< Team Fortress 2

Team Fortress 2/Supplemental Material


Cross-media

The TF2 Blog

Administrator: [Re: the Propaganda art contest] I must grudgingly admit an astonishing amount of talent on display. I hasten to add, however, that I find it astonishing only because, in observing how you comport yourselves in-game, on the forums, and presumably in your day-to-day lives, one would be forgiven for assuming you bereft of the cognitive skills needed to operate a mailbox.


Soldier: This is the problem with the youth of today: too much time inventing nonsense words, not enough time taking a bullet in the lung defending a hill. I don't have to know what the hell twitters and texting and body sprays are to understand that they're not the sort of thing men should be engaged in. Like conversations, or painting things that aren't a house.


Saxton Hale: First, let me [/] COMMEND [ ] SWEAR VIGOROUSLY AT you...

    • Going so far as to have an actual mail slot, during several of the larger content patches and updates for the game there would be order forms for the in-game items that players could print out and send to Mann Co. These people would then get an invoice from Saxton Hale stating that the item they requested is out of stock, but something else was usually thrown in with the letter (a Scout keychain for the FAN order form, and a picture of Saxton Hale if the coupon was sent during the Sniper vs. Spy update).
  • Girls Need Role Models: Sniper brings this trope up, since he's talking about his action figure to encourage little girls to become a sniper as a good career goal.
  • Funny Foreigner: This announcement The Ambassador. Australians in general, both in-universe in the comics and in the blog.
  • It Was with You All Along: Parodied here.

BUT THE GREATEST GIFT OF ALL... was inside you all along. It's blood! Turns out you can sell it! See you at the plasma center! Merry Smissmas, everybody!

  • Idiot Ball: The Mayonnaise Man, who Saxton blames for storing spoiled mayonnaise pallets in one of the Mann Co. warehouses, that messed up a lot of merchandise. Plus, Saxton Hale wants to use his "bare damn hands" to murder the guy.
  • Large Ham: Whoever's posting as the TF2 Team. From one of the Smissmas updates:

" 'Wait, which holiday?' you may be wondering. "Australian Christmas? Or Smissmas?" Both! Read this comic to find out what happens when holidays collide! Two special days enter the squared circle! ONLY ONE LEAVES!"

"All the signs are there. When you kill a man, you can actually see his last breath hanging in the chill mid-November pre-specialness air. Turkeys have retreated to their bunkers in a vain attempt to weather the upcoming onslaught of holidays devoted to gleeful turkey slaughter. And are those sleighbells we hear? Because our legal department assures us they aren't. That's right, TFers. It's beginning to look a lot like an upcoming holiday our legal department won't let us mention, but that rhymes with 'Smissmas'."

January 17, 2012 - "Did not update the localization files"
February 9, 2012 - "Lokalisierungsdateien aktualisiert": "Updated the localization files" in German
February 14, 2012 - "Hcqngrq gur ybpnyvmngvba svyrf": rot13 transforms to "Updated the localization files"
February 23, 2012 - "언어 파일 업데이트": "Updated the localization files" in Korean
March 1, 2012 - "Arquivos de localização atualizados": "Updated localization files" in Portuguese
March 15, 2012 - A QR code that translates to "Updated the localization files"

March 28, 2012 - "Did not update the localization files that did not need updating"

    • The TF2 Team also like mentioning Dracula.
  • Selective Enforcement: The Halloween 2011 blog post states that the development team decided to take the scares out of the Halloween event, although they make an exception regarding hats.

"For instance, one playtester thought the Pyro was a little scary, so we’ll probably remove him as a class. Someone else swore he remembered reading something about somebody getting hurt by a gun once. And that sounded scary. So probably no more guns, either. Then Dracula called from the hospital. 'Hey guys,' he said, 'hats are pretty scary.' Well, now, that must have been the morphine talking. So we’re adding more hats just to be safe."

"All you ever do is disappoint and betray me! Cheating! Stealing! Friend-making!"

    • Also, the page that shows us the Crafting System tells us to "say goodbye to those enjoyable evenings spent complaining on the forums about which item in your inventory was the most useless, spraying anti-Australian racist hate speech all over Robin Walker, his lovely wife, and his beautiful children." They also mention that anyone who loves all the weapons in TF2 is a "quiet minority", who could at least balance out the whingeing with a few nice posts.
    • The page prior to that has some jokes hidden in the blackboard, most notably DROP=Infinity* (Robot/(1-Cat.3)) and Fire=Q^2 or QQ.
    • In the comic for the WAR! Update, the Demoman's mother scolds him for his idleness.
    • One blog post uses a line from the Sniper for its title:"Thanks for standin' still, wanker!" It's about changes to the drop system and how these changes kill idling.
  • Teasing Creator: See Take That.
  • Unsound Effect: "Sound of Blog Post Being Posted", Lampshading the user forum's paranoia regarding updates.
  • Vacation Episode: The TF2 crew decided that if we lived in the suckiest places that have seasons and thinking of vacations, they'll bring the tropics to us.
  • Writers Suck:
    • The post about "Meet the Sandvich" explains that their draft was the script of Predator with the script of Road House in the middle. When this was rejected, the entire video was improvised by the voice actors, and the only lines added by the writers were stolen from those two films and The Simpsons.
    • When the dev team confront the writers with questions about how the Mac Update comic fits into the TF2 world, the writers take fright, shuffle their feet and make "a frantic search through the internet for fancy excuse words" before declaring it non-Canon. The Engineer Update story is apparently intended to fill "a canon-shaped void in the lives of TF2's biggest story fans — our writers".
  • You Have Failed Me...: The Administrator posts on the TF2 Blog when players cheat... repeatedly. Even during the War of December 2009. And when people end up stealing stuff.

