#i will type out essays with whole sources and cite shit and put in like 50 different gifs

[wainwrightjakobshammerlock]

finally. i decided to do this. anyways hello there, i am jake and today i want to talk about something; you see, if you are in the tf2 fandom, you probably know about heavymedic. Wherther you are a hardcore gamer who resents f2p’s or a person that never played the game but has trillions of notes on their art- you know heavymedic exists and most of all you probably ship it.

And I find that weird. In the few fandoms in my life I have been in I had never seen a single ship be so widely if not shipped, then accepted. Sure, maybe everyone in the GF fandom knows what Billdip is - for better or for worse. Sure, maybe the HS fandom is 70% shipping.

But I have never ever seen such a phenomenon in a prominent multiplayer game fandom. A fandom, sadly, oftentimes filled with toxicity. Overwatch is very similar here - yet ships are either a hot topic of discussion or straight up ignored. But TF2? In here for whatever reason we ship these two mercenaries. And in this essay I will try and find a reason or two why is that.

Apologies for any mistakes or incoherency. English is not my first language, I need to ramble, and my vocabulary is all over the place.

Content warning: mentions of homophobia, blood, death, mentions of WLW fetishization, nsfw mention. Also MASSIVE SPOILERS FOR THE TF2 COMICS.

Part 1: Canonical Evidence and Interactions

Let’s be honest: I could ramble about this one for days on end. But I’ll try and keep it short.

First and foremost we have the official videos. And of course the first thing that comes to mind is Meet the Medic.

At the very start of the part where Medic himself appears, we see him telling a joke about a particularly gruesome situation to Heavy.

He laughs along with him, visibly enjoying his company. He even smiles as he waits for another joke. Heavy only shows genuine fear a lot later.

And of course this damn scene always cracks me up. Medic slightly pinches Heavy’s cheek and strokes his lip gently (the other part is almost not noticeable unless you play the video at slow speed).

Of course we all know about the Hand Hold that happens somewhere halfway in the vid. I don’t think I have to explain the gayness in that. The fact their hands stay interlocked even after Medic helps Heavy up. The deep breath Medic takes because even he cannot handle the emotions. That few seconds is unresolved sexual tension manifest.

Overall the short shows a strong feeling of trust between these two. Medic confides in Heavy and reverse. Yeah he puts a baboon heart into his friend’s chest cavity but the fact (as proven at the end of the video) that Heavy was the first one to have an Ubercharge implanted into him shows that Medic at the very least considers him a lab rat.

I treat End of the Line as non-canonical, as do many others, and as such won’t discuss it here. But it will forever crack me up that Valve endorsed such levels of homoerotic subtext.

These two have some short moments in other videos, like for example in Invasion Heavy helps Medic up (CINEMATIC PARALLELS) but it’s nothing major so I guess I’ll skip forward.

Second is their interactions ingame. You might call me a weirdo for trying to find stuff in there but holy shit I have things to say and I’m going to say them.

You thought I was going to fanboy over the “i love this doktor” voiceline huh? Well not really. I wish these two had unique lines if they assist one another.

Heavy is literally listed on the official wiki as the “ideal medic buddy” and multiple pages on that exact wiki say some pretty interesting things.

I have to say something about the Gentleman’s Ushanka and/or Pocket Medic. They are both community cosmetics - but the fact they both got accepted by Valve says a lot. Above is text snipped from the actual wiki.

Last but not least: The Comics. Darned comics. The pair of mercenaries has basically no interaction - unless you count issue 6.

Heavy getting absolutely PISSED when Medic is killed by Ch*avy. Their reunion. Medic referring to Heavy by “my friend” in a totally straight way. Kind of sad Valve wasted an opportunity for them to hug. Maybe they knew their comic artist ships them and wanted to avoid having to answer the Question™.

Part 2: Dynamics

This part’s a bit trickier, mostly due to the reason that I’m new to this whole dynamic analysis thing. Yeah I’m good at spotting canonical evidence but very specific shipping dynamics often escape my gaze.

