Dexter Grif

*This article uses material from the “Dexter Grif” article on the Red vs. Blue Wiki at FANDOM is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike License.*

**Dexter Grif** is one of the main characters of the *Red vs. Blue*webseries.

Lazy, out-of-shape, and Sarge's personal butt-monkey. Just about every one of Sarge's plans involves Grif being killed in some way, and most of Red Team's official emergency protocols begin by shooting Grif. Grif is suggested to be fairly intelligent, at least in the eyes of Church, but he's too much of a slacker to contribute much. A conscript, Grif sleeps through official meetings and tries to quit the army whenever he can. He is Red Team's designated deadpan snarker and only sane man, though his apathy towards pretty much everything somewhat cancels that out. He spends much of his time bickering with his "friend" Simmons, when he isn't stealing the latter's identity and running up huge bills at pawn shops and peep shows.

In the XP4 fics, Grif is part of the Dimensional Defense Union and is a member of the Omega Squadron.

In the TWA fics, Grif debuted in the Twisted World Animania: Red vs. Blue - Chorus Trilogy.

## **Appearance**

Grif is wearing an orange-colored body armor over a black armored bodysuit. His armor consists of helmet with an orange visor that covers his entire head, a chest & back armor, a back & front cod piece, shoulder armor, forearm armor, hand plate, armored thighs, armored shins and armored boots.

## **Personality**

Grif is the cynical loud-mouth of the Reds, being self-centered, immature, stupid, acerbic, and lazy. With respect to personality, Grif is fairly brash and has a flair for the melodramatic. He is quick to make silly theories or insults, even toward people who could clearly kill him without hesitation. Grif is also cowardly, easily scared and would rather run away from a battle than deal with it. Although he admits to being lazy, when his sister arrives in Season 5, he said he would try to maintain his status as a good-for-nothing slacker, but nothing would stop him from beating her up and sending her back home. Grif later reveals to Sarge that he isn't lazy because he dislikes work, he is lazy because he enjoys how much it irritates Sarge.

Despite his setbacks, Grif expresses loyalty, as he has stayed with his team despite the misadventures they've had, and has also shown care for his teammates, willing to fight to save them as the series progressed. Along with this, Grif seems to actually be impacted and take in what people say about him, even though he claims he doesn't care. Such examples include his interactions with Simmons and when he begins to act like Sarge in Season 12. Although he may be lazy, he is unlikely to betray his comrades and truly seeks to be part of the team. Since Season 6, Grif has appeared to have (slightly) matured in regards to the way he treats others and has become much more soldier-oriented in mentality.

In the Chorus Trilogy, Grif demonstrates more willingness to engage in battle with enemies and steps up to leadership positions far quicker than he once did, but still panics when he believes his allied forces are outnumbered. During Thin Ice, Grif actually uses a tactic he performed to avoid work as a successful infiltration strategy. In The End, he is noticeably the most upset member of the Reds and Blues when Hargrove shows up in the Staff of Charon in a final desperate assault against the inhabitants of Chorus, revealing that he really wanted the mission to succeed. At the end of the episode, Grif shows pride in his friends as they prepare for the final battle on board the ship, and stands defiant in an unusual show of courage against the Chairman's forces.

In Season 15 Grif appears to be rather uncompromising with his retirement, even when he did, on his words, "the same damn shit with the same damn idiots", but when Dylan reveals Church's message and the rest of group want to save Church, Grif is the only one who's on disagreement with the idea of returning to action, even went as far as asking why Church can't still be dead and leave him alone. When Dylan tells him her idea of him (caring of his friends and wanting to do the right thing), Grif angrily says she has the wrong idea of him and reveals he hates everyone, and leaves the crew without remorse of his words.

It is later revealed that he actually does care for his friends proving Dylan's point when it was shown that he went insane being alone and quickly joining Locus and Lopez to rescue them. At that point though his insanity is severe, even to Locus. He had become much more talkative, unfocused, and dilusionial. This is likely due to the extreme isolation, boredom and the guilt of abandoning his friends. He had created volleyball duplicates of his friends to talk to and voices for as if they were still there, even going as far as learning Spanish just to speak for Lopez. Unable to tell reality, he thought Locus was a hallucination and had to touch his helmet to determine if he was real. He also appeared much more apologetic, trying his best to say sorry and attempting to save volleyball Church for the duplicate Blues.

