#thinking about the last tf2 comic

[agentleem]

One type of story ending I like are those stories that end with the inciting objects gone for good. Like, “this object is important. Without it we don’t have a story. And now it’s gone for good, and can’t start the story again.” It’s bittersweet but always gives me feelings

[xxplastic-cubexx]

friend trying to convince me to download fortnite by saying magneto in it and ouuuugh first off dont like how she knows me like that i feel exposed but second off they better not make that bitch available again cause i will fold instantly

[singingtinydeskengineer]

I think a lot about the fact that Miss Pauling knows who Scout's father is and just doesn't tell him. Not just that actually, but actively keeps it a secret from him and doesn't seem to feel guilty about it.

[solid-white]

Tf2 details that a lot of people get wrong PT 2:

[Previous post]

The Administrator INCLUDING miss Pauling often severaly underestimate the mercs intelligence and capabilities, so much so that Demoman and Soldier got away with being friends for months (or they hid it THAT well, I wouldn't put it past Soldier).

In the last post, a lot of people were saying that Demoman was over 30. I'd like to argue that Demoman is at least in his late 20s during the WAR! issue, though he was in his 30s during the gravel wars and later comics too. But let's agree to disagree before people get annoyed at me for getting a characters age wrong, let's say he's between 29-36.

I keep saying this and I'LL KEEP SAYING THIS! Scout KNOWS who his dad is, there's so much evidence, and he's WAY smarter then most people give him credit for. I made an analysis about the Meet The Scout video and the fact he took down almost HALF of the blu team means he's CRAZY strategic AND I'LL KEEP GLAZING THAT MF. HE IS CLEVER.

In the last post I said Engineer has green eyes. I was wrong about that, the image I used was a fan model. He's always wearing goggles so what his eyes look like are unknown. Though I've been told he doesn't have any eyes sculpted into his model, other people say they're blue.

Spy's character is what the fandom thinks Scout is like. He loves destruction, laughs whenever something wrong happens, and you'll see him smiling whenever something chaotic is going on. He's the original chaos gremlin and I want more depictions of him being like that.

I didn't know the term last post so I called Soldier racist (since he doesn't care who you are as long as you're American). It's called xenophobic, which I didn't know was a thing. So thanks for the correction.

Medic isn't as strong as people depict. He gets his ass beaten A LOT, both in game play AND in the comics. He likes to observe the battle happening then he does fighting. But he DOES have muscle, so he's just a weak fighter.

Miss Pauling would NOT cover for their asses if she found out the mercs were dating the other team. Even if she finds it cute, she's more loyal to her boss then to her mercs. Before someone argues about whatever Heavy and Medic have going on and why she hasn't figured it out yet (which is definitely canon theres no way its not), this correlates to the other fact about her underestimating the mercs.

Miss Pauling also isn't a lesbian, that was just a joke the creator made and even then, Jay Pinkerton said himself that would be too simple (which I agree with). But people only listened to the lesbian part and not the tweet above it. Don't get me wrong, lesbian Pauling is funny but don't treat it as canonical.

[lenny-link]

The #7 comic for tf2 is finally going to happen. It just got confirmed

Link to the og X post:

https://x.com/katamiphi/status/1810869162748903904?t=Nu_hrTeHINmai6njiOVxGQ&s=19

i might be the only pessimist here but im calling bs tbh

"The script is finished and is being drawn as we speak. No promises when it will be released, but it IS being worked on."

you mean to tell me for 7 fcking years they done absolutely nothing and TODAY we are talking July 10th 2024 they are working on it ???? huh ??

the game was literally abandoned since 2017, along with the comics, #savetf2 happened 2 years ago, nothing happened, we’ve been doing everything we can with #fixtf2 ppl started drawing p0rn of a bot for the love of god all the efforts the community made have been such a desperate mess to save tf2 and valve never did nothing for 7 YEARS man

the bot ban wave they did last month was bs btw, the bots are back if you dont know, its like they done absolutely nothing (again)

this is all a joke, i feel like they making all this just to bring some hype for the coming summer update so people would buy crates and ugly cosmetics and stop boycotting valve

valve doesn’t care about their community anymore, they are a company that is selling you a product, nothing more

even if this comic get released today, its really ridiculous, im still very disappointed in valve and a bit in the community for forgiving valve so easily, unless you’re a new fan i guess thats understandable

i also hope that 4chan leak of the 7th comic is true (warning: potential spoilers ???) where abraham lincoln still demands more blood from the administrator and she just nukes the planet before dying in miss pauling’s arms and idk spy maybe makes a heroic speech, dramatic shots, and then everyone dies, then history repeats itself years later when two prehistorical men one blu and another red fighting over some gravel or something

i think its a funny and reasonable ending for whatever tf2 storyline is, i highly doubt they can make something better tbh

[violent-optimism]

After my last post about the TF2 comics exploded with notes (thank you!!) I thought it was time to talk about another panel. For context, this is right after Medic brings Sniper back to life, after he supposedly sees his adoptive parents in heaven.

Can we all agree that the left panel has probably one of the most bad-ass things Sniper has ever said?

Because whether or not he actually did briefly visit heaven or it was just a hallucination, in his mind it was real. Real enough for him to NO LONGER FEAR DEATH because all it would mean is reuniting with his parents.

Like damn, how can those lines go so hard but also be kind of sweet at the same time? He loves his parents so much and they actually CARED about him...unlike a certain New Zealand couple. But I'll get more into that in another post I think.

As a side note, Sniper says being dead is the longest holiday he ever took. Seeing that he was dead for twelve hours, does that mean that Sniper has never even had a single DAY off in his career??