Update Pages and Comics

  • Cerebus Syndrome: Zig-Zagged. While many update comics feature absurdly comedic situations, nearly all of them are treated as canon. Since 2009, there have been a few particular sporadic updates that seem to hint at a greater story arc spanning three generations... and featuring current members of both RED and BLU growing increasingly more dissatisfied with all three of their employers.
  • Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": Everyone but Saxton Hale until the Soldier vs Demoman update, where The Administrator's name is given as Helen, the RED Demoman's full name being Tavish Degroot, and the BLU Soldier's name being Jane Doe (though that may just be a poorly researched pseudonym Soldier picked for himself). The Replay Update also had Helen referring to the RED Soldier as "Mr. Doe", but whether or not his first name is also Jane hasn't been stated. In the comic ushering in the Engineer Update, we learn that the name of the BLU Engineer is Dell Conagher, and in the Replay Update, that the Sniper's surname is Mundy. It seems to be introduced in a RED-BLU alternating pattern of which names are revealed. One of the hidden pages before the Über Update had a box on a desk inside a doctor's office that appeared to say "DR. [too small to read]- DECEASED", possibly implying the Medic's real name.
  • Tomato in the Mirror: Parodied in the Bombinomicon comic on the front page. A random guy bemoans that he was the monster all along, which is advertised as a twist ending... with a note beneath explaining that this is not, in fact, the twist ending.
  • Unsound Effect: FLEX! COUGAR! PROPERTY DAMAGE! BUTTON PRESS! HEROIC LEAP! Very common, especially if Saxton Hale is around.
    • This extends to statues/action figures of Saxton Hale as well. COMPOUND ELEVATED SKULL FRACTURE!

The Scout Update

  • The All Solving Hammer: The Force A Nature solves many things, like loading up nicely and slowly, people can easily be propelled into the sky to hunt birds, and makes hunting exciting.

So you can SAVOR every precious moment.

  • Blown Across the Room: The advertisement states that outdoor hunters are disappointed that when they shoot deer, it just simply falls down. But with the Force A Nature those boring hunting days are over.
    • The mail coupon's YES! option reads, "I want to shoot things and watch them fly backwards, then reload very slowly!"
    • The No! option reads "I am a coward who wouldn't know a great deal if it knocked me backwards into a forest."
  • Hat Damage: The advertisement warns potential buyers to do this, because they'll be AIRBORNE after firing the FAN, since they'll be propelled into the air.
  • In-Universe Marketing: the Force-A-Nature announcement page.
  • Made in Country X: In-universe. The Force-A-Nature is to be 100% guaranteed made in Portugal...Eventually.
  • Unsatisfiable Customer: Mann Co. gotten too many complaints that most shot guns reloads way TOO FAST and can hold TOO Many shells.

The Sandvich Update

  • Revenge: The sandvich does both: he'll satisfy one's hunger and do it for revenge.
  • Writers Suck: The script presented for the "Meet The Sandvich" video is just the script for Predator attached to the script for Road House, and the writers fail to grasp why everyone else is unimpressed by this. Instead, the voice actors improvise, which the writers grasp as "other people doing all the work for us", though their attempts to join in are just lines quoted from other works (mostly Predator and Road House.)

The Halloween Update

The Sniper Vs. Spy Update

Spy: AaaaaaaaaaaaaAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

The WAR! Update

  • Apes in Space: Poopy Joe the monkeynaut was supposed to be one, but he tragically died in an explosion that was not caused by Mann Co.
  • Body Count Competition: Between opposing Demomen and Soldiers. Whichever class could kill the most of the other class by the end of the war gets a pair of shoes.
  • Poor Communication Kills: The Administrator and Miss Pauling convince both the RED Demoman and BLU Soldier (who were both willing to be killed rather than take the offer of killing the other for custom weapons) that the other had already betrayed them, which led to the war. Sadly, they ended up believing that they'd been betrayed instead of contacting the other.
  • The Reveal/Running Both Sides: This is the first time we see the Administrator, and learn that she does the announcements for both RED and BLU teams.
  • Suspiciously Specific Denial: American Monkeynaut Poopy Joe was given the Eyelander, Buff Banner, and Equalizer before his journey into space. Mann Co. claims they were nowhere near the launch site of Poopy Joe's aircraft and had nothing to do with the explosion that occured moments later, and those three items were obtained in entirely innocent circumstances. Also, the company's seemingly rushed sale of a high-precision rocket launcher was not in any way connected with Poopy Joe's tragic death.
  • Right Hand Versus Left Hand: The update revealed that both RED and BLU are controlled by the same Administrator. The whole war was started just to prevent this fact from getting out.
  • The VJ Day Kiss: Parodied. The blog has a picture of the Heavy kissing the Scout's mom.

The Mac Update/ A Visual History

Soldier: In America, comrade, we do not blame the tool. We blame the man.

The Engineer Update / Loose Canon

  • Abraham Lincoln: the identity of the original 1850-era BLU team Pyro. According to the artist of the "Loose Canon" comic, this was one of the few specific characterizations that they wanted for the team's design.
  • Beethoven Was an Alien Spy: The 1800s BLU team shown in the Engineer comic appeared to comprise:
    • Scout: Billy the Kid
    • Soldier: Stonewall Jackson
    • Pyro: Abe Lincoln
    • Demoman: Alfred Nobel
    • Heavy: John Henry
    • Engineer: Nikola Tesla
    • Medic: Sigmund Freud
    • Sniper: Davy Crockett
    • Spy: Fu Manchu
      • The only definite identity is Lincoln as the Pyro.
  • Charlie and the Chocolate Parody: The Golden Wrenches during the update.
  • Death Is a Slap on The Wrist: A pretty big one, but still:

Blutarch's assistant: Give him a moment, dear. He's just dead.

  • Don't Call Me "Sir"!
  • Generation Xerox: Barnabas Hale being attacked by a cougar resembles the cover of one of his descendants', Saxton, Barbershop Action comics. He even refers to a pepper sauce in his dialog.
  • There Is Another: Notes on the cover the Life Extender machine's blueprints say that one was built for Redmond, one for Blutarch and a third with the date and client out of frame.
  • The Nothing After Death: According to Blutarch Mann, who has been continually dying and reviving through the use of the immortality machine.

Blutarch Mann: Every day I'm dead a little longer, Mr. Conagher. I have seen the other side. There is nothing there. Fix. This. Machine.

Mann-Conomy Update / Bidwell's Big Plan

The Replay Update / Meet the Director

  • Art Shift: The style of the Replay Update comic is noticeably looser than that of the previous comics, due to Andrea Wicklund (artist of the Lab Rat comic)'s coloring style.
  • Call Back: A number to the Meet the Team videos, one of the most blatant being here.
  • Comically Missing the Point: The Heavy was sent a photo of his house and himself, sleeping. He has a separate, smaller bed for "Sascha" [sic], his minigun. Scout says that's pretty embarrassing. The Heavy agrees; he needs to buy Sasha a better bed.
  • Description Cut:

Miss Pauling: The Administrator sees this as a perfect opportunity to show the good people of the Badlands that you're not just armed psychopaths blowing up their all landmarks on a daily basis.
The Administrator: I see this as a perfect opportunity, Miss Pauling, to spy on the armed psychopaths we're paying to blow each other up on a daily basis.

