#ThatFailure Blabbers

[thatradfailure]

Spy is shown to be the group's coward, specifically in the update video for Jungle Inferno. Scout and Spy get paired together, but when they hear a sound that might be a killer yeti, Spy cloaks and runs away, meanwhile Scout, clearly scared, carries on. Of all the mercs, Scout embodies "do it scared", and in a way that actually makes him rather brave.

Idk, OP. It's a frustrating part of the fandom because Scout is constantly infantilized and emasculated. It's so frustrating to see him constantly being called a virgin despite being shown to have had sex at LEAST once (and likely more times). I think it's a bigger issue than just "Scout gets too much hate" and more the fandom simplifying him down to his most "prominent" characteristics (which are ADHD coded) and then treating him as lesser for them. And it sucks, because there's a lot of things to explore with him. He's not my favorite, either, not even close, but he could have SO much depth, and no one cares.

We’ve all heard the “Scout gets too much attention” rants in the fandom but I also want to say: Scout gets too much hate.

Like, he’s decidedly NOT a coward. I have no idea where people get that from. His entire backstory is that he got fast to that he could run into danger before the fight ended. He’s got voice lines pleading for his life, but every character has voice lines where they’re weak or losing.

He’s also not that annoying to anyone but Spy (besides the people he’s killing). I’m easier on this though because it comes from gameplay habits.

Also, Scout is strong. Maybe not physically, and certainly not as much as the rest of the team, but he’s quick, acrobatic, and whip smart about surroundings. He did single handedly take on a Heavy. Sure, it was his meet-the and everyone is overpowered but still. He puts up a fight. (My favorite subversive moment of the ‘scout gets wreaked by everyone automatically’ is in Mann Swap where we see him use his skillset to match with heavy’s strength.)

It’s hilarious to punch the punching bag, ofc. But Scout is my least favorite of the main nine and it still kills me to see him in “serious” tf2 fan media with only his joke traits.

[thatradfailure]

If you like a character but don't include their disability in art (drawing AND writing) then I'm sorry but I don't think you do as much as you think you do. This includes

- Scars

- Prosthetics/amputated limbs

- Mobility Aids

- Glasses

- Etc

[thatradfailure]

I don't know if I just don't read enough Sniper fanfic, or look for fanart in the right places, but there is a SEVERE lack of people playing around with the fact that TF2's Australia is 300 years in the future, technology wise. Sniper has definitely seen holograms and played with VR games. He probably went to the arcade to play hunting games before his parents allowed him to go off in the woods alone. All of his schoolwork was definitely, 100% done on computers. Hell, Sniper probably even has a cell phone he uses to play games on just because America doesn't have cell data or wifi, so it's useless otherwise.

Like. Can you imagine Engineer making a computer, or a game system for Scout, and because it's not a thing in America it's New and a Marvel for everyone else.

Everyone except Sniper.

Don't get him wrong, he's impressed! That ain't easy, especially from scratch with no reference. And the nostalgia it gives him is very nice. But he's seen it before in an antique technology museum.

Imagine them all taking a vacation to Australia after the events of the comics. Sniper could teach Scout outdated memes and lingo, quotes from dumb internet videos, just so that Scout embarrasses himself in front of a cute Aussie girl. I'm talking "skibbity Ohio rizz" levels of lingo.

[thatradfailure]

I love TF2 but the biggest gripe and criticism I have for it is the really obvious erasure/absence of any native peoples, in either important location (the United States of America and Austalia).

It's really not subtle. America was invented (not founded or discovered) by Shakespearicles. There is not mention of Manifest Destiny, or any tribes in the area, or even of Thanksgiving. Their imagery is just used for a couple cosmetics, that's all. Australia also never mentions anything in relation to their aboriginal population- not a single word. Not about them meeting the explorers, not of them introducing any customs, not even them having any rituals or rules or beliefs about Australium. Uluru is a sacred thing to aboriginal Australians, and yet in the comics it's just a styrofoam and balsa wood model made to cover up Australium mines.

It's just. It's really jarring. And a little upsetting. Where are they? Where are the native peoples? Why don't they have any involvement or even mention in the lore? Sure, I can make up my own headcanons all I want, but... That doesn't fix the fact that they've been completely erased, aside from some appropriated aesthetics.

