#Emesis blue theory

[cheemscakecat]

I can’t help but wonder if Fritz was angrily thinking about BLU’s negligence for a moment. He had to collect himself before responding to Scout. It makes enough sense, if Scout just had a respawn failure that caused seizures.

Clearly he’s not doing well, even this early in the movie. We don’t know how many Mercenaries had life altering, scarring respawn failures that left them unable to work, but it surely happened. Fritz is really struggling to talk about it, even with Scout being a friend and a patient who needs to know. You can tell he hates to dwell on it.

The silent personality makes sense as a natural progression of that. Being stuck living with the memories and burden of Mercenaries getting mutilated despite your best efforts, being stuck reporting to people who don’t care like you.

Why not go silent and stare at the useless men to make them uneasy? To make them stop badgering you with ceaseless questions, to give yourself relief from having to revisit the trauma. Trauma that they didn’t care about or share, being the middlemen.

He was already fed up and angry, but not ready to lash out at the idiots “fixing” the respawn crisis.

He was capable of fighting well, but didn’t want to be violent. Not unless he had to be. So the injustice grew, and the anger and disgust simmered.

This was the only time Archibald and Ludwig were in the same room. He’s arguably the only merc on Blue who would have known Jules in real life, considering the respawn crisis. Soldier and Spy may have gotten their perception of Jules from what little they knew about the respawn crisis through their Medic’s words. Fritz looked at him with revulsion.

Soldier imagined Archibald as a calculating, greedy monster who let good people die, using them as pawns. Conspiring under the mask of being a good person, using that to fill his pockets with blood money. Conspiring with Redmond and Blutarch, the old fools.

Spy imagined Archibald as a simpering coward who made other people get their hands bloody while refusing to lift a finger. Someone who doesn’t care if his own men put themselves on the line, lying to them indiscriminately. Someone with cruel, evil men in his employ and those that were innocently getting used.

Fritz might not even believe that Jules is dead, considering the fact that Spy was talking/acting crazy and lying about how Scout died. That, and his quiet personality is the one who heard the funeral speech, not him. So that could mean that his natural response to a living, breathing Archibald is revulsion.

Can’t say I blame him. Jules Archibald was an awful man, and the Administrator probably had him killed like the director when he stopped making himself useful.

That still left the injustice of being used, and the rage that comes along with it. Whether Fritz preferred to be peaceful or not, those lingering emotions needed an outlet. And as RED mercenaries continued to target the healer with childish mockery and attacks; and Admin continued to be indifferent and cruel, that outlet emerged.

The personality that doesn’t hold back when it comes to a fight. The skill was there before, and so was the anger. But Fritz didn’t have a personality that was ready and willing to lash out at Users and Abusers. The vengeful one.

I think I know exactly what name he’d go by.

[the-interidiot]

Emesis Blue Details I don’t see mentioned, plus my main theory point.

WARNING, LONG. (Plus there are spoilers for FortressFilms work… obviously.)

So the first thing I want to touch on is the connect between Spy’s Disguise and Emesis Blue. I see a lot of people stating that Red Engineer (Dell) destroying the machine caused Emesis Blues events, but this is not true. The machines were separate, according to the creator. The machine is Spy’s disguise is currently destroyed and is unable to do even half of its function, after Dell attacked it. Everyone who died in Spy’s Disguise is DEAD, with the possible exception of S-09 (the Blue Spy), as his status is unknown.

The machine in Emesis Blue isn’t destroyed or physically damaged, it’s exhausted. According to a discord QnA with the creator, he says that the machine is overworked respawning clones on a frequent basis, leading to its malfunctions. It is otherwise fine, until the end of the film where it’s implied to be lit on fire and destroyed after respawning Fritz.

But here’s the second thing I’d like to talk about - the second assumption I wish to prove wrong. People commonly say Spy’s Disguise happens before Emesis Blue, but I can prove this incorrect quickly enough. Near the end of Emesis Blue, Fritz drives away in his ambulance, and there’s a time skip which implies he’s probably been driving for a few days. But I can this isn’t the case, for two reasons. First, his outfit changed, which could be rationalized as him stopping as a gas station. But secondly, S-09 is IN THE AMBULANCE in the back (see attached photos.)