  • Did Not Do the Research: Wicklund seems to miss out on the details of coloring Team Fortress 2's characters; on the second page, she colors a Demoman as if he was a Pyro. On the sixth frame, the Team in the middle panel bear their beta designs. Oddly enough, though, either by coincidence or not, she keeps the Sniper's house (Red House on the Left) the correct color.
  • Early-Bird Cameo: In the last panel, the Medic can be seen holding the Quick-Fix, his new Medigun that he got in the Über Update.
  • Expy: The Sniper's parents bear a striking resemblance to Eustace and Muriel of Courage the Cowardly Dog. The artist apparently confirmed that the similarity was intentional.
  • Freudian Excuse: The Director tries to construct a tragic Backstory for the Heavy to explain his actions, but the Heavy knows he isn't that complicated:

Heavy: I. Like. To shoot. This gun. Is all you need to know.

The Saxxy Awards

  • Award Show: The winners of the contest were announced "live" (one winner every 5 minutes). The main page featured a countdown timer between announcements, and a subplot about how...
  • Everything's Worse with Bears: Saxton Hale accidentally let a bear loose during the ceremony. During the live-updating of the Awards page, the image of Saxton presenting the awards would occasionally refresh to reveal said bear slowly approaching the stage, only for it to get beaten to a pulp by Saxton himself.

End of the Line Update/End of the Line

  • Wire Dilemma: RED Scout has to solve some puzzles and cut wires of one bomb and finds out that there's more bombs that need this.

Adult Swim - TF2 Venture Bros Promo

Grordbort's Crash

2011 Halloween Update / Bombinomicon

  • Artifact of Doom: Merasmus collects these. Even the broom in his castle is one.
  • Bedsheet Ghost: One of the kids is dressed as the ghost of Zepheniah Mann, who happens to be one.
  • Big No: When the Soldier breaks Merasmus' staff.
  • Black Magic: Merasmus'.
  • Brick Joke: In 2010, the teams were sent back in time for the then new map, Degroot Keep. The explanation was that "the Soldier angered a magician". In this comic, it's revealed that the magician is the Soldier's roommate.
  • Disproportionate Retribution: Merasmus sends MONOCULUS! to fight the team after the Soldier breaks his staff, proclaiming the party to be over. Also, the trope is inverted with the Heavy when he gives a child $7000 as an apology for calling the boy fat.
  • Evil Gloating: The Bombinomicon after it possesses the young Demoman's eye. Merasmus isn't angry at him because anything horrible is going to happen, but because he has to live with the book.
  • Ghost Story: The Demoman tells one about how he lost his eye.
  • Giant Eye of Doom: MONOCULUS!
  • Halloween Episode
  • Haunted Castle: The Demoman's story takes place in Merasmus' castle, though Merasmus now lives with the Soldier.
  • Ignored Enemy: In the last panel, the Soldier ignores the giant eye to fight Merasmus.
  • Manipulative Bastard: The Bombinomicon convinces the young Demoman to read it.
  • Monster Roommate: Merasmus.
  • Nobody Calls Me Chicken: Some challenging from the Bombinomicon makes the Demoman peek at its pages.
  • Origin Story: Of Monoculus.
  • Paper-Thin Disguise: If what the Soldier says about being on the lam is true, the police have been tricked into thinking he's a robot.
  • Portmanteau: The Bombinomicon is a portmanteau of "bomb" and "Necronomicon".
  • Red Eyes, Take Warning: The Bombinomicon.
  • Tome of Eldritch Lore: The Bombinomicon. It contains "over 400 pages of spells, enchantments, recipes and anecdotes about blowing things up".
  • Volleying Insults:

Soldier: Nobody invited you, Merasmus!
Merasmus: Do not anger Merasmus! A magician invites himself!
Soldier: I am going to invite that staff straight up your ass and push you around like a broom!
Merasmus: Well, that would certainly be the first time you swept anything!

  • You Are Fat: Being called fat is what finally makes one of the trick-or-treaters cry.

Heavy: Every day Heavy risk life. To earn money. To feed family. Instead, you would have Heavy spend this money. On stupid candy. For you. You presumptuous... lazy... fat...
Boy: Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
Heavy: Oh. Um. Stop. Heavy did not mean this. Little child is not fat. People call Heavy fat. Please stop crying. Here. Here is seven thousand dollars.

True Meaning

  • An Asskicking Christmas
  • Alternate Dimension: The U.F.O. came from an alternate dimension.
  • Call Back: The rocket is similar to the one in "Grordbort's Crash". It contains weapons as well.
  • Christmas Episode
  • Funny Background Event: The Christmas tree is made with antlers and decorated with knives and grenades, and one of the Soldier's Gunboats hangs on the chimney.
  • The Gambling Addict: Apparently, Old Nick likes to bet on college basketball.
  • Leaning on the Fourth Wall: The message that came with the rocket full of weapons about "hearing [the Engineer and Pyro's] plea" is a very thinly veiled nod to people who had been displeased with the lack of new weapons for the two classes.
  • The Mafia: Old Nick owes them a lot of money (see The Gambling Addict). They battle it out when the mobsters find him in Antarctica.
  • Make a Wish: Aliens have heard both the Engi and Pyro's pleas.
  • Mood Whiplash: Several within the story the Engineer is reading.

"Those mobsters were just about to give up the hunt, when up in that cold night sky they saw a star. The brightest star they ever saw. So they followed it. And after a spell they saw a sight that filled 'em with wonder... Ol' Nick, forcin' a buncha naughty kids to make all manner of guns, smack dab in the middle of Antarctica."

  • Ship Tease: The Engineer and Pyro might be living together.
  • Shout-Out: The line about adopting a super baby is a Shout Out to Superman.
  • The Three Wise Men: Again, parodied, with the "three wiseguys".
  • True Meaning of Christmas: Despite the title drop, since the tale the Engineer reads to the Pyro parodies a bunch of Christmas tropes, the true meaning of Australian Christmas/Smissmas isn't clear. Also, the comic is more about the two getting new weapons.
  • You Owe Me: Engi has a new motivation to start writing letter and sending them to the alternate dimension wish makers.