[thatradfailure]

Honestly I'm glad TF2 was made in the mid to late 2000's because if it was made today, I'm 99% all the mercs would look conventionally attractive. The only one I can see not being any different is Scout, though maybe they'd take his desperation to be a cool guy too seriously and try to make him actually cool. I doubt Heavy would be fat and bald. We'd know what's under Pyro's mask. The 6 mercs with 5 o'clock shadows would be clean shaven. I genuinely think this. Even in games that tout realism the body type diversity lacks a lot. I'm not even talking in terms of fat and skinny, I'm talking about pear shaped bodies and triangle shaped bodies and hour glass figures and brick shaped folk.

I mean yeah TF2 could use better eye color diversity but otherwise it's so super solid in the diversity of backgrounds and ethnicities and body shapes and weights.

I dunno just a random rant I guess

[thatradfailure]

I love this International Miku trend but honestly? I think we should expand it to even more characters. I think it's a really neat creative exercise to translate outfits and hairstyles and such to the common wear of other countries and hair textures/traditions, BUT I also think it's been a super cool window into other cultures and being exposed to things perhaps outsiders wouldn't have known.

Idk, just some rambling I guess, lol. But I think it's a neat idea. Post your faves as from your own country, see what changes, see what stays the same. Have fun!

[thatradfailure]

To some extent I wouldn't quite trust anything Soldier said about Shakespearicles, as his 'knowledge' of history has been used as the butt of multiple jokes before. Anything he says may or may not be true.

But also the entire time I read the comics, & the mercs talked about New Zealand, I was constantly thinking about the Maori population. Like, where did they go? Why have their influences just disappeared, replaced by the weirdly sci-fiy aesthetic? Just, the entire thing about New Zealand! It baffled me!

It's completely baffling! Like, I imagine part of the sci-fi aesthetic is to make the whole reference to Superman, regarding how Sniper got adopted, more clear, but I think you can still have that while acknowledging, respectfully, that the Maori people exist.

As for the Shakespearicles thing... It's probably more likely than one would want to think. The lore is already wild. I mean, Australia is 300 years ahead of every other country, technology wise. Amelia Earheart crashed her plane in the Siberian mountains while dressed as a hotdog, instead of going missing in the Bermuda Triangle (or around that area). So while Soldier might be an unreliable narrator, it's still, unfortunately, not an unlikely think that what he said has some merit. But either way, it still erases the indigenous populations of North America :/

[thatradfailure]

I chose "other" because Rose's name isn't random. We had this rose "bush" (not really a bush, more like a single branch reaching almost 6ft in the end because it wasn't placed well to bush, but it did bloom every year, at least a few flowers, 1-3) by the porch and I saw it as we were leaving for Build-a-Bear at, like, 6-7, maybe 8, years old. When asked what to name her, that popped into my head. I suppose it fits the "random" category, but it feels more special to me because it was a very deliberate thing, that pretty pale pink rose I named her after. Thus roses have become central to Rose's themeing in the end (as has Christmas because I have a December birthday and got her shortly after it)

[thatradfailure]

Shoot man I just love langauges. All sorts of foreign languages. I love how they all sound. I can't understand a word of what's being said but they all sound so good and authentic and beautiful in their own rights and I don't understand people who claim xyz language is "aggressive" language is a neutral thing it cannot be aggressive. It can be spoken passionately, lovingly, softly, harshly, etc, but that's all about the speaker.

I like comparing languages to nature most. Sometimes something manmade comes into the picture, too, to help me express my feelings about langauges poetically.

Some languages sound like waves crashing into the rocky shore of a lighthouse, a nice sunset occuring just behind. It's harsh, but that's part of where the beauty lies, in the water slamming into the rocks, just to run off of them just as quick, the rocks always slick yet protecting the lighthouse above.

Others are tranquils spots in the woods behind the childhood home, a small stream running through it. The pebbles are colorful and bright, the tadpoles and tiny fish unable to camouflage against them as theh swim about, living their best life.

Still more are like a warmly lit cabin in the middle of a snow-clade mountain, smoke arising invitingly from the chimney, the path to it a bit rocky and untouched by other boots in a while, yet clear of any danger. It's a little home you know you'll be welcome to stay in for the night. Hell, you can even faintly smell something cooking. You know it's probably nothinf you've had before, but it'll certainly fill you with warmth and comfort.

Sometimes some langauges are like the striped rocks of a desert canyon, unmatched and unseen elsewhere, yet awe inspiring in its natrual beauty and magnificence. You can run your hands along its walls and imagine its past, its history, how it came to be exactly like this, but you may never know for sure. And that, too, it part of the appeal.

I love all of them, even if I may not be able to speak them. Sometimes just hearing something you can't understand is a good experience.

