12 has him "kidnapped" by the Federal Army of Chorus, but is revealed to be safe along with Sarge, Lopez, and Washington. After escaping the clutches of the conspiracy that surrounds Chorus, he, along with the rest of the Reds and Blues, convinces the opposing armies of Chorus to stop fighting each other
Season 13 has him take over the weapons depot in Armonia along with Lopez, until Armonia is lost, and later, joins the rest of the Reds and Blues in their effort to stop Chairman Hargrove from killing everyone on Chorus.
In Season 15, after the defeat of Hargrove and death of Epsilon-Church, he retires with the rest of the Blood Gulch Crew, until attacks caused by the Blues and Reds forces him out of retirement. At the end of the season, he's blasted by a stray bolt of lightning from Loco's Machine, [[UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom which has serious consequences in the next two seasons.]]
In Season 16, the lightning that struck him reveals to have completely destroyed his physical body, with [[IdiotHero Caboose]] as the only witness to his "death." His consciousness was saved however, thanks to a mysterious being he calls "God," which then restores his physical form and tells him of the "Devil King." God then tells him to gather the rest of the Reds and Blues to save the universe by traveling in time. When it's revealed the "God" is in fact an evil Titan named Chrovos, Donut still sides with him due to the effects of the time traveling and his anger with the Blood Gulch Crew treating him poorly. When he eventually realizes that Chrovos was only using him, after an extensive fight with O'Malley/Doc, Donut uses the Hammer that he stole from the Cosmic Powers to reseal Chrovos.
Season 17 reveals that though Donut sealed Chrovos away, he still escaped (somewhat) due to the paradox caused by the Blood Gulch Crew. Donut then spends the season trying to save his friends and fix everything, and while he ultimately succeeds in bringing down Chrovos and Genkins, the traumas he dealt with through the arc plus his RageBreakingPoint being pressed due to the Blood Gulch Crew still treating him poorly, causes him to decide to spend some time away from the group by travelling across the universe to try and recover on his own.
----
!!Associated Tropes:
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* GadgeteerGenius: He leaves a lot of the building to Lopez, but he did build Lopez and a lot of other stuff.
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* GadgeteerGenius: He leaves With only a lot of few exceptions (such as when he breaks Lopez's speech unit and condemns him to speak only Spanish), just about everything he builds works perfectly, including Church and Tex's robot bodies, Lopez's own body, and the building to Lopez, but few combat vehicles he did build Lopez works on. The problem then becomes the fact that his perfectly-functioning ideas and a lot of other stuff.machines are horrible ideas that tend to endanger everyone around them by design.
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* EveryoneHasStandards: Though he doesn't particularly like Doc, Simmons is clearly sad to see that he was the one called to Valhalla and apologizes repeatedly for dragging him into the mess.
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* GutturalGrowler: Sarge speaks in a deep, gravelly voice.
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* EasilyForgiven: He has no hard feelings towards Wash for shooting and nearly killing him. Donut does lampshade it bitterly during ''Singularity'', but more to make the point he and Doc are being treated unfairly when the rest of the Blood Gulch Crew have done things just as bad as their {{Mistreatment Induced Betrayal}}s.
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* SuperDrowningSkills: Slightly averted with the "drowning" part omitted due to Lopez being a robot, but still sinks like a rock in water regardless.
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* StylisticSuck: His Spanish dialogue intentionally goes for a BlindIdiotTranslation more often than not, resulting in him speaking in MyHovercraftIsFullOfEels more often than not. This is intentional on a meta level, both for RuleOfFunny and to represent how Lopez is only speaking Spanish thanks to a malfunction. Additionally, his dialogue always sounds somewhat stilted (as per WordOfGod, each word Lopez speaks is translated individually and Burnie Burns speaks that single word in as mechanical a tone he can come up with to sell the idea of Lopez being a malfunctioning robot, with each line of Lopez’s dialogue being effectively “spliced” together) since it’s much funnier to hear Burnie Burns awkwardly stumble his way through poorly translated Spanish in a MachineMonotone than if he were able to easily recite said Spanish in a fluid, naturalistic tone.
* SuperDrowningSkills: Slightly averted with the "drowning" part omitted due to Lopez being a robot, but he still sinks like a rock in water regardless.
* SuperDrowningSkills: Slightly averted with the "drowning" part omitted due to Lopez being a robot, but he still sinks like a rock in water regardless.
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Oedipus Complex is a disambiguation
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* OedipusComplex: He's got unresolved issues with his father that aren't helped by his substitute father figure (Sarge) being a colossal, insane idiot.