So when does this take place? It’s trying to say Spy’s Disguise takes place in the middle of Emesis Blue, but this makes little sense. It will hopefully be explained better in the future, but here I come to discussion. I would like to hear your own personal thoughts and theories.

[Edit: the quality of the images is bad, but the creator also did confirm that is S-09 and not an Easter egg, so it shouldn’t be too much of an issue. I can link a timestamp if you’d like to find a nicer screenshot.]

[medicmain68]

im currently working on a massive powerpoint analysis about emesis blue, idk how to share it because im using my school account but im going to post it somehow once im finished. expect it to take a few weeks [ive been working nonstop on it for the past few days and ive only just finished summarising graveyard shift, im going fully indepth and talking about spy's disguise aswell]

[oh yeah i found the photo on google so idk who made it, credits to google i guess]

[jevilowo]

I'm convinced the Red Medic was the one who killed Scout's Ma in Emesis Blue, and on the way back to the slaughterhouse he and the Butcher found Stalingrad (Blue Heavy)'s corpse, which they brought back with them for Red Medic to experiment on, and subsequently hook up to the respawn machine.

The medics look identical except for the colour scheme so it would make sense for Jeremy who is both on the hallucinatey pills and is suffering post-respawn mental breakdown hallucinations (according to the file Jane found at least), so it would make sense that Jeremy assumed Red Medic was actually Blue Medic.

Anyway, happy Emesis Blue Day! This film will not leave my head. It's eternity in there.

[mgwab]

currently thinking about fritz’s outfit in the final scene of emesis blue… not just because he looks hot (i need him fr), it’s also because i believe there’s a type of symbolism behind the outfit.

notice how fritz entered dell’s bar with a black tie and black pants and not his usual blue vest and blue pants.

here’s what i think it means: it foreshadows fritz’s next successful but firey respawn, not as fritz ludwig, but as the undertaker.

emesis blue could just be an entire time loop with time loops within time loops and all, thus having fritz respawn to become the undertaker would start the whole time loop all over again.

[tf2incorrectquotes]

Fritz: That awkward shiver that makes me look like I'm being possessed by Satan.

T̴̎͗̊͒̚Ê̵͈̼̙̌͒N̸̖͚͑̏̍͛͝Ṱ̶̝̻̎̅̊͗̃̆̔̕̚H̷̥͕̹͂͑̏: That awkward shiver that makes the man I'm possessing look cold.

[boinky-doinky]

Emesis Blue was genuinely one of the best pieces of media I have watched. I am a changed man. I could and would write an essay about it I am being so serious right now.

[cheemscakecat]

Why Emesis Blue Medic should be taken off the Gravel War Battlefield.

My overall Em Blue theory is that it’s a shared nightmare, so keep that in mind for this post.

So we know Dr Ludwig has been diagnosed with Schizophrenia by somebody at BLU. The reason we know this is because he gave Scout the same medicine that he’s been taking, which you wouldn’t do if you had two different issues going on.

If you were Scout and your doctor friend was addicted to this medicine, you wouldn’t want to get addicted yourself. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if Scout theorizes that the medicine is part of the problem.

So here’s my theory on what mental health problem is plaguing BLU Medic:

Because he was roughly 6 when the N*zis took power in 1933 and Jewish, Fritz had a lot of trauma from a young age. He developed DID, formerly known as Multiple Personality Disorder [it can only develop from childhood trauma]. His parents and doctors were limited in what they could do because of the state of the country; they also thought his hallucinations of other personalities were imaginary friends.

When he escaped to America as an adult, he decided to join BLU in the hopes that other mercenaries would be willing to go fight against Germany in the war. But then the first respawn failures happened, and he got roped into being an “expert” on the issue.

Spy’s Disguise gave us a brief window into what was happening to the doctor during the respawn crisis.

He hasn’t been sleeping well. He’s got an exposed cut on his face, a five o’clock shadow, and bags under his eyes.

He didn’t speak or blink for any of the scenes he was in, which was off putting to Engineer. He even showed them what was wrong using a VHS, not his words.

Overall, he seems aloof and unapproachable, which is different to how he acted in Em Blue.

We know Jules Archibald must be a hack since Soldier and Spy had a nightmare where he’s callously letting people die for money. If he’s too posh to defend himself like he was in Spy’s perspective, he’s got to be too posh to deal with respawn failure gore.