[thatradfailure]

Thought you'd enjoy knowing, Tumblr, but I went to the car parts shop today. Parked next to a guy who also had a Jeep Grand Cherokee, just a newer-ish model (still two decades old tho). He came out of the shop as I was getting out of my car, and he stopped me to talk about the cars. I then mentioned his creepy clown mannequin in his passenger side and how I was half expecting it to suddenly move its head to look at me.

He proceeded to then offer me a hit of weed.

I mean, I said no, cause weed just ain't something I'm down to try (also I drove there) but that sure was something.

[thatradfailure]

Came across a post today.

I want to be clear about the mistakes of my past: I have drawn the w-nd-g- before out of ignorance, and I don't condone those past actions. But after trying to find the posts where ACTUAL natives try to explain that using the creature is deeply insensitive, as is calling it a cryptid, and just seeing a lot of people who aren't native just throw their pleas aside, I just need to say it. I'm frustrated. I've seen the posts before but now I can't find any but one of them. I know I've reblogged them (because I've grown as a person and will be editing the caption of the art I posted to remove the link to the creature) yet they elude me now and I'm not sure how to find them again.

I think it's more important to listen to the voices begging us non-Natives to stop than to listen to the ones who aren't offended. If you're not offended, cool, that's fine. But it's also not your place to say that just because YOU aren't offended, that it's perfectly ok. It's literally like a black guy or a gay guy telling their cishet white friend that it's ok to use slurs, period. It's not. Are they slightly different situations? Slightly, because I think you can reclaim slurs and give others the ok to use slurs to refer to only you, but maybe not the w-nd-g-. Then again, I am white and have no affiliation with any Native cultures, at all.

Still. We NEED to uplift Native voices about the appropriation of their cultures because it is still INCREDIBLY rampant. We need to listen to them, assess our own biases, and hear out how to best support them and their cultural practices.

Their legends and mythology are not our toys.

[thatradfailure]

Heh. You think I won't stop you to ask what that jargon means? You think I lack the capacity to be interested in something someone else is passionate about? You think I don't want to learn?

Tch. You fool.

Tell me all about you kinda boring marine biology research. Let's see if it's really a threat, or if I learn something new.

I'm going to explain my kind of boring marine biology research to you while forgetting to not use jargon and get really sad if you don't seem interested

[thatradfailure]

Ngl man I appreciate the hard work that @heavytf2tummy is putting in for the normalization and admiration of fat men. Just asking artists to put that man in casual situations for his stomach to be out, about, and appreciated. AND sparking similarly wholesome movements as well. Good stuff, man, love to see it in a community.

[thatradfailure]

Sniper has the most advanced phone any of the mercs will ever see but all it has is 2 games, his parents as contacts, and several terrabytes of just animal pics. This isnt a design flaw it is simply his choice

YEAH YOU. YOU GET IT. YOU UNDERSTAND WHAT I'M TRYING TO SAY

[thatradfailure]

I straight up think Sniper TF2 would be into the Godzilla movies. All of them. Even the ones that were Extremely cheaply made, using only previous movies' footage of Godzilla. Like c'mon, you can NOT tell me this Aussie stereotype would look at a giant lizard and not be immediately fascinated by the idea. You just can't

[thatradfailure]

You've activated my brain.

The amount of insecurity I headcanon Sniper to have is unreal. Being a normal human raised in TF2's Australia would essentially be a social disability- Aussies fight each other and wildlife just for the heck of it. Their greetings are probably bodyslams. They probably wrestle saltwater crocodiles in order to graduate from school. How many bones did Sniper have broken in his childhood from school activities meant for the average Australian kid? How often? Did he have cousins that compounded the issue?

He probably constantly got treated like a little kid, too, due to his lacking muscle mass and facial hair. Now, he was likely treated better than Scout, because no one gets treated like a kid more than Scout in canon, but can you imagine him trying to buy a couple beers for his dad for a cookout?

People need to take these two panels and absolutely run WILD with them in their fan works, both subtlety and overtly. Because man... coming to American and realizing he wasn't all that different from people here after all was probably such a relieving shift for him

You know, I don't see a lot of people talking about this moment in the TF2 comics right here, seconds after Sniper realizes he's actually from New Zealand. Does anyone else think about how freaking insecure Sniper must have been growing up?

I know it has a somewhat comedic tone but I can't help but think about poor Sniper as a kid wondering why he was so different but never knowing why. With other Aussies being huge and muscular he must have thought something was wrong with him. And I feel like you can actually see the relief on his face in the bottom panel.

Also, side note, I love the bit about him throwing rocks from a tree which absolutely foreshadows his future as a sniper. His whole thing is shooting people from far away because he was never built to go on the offensive.