By the time he reached Armada 8, he appeared to have returned to his original composer, finally making contact with the Reds and Blues to give his apologies. He also appears much friendlier compared to previous seasons, calling Caboose his friend which is something the Blue team won't even do. It should also be noted that he is much more willing to work and fight, even volunteering to escort Dylan Andrews to the Machine (to everyone's shock). This side of him is also demonstrated when he saves his friends from Temple and even says beating Temple would satisfy him.

## **DreamTheater Intermix: The World Within**

Grif is a student in the City Saints Academy.

### **Biography**

In Chapter 18, Grif took part of that night's patrol where he is seen alongside Dick Simmons and Super Colonel Sarge loading munitions and explosives on a truck and when they were done, they got into the truck and then driving off.

## **Abilities**

**Driving Ability**

Grif seems to be very skilled in operating vehicles, nearly always being the main character driving a vehicle of all the Reds and Blues. He is usually the one driving the Reds' Warthog, in which he shows excellent driving skills in several situations. He is shown to be able to drive and prefer an Elephant to walking in Well Hello, though he quickly changes his mind and continues on foot when he realizes how slow the vehicle moves. He even shows to be a skilled pilot, as he was able to fly a Pelican to Sidewinder, though he crashes it when they arrive. Lastly, he was able to steal and fly a Hornet in n+1. Later in season 15 he asked repeatedly to drive Locus's ship. He was also able to pilot Dylan's Pelican and dodge missiles locked on the ship momentarily. Due to his skills with vehicles, Grif could be considered the primary driver and pilot of the Reds and Blues.

**Recovery**

While played more for comedic effect, Grif has been shown to make a quick recovery no matter how severe the injury is ever since his surgery after Sheila ran him over in Season 2. Such examples include when he's shot several times by his own team in Why Were We Here?, being blasted off the Valhalla communication tower by his own grenade in Relocated: Part Three, and when Sarge shot him with the Blues' tank in One-Zero-One, as he quickly recovers by the end of the episodes. This is even shown in combat, as Grif is shown to not only be conscious, but still have the ability to stand after Epsilon-Tex assaulted his groin several times in This One Goes to Eleven.

**Manipulation**

Possibly a method for getting out of work, Grif has been shown to be able to manipulate members of his own team on numerous occasions. Some of which include, passing blame on an attempt to go AWOL on Simmons, getting Donut to leave on numerous occasions, convincing Sarge to halt Simmons' trial due to Donut's roleplay, to stop his assault on Caboose at Valhalla due to the chances of getting sent to another base, convincing him to allow him to help Caboose's mission, and get out of dish duty on Chorus with Simmons, and trick Simmons into believing Game Of Thrones was factual. This shows his skills in being a manipulator, but he can be just as easily manipulated too.

**Bilingualism**

Since leaving the Reds and Blues to continue his retirement in Season 15, Grif somehow manages to learn how to speak Spanish fluently in order to play the role of Lopez while talking to his volleyball replacements for the Reds and Blues. He seems to be a quick learner as it only took him a few weeks to master it.

**Kills**

Despite being one of the least skilled soldiers in the series, Grif successfully killed many Wyoming clones and two UNSC soldiers by running them over with the Warthog. Also, with Simmons' and Sarge's help, he was able to defeat the Meta, managed to slay a few Tex-drones in True Colors, and kill at least 5 Federal Army soldiers with Teleportation Cubes in Fire. In Cloak and Dagger, Grif kills at least one mercenary with a Suppressor.