But that wouldn’t stop him and his crew from holding Medic to a high standard when it came to his work, even if they didn't really want to spend money to fix the problem. I imagine the Administrator was the one that had to “motivate” them to allocate funds, and it would take her a while to get fed up.

So in the meantime, Ludwig developed a new, scarier personality to help him deal with Jules and new respawn failure trauma.

He was the one in control when CyberSpy was examined, and when he was given the bad news about his condition.

We know the doctor still doesn't understand his condition because of the nightmare versions of his other personalities.

This is the nightmare version of the unblinking, mute personality from the funeral. But he’s not the only personality that Fritz is afraid of.

This hallucination gives us more insight into how the doctor views his other personalities. 1. They are trying to trick him and other people. Whichever one this nightmare is based off of is good at pretending to be him.

2. They hate him. He woke up with blood on his hands and no memory of why. The nightmare got angry that he tried to wash the blood off himself. It didn’t hesitate to hurt him.

3. They love violence, and they want to hurt him. This one choked him out and slammed his head into the mirror. And again, he woke up with blood on his hands.

Him unknowingly killing Scout’s Ma and kidnapping the poor guy happened because he’s afraid that these personalities want to do that. He’s afraid that they’re plotting something and biding their time, Em Blue is the manifestation of what he thinks they’re up to.

The plague doctor was reaching towards him like it was going to be fake nice, despite all of its terrifying features. He thinks that one is trying to lull him into a false sense of security.

He’s wrong about them, and we have proof. We have the actual personality that the mirror monster is based off of, and a long scene with him in control.

This is the personality that developed to deal with RED mercs on the battlefield. That’s why he’s so good at fighting and acts so terrifying.

Now imagine for a moment that you black out during a fight, and when you come to your team is freaking out over you. They say you started beating the RED team senseless, with a terrifying grin that nobody has seen from you before. You don’t remember any of it, and unfortunately it’s only the first of many times this will happen.

That’s Dr Ludwig’s perspective. He doesn’t know what they want. He doesn’t know what they are or how to get rid of them. They keep appearing in the corner of his office or his room, if you watch him talk to Scout in his MedBay, he keeps looking around like he expects another person to be there. He just wants it to stop, so he starts relying on Valium as a crutch.

The bottle reveal is an interesting scene to me, because Emesis Diazepam horrifies the doctor. It must be something he knows is dangerous, and he’d never take knowingly.

Here are some symptoms of long term Valium/Diazepam abuse

Persistent drowsiness

Confusion

Memory loss

Fatigue

Dizziness

Blood in urine/feces

Depression

Anxiety

Tremors

Sleeping problems

Nightmares

Hallucinations

Seizures

Here are the overdose symptoms:

Coma [can still breathe]

Bluish lips and fingernails

Blurred/double vision

Slowed/stopped breathing

Confusion

Depression

Dizziness

Drowsiness

Excitability

Hiccups

Rapid eye movement

Rash

Stomach is upset/pained

Tiredness

Tremors

Uncoordinated movement and weakness

I think the bottle reveal is meant to be a wake up call about the Valium addiction. Maybe the other personalities know he should stop taking it, we do see the quiet one standing behind him afterwards.

DID personalities develop to protect a person from their trauma and keep them safe. Sometimes these personalities can be dangerous because they believe that they are demons, evil, or that destroying the host body will just send them back to their own. People wake up parked on bridges and in other odd places because another personality took control then switched back.

But in every scene where we get to see the others in control, they appear to be trying to help Fritz, not make things worse. The quiet one was trying to keep him safe from Spy and the people at BLU that made him a scapegoat. The violent one was attacking the Engineers to try and save both Medic and Scout, and probably tried to take control at Scout’s house so he could deal with BLU Ma’s body instead.

When the ambulance crashed into the telephone pole, that was because the quiet one over exerted himself and blacked out. But remaining parked outside of Scout’s house and waking up may well have happened because of the Valium abuse. The medicine is causing more symptoms that overlap with DID, and exacerbating the distrust that Fritz feels towards the others.

This doesn’t make him a bad guy, he doesn’t know what he’s doing to himself or that the others are trying to help him. The quiet one is terrifying, and seeing him in the corner of your room would get on your nerves. Blacking out and being told about actions you don’t remember doing would be terrifying, and I don’t blame him for assuming the personalities are malicious.