The most obvious one is Big Guy, Little Guy. Quoting the TVTROPES page:

[…] This trope describes a pair of guys who always fight together, are best friends forever, and quite often have a very obvious hierarchy: The little guy is often in charge […] The little guy is usually listed first, since he’s the leader, and they are always listed together, as if they are one entity. In fact, some episodes may center on the fact that they can’t live without each other. […] If this is a case of Brains and Brawn, the Big Guy is usually the Brawn, and the Little Guy the Brains. It’s almost never the other way around, but in some cases the Big Guy can be rather smart too. […]

A sub-type of this, a common favorite here on Tumblr is known as “small chaotic big calm” and hoo boy if that isn’t these two. I don’t really have much to say here - again I am not an expert.

Part 3: Fandom Impact

So you don’t think Red Oktoberfest (as Heavymedic is sometimes called) is super popular on anywhere else than Tumblr? Wrong.

It’s hard to find TF2 fics on Archive of Our Own not tagged with Heavy/Medic. Of course most of them only contain hints to their relationship but go in the main tf2 tag and I can guarantee you, you’ll gonna see “implied heavy/medic” all the time.

But these two go further than AO3 or Tumblr or Instagram or whatever. They are recognized even within the wider circle of the fanbase. Take this SFM, for example. (I am using the Saxxy Awards version of Secret Lives here mostly due to the fact that the Heavymedic moment is much gayer. In the normal version, the dialogue isn’t changed, but they simply hold hands.)

But it gets deeper. (WARNING: THE GAY MOMENT IN THIS ONE IS NSFW. NOT EXPLICITLY SO BUT JUST A HEADS UP TUMBLR PLEASE DO NOT FLAG ME)

And the best part? The comments are extremely positive. You’d expect hoards upon hoards of homophobes screeching but no, the comments are supportive. Even on places such as Reddit or Youtube, comments like “yeah they’re gay and in love” do not get downvoted/disliked to hell; in fact the opposite.

Part 4: Canon Status

Let’s be real. Most ships are shipped because people want to explore the dynamics in fanfic, fanart or something else. But Heavymedic is shipped because… well, I have no idea.

Actually, I kind of do - but only theories. You see, while the canonical evidence is here, the creators have never said anything about them. No confirmation, no disproval, no hinting, nothing.

But the ship is so prominent! There has to be something causing this!- you say. And to that I present you 2 theories on why Heavy/Medic is so popular.

Theory number 1 states that we simply all choose to interpret their interactions as homoerotic. And this is very easy to disprove - there’s simply no way we just collectively agreed on these matters out of nothing. There has to be something bigger.

And theory 2 states that, well, our interpretation is the desired interpretation. But this is even more ridiculous than theory 1 for a number of reasons. If they are in fact gay, why hasn’t Valve made them canon yet?

A Theoretical Scenario

I am going to ramble big time on this one, so buckle up lads. I’ll discuss a theoretical scenario in which, well, if that was not obvious, Valve confirms Heavymedic as canon. Maybe then we will see why they will probably never do so.

TF2 is considered by typical capital G, alt-right Gamers as a “non-political” game. This means no women (in the game itself, at least, and if even, sexy women only), no queer folk and no minorities (for some reason they accept Demoman but throw a fit if someone draws any other merc as not being pearl white). Team Fortress 2 was around before Gamergate and other things like Gamers Rise Up. It’s a classic and Valve is regarded as the good guy to Epic Game’s bad guy. If Valve did anything to confirm doubts, wherther it be clearing up popular fanon or confirming ships, these people would throw hands. (Although they seemed to ignore when one of the writers confirmed Miss Pauling is a lesbian. Huh.) Even those that don’t play TF2 would come to the aid of their bros.

Let me illustrate with two very similar examples. In both cases these confirmations were the first made by the company as a whole, both are fairly recent and both confirm a character as gay.