For god's sake, someone give this man a vacation!! He deserves it!

[can-i-see-your-passport-please]

Okay so here's everything I know about TF2. Please no one elaborate on anything I know about, because I think it's so much funnier if I have no context to anything. I have absorbed all of this through Tumblr osmosis

Emesis Blue is an excellent film

Soldier apparently was never an actual soldier, he just loves America and really wanted to kill Nazis (the second one i respect greatly)

Medic would probably give you a lobotomy for fun (i don't think this guy's even a doctor)

Two really old guys are fighting bloody wars over gravel I think and their father is named Grey Mann which was most definitely meant to make Gman enjoyers lose it but to be fair his name could also be Gary Man.

What am I on

Heavy and Medic are apparently gay but idk if this is a fandom seeing two men next to each other and going "gay" thing or a "all but confirmed gay" thing but TVTropes referred to them as "Heterosexual Life Partners" which is very funny

emesis blue is so fucking good oh my godddddd the respawn machine is horrifying just from the concept it turned scout into soup

Scout is half French and loves his mother (who is not french) and does not love his father (spy i think)

Medic presumably died went to hell and told the devil "oh I'm like a cat I have nine souls actually. So I should get to go back to being alive" and it fucking worked??????

THE FUCKING SCENE IN?? IN EMESIS BLUE??? WHERE. WHERE SOLDIER TELLS MEDIC "YOU'RE GONNA MAKE IT OUT" AND MEDIC SAYS "i KNOW" BEFORE HE JUST FUCKING DIES AND HE'S THE PROTAGONIST SO YOU'D EXPECT HIM TO LIVE RIGHT??? AND THEN HE JUST DIES AND DOESN'T APPEAR AGAIN FOR SO SO LONG

Pyro is an any pronouns warrior and it commits great atrocities while also having so much sillyness in his heart. I love her

I think Engineer blowed up his arm. I think

Spy is a cunt and also French. I do not think this I know this. I look at him and I sense his cuntery. It radiates off him. I can feel it.

SOMETHING ABOUT THE LETTER M BEING BRANDED ONTO MEDIC'S FACE BEING A REFERENCE TO THE MOVIE SCOUT WAS WATCHING WHERE THE LETTER M IS USED TO MARK A MURDERER. HE'S LITERALLY MARKED AS A MURDERER BY PYRO. SOMETHING ABOUT THE SCENE WITH DEMOMAN AND DELL'S BAR BEING A REFERENCE TO A SCENE IN THE SHINING WHERE THE MAIN CHARACTER IS LITERALLY TALKING TO A GHOST. SOMETHING ABOUT SCOUT'S MOTHER'S HEAD BEING HELD AROUND A CORNER AND DROPPED PARALLELING PYRO'S HEAD BEING HELD AROUND A CORNER AND DROPPED. SOMETHING ABOUT SCOUT'S "IF THEY EVER HIT YOU WITH SOMETHING, YOU HIT BACK TWICE AS HARD" WITH MEDIC SHOOTING SPY TWICE IN THE HEAD AFTER BEING SHOT ONCE IN THE GAME OF RUSSIAN ROULETTE WHY IS EMESIS BLUE SO GOOD

TF2 is in an eternal war with Overwatch for some reason

I was doing a poll a few days ago and the tags psychic blasted me with the information of "by the way people pay like fifty dollars to see medic's tiddies in game." I have gotten varying answers between ninety dollars to three hundred fucking dollars but the constant remains that people will pay Valve comically high amounts of money to see Medic's boobs. What

Scout almost got Earth exploded because he died a virgin???? But then God was like "Okay go back down to earth I'm giving them one last chance to all have sex with you" I'm so confused what does any of this mean none of this makes any sense but it's hilarious

Scout might be legitimately named after Jerma and bears a frightening resemblance to him (though to be fair scout is every white boy in one)

You should watch Emesis Blue it's free on youtube

Demoman's eye is sentient even though he doesn't have it????

I can't decide who's my favorite the white boy the unethical scientist or the silly nonbiney war criminal

Conclusion: What the fuck is team fortress the second one about

[tinystrawberryshifter]

There is SO much I want to talk about with team fortress 2's story finally coming to a conclusion but I've gotta like- allow it to all soak in to justify a whole analysis and what ever. I've got some initial thoughts tho: [SPOLIERS]

For starters I totally accepted that the comic was never going to be realized since it's been nearly a decade and how it looked like the people behind it had gone their separate ways onto other projects. I was 100% wrong and happy and was overjoyed when they gave that teaser this summer. Was it worth the wait? Hell yeah

THEY GOT MARRIED!!! qoq I'm so proud

Ms. Pauling and the administrator's whole ordeal could be an entire 1 hour video essay but Pauling seeing what the Administer had become and coming to realize what could happen to her if she were to go down the same path that Pauling had been fantasizing about and killing people for since the beginning was just *chef's kiss*

If I had a nickel for every time a traumatized woman in a valve IP who was damned to living forever and causing as much misery to the people who wronged her even if she lost sight of the original reason why I'd have 2 nickels.

MEDIC KEPT THE BABBON and Archimedes in a scarf!!!

"Girls?" "Hell yeah girls"

I don't know if it was explicitly said or implied, but I think Saxton took back Mann co via adopting Oliva (And she didn't even want to be a ceo and Saxton let her go out to do her own thing)

Ayo another idea of 'letting go of a legacy' with Saxton's arc coming to an end with him ditching Mannco

Spy being involved with Scout's life despite not telling him about the whole 'I am your father' thing and actually feeling comfortable enough to unmask with his family is so in character and sweet.