"Some sorry plea-hearin' mother hubbard out there owes me a new house."

A Smissmas Story

Miss Pauling: First things first. How did Soldier become a public defender?
Spy: It's a long story, but chapter one: his roommate is a magician.

Scout: Why don't you bring that little mink stole over here and show me how stupid my wrappin' paper is?

  • Badass Cape: Old Nick has a couple of koala pelts for a cape.
  • Blooper: The Soldier's bandolier goes over his left shoulder, then the right shoulder for a few pages, then returns to the left. The Spy picks an icicle off the phone box when there wasn't one in earlier panels.
  • But for Me It Was Tuesday: When asked to describe how saving the children from Old Nick feels, Scout simply describes it as a "Saturday".
  • Choke Hold: Soldier begins choking and strangling Scout.

"I am going to kill you before they give me the chair!"

COMPOUND ELEVATED SKULL FRACTURE!

Fourth Annual Spectral Halloween Special Update/ Doom-mates

  • 555: Many of the advertisements' phone numbers start with "555."
  • Animal Theme Naming: Soldier names animals after military themes and gives them Patriotic names, like he names one of the raccoons "Lieutenant Bites."
  • A Wizard Did It: This comic explains the origins of why RED (and BLU) team had to fight a very angry wizard every Halloween.
  • Blood-Splattered Warriors: RED Scout, RED Soldier, and RED Spy are covered by some blood of their friends, because they're fighting a very livid Merasmus.
  • Big No
  • Came Back Strong: Soldier reminded Merasmus about that one time he took some of the wizard's Kill Me Come Back Stronger Than Before pills that the wizard kept in the medicine cabinet.
  • Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: The icon of Mann Co. Supernatural Combat Fiction has a mascular arm punching a ghost.
  • Disposing of a Body: Soldier poured gasoline and set Merasmus's body in fire, despite that the wizard was talking to him.
  • Flashback Cut: A brief flashback cuts to what happened a year prior this comic's events, Soldier getting into an argument with Merasmus in the bathroom and that Soldier ate some "Kill Me Come Back Stronger" pills.
  • Face Palm: Spy does this at the comic's end, for obvious reasons.
  • Fan Convention: Merasmus went to the Wizardcon MCLVI.
  • Glowing Eyes: The cover has piranhas, raccoons, and Merasmus' eyes all glowing green.
  • Halloween Episode: This is Scream Fortress!
  • Haunted Castle: The Castle of Eldritch Horrors.
  • Ingesting Knowledge: Averted. The raccoons attempted to eat the Bombinomicon, though they did not become experts in bomb making and dark magic.
  • I Thought You Were Dead: Soldier said this phrase, even adding.

    "You're ALWAYS talking. I guess I only notice when you stop."

  • Jedi Mind Trick: Merasmus attempted to do this to the Taxi driver, just so he can pay ten dollars for the fare. The cab driver was probably related to the Cabana Clerk, since the mind trick didn't work.
  • Kill the Ones You Care: Merasmus figures that he might as well do this instead, since he can't kill Soldier because of the special pills.
  • Rascally Raccoons: All of Tuoforts' raccoons, who now reside in Merasmus' Castle of Eldritch Horror.
  • Rich People: In Scout's ad, he even says that he's rolling with lots of money.
  • Prince Charming: Scout describes himself as this to any potential women in the ad.

"I am your Prince Frickin' Charming over here."

  • Pun-Based Title: Based on the word "Roommates."
  • Sickly Green Glow: The cover once again, Mermasmus vomits a sickly glow that contains him and a school of piranhas.
  • Stock Scream: Some of the mercenaries was screaming.
  • The Taxi: The comic opens up with Merasmus arriving home in a taxi.
  • Tempting Fate: Soldier DARED Merasmus to try, after when the wizard threaten to kill the ones the merc cares about.
  • This Explains So Much: At the comic's end, RED Scout doesn't say this stock phrase word for word, but the meaning is still there.
  • Whole-Episode Flashback: The whole Doom-mates comic was Soldier explaining to both Scout and Spy what he had done to make Merasmus attempting to murder the mercs EVERY Halloween.
  • You Do NOT Want to Know: What's inside the fridge and why Soldier is burying it are the reasons why the latter tells Merasmus "Don't open the fridge."

Team Fortress 2 is Free to Play

  • The Reveal: The whole trailer announced that the game is now free to play.

Mann Vs. Machine

  • Battle in the Rain: The ending reveals that the battle is going to be this, since it started raining.
  • Boss Battle: What appeared as a multi-mook melee changed, once the big Machine showed up.
  • Dramatic Thunder: Thunder cracks across the cloudy sky, once the mercs left town.
  • Enemy Mine: Both Blu and Red teams teamed up to fight against the bigger threat.
  • Ghost Town: With exception of the Mercs (and Archimedes), there's no body in the town.
  • Multi-Mook Melee: When the tank door open waves of Machines robots ran out to fight the Mercs.
    • Averted, when a Giant Machine showed up.
  • Shoo Out the Dove: Blu Medic pets Blu Archimedes, bids farewell, and joins his friends to go off to war.
  • The Stinger: It shows the Mercs being surrounded by the Machines and still fighting, revealing what they're made of.
  • Walking in Rhythm: The mismatch RED and BLU team members walked in rhythm as they go outside of town.

Mann Vs. Machine - The Sound of Medicine


  • Abandoned Area: The mishmashed team of mercenaries are in a village, whose residents have evacuated a long time ago.
  • The Archer: One of the Robo-Snipers.
  • Big Damn Hero: The Medic finishing his updated Medi-Gun and using it to save his friends. Usually it's them protecting him, telling the Medic to get behind them, and now it's the reverse.

Medic: "Everyone behind me!"

"(evil laugh) Another successful procedure."

Meet Your Match Update/Meet Your Match

Blood Brothers

  • Came Back Strong: Gray Mann reveals that he returned strong.
    • Up to Eleven. Since Gray Was strong even as a baby, since he eventually cook and ate his eaglet siblings and the mother eagle that saved him.
  • Raised By Eagles: Gray's back story was this, when an eagle came and saved him in the nick of time from being killed off.
  • Written Sound Effect

The Showdown

  • Badass Longcoats: Averted. The four trench coat guys, their expressions read "Oh Crap!" as they were ripped to shreds.
  • Closed Elevator: To four trench coat wearing guys, the elevator became this as Heavy sics the dogs on them.
  • Comically Small Bribe: Heavy tried to bribe Pryo to taking the Administrator's lighter in exchanged to letting him be the first one to get new weapons.

