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I think that Grays takeover of RED and BLU was much more elaborate, and killing Blutarch and Redmond was only a finishing touch. The whole operation probably took many years of scheming and bribery and wasnt executed just by Gray himself.

I imagine that this situation was brewing for years, right under the Mann brothers radar. The high management of RED and BLU was probably already interested in a merger, as it obviously would have been more productive than senslessly fighting each other, but ofcourse the Mann brothers didnt even wanna hear about it. Over the years they grew paranoid and increasingly stubborn, their detachment from reality amplified by their age, and so eventually people were seriously fed up with their leadership. They didnt act though, as nobody had the courage to try to pull off such a scheme, nor become the CEO after either of them die. It would have been an excruciating job and nobody wanted to take that responsibility, and especially the potential risk.

That is untill Gray appeared. He made contact with both sides and over the years groomed the most important figures of the two conglomerates into conspiring against the Mann brothers, offering to take full responsibility for running the companies after they merge. They hatched a plan, and when the time was right they executed it.

In under one, particularily busy day, RED and BLU have been dissolved and their assets merged into Gray Gravel Co. Appropriate people handed out bribes, made neccessary legal moves and eliminated potential loyalists to Blutarch and Redmond. The twins, completely oblivious to the ongoing mutiny, were tricked into attending a staged meeting where Gray reunited with them one last time, and eventually did the dirtiest part of the plan by taking their lives.

Ofcourse, the whole operation was meticulously covered up, and officially, the Mann brothers died due to their life extension machines failing simultaneously.

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🤩🤩🤩🤩

Have been thinking about the engineer lately. pages that didnt make it under the cut.

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this guy made a really nice summary of the relationship sonic and eggman have, on a more metaphysical level, I really like it consider this a 3rd party repost or something og video link -> https://youtu.be/Kp8rTsOq-n8?si=jG5wFr_tasKf0g3S

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Gray Mann economy is booming 🤩

Bombing of the traditional drawings I made of Grey mann

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I think that its actually the suit that allows Spy to turn invisible or take on disguises, and not the watch or the disguise kit.

Those two gadgets are only used to control the suit, which despite looking like a regular fancy dress is actually made of some very advanced materials that can warp light in a programmable manner. Its insanely expensive and Spy has been thoroughly trained to use it properly.

It would explain why other classes cant just pick up the watch or the disguise kit - those are only the controls, not the functional element.

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I know it was most likely retconned in TF2 canon, but I wholeheartedly subscribe to the idea that RED and BLU are de-facto world dominating megacorporations, with the Mann brothers at the helm. It's just cooler that way + adds some interesting, pretty dark worldbuilding.

I think that by 1960's Blutarch and Redmond Mann were corporate gods on par with Saburo Arasaka, from Cyberpunk 2077. Their rivalry, which stemmed from unresolved childhood trauma and their cruel father, has driven them to such extremes that throughout almost 150 years of its course they have literally conquered the whole world. Their organisations run quite literally everything, but its still not enough. They MUST win and prove that they were worthier of their fathers love.

And just imagine how unimagineably wounded they must be. What unspeakable emotional turmoil gives a person the determination to dedicate their whole life to besting your own brother, even if it means the whole planet will suffer the collateral damage. Just imagine how horrible it is to an outsider!

You were born to a world thats divided in equal proportion between two all-powerful corporations, ran since the start by two senile brothers who are pretty much immortal. Nobody in the world really cares about their conflict, its something completely alien to most people, and yet, everybody on earth is forced to participate in their war, and there is no escaping it.

RED and BLU have became integral to the functioning of all of human civillization, and there is no way to remove them now. The world is forced to live under the Mann brothers boot, all in the name of their unhealed childhood wounds.

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New deposits of Gray Mann ore on tumblr were just discovered i repeat!!!!

@dinoburger

your tags gave me an idea

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I dont think the power scaling of TF2 mercs is underlined well enough in lore. Yeah, they are pretty goofy, but theyre still the top mercs money can buy in that world. Best of the best.

Scout isnt just some kid who runs, he's probably like one of the fastest guys in the world. Engie is engie, self explanatory; 11 PHD's. Heavy is probably one of the strongest people alive, and Soldier is probably an incredibly competent soldier in the field, despite being insane.

And same goes for other 5 mercs. The comics dont give us much background on them, but I imagine that prior to becoming mercenaries they all excelled in some field.