Maybe it would be better for BLU Medic to keep working as BLU since it’s become home, but not as a battle Medic. First he needs to reconcile with the others and understand what they are trying to do. Then they need to work together to decide whether he should retire or stay at the familiar base. But he’s having too many issues to be fighting other mercenaries.

The Spies and RED Medic that looks exactly like him are just going to confuse matters more, whether they know it or not. They gotta get another BLU Medic to fight on the field, this can’t go on.

[aerowolf]

How Medic Had VHS Tapes Before They Were Allegedly Invented

Emesis Blue, the psychological horror film based off of the hit first-person shooter game, Team Fortress 2, created by the studio Valve, is by all accounts an odd and unexpected masterpiece of film. Though most are set on explaining various time loops and the ending, I am not. Regardless of the fact that I understood neither of those things, I have arrived with a theory of my own. Because I have spiralled into a chaotic mode of over-analysis, specifically over a scene which is, at best, five seconds long. Should you choose to follow me and indulge in my delusions, I can guarantee you that I have something that may not interest you, but is long and heavily interests me.

PART I: WHY AM I LIKE THIS?

I’m literally neurodivergent and a minor. I have no answers for you. Moving on.

PART II: HOW COULD MEDIC HAVE VHS BEFORE IT EXISTED?

The point of this over analytical essay is to discuss why the Medic, also known as Doctor Fritz Ludwig, would have access to VHS tapes in a time when they did not in fact exist at all. The film is set on halloween--October 31, 1968. VHS tapes were not widely available to the public until 1976, and it is said that the development of VHS began sometime in 1969. Neither of these facts account for Medic’s possession of them. So where did he get them from?

We can begin by breaking down what they are and who made them.

These two images clearly display some of the VHS tapes which fell out of the box during the first couple of scenes of Emesis Blue. They are labelled “das grinsende gesicht” and “der könig in gelb.” These translate to “The Grinning Face” and “The King in Yellow,” both of which are pieces of media. The former is a silent German horror film released in 1929, and the latter appears to be the German translation of the title of a collection of short stories written by Robert W. Chambers. The title is also the title of a play within the collection which is said to drive anyone who reads it mad. However, the latter was never made into film. This information, while interesting, is not really important to my theory. But now you know. There’s symbolism to it of course.

Now, these tapes are clearly marked with the Mann Co. logo. This infers that they are produced and distributed by Mann Co. Considering their involvement in covert operations, projects, and their possible or perhaps even outright government connections, it is possible that Mann Co. invented or at least had production access to VHS before anyone knew about it. Perhaps they had a reason for holding them back? The box in his office is full, but it is not the

largest collection it could be, and it appears to be a mix of both legitimate or pseudo-legitimate films and personal or corporate videos. Considering the fact that VHS tapes are only seen in Ludwig’s possession, and that they contain the Mann Co. logo, it is safe to assume that they are produced by Mann Co. and solely distributed to those employed by them.

This offers a simple explanation as to why Medic has them before they should have existed. Mann Co. is not known for their transparency, often keeping things secret, even things that would objectively change the world. However, this does not offer an explanation as to what happened that led to the public release of VHS afterwards. So this brings us to our next section….

PART III: HOW AND WHY DID VHS BECOME WIDESPREAD?

It is said that production and development of the VHS began in 1969. Over the course of Emesis Blue, the Mann brothers, Redmon and Blutarch, are murdered. This occurs sometime in early November 1968--likely specifically November 3, as the agent who debriefs Soldier at the end of Emesis Blue--Agent Stemmons--mentions to him that the funeral of Governor Archibald is on Sunday. Assuming that this debriefing takes place directly after the events of halloween 1968, which fell on a Thursday, that leaves November 3 as the most likely date.

Seeing as the Mann brothers are now dead, and as there is no mention of Gray Mann interfering with the rest of this plot, it’s possible that Mann Co. is now disbanded, leaving them no means by which to distribute this technology. It’s then highly possible that the sole survivor of the Conagher slaughterhouse, Soldier, also known as Jane Doe, is the one who brought VHS to the world. While it is also possible that Gray could have done it, we’ll assume he doesn’t even exist in this universe, as his role is noncritical to it,

Here is how Jane could have single handedly brought VHS to the rest of the world.