Pryo wasn't fooled, he/she quickly smashed the lighter.

FORTRESS DESTRUCTION IN 10 SECONDS.

Grave Matters

  • Breaking the Fourth Wall: Merasmus narrates the comic and "Welcomes, the reader(s), to the cramped confines of his grim grotto of the grotesque."
  • Dug Too Deep: Redmond's mining crew and Blu team dug so deep that they found a way to hell.
  • Genuine Human Hide: It turned out that the paper that's used for Zepheniah Mann's will was from his own skin.
  • Grave Robbing: Redmond contacting Phyllis to do some grave robbing and retrieve his brother's corpse.
  • Halloween Episode
  • Hollywood Exorcism:

    Soldier: "Now, if we were in Guam, I could perform an exorcism."

  • Indian Burial Ground: Phyllis informing her boss, Redmond, over the phone about the "mining concerns".

Redmond:"Why would anybody dig Through an Indian burial ground to reach hell?"

  • Mexican Standoff: Since both Blutarch and Redmond are stuck as ghosts...It's a stalemate for both of them.
  • Not That Kind of Priest: Turns out that Jane Doe is a Priest, but not in Arizona.
  • Our Ghosts Are Different: Both Blutarch and Redmond became ghosts after Gary off them both.
  • Phone Booth: The two Mann brothers went their separate ways to find a phone booth to call their respective butlers/maids.
  • Prison: The Merasmus segments has him in prison.
  • Unfinished Business: It turns out that despite Gary killing his other siblings, both Blutarch and Redmond are not dead. So, only one of them can "win" if they can completely cross over.

Solder:"So, I guess one of you would "win" if the other crossed over..."

  • Walking Backwards: Both Mann brothers were doing this as they were about to leave the castle to run some "errands."

Solider:"Why are both of you talking weird and walking backwards?"

A Fate Worse Than Chess

  • Blooper: In one panel, RED Spy doesn't have his trademark cigarette, in the next panel he does.
  • Boobs of Steel: Synestra has these, they can be seen from her Cleavage Window.
  • Breaking the Fourth Wall: Saxon Hale does this to explain to the reader certain things, giving expositions, and narration at the beginning of the comics.
  • Chess: A yeti and flower child are playing chess in the cover.
  • Climactic Volcano Backdrop: Synestra is sword fighting against her arch nemesis Graveline at a volcano.
  • Evil Redhead: Synestra.
  • Exposition: A certain someone prefers "Explosition!" Thinking that regular expositions are lame and awful. So, instead of two scientists, he substituted the scene with a superhero battle.

Saxton Hale: "The art of stopping a story so nerds can find out how things work!"

Saxton Hale:"Saxton Hale again. This is a pre-taped, so I don't know what anybody's talking about right now, but I am not paying you for this."

Catch-Up Comic

Ring of Fired

Unhappy Returns

A Cold Day in Hell

Blood in the Water

Old Wounds

The Naked and the Dead

Blood Money

  • Blood Magic: Merasmus used some of his Certified Pure blood to anoint the gargoyle statue.
  • Breaking the Fourth Wall: Merasmus does this to the prologue just to informed the readers, how PURE Evil the Ancient Sumerians are.
  • Crystal Ball: Merasmus uses one in the cover.
  • Evil God: Bonzo, the Evil Circus God!
  • Halloween Episode: It's "Scream Fortress VI", Baby!
  • Pure Evil: According to Merasmus, this trope was EVERYTHING that the Ancient Sumerians had done and their real intentions.
  • Sumerians Burial Ground: Apparently the wizard "forgotten" to build his Carnival of Evil on top of an ancient burial grounds.
  • Taking You With Me: The cover indicates that Merasmus is underwater and dragging the reader down with him.
  • Written Sound Effect
  • Yakuza: Are mentioned and they're part of the All Devouring Black Hole Loan Sharks Club.
  • Yubitsume: Heavily implied that they chopped off Merasmus's pinky finger as punishment for the wizard to pay off his partially own debt that he made with them earlier, since Merasmus appears in the comic with a bandage pinky finger.

[Issue Number #7]

  • Series Hiatus: The seventh and final issue is taking a much longer time to come out, also, it'll probably finish when Detective Conan is reaching its ending. Doesn't help that the last time that the TF2 comics page updated was on August 31, 2015.
  • Written Sound Effect

Gargoyles and Gravel

  • All Devouring Black Hole Loan Sharks: The Russian Mafia, since Merasmus borrowed tons of money just to buy the Artifact of Doom.
    • Spy implies this, because usually the wizard ends up owing a lot of debt to a lot of international criminal organizations, just he buys Artifacts of Doom from them or needs the money to buy those.
  • Artifact of Doom: The Eldritch Idol of Ancient Evil.
  • BFS: The comic cover has a proud warrior race Heavy carrying a sword that's just as tall as him.
  • Big Bad: Invoke by Heavy when he states that he doesn't want to sit around, pretending that he's killing monsters, when there's real monsters outside.
  • Blood Magic: Spy invoked this trope, stating that Merasmus's "idiotic artifact" may need to be filled with blood.
  • Bound and Gagged: The Russian Mafia (and the criminal jack 'o' lantern) done this to Merasmus, except for the gagging.
  • Challenge Seeker:

    Heavy:"We accept your challenge."

  • Choke Hold: The Soldier does this to the Scout, when the latter criticizes his gameplay style. Only to stop to explain to Miss. Pauling who Merasmus is and who they're dealing with.
  • Cigar Chomper: One of the Russian mafia guys has a cigarette.
    • Spy mainly counts, for this comic he's a "Pipe Chomper."
  • Einstein Hair: The Medic sports this for his Mad Scientist costume.
  • Everything's Better with Chickens: Scout's Halloween costume.
  • Funny Background Event: The mercs are each doing their own things, like Pyro carving the pumpkins, Sniper doing a William Tell on a beer guzzling Demoman, and the door ajar that shows the Medic cleaning up after the operation.
  • Grave Robbing: Dell was worried that his friend the Medic did a "bit" of digging.

Engi:"Say, where'd you get this anyway? Y'all didn't...dig it up, didja?"

  • Gone Horribly Right: When the jack o lantern thief, after when Engi placed him at the porch, the pumpkin caused trouble minutes later for both the mercenaries (and Merasmus).
  • Halloween Episode: It's Halloween night when this comic's events took place.
  • Haunted Castle: This trope was invoked by Spy.