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Shoutouts to that one super edgy SFM where miss Pauling completely loses it and fucking kills every TF2 character with a shotgun while living tombstones "die in fire" plays

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I particularily like the classic Eggmans design because of how... innocent, yet proud, he looks. Maybe its my minimalist compulsions speaking through me, but I find something very charming about a guy who's supposed to be a super smart evil scientist be a literal egg with a mustache, and not ashamed of it in the slightest!

I like to think that in his younger years Eggman was pretty self conscious about his body, but when he got older he stopped caring. He embraced how he looks and even started exploiting his unique form for branding.

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All Hallows Eve...

iuuqt://uijtjtoupwfskbdl.ofpdjujft.psh/

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I think that riddler works better if, by the criterium of raw intelligence, he's on par with Batman or Luthor, but due to his flawed character and mental disorders he can't channel even a bit of all his intelligence properly, unknowingly to him.

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My origin for Olivia is that she actually is Grays biological daughter, artifically conceived from a DNA sample of his long dead lover.

This unnamed woman was Grays partner somewhere around 1860's; Perhaps she was a westerner, shotgun-under-the-bar type saloon keeper who took Gray in while he was broke? I picture that at the time Gray was struggling with his trauma and wasnt exactly aiming very high, but she was a fierce woman who saw Grays potential and was always there to provide him with a motivational kick on his ass. Or a hug, depends.

Perhaps that blackmail attempt on Zepheniah was her idea? I think that even with Olivia besides she had a great influence on Gray, helping him find confidence and emboldening to play for high stakes. He'd be helplessly in love with her, also shorter lol!!!

Anyway, I think she would have died to some illness, or an accident, somewhere before the 20th century. She was too dynamic and never wanted kids, but agreed for Gray to take a sample of her genes to create a baby when the technology will be advanced enough.

Once time was right, Gray mixed their genes and artifically created their daughter. Olivia would have inherited her mothers character, so much that sometimes Gray would struggle with managing her energy and stubbornness, just as he could barely keep up with her mom. I think she kind of keeps him going the same way that woman did.

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A showdown between some version of sonic.exe and SatAM Dr. Robotnik would be so fun to see. They're both probably the two most evil beings sonic universe has to offer, and so a battle between them would be pure drama lol

If Robotnik was to lose, I imagine it'd take long and be incredibly exhausting, like a government struggling to maintain control during a deadly pandemic. He'd be trying to manage the crisis from the control room, managing frontlines on the big screen and shouting orders at snively, maybe trying to develop some powerful weapon to stop the EXE. But each day the situation would get worse - there would be no success with the weapon, snively would grow doubtful and more areas would fall to the EXE's corrupting influence, spawning twisted forms of gore and metal, striking fear into Robotnik. The production capacity would dwindle rapidly, defenses would fall, Snively would disappear, and eventually Robotniks whole planetary empire would be reduced to a tiny bunker below the HQ, with horrifying voices heard outside and only one way to end it...

And on the other hand, if Robotnik was to win, I imagine he would go terminator mode on the EXE, putting all his resources and digits of IQ into defeating it. It'd be like doomguy brutalizing demons. Artillery strikes, nuclear launches, robots invading corrupted areas, mobians being used as live bait (no lesser evil here lol) and an all out war against hell itself. At the end though, he would claim final victory over the EXE in a bold direct confrontation, utilizing some kind of ancient artifact or device he designed to outsmart the evil entity and bend it to his will!

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I always liked to imagine that Eggman is actually the supereme leader of a pretty standard, although unnamed, human civillization from another planet, who personally set to the stars to expand his people's empire.

A set origin like this kinda makes the deeper conflict here more obvious. Restless, greedy, machinal human civillization vs peaceful, balanced and humble natural order that mobians embody.

It'd also explain his rivalry with sonic. Its not just his ego being hurt - Its humiliating for him as the leader of that unnamed civillization to be incapable of conquering a seemingly primitive planet.

It doesnt make his methods any less villainous, but I think it brings a bit of realism and depth to his character

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Imagine how much better joker 2 would have been if the main plot focused on Arthur and Lee, among other arkham inmates, preparing a musical as a form of therapy, and if the movie played on being in contrast to the first movie - where the first showcased Arthurs descent into madness, the second could show him making actual progress due to his relationship with Lee and therapy, and thus struggling with the Joker persona that imprinted itself on him, and the guilt for things hes done

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I have a headcanon that after TF2 mercs broke out of confinement on Grays island and started wrecking chaos, Olivia was evacuated off the island by some random heavy robot that got destroyed while protecting her from Pyro.