LMAO DIVORCED SCOUT IS REAL

Seeing everyone come together for Smissmas (Except Ms. Pauling sadly, though with her owning a farm it seems like she's living her best life) was so incredibly wholesome. I was kinda thinking the other shoe was going to drop with something out of no where but nah- it didn't. Thank goodness.

My fucking heart holy shit:

And thus, the bittersweet last words of the comic and TF2's story coming to a close after all this time.

Now Tf2 can join Portal in "actually completed valve stories without a cliffhanger" club :D

[mg-dango]

GUYS HELP ME WITH THIS THEORY

spoiler warnings for chapter 7:

One thing I noticed a lot are the symbolic details this issue in particular has.

First, everyone probably knows this already, but usually the TF2 comics take as a reference classic comic covers, “Ring of fire” references Spiderman for example, “Old wounds” reference Watchmen, “The naked and the dead” references Crisis on infinite Earths, and this one, while I’m not 100% sure, I think it references Batman year one, where we all see the classic picture of Bruce Wayne contemplating his now dead parents and all that yadda yadda.

Before I proceed, pay attention to this

Now read it again but check out the different scenarios of the covers

“MY GRANDFATHER, EBENEZER MANN. SHIPPING MAGNATE. YOUNGEST OF FIVE SONS. EVERY BROTHER IN THE GROUND BY THE TIME HE BOUGHT HIS FIRST FLEET.”

“MY FATHER, EZEKIEL MANN. RAILROAD TYCOON. MIDDLE CHILD. A HOUSE FIRE CLAIMED HIS THREE SISTERS.”

But especially the last one:

“ZEPHENIAH MANN. ME. MUNITIONS MAGNATE. ONLY SON, SADLY.”

Now, This is my first hypothesis but I don’t believe that last one part, about him being an only son. I also think there are symbolisms and details on the last cover, we see drawings and sketches or prototypes or patents or whatever about guns and weapons all over the floor, and 3 hats which could mean there were 3 siblings but one (Zepheniah) killed the others, and I think the last one cover are the actual admin’s parents and the other 3 are her ancestors… Probably (I don’t know how to say it in English sorry). I also think something about her having 3 fake identities could mean something but I’m not sure yet (Elizabeth, Helen, Emily).

My hypothesis is this, even though the admin couldn’t remember why she wanted revenge towards Zepheniah and achieving said goal by watching the legacy of his family slowly crumble by making the siblings fight each other for eternity and then forcing him to watch it... I think the admin is the daughter or some family member of one of the hypothetical Zepheniah’s siblings that he murdered because of “instincts” like he said, like it’s a family tradition that one sibling must kill the others to steal their achievements and continue the Mann legacy (I feel like the statue of the thinker made by Rodin and Zepheniah replacing its head with his could be a metaphor of that)

ALSO, ANOTHER THING THAT BACKS MH HYPOTHESIS:

If the admin had no correlation AT ALL with the Mann family, then how did she know about the australium even when she was a child? (note: she probably didn't know what Australium could do, calling it "Fools gold" until Gray Mann told her about the power it actually had and then she had the motivation to continue her revenge, however this doesn’t mean that she wasn’t in contact with the Australium before)

And one last detail and symbolism

The roses that grow up in the grave could symbolize Zepheniah and in general, Mann’s legacy. By cutting the roses and putting the mere stems on his grave, could mean that she is cutting this “legacy” or rather “dooming” to become nothing at the end of it by making the brothers fight and all the gravel wars stuff, not letting one brother succeed over the other unlike the past generations.

Hm, there are more things on my mind but first I want to re-think it better and if everything makes sense. I’m open to suggestions, corrections and or even a better wording of my theory. This is all rushed to which I apologize. 😔

[local-hyena]

Allright allright, I think I'm ready now...

TF2 COMIC 7

Saying "I loved it" would be an understatement. It was PERFECT, the perfect ending we deserved. It's been seven goddamn years, I honestly didn't think this issue would ever be released. I started getting into tf2 only recently, about a year ago I think. I hope everyone who've been there from the beginning are happy.

This last issue gave us SO MANY THINGS ! A TIME SKIP WITH THE MERC'S FUTURE ! I CAN'T BELIEVE THEY ALL GOT THE "THEY GOT HOME AND BUILT FAMILIES AND REUNITE FOR CHRISTMAS" TYPE OF FUTURE THAT LITERALLY ALL FANFICS ARE ABOUT. SINGLE DAD SCOUT IS THE GREATEST CHARACTER DEVELOPPEMENT POSSIBLE.

WE ALSO GOT LITERALLY EVERYTHING WE WERE HOPING FOR. WE GOT UNMASKED SPY, WE GOT PAULING'S FIRST NAME, WE GOT SCOUT'S LAST NAME, SCOUT WITH AN UGLY HAIRCUT, WE EVEN GOT PYRO'S DOG AND MEDIC'S BABOON, TOM JONES IS BACK. ALSO HEAVY HAS A BEARD NOW, AND SOLDIER AND ZHANNA HAVE CHILDREN !!

there are of course still unanswered things. However, the fact that the Administrator forgot why she wanted revenge on Mann really adds to her character and the overall story. Also, it seems that Scout still odesn't know that Spy is his father, since he introduces himelf to Scout's children as Scout's coworker... Scout's ma is also noticably absent, I do not want to think about it too much, since Demo's mother is still alive, there is no reason she wouldn't be as well. We're gonna say that she's spending Christmas with another son, since she doesn't really take an important rôle in the comic... Also, as a Medic main, THERE WAS NO MEDIC CONTENT. LIKE, I KNOW THAT THE LAST COMIC WAS VERY MEDIC AND HEAVY FOCUSED, BUT STILL. I always need more Medic content 😭😭 glad to see that Archimedes is here also !