Spy:"...Or haunted castle to kill each other."

  • Head Transplantation: Both the Medic and the Engineer did this to a mugger, the latter's brain was transfer to a jack-o-lantern.
  • Heel Face Turn: Medic was hoping that the criminal who attempted to rob him will go on a path to turn his life around and be good...As a Halloween decoration.
  • Heroic Willpower:

    Soldier:"Nooooooooooooo! Must...Fight...His powerful magic!"

  • Hot Witch: The cover portrays Ms. Pauline as this, wearing a violet dress and in a process of casting a spell.
  • I Gave My Word:

    Heavy:"You do not need these dice. You have my word."

  • I'll Kill You!: The criminal threaten to do this to the Medic and Engi, when and if he breaks out of being a pumpkin.
  • I'm A Humanitarian: When it turns out that it was just Merasmus and there's no pizza. Soldier then quickly suggests

Soldier: "We're going to starve! Unless we all agree to eat Sco-"

  • Kill All Humans: In the G & G game, it turns out that the amulet that soldier picks up repeatedly results in killing the whole team.
    • Heavy explained to Miss. Pauling about Merasmus,

      Heavy:"Every Halloween he comes here and tries to kill us.

  • Losing Your Head: The nameless criminal, who both the Medic and Engi operated on, had his brain remove from his body and place into a jack o'lantern. So, now he's a living decoration.
  • Magic Graveyard: Spy invokes this.

Spy:"...Drive out to some magic graveyard..."

Scout:"Aw, come on, Dumdum! This is the third time we've hadta Restart this stupid...Lovely game of Miss. Pauling's. Every time ya pick up the amulet it kills all of us.

  • Unfazed Mafia: The Russian Mafia mooks are not surprised by Merasmus's antics and the mugger pumpkin, one even talked with it.
  • We Need to Get Proof: Soldier states that Merasmus needs to slide the pizza slice under the door and eventually needs a proof-slice be slide through the mail slot both cases to prove if it's indeed Mera-Murray, the pizza boy.
  • William Telling: Sniper is doing this to Demoman in the background.
  • Wizard in Distress: Briefly, Merasmus was this. Until, the merchs came at a minute's notice to save his wizard butt as he was about to be stuff in the trunk.
  • Written Sound Effect

Shadow Boxes

  • Be Quiet Nudge: Red Heavy does this to Ms. Pauling, when the latter was about to explained where he and Medic ACTUALLY came from to Red Soldier.
  • Blood Splattered Warriors: Red team are bloodied and injured from having to save people and establishments from getting destroyed by the Machines.
    • Even Archimedes was hurt eariler, since he wore a neck brace.
  • Cassandra Truth: Soldier, since Ms.Pauline, Heavy, and some of the mercinaries don't believe his claim that HE DID infiltrated the robot's super secret meetings.
  • Creator Worship: The Machines love showing Gary Mann some respect and reverence.

Mecha-Mercs: "ALL HAIL THE MAKER!"

Gary: "Ahh, the "Hailing" circuit. My one moment of weakness. Yes, all hail me."

Heavy: "Ohh, America. It is the place I am from."

  • The Infiltration: Soldier mentioned that he managed to do this trope, so the Machines told him EVERYTHING of their plans.
    • Ms. Pauling and the RED mercs launched a plan to infiltrate the robot meeting to know when they'll strike next.
  • Paper-Thin Disguise: Ms. Pauling and some of the RED team mercs used cardboard box robot masks to sneak into the robot meeting.
  • Pun-Based Title: The title was based on "Shadow Boxers".
  • Ragtag Band of Misfits: The cover boldly states that Jane Doe gathered this team.

"Soldier's rag-tag, red, white and blue war-men..."

"Gentlemen, I've lost several litters of blood today. I will likely die defending a hat factory tomorrow. I'm going home."

Mecha-Engineer: "HUMANS."

Gary:"You...Are imbeciles. But I blame myself. Because I made you."

  • We Do the Impossible: Red team scrambled to save parts of the Badlands and Coal Town from the Machines, which includes 306 Mann Co. Plants, office buildings, warehouses, outlet malls, and even a museum and quicklime factory on the side.
  • Written Sound Effect

The Contract

  • Fiction 500: Saxton Hale explains to Ms. Pauline that the premium weapons are designed for the creme de la creme, therefore only trillionaire mercenaries can afford.

"That's what I'd say if you were an actual customer, because you'd be a trillionaire."

"I.O.U. a hundred million dollars. Thanks. - P."

Death of a Salesbot

  • Always Someone Better: Gary states that the robot army "Was supposed to be Faster, stronger, and smarter" than the actual mercenaries, who he see as idiots.
  • Appeal to Popularity: How Kisses won the USA presidential election.
  • Bad Future: Only the mercenaries can prevent the Hat Wars of the 1990s, which will lead to a dystopian future.
  • Breaking the Fourth Wall: Future! Engi's warnings of not opening the crates seems prophetic, considering that Loot Crates and other issues currently plagues Team Fortress 2 (and other Valve games) up to this day...At least, the Hat Wars didn't happen.
  • Countdown: Future! Engi does not have much time to give the warning.
  • Crates of Doom: The robo-crates.
  • Comically Missing the Point: RED Soldier does this and assumes that Future! Engi's message is open the crates.
  • Cyborg: Kisses Von Butternubs is a genetically enhanced Pomeranian.
    • The rest of the world, were everyone in 1999 has some sort of cyborg implantation, especially future! Engi and future! Pyro.
  • Dartboard of Hate: Gary has a "Hat-Wearing Man" magazine with Saxton Hale's picture on the cover, which is prop up on a wall and is used as a dartboard.
  • Epic Fail: The high tech printer that Gary has prints out a message.

fail...fail...fail...fail...fail...fail

"Perhaps you could design some robots that run on something other than money?"

  • It's a Long Story: Future! Engi says this, when asked how on earth did a pomeranian won the presidential election.
  • Losing Your Head: Future! Pyro.
  • Money to Throw Away: Pyro is shoving money in the fire place, as Engi looks on. Whereas, Soldier makes a money sandvich.
  • My Brain Is Big: Butternubs' brain is big, but it's protected by a dome.
  • My Future Self and Me: Future! Engi, from the far-off year of 1999, went back in time to warn the mercenaries to NOT open the "darn robo-crates".
  • New Tech Is Not Cheap: Since Gary sunk most of his whole fortune to building a robot army, he now has a bank account that barely has a dime.
  • Not So Different: The Scout-Bot is this, which isn't too far off of the real Scout.
Checking out wicked hot fem-bots?
—Scout-bot

"That implies some of us Haven't lost theirs already.