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* AFatherToHisMen: Buried deep deep '''deep''' down underneath all of his insults and self-importance, he really does care about all of his men and refuses to leave a single one of them behind. Yes, this even includes Grif.
-->'''Sarge''': You bastards stay away from my men! If anybody's gonna kill 'em, it's gonna be ''me!''
-->'''Sarge''': You bastards stay away from my men! If anybody's gonna kill 'em, it's gonna be ''me!''
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* AFatherToHisMen: Buried deep deep '''deep''' down underneath all of his insults and self-importance, he really does care about all of his men and refuses to leave a single one of them behind. Yes, this even includes Grif.
-->'''Sarge''': You bastards stay away from my men! If anybody's gonna kill 'em, it's gonna be ''me!''
-->'''Sarge''': You bastards stay away from my men! If anybody's gonna kill 'em, it's gonna be ''me!''
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* HasTwoMommies: Implied by Sarge in the non-canon "Mother's Day [=PSA=]".
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* BadassBaritone: Sarge speaks in a deep voice, and he is actually legitimately skilled in combat, being one of the best non-Freelancer combatants in the series.
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* DisneyDeath: He is seemingly killed off at the end of Season 7 along with Donut, and when he is seen in Season 10, his body is being used as a scarecrow. However, before he returns in Season 11, Donut and Doc were able to bring him back to life (and Lopez himself mentions that he was fully aware of his time as a scarecrow), which doesn't seem too unlikely considering he mentioned "keeping backups" of himself.
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* DisneyDeath: DisneyDeath:
** He is seemingly killed off at the end of Season 7 along with Donut, and when he is seen in Season 10, his body is being used as a scarecrow. However, before he returns in Season 11, Donut and Doc were able to bring him back to life (and Lopez himself mentions that he was fully aware of his time as a scarecrow), which doesn't seem too unlikely considering he mentioned "keeping backups" ofhimself.himself.
** Happens again at the end of ''Singularity''. [[spoiler:The Labyrinth tricks him into thinking he is an English speaking human, instead of a Spanish speaking robot. With the rest of Red Team now able to understand his insults, him now having to deal with hunger and taste, and has been replace by "Gustavo" as the team's robot, Lopez quickly falls into despair and attempts suicide by jumping off a cliff, which in reality has him fall into a black hole. However, Lopez survived this because black holes actually send you back to the beginning of time, and since Lopez is a robot he survived the experience, spending billions of years alone in space before reuniting with the rest of the Reds and Blues in the Present day.]]
** He is seemingly killed off at the end of Season 7 along with Donut, and when he is seen in Season 10, his body is being used as a scarecrow. However, before he returns in Season 11, Donut and Doc were able to bring him back to life (and Lopez himself mentions that he was fully aware of his time as a scarecrow), which doesn't seem too unlikely considering he mentioned "keeping backups" of
** Happens again at the end of ''Singularity''. [[spoiler:The Labyrinth tricks him into thinking he is an English speaking human, instead of a Spanish speaking robot. With the rest of Red Team now able to understand his insults, him now having to deal with hunger and taste, and has been replace by "Gustavo" as the team's robot, Lopez quickly falls into despair and attempts suicide by jumping off a cliff, which in reality has him fall into a black hole. However, Lopez survived this because black holes actually send you back to the beginning of time, and since Lopez is a robot he survived the experience, spending billions of years alone in space before reuniting with the rest of the Reds and Blues in the Present day.]]
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* IrrationalHatred: His hatred for Grif, ''natch''. While it is fair enough for Sarge to be annoyed by Grif due to the latter's laziness and insubordination often putting the two at odds, Sarge's near never-ending abuse towards Grif goes well beyond the fact that Grif is lazy and is often exaggerated to the point that he can barely go a single conversation without insulting Grif in some way or wishing he was dead, sometimes without even speaking to Grif himself. It is actually shown in "Standardized Testing" that Grif's very presence causes Sarge to get angry. While he is admiring a forklift, Grif runs past past him from behind without him noticing him, only for Sarge to then ask himself why he's so angry all of a sudden.
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* NoCelebritiesWereHarmed: Matt Hullum initially voiced Sarge with a nasally Creator/RLeeErmey impression. VovalEvolution resulted in his voice shifting into a more generic Southern accent.
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* NoCelebritiesWereHarmed: Matt Hullum initially voiced Sarge with a nasally Creator/RLeeErmey impression. VovalEvolution VocalEvolution resulted in his voice shifting into a more generic Southern accent.