Scarred by the events of October 31, 1968, he decided that the VHS tapes invented by Mann Co were actually a useful invention, and that the public should have access to them. After the death of the Mann brothers he tried to spread them and rebrand them, but quickly learned that they had some form of mind control within. This led to him bringing some of the tapes to a group who could disable this feature. However, that in turn led to them having to be completely redesigned, as the manipulation was ingrained too deeply into their design, which hence explains the delay of them being released widespread. VHS was first publicly released in Japan in 1976, which also points to the group Jane went to being Japanese. Shortly after, in 1977, VHS was also released in the United States.

And that is the story of how Team Fortress 2’s Soldier single handedly caused the public release of the VHS technology across the world.

[emesisbluetheories]

It would be even funnier the second time

[almost-good-at-cosplay]

Fuck it. Impromptu Emesis Blue costume.

[sepublic]

Acknowledging that I may be missing the point by trying to figure out the in-universe explanation and logistics, rather than focusing on the metaphor and symbolism behind Emesis Blue;

I think the Plague Doctor might be Fritz Ludwig from the future, possessed and/or under control of his alter ego (Hence the uncharacteristic act). There’s the obvious fact that Jeremy treats Fritz with hostility and fear, and Fritz’s own hallucination of killing Jeremy’s mom. He has the gouged-out eyes and smile, which Fritz receives at the end of the film after crashing.

At the end of the film, Fritz is brought back in the respawn machine, amidst a bunch of fire. In Archibald’s PSA to newly-respawned mercenaries, there’s an inexplicable fire that enters the room just offscreen, so I think there’s a deliberate connection. The only other possibility is that Fritz respawns as the Conagher Slaughterhouse burns down near the end of the movie (note that this would require someone to perform the manual input on the respawn machine, possibly the Plague Doctor). The abrupt fire at the end of the PSA feels too deliberate of a detail to otherwise ignore. Note that right after the video ends with fire, we cut to some photos taken presumably around that time, including of a burning Fritz…

Likewise, we have an example of time travel being an actual thing, and not just a Diazepam-induced hallucination (note Soldier claiming to have never taken any of the pills, only to later interact with his future self). This would explain how Fritz is in two places at once, which he needs to be, given we see him drive past Soldier in his ambulance, followed by the Plague Doctor’s hearse arriving just moments afterwards.

Now Fritz normally would have no reason to kill Jeremy’s mom, but that’s assuming it’s him in control; More than likely, it’s his alter-ego. Now I’ve watched TheWhat Show’s video on Emesis Blue, so I’m inspired by a lot of what he suggested here. But if we go with the idea that Fritz is being possessed by the spirit of the Tenth Class, this may explain a bit...

Dell’s Bar seems to be the limbo, the purgatory, the waiting room that the mercs and others who go through respawn wait in. And we know the respawn machine creates a fresh duplicate of one’s body, meaning respawned mercenaries can interact with their previous corpses; Hence the motherload of identical dead bodies all over the place. 

There’s also the hallucination Fritz has, where he’s trapped in a casket inside the church, while the Plague Doctor watches; Foreshadowing both the church he kills Pyro in, and later his own funeral assassination. But it could also symbolize Fritz’s mind/soul being locked away in his body, or perhaps in a briefcase/limbo, while the Plague Doctor takes over...

If we go by the theory that the Plague Doctor is the vengeful ghost of the Tenth Class who has possessed Fritz, I think things begin to come together. After crashing at the end of Emesis Blue, Fritz’s soul is stuck in limbo, awaiting his next respawn. Due to time loop shenanigans, he is respawned in the past as Archibald records his PSA, possibly with only the Tenth Class’ soul inside; Fritz’s soul may have been left behind in limbo, which may be located within the briefcase. Either way, the Tenth Class in total control now.

The fire is an interesting detail; Did the respawn machine malfunction? And this malfunction caused both the flame and the retrieval of future Fritz, instead of his current self? Or maybe, and this is a bit out there but I just want to say it; Maybe the Tenth Class’ soul was plucked straight from Hell, and in doing so brought some hellfire with him that burned the Conagher Slaughterhouse, the first time. We see an apparition of the Tenth Class when Soldier is about to jump over the chasm leading to ‘Hell’, after all; Maybe the Tenth Class went there.