  • Sinister Surveillance: Gary Mann has cameras and whatnot to keep an eye on those "idiotic mercenaries"'s every step.
  • Skewed Priorities: Scout assumes that 1999 ain't all that bad, if everyone has a "wicked sweet" robot arm.
    • The mercs opened the robo-crates.
  • Time for Plan B: Gary Mann has a Plan B, a placing robotic hotdog hats that re-programs the bots to sell hats to the mercs.
  • Twenty Minutes Into the Future: It may be futuristic 1999, but there's some old technology that hasn't change even though it's implied that "everyone has wicked sweet robot arms."
  • The Von Trope Family: Kisses Von Butternubs is the intelligent pet of the Von Trope Family.
  • Wanting Is Better Than Having: The mercs have so much money after killing so many robots, they don't know what to do with the extra dough, and will go insane if this goes on much longer.
  • We Come in Peace, Shoot to Kill: The robots were just trying to get the mercs to buy their hats, but in fifteen minutes, RED team dominated and killed them.
  • We Need to Get Proof: Scout interrupts Future! Engi that needs proof from the latter to prove he's from the future.

"Hey, if you're from the future and all, who's the future president?"

"Expiration Date"

  • Always Someone Better: RED Scout tells Spy that he is "You're better than me." Spy agrees to help him, on one condition, Scout must speak on a mike and announce that Spy is better than him to the whole team.
  • Big No: Soldier exclaims "NO!" When told that there's more buckets.
  • Choke Hold: Soldier begins to strangle Scout and bangs him on the table. Lastly, he's about to punch the younger man in the process.

"We cannot teleport bread anymore."

  • Comically Missing the Point: Engi tells Soldier that he can teleport as much bread as he wants. Guess what Soldier does later on.
  • Funny Background Event: Seems Heavy recovered from Medic revealing the tumors found in the bread loaves. Because Heavy went back to eating his sandvich.
  • Inconvenient Summon: The Bread Monster was summoned by the Soldier, because he was "teleporting bread for three days straight."
  • Last Requests: RED Team does this: Solly wants the bucket, Scout on his final days wants to date Ms. Pauline, besides wanting other stuff to happen to Spy: getting hit by a car, having sexual congress with the Eiffel Tower, and the Eiffel Tower the one doing sexual congress on Spy.
  • Lost My Appetite: When Heavy heard Medic's shows the tumors and bread to him (and the rest of the team). He stop eating his sandvich midway and his expression says all.
  • Mass Teleportation: Soldier did this with loaves of bread.

"I've done nothing but teleport bread for three days."

  • Running Gag: The return of the "COPYRIGHT LOLOLOL" cards, to the point that one of the teammembers wrote card that says LOL and put it in the bucket.
  • Training Montage: Red Spy has Red Scout undergoes this, just so the latter can learn how to be romantic to a certain "classy one, who smells good and can read."
  • Teleportation Sickness: Judging from the tumors growing from some of the teleported breads, both Medic and Engi concluded that all of RED team gotten sick from using the teleporter a lot.
  • Shout Out: RED team's bread van hood ornament reads "Sword." A reference to Custom Comix's "Sword Van" comic.
    • In Spy's lounge room, there's a bowl of fruit painting that has a knife sticking ouf from an apple. This is a "Still Life with Fruit" (By Caravaggio) parody.
  • Sure, Let's Go with That:
"We both got buckets of chicken, wanna do it?"
—Scout
"Eh, okay."
—Blonde woman
  • You Have 3 Days: When RED team finds out that they only three days to live.

The Spoils of Love and War Update/The Spoils of Love and War

  • The Cameo: Ms. Pauline was with the mercs, she then refused the chicken that the Scout was offering.

Invasion Update/Team Fortress 2: The Invasion Update

Jungle Inferno Update/Team Fortress 2: The Jungle Inferno Update

  • And Your Reward Is Edible: Heavy won a free gift and it's Second Banana, which replenishes half the health of a Sandvich does, but faster.
  • Ascended Extra: Saxon Hale, who was only regulated to the comics, both big and minor, and the blogs, has a bigger role and introduced himself to those that never touched the comics.
  • Jet Pack: The Pyro get this during this update.
  • Nerfs: Some weapons, like the Spy's Ambassador and Dead Ringer, were nerf.
  • Pun-Based Title: "If Jurassic Park taught us one thing, it's life finds a way and Jurassic Park is a good idea to steal for an update." So, "Welcome to...Mercenary Park!"

The Second Annual Saxxy Awards/ The Second Annual Saxxy Awards are HERE! (Almost)

  • Ascended Extra: BLU Scout's Mom made an appearance and spoke, but this is also a cameo.
  • Gameplay and Story Segregation: Kinda played straight, the Saxxy award didn't turn invisible when RED spy cloak, thanks to a in-game bug. But it's fixed now.
  • I Kiss Your Hand: RED Spy does this to BLU Scout's Mom.
  • Movie-Making Mess: RED Heavy, RED Medic, and RED Soldier were making a Saxxy movie, but their incompetant handling of the strobe lights and barging into RED Spy's romantic moment, made their colleague giving them a suggestion.


  • Bathtub Scene: RED Spy was in the bathtub bathing and covered with soap bubbles, while playing a video game on the PC.
  • The Cameo: The Bread Monster from "Expiration Date" can be seen crawling around in the garage.
  • Candlelit Bath: RED Spy also had this set up.
  • In the Back: The sentry shot BLU Scout at the back while he was attempting to steal the intelligence.