Also, Merasmus why are you so ripped 😂😂 he looks ugly as ever.

I am so very happy that Hale and Olivia both got fired from MannCo. They are finally happy now, with Hale going back with Mags fighting animals and going on other dangerous adventures.

There is ONE lats thing I need to point out. No, two things. First, I wonder what Valve will do now. Now that Team Fortress 2's story has come to an end. What will happen ? Is the game going to stop updating ? Or on the contrary will they go back to working on it ? Is there going to be a Team Fortress 3 ? Or is Team Fortress simply going to end on this perfect note ?

Finally, the ending. It took me a while to understand that the last dinner scene was adressing directly to us, the reader, the player. When I understood that, it hit le right in the heart. I cannot say that tf2 has been à huge part of my life. Like I said, I only got interested last year or so. I don't even oike the game itself that much, online multiplayer competitive FPSs are not my preferred genre. But the story, the characters and what the community makes (yes, the funny GMod machinimas and SFM movies. The memes and the serious stuff, both of them) made me learn to enjoy this universe. I must confess something. For some time, I played Fortnight with my brother. He made me try because I kept saying that I didn't like it, but I hadnd't poayed the game. After my first game, I said that I had some fun, in the end. So, he kinda forced le to play. For... idk, a few years. I do nlt remember the dates but I started the season with the Nomad skin as the ultimate reward, and stopped when there were hoverboards, or whatever they were. I didn't enjoy it because he insisted on being super competitive and was raging 90% of the time. So yeah, I hated every second of it and I vowed to not play competitive online multiplier games anymore. Which is why I absolutly refuse to play Overwatch and League of Legends. I wouldn't say that Team Fortress 2 reconciled me woth these type of games, but after watching all the Meet the Mercs and learning more about the story, I tried playing. I was a bit intimidated as to which class to choose, but after trying out several (and being very influenced by Meet the Medic), I found out that I had the most fun while playing Medic. I do nlt have a very good aim and I tend to die immediatly when I try to shoot at people. I also discovered that, playing an online multiplayer game doesn't have to be competitive. I have 9h30 in tf2, I play very casually. I do not get mad when I die or my team loses, because in the end, I just want to have fun in my own way. So, this ending hit me right in the heart

I... I almost want to print that last panel and hang it on my wall... I know, there's nothing stopping me, but I don't want my family to question it.

Anyways. That was tf2 comic issue 7. I cannot wait to see what the future will bring for our mercs !

[akayralylegacy]

EMESIS BLUE IS ONE OF THE BEST THINGS I EVER WATCHED

Yeah, this is going to be some sort of analysis bc I am having a massive brainrot about this movie and I HAVE to share my thoughts of it somewhere, so I hope you enjoy reading this huge post ig lmao

Btw, if you're a person who doesn't like spoilers... SPOILERS WARNING IF YOU HAVEN'T WATCHED IT YET (and plan to do so)!!!

First, yeah, for those who didn't know I've been really into TF2 since last month, and being a very new fan, I started watching lots of SFMs and vids in a row to catch up with all the memes and lore, and well, I stumbled across EMESIS BLUE. And, it got me caught up with its plot/concept and the overall movie itself SO MUCH that I will never think of TF2 the same way-

No I mean, I know TF2 is more humoristic and stuff most of the time, the canon comics themselves have lots of funny moments of nonsense and weird situations, and not even counting the zillions of memes the community has created, those being pure gold. I love the comedic silliness from the comics and memes, plus the chaotic vibe from the game itself is just so fucking funny and stupid I always burst into laughter

But, TF2...with... horror? That's a combination I never thought I'd like so much. The whole concept of the respawn machine not working like it was supposed to, making them suffer from physical and/or mental problems after each respawn, creating an eternal loop of suffering, breaking the characters' sense of reality, torturing them by having to wait an eternity within some sort of limbo of "afterlife"...bro that's so...so disturbing yet so amazing at the same time. The fact the respawn machine caused Scout to develop brain atrophy, decreasing his IQ score and causing dementia and schizophrenia symptoms, while Medic developed some sort of split personality and schizophrenia as well, and you know that each time they return it will just get worse and worse, even them reckoning it later on. It's...just, it is simply horrifying.

The movie's atmosphere is so well made and constructed that I was tense from start to end, I felt like I was inside the movie, like I was witnessing all the carnage and agony of each one of the characters from up close. Like, there was practically no calm moment during those whole (almost) 2 hours of movie, but at the same time so many stuff happens very quickly, it also seems to go a bit slow but not in a bad way, and the details are shown here and there bit by bit. I like very detailed stories that construct the events based on its slow pace, revealing stuff on its right time, but on the other hand, being mixed with agitation, brutality and things happening in a flash. I hope you can understand what I'm saying? I hope I am being able to explain it well, but I think you get what I mean.

Cinematography wise, everything is stunning. The animation, the effects, the light and shadow, the colors and textures, sounds and background music, everything so well made, if you pay attention you can notice tiny details that make a lot of difference and make it even more agonizing yet thrilling to watch. I was so impressed with it just from the start. I mean, the animation>>>>

The quality being SO. GOOD considering it was animated purely on SFM??? THAT'S SO FUCKING IMPRESSIVE AND JAWDROPPING LIKE THAT'S SUCH A BANGER I COULDN'T EVEN BELIEVE IT.