Something I find interesting is that the Plague Doctor seems to be working with BLU Heavy, Pyro, and Zed and Maynard Conagher. Somebody else was holding up Mama Scout’s head when Pyro kidnapped Jeremy, and it appears BLU Heavy was supposed to pass the briefcase to the Plague Doctor near the start of the film. The Plague Doctor’s hearse is a convenient vehicle to transport BLU Heavy’s body to the Conagher Slaughterhouse, to later be revived by RED Medic into a Mr. X reference.

We know Maynard was the one to lock up Jeremy, “according to specification” as he tells Zed. And the Plague Doctor’s hearse is seen right outside the Conagher Slaughterhouse, burning just as its driver did when he first arrived in the past... Obviously the Plague Doctor isn’t being totally honest with the Conagher brothers, since he presumably gave the key to Jeremy’s casket to Fritz; Zed is confused as to how Jeremy escaped.

If the Plague Doctor is a possessed/evil Fritz from the future, that could explain how he has the key; That, or there's a second copy of the same key that Zed and Maynard don’t know about. Maybe there’s only one key and they threw it out, only for the Plague Doctor to retrieve it behind their backs... OR, Fritz held onto the key after freeing Jeremy, bringing it with him all the way to the film’s end; So when he respawns in the past, he has the key with him. And he slides it under his past self’s door near the start of the film.

What puzzles me is what the Plague Doctor’s goal and motive is; Did the Emesis Diazepam lead to memory loss, meaning he doesn’t realize he’s reliving the same events, just from a different role? Is he trying to end the cycle? Set up Soldier to arrive at the Conagher Slaughterhouse, learn the truth, and kill Redmond and Blutarch, breaking free? How did he convince BLU Heavy, Pyro, the Conagher brothers, and presumably RED Sniper into working with him? Is Archibald aware of and working with these guys? Being led to believe they’re helping him lay low, when in reality he’s just bait for Fritz, BLU Soldier, and BLU Spy? 

RED Sniper asks Soldier if he wants to die for something worth dying for, after deriding Archibald; Indicating he’s knowingly a part of some plan to end the Gravel Wars. But why try to kill Soldier at the start? Was that just Plan A, and Plan B was to inspire him to end it? Is BLU Heavy even collaborating with the others after being revived, or has his undead state turned him into an uncontrollable monster on nobody’s side? 

[kaz3313]

(More Emesis Blue Thoughts): Thinking about the fact Solider(Jane) was going to give up but chose instead to take action. Thinking about how after he chooses to kill the man he was employed under (where all his Loyalty for years has lied. Why he is “Solider”. His entirety) he isn’t seen again. He got through- as painful as it was. He has changed. He will not be the same. But he lived.

[cultofthepigeon]

everyones talking about how incomprehensible emesis blue is and making theories and speculations trying to figure out what it means and how to make the story make sense

meanwhile i thought the whole thing was incomprehensible because its story writing just wasnt the focus

[tf2incorrectquotes]

Question for all Emesis Blue fans; what was with that cult?

Discuss?

[razzzar]

Right ok so emesis blue. Yeah, ok. First off. It is so. DAMN. GOOD! I was so confused in such a good way that I had to watch it twice to try and make sense of it. I didnt. But hey they symbolism was pretty neat. Like respawn being a literal hell, medic being death and the amount of Christian symbols with the red team. Like I understand absolutely nothing but I am pretty damn sure the story was about respawn purgatory?? Idk I'm not a theory crafter or a film analyser.

But can we also talk about the harsh lights cuz DAMN the use of blue, red and gold lights in everything is just *chefs kiss* magnifique! Like I'm a sucker for dynamic lights and ooooooooh they used those three colours in the best way possible. I'm serious! Every scene apart from a select few is either lit with red, blue, or gold lights.

Oh and let's not forget the characters because despite everyone being so incredibly flawed I loved them all! Soldier especially, he was just so... Normal. Despite falling into hell and crawling his way out. Medic is also amazing, watching his spiral into insanity, and poor scout and spy...

But seriously, if you don't have epilepsy and can handle a lot of gore then you should watch this because it is a MASTERPIECE! To think fortress films could so easily top Spies Disguise like that.