First we have the confirmation of Tracer from Overwatch as a lesbian. It was done in one of OVW’s comics. Tracer is the FACE of Overwatch as a whole and while most of the fanbase accepted it (thankfully the Gamers are reluctant to infest ow), some people threw what I can only describe as a hissy fit. At least her girlfriend’s a background character.

Second is Neeko from League of Legends. Unlike Tracer she was added a while before it was confirmed she was gay. LOL is much more toxic and filled with Gamers than OW and holy shit people smeared LOL so much.

Of course these are not accurate to Heavy/Medic. In both of the cases I listed it was girls being wlw and we all know how much cisgender heterosexual gamers LOVE yuri porn. Apparently only girls can be gay because they can jack off to it - if it’s two guys then it’s disgusting. Nevertheless I think these are good approximations - in every case the company gets “shat on” on social media and other sites. With the community that Valve has, I think even if they wanted them to be gay, they would never ever confirm it.

Conclusion

I’m sorry for that ending. I had to theorize a bit. Regardless I’d love if you shared this on other sites, reblogged or whatever - I wasted at least 1 and a half hours of my life on it. Feel free to cite this as a source if someone asks you why you ship the big heavy weapons expert and the feral battle medic.

[thingsdoingstuff]

Kenosha and “Projects”

     I will admit something up front. I am pretty naive and optimistic when it comes to my hopes for humanity. So, when I found out about the shooting of one African American in front of his car happening directly in front of his family, I was distraught. On top of this, a 17-year-old went out and declared vigilante justice on protesters and was seemingly taken in by the police as a friend (story and CNN has a much better take on this one. story) I can’t really think of a much better example of a double-standard. A literal murderer and an alleged sexual abuser getting treated entirely out of proportion to their supposed crimes, they are of two different races and being found by the same police force. 

     Now, to cover my ass, a disclaimer.

     This is for me to share my opinions and start a gentlemen’s discussion. Whether you happen to be a gentleman, a lady, transgender, gay, bisexual, lesbian, African America, Native American, Asian, African, Persian, “The One Percent,” a cop, identify as a dog, named “Gordon,” or have sixteen toes makes no lick of difference to me unless it is valid to the conversation at hand (so do feel free to pitch in so long as it doesn’t get personal ‘lest I shall ignore thee). Your opinion is still valid and should always be valid in just about any community as most of the things we do was humans create a little discrepancy called “morality” in which we are entitled to believe anything is wrong so long as we can agree to disagree and by the end of the day we haven’t wrung each other’s necks. All that having been said barring mentioning the fact that I respected your opinion until you wrote it using the stiff end of your raging hate boner and still will so long as you put it back in your pants.     Furthermore, as these are my opinions, I am automatically wrong and will be regarded as such by about three thousand people by the time I have finished typing any given sentence. Feel free to gloat as much as you like so long as you don’t step on anyone’s toes and that includes the white ones, since last I checked all races and creeds were granted immunity and there wasn’t an asterisk at the end.

     Killing people of a specific race more than anyone of another race constantly has made our nation’s police force look undeniably racist, but there have been times that I’ve wondered whether or not it was truly hate that brought it on or just the fact that veteran cops jump to solutions of violence faster, because they’ve lost discipline over the years. However nothing defines racism like a good-old-fashioned double-standard. And while ‎all the evidence to our nation still having many pure racists in it is very apparent, I choose to give the benefit of the doubt whenever possible. Now, George Floyd’s death was obviously racially charged as well as many other police shootings on African Americans, but if you ever needed proof of inherent racism, just look at Kenosha and tell me there’s nothing personal about that load of honky.

     I’d be remiss if I didn’t propose a solution, because one of my many problems with mainstream media is that all public journalists complain and bitch and moan about how bad things are and never come up with any solutions or make any attempts to fix anything. But the root of the problem is deep-seeded racism that has been present since day one and attacking the actual root just happens to coincide with another issue that flat-out racists have brought to the forefront of media recently: Low-Income Housing.