Dialogue and quotes is something to be noted out as well. Many dialogues made such impact to the movie, some quotes making more sense later on as the movie progresses. I swear, that moment where Soldier is in a black n white room, with all those skeletons sitting around a table, and the sound at the background is a phone call from Jules to Blutarch, where Jules says: "We have about 800.000 corpses on the site," that line hit me SO HARD I CAN'T EVEN EXPLAIN. This is SO. FUCKING. DARK AND MORBID BRO I MEAN WHAT THE FUCK

Not only this one but lots of lines caught my attention and hit me so hard, like:

"You ever get the feeling like you're being watched?"

"Doc, I was at the second floor"

"Some get stuck inside trying to come through"

"You don't want to know..."

"It's eternity in there"

"Longer than you think..."

"Who was there to save me, Jules?"

"And I'm giving you exactly what you deserve"

"See you on the other side..."

ISTG THESE ARE SO??? LIKE, THEY HIT SO HARD AND I GOT CHILLS FROM SOME OF THOSE

Also, the voice acting, OOOH THE VOICE ACTING. Some people say it wasn't that good because many characters were voiced by Chad Payne himself, however I think it shows quite a talent from him to voice numerous characters tbh, even if he couldn't perfectly change the voice to fit all the characters 100% it doesn't mean his voice acting isn't good! I think he did an amazing job :]

And all the other voice actors as well, all of them are so amazing and I loved their acting so fucking much, but shoutout to Jazzyjoeyjr (voice of Soldier) and Cameron Nichols (voice of Scout) bc bro YOU DUDES DID A *PERFECT* JOB I SWEAR-

Talking abt moments of the movie that impacted me so much, I think it was Scout's death, and well uh, many Soldier moments tbh. Scout's death scene was agonizing to watch, I was in total despair hearing his screams at the background while Medic was trying to kill Maynard, I was almost having a crisis I was almost yelling of desperation I was like: COME ON MEDIC PLEASE GO SAVE HIM ISTG

It was SO. FUCKING. SAD. AND UNFAIR. I will never get over that moment.

Soldier's moments? Bro, he was the most sane out of everyone, which says a lot... and he was the ONLY one to indeed survive, without dying at any moment. He witnessed it all, the death of his best friend, Fritz shooting himself right in front of him, the pile of bodies, the truth being revealed....everything.

It even saddens me to imagine what could be passing through Soldier's mind after all those events, he seen gruesome and horrifying shit throughout the movie.

So, long-story short, EMESIS BLUE is a fucking MASTERPIECE that traumatized me for LIFE (in a good way), and I highly recommend you to watch it if you haven't yet, I am impressed with it and it doesn't get out of my head I am so fucking obsessed with it ISTG-

[idkplzhalp]

Hi guys, here's a long nerdy ramble about my Caroline Portal 2 x Miss Pauling TF2 au/headcanons because I've had thoughts about them for years and TF2 comic 7 awakened it in me again to expand on it further. (This is huge I'm so sorry but I gotta keep my title of biggest CaroPauling shipper and I need to spread my truths). I tried to jam as many facts/reasoning as I could into it because I am Portal lore queen and canon info is so important to me to incorporate.

To start this, both are a bit queercoded (GLaDOS subtext of liking Chell + Pauling lesbian confirmation/subtext) therefore it's nice because they absolutely would get along, relate to each other, and being established as queer makes them fit like puzzle pieces together in my head.

(^ I think Valve artists should keep drawing Caroline so I can continue editing their comic versions together, lol, this is all I got)

I think Pauling after comic 7 should go to work at Aperture Science (since presumably she drops the australium down a trench and is living her life, based on the turkey she sends for the Christmas party- shes made the choice to stop Admins cycle and not be cruel like her) and now lives with Caroline as they run Aperture together being sapphics in loveeee. Also we know Pauling is still unmarried then because she keeps the Ms. term instead of Mrs. on the little card from the turkey (also it's the same last name, obviously). Therefore. Cue Caroline entering the scene, because she's not married either (at least not to Cave).

They could've met during the time of TF2 in 1968 because of the Wheatley Ap-Sap, so maybe they met and got along and then Pauling later remembered Aperture after dumping the australium and was like "Hey this is close enough to working for the Administrator". Like maybe after dumping it, she was left wandering a bit trying to find a place to live and sees a billboard for Aperture which motivates her to go there. She could work as an assistant/bodyguard to Caroline, especially in Caroline's time as CEO, or be taught by her how to work in the lab.

When Cave dies, Pauling could be sad because she knows Caroline could've had similar attachments to him that Pauling did for Admin. So she's A) trying to comfort Caroline while she mourns and B) reliving her own grief from Admin. Maybe trying to convince Caroline to break her own cycle of how Aperture is run or work with her to stop GLaDOS..

If Caroline still gets uploaded to GLaDOS, then have Pauling either A) put in stasis and then later during the co-op tests where they free the humans, GLaDOS tests her and is like "WAIT my wife,,, a woman who wont kill me,, I want her" and now Pauling gets to hang out in GLaDOS' chamber while they test other people, B) keeps the australium to protect it and uses that to live forever alongside GLaDOS, or C) is uploaded into a core, it could be the core in The Lab core calibration game that's late and ran to get to the slingshot test since Pauling and that core share a voice actress (Ashly Burch)! It could be that she has less in-depth functions because we know when a person is uploaded to a smaller computer, they don't retain all their memories or full functionality unless they are then switched to a larger mainframe like GLaDOS/CaveDOS (ex: Cave in Aperture Desk Job, unless we want Lego Dimensions Cave core or Cave cube to count too, which contradicts this). So we could make things tragic and have Pauling not remember anything from her human life/GLaDOS could be unsatisfied because we know she more often has romantic feelings for humans (Chell or if including Lego Dimensions then Batman (from the Jonathan Coulton interview on the end song)) and they're now trying to fix it so they fit together again. Maybe GLaDOS gives Pauling GLaDOS' old mainframe seen in co-op mode.