## **Trivia**

* It seems Grif is a smoker as shown in *What's Mine is Yours*; however, he's never shown smoking again afterwards.
	+ It is also hinted that he may also be a drug user, in Previously On, he had discovered mushrooms that mimics the effects of methamphetamines on an extreme scale, not only did he spike Simmons food with it, but brought it with him to consume later when rescuing them. Additionally, Season 5 showed that he took several drugged shots from a needler to be in knocked out while only one was required for Simmons.
* Grif is often regarded as grossly overweight by the other characters in the series. Although this is impossible to portray in any standard *Halo video* game engine, he is depicted as visibly overweight even while in armor in Red vs Blue: Animated.
* Grif and his sister are from Honolulu, Hawaii. Evidence of this can be found on the Season 5 DVD and the *Recreation* commentary.
* A number of facts about Grif's upbringing have been revealed over the course of the series.
	+ In Season 13, the O'Malley personality in Doc reveals that Grif's parents seemed to favor his sister more than him. O'Malley goes on to imply Grif did not have a stable father figure growing up.
	+ In Season 5, Sister revealed that their mother worked in a circus, both as the fat lady and the bearded lady. Later in Season 13, the O'Malley personality in Doc reveals that their mother also "turned tricks behind the elephant cage", which Grif was apparently aware of. O'Malley also implies Grif's eating habits are a result of him turning to food for comfort from his family life. When confronted by his friends, Grif could only sadly comment "*It was a really nice circus.*"
* Grif is one of two families to have had a sibling physically appear on the show, the other family being Northand South.
* Grif seems to have chiroptophobia (fear of bats) as seen when he refused to enter in the hole Sarge fell in because of them.
* In the community-created gametype Grifball, the ball-carrier turns orange when the bomb is picked up and the player becomes "Grif".
* Grif made a brief cameo appearance at the end of the Grifball mini-series "Double Agent".
* Grif states in the *Columbus Day* PSA that he went to Harvard University. He appeared to respect his school to some degree, openly mocking Columbia University.
* When asked to answer if there was anything that most people would not know about Grif on the Cockbite Radio Podcast, Geoff replied that he likes long walks on the beach, was the only one of the Reds and Blues to be drafted, and is secretly in love with Simmons, and that one day the two of them will have a baby, when science makes that possible.
* Grif is the first main character to appear in the *Halo: Reach* engine, during the *Deja View* PSA shown on Bungie Day 2010.
* Grif, along with Caboose and Sarge, is the one of the only characters in the series to appear in every season of *Red vs. Blue*; however, he only makes a vocal appearance in Season 9 rather than a physical one.
* Grif, along with Simmons, is one of the only characters in the series to appear in all types of animation forms used in *Red vs. Blue* (machinima, 2D animation, alternative CG animation, and stop motion). They also currently have the longest series lifespan than any other character, with both being first introduced in the Red vs. Blue Trailer.
* Grif was once the lowest ranking soldier of the Reds and Blues, being a *Minor Junior Private Negative First Class*. However, his promotion to Captain in Season 12 now makes him among the highest ranking soldiers encountered in the series (along with fellow captains Flowers, Simmons, Caboose, and Tucker), only behind Colonel Sarge, PresidentKimball, and General Doyle.
	+ Grif's rank of Minor Junior Private Negative First Class could be considered similar to Doc's rank, as both aren't real in the military, both are "first class", and both obtained them from Freelancer Command (Grif got his from Washington specifically).
	+ Grif also has been promoted and demoted the most times out of all the characters in the series with a total of three times (Promoted from Private to Sergeant prior to *Reconstruction*, then demoted to Minor Junior Private Negative First Class in *Reconstruction*, and finally being promoted to Captain in Season 12). Sarge has since tied with him.
* Grif has been shown to grow attached to various alien-tech weapons, such as the Meta's Brute Shot, the Teleportation Grenades, and the Suppressor.
* Grif shows several similarities to Garfield the cat from the popular comic strip, as both are overweight, orange, highly lazy, and only seem to like eating and sleeping.
* According to the Red vs. Blue: The Ultimate Fan Guide Grif survived an alien attack on his unit due to sleeping at his post causing the aliens to believe that he was dead and walk right past him. This ultimately had him transferred to Project Freelancer.
* In Objects in Space, Grif confirms he's agnostic.
* During his time in isolation, Grif learnt how to speak Spanish, now making him one of the only two characters who can properly understand Lopez. The other being Locus
* Grif seems to be analogous to the sin of Sloth from the Seven Deadly Sins of Man. While he is typically depicted as lazy, given time, effort, and motivation, Grif has shown immense potential. One instance is how he completely mastered a foreign language in only a few weeks.
* Grif is one of the only characters on Red Team to not become an antagonist at some point. The only other member being Simmons.