     Now, hear me out, because this may sound bat-shit insane, but after the civil war and reformations, African Americans were still second-class citizens with very little money and very little housing opportunities. Fortunately, banks aren’t so biased nowadays as anyone with the potential to pay off their loan can buy a house and for the sake of interest, the banks make money. But there’s still so few opportunities left.      So the government decided to pitch in and build some houses themselves in their own neighborhoods, meaning the government can earn it’s money back by cutting the funding to those areas and it always adds up as such. Year one: no problems, there’s protection in numbers and everyone is content living in their own houses at an affordable price. Years later: the drugs start rolling in and the “projects” become dangerous and violent, because there’s still no opportunities and little funding. Hence, inner city schools have a reputation for being crowded, run-down and ineffective. Hence the infrastructure always looks decades old and corrupt with cracks and scars. Hence the people living there are always down on their luck and looking for a way out of the slums; then the people looking for said opportunities have to make some risky moves to get out. That’s when the violence starts and the police start doing some horrible shit, because they automatically assume “bad guy, black guy,” because of the area’s known track record for gangs and cartels and other nefarious stuff.

     I thoroughly believe that people of all races have equal potential to do great things and become industry leaders or successful celebrities, but the ability to actually act on that potential may be diminished by third party sources. Unfortunately, those third party sources are basically all controlled by the government, so the factor that has been limiting potential for centuries and still is would be the government and for once, I actually believe they can fix it.

     If you’ve ever gone on a drive around your town or city, you’ve probably taken a note of some of the houses and buildings that you see. Citing that a specific building has perhaps been unoccupied for a very long time or that a specific house has been for sale for decades. I for one have witnessed the same, massive red-brick house have the save bank-owned lock on it for seven years and it’s right in prime real-estate territory. So, to eliminate the slums throughout America and redefine a stereotype that’s kind of become a self-fulfilling prophecy, what if the government bought preexisting houses from banks throughout the United States, remodeled them and sold them at the price of the remodel? Now, maybe I made this up myself or maybe I’m just stealing this idea from someone else without realizing it, but at least then, the government can’t sanction off specific districts and plummet an entire population into poverty over and over again when they are inter-mixed with every other population.

     “But what if people don’t accept them and there are casualties?” you may ask. obviously, this plan isn’t without its faults, but the citizens of the area aren’t nearly as immune to being prosecuted as the police in inner-city areas, and having large houses with plenty of black family members or friends/roommates grants extra protection from angry neighbors and police. Plus, we don’t need to put them in states/communities with dip-shit racists that don’t understand the “melting pot” analogy. And with the “melting pot” analogy on our minds, I’m sure everyone would be happy if the “melting pot” had a smoother more consistent flavor across the whole thing, instead of one corner being extra spicy while the rest just tastes like cheese wiz on grits with a side of mayonnaise.

     Once again, I may be a total idiot, and feel free to tell me I am. I feel like a conspiracy theorist writing this essay, but actually fixing the negative stigma wafting around the country and giving equal opportunities to the marginalized all with one simple change to shit we’re already doing seems like a perfectly predictable outcome here, since extending opportunities to every minority means no need for drastic measures for both police and marginalized citizens.       So, tell me if I’ve been spending too much time in my own head. Tell me why your opinion is correct. Tell me what you think of our political situation and how it can be resolved, but don’t tell me that it’s hopeless. If you truly believed that, you wouldn’t still be here. As a wise man whose name I don’t remember once said: “If you love something, you critique it, but if you truly hate it, you leave it behind.” For most people, if you truly hate what you’re eating, you throw it away, if you like the taste, but not the texture, you bitch about the texture and you keep eating. American pie can be pretty gritty every once in a while, but we keep eating, because we know it gets better, because this freedom tastes better here than it does elsewhere and because we’re holding out hope that it will get better with change, respect and reform.

     Yours truly,

Jiminy Fucking Christmas.