Though Pauling would have to deal with the personality shift from Caroline to GLaDOS and maybe is scared of her because it reminds her of Admin, although GLaDOS wouldn't be as abusive to her and maybe it adds something because of how almost in love/obsessed Pauling was with Admin (trying to stay with her for so long/thinking Admin isn't that bad/trailing her no matter what). It could be complex because Pauling is fighting memories of past trauma with Admin while trying to maintain her relationship with GLaDOS. Maybe Pauling could bring out Caroline's personality more? Pauling is also a bit like Chell (ex: very determined fighter) therefore I'm just gonna say that's GLaDOS' type aha.

Back to the human versions now. Because Pauling got a first name reveal, Flo, we could have Caroline take on her last name, since we don't know Caroline's last name already. Lesbian marriage solving a name crisis 💀. Caroline Pauling doesn't sound that bad!

I think these two would just work really well together since they've had similar experiences and could support eachother/understand eachother like they haven't had before. To me they're both neurodivergant so I feel they could bond over their interests/teach eachother cool stuff. Like Caroline teaches Pauling science and Pauling teaches her about weaponry. Also they could do the activities that Pauling listed doing with friends "skating, look at gun catalogs". Because of that I used to headcanon that Pauling rollerskates and Caroline ice-skates so they do those together. Also Gargoyles and Gravel! They'd dress up as a wizard and witch together when playing or something haha. Also the assistants clipboard of the year conference Pauling goes to with Bidwell, she could go with Caroline and Greg and they all fight over office supplies as they should be. Maybe Caroline teaches Pauling how to bake!

I think working at Aperture, Caroline either wasn't able to defend herself verbally or wasn't listened to, not really being considered or appreciated by the other employees. She's considered modest so I think she was likely conditioned to not appreciate what she did. She's brilliant and incredibly intelligent but being a woman in that position during that time, she was probably ignored by anyone who wasn't Cave a lot. So I'd like to think if she wasn't being listened to and Cave wasn't around, Pauling could swoop in and tell those people off since she's really blunt and will tell things how it is (like in the tough break update when the guy flirted with her and she told him to leave because she was getting people killed for money), and is now a scary guard dog privilege to Caroline, even if Pauling is still a tiny anxious woman and Caroline can probably fend for herself lol.

Uhhhhh and heck, let's send Cave's other assistant Greg to go help Bidwell and Reddy in running Mann Co. That could be really funny to see, I feel they'd all get along. They're slightly more rational than Hale so I think it would be interesting to see what they do with this insane company!

Okay I'm done now, pls tag me in any CaroPauling posts you see because I'm saving them all to my phone to look at them lovingly, I have a collection lol <3.

[nishnormp]

cheavy ramblings

Been thinking about the stinky BLU classic heavy from the comics lately. He's basically the villain of the final issues, and was practically built to be unlikeable from the start so his defeat could be more satisfying; buut since its been years since an update came out and I am slowly going insane, I think it would be funky to explore him more (bonus cmedic feature)

Few disclaimers: I'm not excusing his actions (I myself think hes a bitch) and I do NOT ship him with tf2 medic (also I dont think tf2 medic is unmasked cmedic bc 1)why would he sabotage himself in the issues by acting like That 2)uhh reasons later 3)this panel) also some of my takes aren't original, but I've expanded on em a bit

P1: Medic hater activities

As we all know, cheavy's greatest sin was dunking on + killing tf2 medic

Somehow he and tfc demo got sidetracked by medic's question, but the most hostile he gets towards tf2 medic here is jeering at the fact that they're going to hunt down his old team; which tf2 medic doesn't seem bothered by.

( @number1yisuchongfan actually brought this up before me) This panel pretty much sums up why cheavy is pissed: medic was implied to have a record of being weird with parts (he lost his license bc he stole a man's skeleton), he blew ALL of his budget meant for healing on exotic parts (that he put in cheavy's teammates), AND he revived the enemy (said enemy slips away a few panels later just as cheavy gets informed that three of his mercs died).

(also, the weird p3do tfc scout and soldier arent included in the 'three good men', since they died much later) Speaking of the 'good men' comment-

P2: Good leader at some point?? Not anymore tho

Hes gruff and an ass, but cheavy has a soft spot for his team; the tf2 mercs call each other strictly by their classes, but the tfc ones know each other names (also see cheavy's way of describing his dead teammates and his immediate reaction to go over there rather than curse/assume their incompetence)

He gets curious about australium, and from here on out he gets fixated on it- enough to be more unreasonable than usual. Cheavy is pretty amicable with Bea, and the way he acts with her is probably more in-character for what he was like back in his prime rather than the hot-tempered man that the later panels show.

I mean . He and his team were highly recommended and even took out ALL of the admin's elite teams, leaving the tf2 team for last. He may be a drill sergeant, but I don't think he was a genuine tyrant for most of his career; they aren't purely business-basis with each other (some of them formed close bonds, like fred and virgil), plus- any elite team would be able to capitalize on an overly prideful and control freaky leader (+a constantly demoralized team) sooner.

With three of his mercs dead and his plans failing against a team that he saw as rejects, the mental strain is showing badly. Tfc mercs don't have much personality in their games (or their own comic about them during their prime) but one of the few dynamics mentioned is between the Heavy and the Engineer+Medic. Tfc engie is the one who stepped up to ask about cheavy's plans, and he also gets the brunt of his anger. Earlier, cheavy answered bea's question and encouraged her, but now he's yelling and mocking the capabilities of one of the men he coordinates with the most.

Tfc scout's line may just be him not understanding/underestimating australium (esp since apparently cheavy had to ask grey mann what it even did), but it also reads as him seeing cheavy having officially gone off his rocker; his shaky grasp over leadership might kill the team before being deprived of yellow rocks does. Both scout and engie are thrown off by his attitude, implying that cheavy isn't usually like this (I can't imagine them being coordinated if they all shrimp away like that).

His line of thinking for both of these situations are pretty questionable. For the first one, he knows that the bots extract australium from the body, but he also knows that the mercs likely have nothing in them anyways (note the emphasis on his dead mercs, this is him taking revenge but also he is NAWT going to get any australium for those extra immortality machines which is still a pressing issue for his engie). In the second one, he first tells medic that they'll try figuring out how to stitch the machine on him, which leads to medic stabbing him and cheavy retaliating. Cheavy then goes all the way with attempting to kill him, stating that he'll just gets his answers from the administrator. Its soon revealed that he wants to fight tf2 heavy, but even that is ??? Like cheavy knows that he and his team are old as hell, but he's going to try having a fair fight with a guy in his prime anyways? He didn't even know that he could just slap on the machine at the time, and the unnecessary risk for what seems to be a quest to satisfy his ego is antithetical to his supposed goal of getting the rocks and making his team immortal. At this point, his hatred of medic has completely overridden his rationality; there were many ways for him to have killed both of them, yet he didn't take em.

P3: Cmedic

I saw some posts abt how cheavy is likely coded as homophobic due to how he treats medic (a presumably gay-coded character) bc of the "stay in the kitchen"-esque dialogue, and the way cheavy undermines him in verbal + physical ways. I do not have a very solid defense for this . aside from everything I listed before.

Just to clarify, I think its cheavy's fault for alienating medic from the start: loss of medical license aside, medic's inventions DO work splendidly for healing. Would it have been more concerning since medic is . meant to heal? Maybe. But mercs are literal murderers for hire, personality quirks should be the last of their priorities. The guy is passionate about showing off his stuff, and he was even enthusiastic about getting on the battlefield and healing cheavy. I'm not saying medic was going to be 100% loyal, but he's willing to do his job for the classics as long as he wasn't disrespected so damn much.

The tfc mercs with personalities are ones that oppose their tf2 counterpart; tfc sniper is a sadist rather than a swift professional, tfc pyro is...also a sadist rather than having tf2 pyro's misguided bubbliness, and cheavy does not respect his team's (current) medic. This in conjunction with the complete and utter lack of not just presence but also mention of tfc medic leads to the popular belief that the guy just up and left because of the disrespect.

(Writing inconsistencies be damned I like to cope) so what if it wasn't the case?

These are one of the few lines in tfc that describe a cooperative nature between certain classes. Like I mentioned earlier, tfc has less media compared to tf2 so its easy to slot personalities onto them as villains (tfc sniper's gun blowing people into giblets kinda helps), but I don't think these can be ignored. Fred was the one who represented the rest of the team's opinions to cheavy, and the phrasing in the second pic is even stronger; the heavymedic duo was always a thing, even in tfc.

Sort of. Gameplay-wise, cmedic is more like a roided out scout armed with a medkit that can give enemies and disguised spies tuberculosis, grenades that can send him across the map, and a gun that can destroy sentries (situational). He doesn't need to cling to his more offensive teammates as much as tf2 medic, and while his kit can instantly heal a teammate to full no matter the percentage + give overheal- its strictly melee ranged and has no ubercharge. In a narrative sense, cmedic would most likely oppose tf2 medic as a more 'grounded' healer. He prevents damage to his team by erasing enemies himself, doesn't go too overboard with his biochemical arsenal (his brew is potent but hes stuck with the melee-ranged kit and no crazy mechanic like uber), and can typically run off by himself (provided he isn't jumped by two soldiers or smth). Its a matter of game design, but can translate to the comics in an interesting way.

Medic is the only one who speaks of cmedic, and while the mention itself has no violent reaction- no one else speaks of him. I can't imagine him being easily forgotten since the heavymedic duo is just too iconic, so what if smth exceptionally horrible just happened to him? If cmedic was close to cheavy than everyone else, his loss/disappearance could explain cheavy's immediate dislike for tf2 med; not only replacing his own med, but with the complete opposite in terms of personality as well.

(I could expand on cmedic more, but this post is already long enough as is so I'll probably just make a separate one gah)

[sparkly-sediment]

Pyro does the team's tax payments and legal paperwork when Ms pauling is unavailable, how else would they be able to run a company in the comics if they didn't know how finances and the economy worked??

This is one of the funniest fucking things I’ve ever heard in my life

Tf2 Pyro x finances headcanons 🔥

long, hard, slow strokes

Nah jk. I digress

Nearly the entire American Nation knows that taxes are due in April, even the tf2 mercs! But do you think they give a fuck?

Ms. Pauling did their taxes for the last five years. Pretty easy when you have everyone’s social security numbers on file!!!! 😚 efficient queen

The file doesn’t travel, but Ms Pauling does

Ms Pauling is gone.. 💔 She’s alive but on a different continent for work ( a lot of work) so the mercs are responsible for their own civic duties

They have a team meeting about it and it goes south 😤 Scout drew spy fucking the Effie tower AND lady liberty. And the inverse so then spy knocked the shit outta him and Scout started yelling, soldier started yelling, everyone started getting handsy, and then heavy hit the table and they walked out single file

Pyro doesn’t leave!! He takes the files and does tax finance magic!!! They lick themselves in the room for like eighteen hours

The mercenaries are gagged when each tax file is paper clips and passed around the table.

A few are slightly singed but they don’t mind overall

Demo gives Pyro a wet sloppy kiss on the cheek and gets very drunk!!

Somehow, Pyro got them all massive tax returns except Medic (he owed $600)

[brandon-the-terrible]

I just finished the final TF2 comic (yes it’s actually out in case you didn’t know) and i just wanna make a post to dump my initial thoughts about it

Big spoilers below, of course…

- Damn Merasmus got JACKED. I was wondering what happened to him.

- I actually fucking burst out laughing when Soldier just whipped out a piece of Australium. Of COURSE Soldier would just happen to be in possession of a shit ton of Australium without even knowing. That’s the most tf2 way they could have resolved that.

- Y’know, the reveal that the Administrators big master plan was just a plot to ruin the Mann family feels appropriate. Like the plot of tf2 was centered on the war between Redmond and Bluarch, so that feels like a continuation of the whole “pointless violence” theme.

- Miss Pauling straight up lying to the Adminstrator’s face about the Australium made me gasp. It really puts into perspective how much of a… disappointment this whole thing must be in Pauling’s eyes. The enigmatic scheme she dedicated her whole life to and killed countless people for, was nothing but 100+ years of bitter revenge on a man who’s basically just a corpse by now. A bitter revenge scheme she doesn’t want to see keep going, so she betrays the person she spent her whole life serving and lets her finally waste away and die so it can all finally end.

- “It was worth it.” Jesus. So even after finally realizing how pointless her revenge scheme was, the Administrator doesn’t even care. She was so consumed by hatred for Zepheniah that simply knowing he suffered for over a century was enough. By her own admission, she doesn’t even really remember what he did to warrant it.

- Glad to see that Pauling got rid of the remaining Australium. I was worried what would happen, with all those shots of her staring at it. But after seeing what happened to the Administrator, how many lives were destroyed in pursuit of it, she made the right choice.

- Scout last name reveal????

- So I guess the mercs are finally, fully retired now. Nice to see them all finally move on.

- How many kids did Scout have??? I thought the whole “God’s gift to women” thing was just because it was his own personal heaven, but nope, I guess he really is.

- Ahhh the whole Smissmas part is amazing!! Spy with his mask off!! All the mercs are still in touch!

- HEY WAIT IS THAT THE PYRO’S MASK ON THE TABLE AT THE END???

- Oh my GOD I love teenage Olivia so much. I didn’t even think we’d see her again! Plus her ending was great, she gets to live her own life out of her father’s shadow.

- And of course, the comic started with Hale, so we end with Hale. Even in his winter years he’s still doing what he does best: beating the shit out of wildlife.

I think that’s all the thoughts I have, at least for now. I might reblog this with some more thoughts, idk. Either way, goddamn what a sendoff. This was SO worth the wait.

[drogromantik]

okay i wanted to share my thoughts on the comic!!! i finished it maybe 1-2 hours ago and ik nobody’s gonna see this but i still feel like ranting lol (this is gonna be pretty short but spoiler warning ig!!!)

i really enjoyed the backstory stuff with Helen. it all felt so raw, so real. when she hung herself just for Gray Mann to cut the rope with shears i let out an audible gasp

with that being said, i definitely think that the build up through all of the previous comics with whatever she had going on just kinda flopped here. she didn’t really do anything with the last hour of Australium except for talking to a dead guy, and the ”old debt” wasn’t really expanded upon all that much?

there was obviously a lot of fanservice in the comic and i’d be lying if i said i didn’t enjoy it,,

i mean come on now! i fucking SCREAMED.

loved to see Olivia again!! and she’s around my age now! and spy without his mask was a VERY pleasant surprise, i’m glad they never showed Pyro’s face too!!!

but speaking of pyro, they got even LESS screen time than they’ve gotten in the previous comics, and that’s saying a lot. Demo was also fucking ROBBED, i wanted SO MUCH more of him. i am fine with the lack of Medic content though, he got a lot of focus in the previous comics + the uh uh heavymedic part,,,

and i do think Scout giving up on Pauling THAT quickly was very ooc and added to the element of this comic feeling kinda disconnected to the other ones.

here’s the thing about all of this though. i might nitpick and bitch about it when the rush has faded, but as it is right now? i am just. SO happy that the comic even came out

like i was on a call with a good good friend (u know who u are ( ˘ ³˘) ♥︎) and suddenly they just yelled ”THE SEVENTH COMIC CAME OUT??” and i was in fucking DISBELIEF, we hung up and i read the entire thing as fast as I could without missing everything and i fucking LOVED IT.

as it is right now i don’t care about the plot holes, ignored characters and stories, or the corny ending. i’m just happy it exists!!! i had a blast with it!!!! merry Christmas everybody <3

edit: it does feel EXTREMELY rushed. and i really wanted more story for everyone since it’s clear that this is it, we’re not getting anymore TF2 content from Valve. we could have had so much more lore for Engie he’s like the most important merc!!!

edit 2: i kinda like it even more now, staying off of twitter has done wonders!!!