The "Meet The Team" videos

  • A Day in the Limelight: Meet the Spy is the first video to focus on the BLU team (for the majority of its runtime, anyway), even if they are mostly talking about the RED Spy.
  • Black Comedy: Moreso than the game itself.
  • Butt Monkey: The BLU team is always horribly abused by the RED team in these videos. Also, the BLU Heavy is pretty much always the most obvious target. The RED Heavy, on the other hand, kills everything. This is a case of Gameplay and Story Segregation as well, as in the actual game, BLU is just as capable of winning.
    • Both the BLU Soldier and the BLU Heavy have died at least once in every video (except Meet the Scout, where BLU Heavy is "only" beaten unconscious).
    • Meet the Medic takes this Up to Eleven, with a the Heavy creating and sequentially climbing up a mountain of dead BLU Soldiers.
  • Cutscene Power to the Max: In their class videos, characters are much more competent and capable of feats they're not normally capable of, occasionally directly contradicting the way things work in-game.
  • Easter Egg: Not quite a Freeze-Frame Bonus, but worth pointing out: The title cards contain the phrase "COPYRIGHT LOLOLOL".
    • Except for Meet the Sandvich, which has "COPYRIGHT OMNOMNOM"
  • Early-Bird Cameo:
    • In Meet the Spy before Spy kills Sniper you can see a crate marked "Razorback", as well as jars of shelved Jarate and the Huntsman. These didn't debut until after Meet the Spy was leaked, although Jarate made its debut after the video's official release.
      • The practice of Valve including teasers for yet-to-be released items dates back to "Meet the Sniper", which included a brief glimpse of the Pyro holding a new gun, which was later added to the game as the flare gun - briefly enough to be considered a Freeze-Frame Bonus.
    • Jarate also makes an appearance in the title card and the time lapse sequence of "Meet the Sniper".
    • The Mac update video features Engineer holding the Frontier Justice, a month before the Engineer Update.
    • Also from "Meet the Spy", the BLU Scout (actually the RED Spy) is seen holding the Sandman in the beginning of the video, foreshadowing that the Spy would soon be able to emulate the unlockable weapons of the player he is disguised as. The BLU Sniper can be seen wearing the Trophy Belt before the hat was released.
  • Gameplay and Story Segregation: In addition to all characters being portrayed as incredibly over-powered in the "Meet the Team" videos, there are several times when they directly contradict established in-game abilities.
    • Meet the Engineer: the Engineer has many sentries up; in-game, he can only build one at a time.
    • Meet the Demoman: at one point, the Demoman lays a trap with sixteen sticky bombs, as opposed to the eight he can use in-game. (however, at one point in development, Demos actually could use sixteen stickies)
    • Meet the Sniper: one of the Sniper's shots kills a Heavy and continues on to injure the Demoman standing behind him. While true to life, shooting through multiple targets as a Sniper was not possible until the release of the Machina sniper rifle. (and before you ask, no, he's not using that rifle in the video)
    • Meet the Spy: perhaps the most Egregious example. Contradictions seen in this video include the RED Spy touching the briefcase while disguised as the BLU Scout (in a real CTF match, this would force the Spy to drop his disguise and pick up the briefcase) and the BLU Soldier shooting the BLU Spy (again, impossible, as friendly fire is not part of the vanilla game and, in fact, shooting teammates is an excellent way to check if they are spies). There's also him sliding a sapper under a sentry, again not actually possible in-game.
    • Meet the Medic: this video shows the first use of the Medic's prototype medigun, the Quick-Fix, and how he uses it to Über the Heavy. However, the Quick-Fix in the game cannot actually Über. (This was explained away as the original Über being so powerful it burned out that function of the prototype, though.) Secondly, although the ÜberChargeded Heavy changes his appearance as Übered players do in-game, the Medic does not, despite also changing his appearance when Übered in-game. Finally, when struck by rockets, rather than exploding and causing knockback like in real play, they simply bounce off the Übered Heavy.
    • Meet the Pyro: This video portrayed the Pyro as a class that can be a one man, er, woman army, but in-game it's tricky to do that (especially without help from teammates).
  • Running Gag: The "COPYRIGHT LOLOLOL" in each of the team's title cards.
  • Russian Guy Suffers Most: The BLU Heavy.
  • Sequel Escalation: Each new video is more adventurous hilariously violent than the last.
    • Starting from "Meet the Sandvich", the videos have broken away from their original interview-and-gameplay-footage structure, and the subsequent entries have actually had their own individual plots.
  • The Worf Effect: The BLU Heavy has been seen getting headshotted, backstabbed, destroyed by a missile (twice), knocked out for a Sandvich, exploded by stickies, and killed by a level 1 sentry.
    • Also the BLU Soldier, who has been killed by the same group of sentries as the Heavy, gibbed by the same stickies as the Heavy, headshotted by the same Sniper as the Heavy, backstabbed by the same Spy as the Heavy, hit by a train, and by being on the receiving end of the RED Heavy's Über Charge. Oh, and the Sandvich broke his spine.
    • The BLU Spy as well, being shoveled by the Soldier, detonated by the Demoman's stickies, backstabbed by the Sniper, headshotted by his own comrades, and being preserved as a head in a refrigerator by the Medic.
    • Let's just say that in general, RED pulls this off on BLU.

Meet The Heavy

  • Description Porn: Heavy introducing "Sasha".
  • Gameplay and Story Segregation: the Heavy claims his gun fires 10,000 rounds per minute, when it actually fires "only" 2,400 rounds per minute.
    • The in-game achievement for firing $100,000 worth of bullets in a single life uses the $200/cartridge figure and equates 1 cartridge with 1 ammo (the minigun reduces the ammo count by 1 ten times a second, and fires 4 shots 10 times a second). By this math, it would actually cost $24,000 to fire for 12 seconds. Forcing convoluted stats like this upon the world is probably why the Heavy is seen laughing uproariously in the next shot.
  • Freeze-Frame Bonus: Takes place on cp_dustbowl, although the interview scenes take place who knows where.
  • I Call It Vera: "Oh my God, who touched Sasha? ...WHO TOUCHED MY GUN?!?"
  • Sequel Escalation: The first: a simple character animation test consisting of an interview in one place with gameplay footage at the end.

Meet The Soldier

  • Cutscene Power to the Max:
    • The Soldier's rockets One-Hit Kill a Demoman, Heavy and Pyro into Ludicrous Gibs.
    • The Soldier uses a shovel to backhand a Spy decloaking to backstab him.
  • Did Not Do the Research: The Medic's head in The Stinger has a femur in its neck instead of a spinal column, though given the game's ridiculous art style, it gets by on Rule of Funny.
  • Freeze-Frame Bonus: Takes place on cp_granary.
  • Funny Background Event: When the Soldier hits the Spy with his shovel, a poster in the background reads, "No Smoking".
  • Memetic Badass: The Soldier seems set to make Sun Tzu as one, who, according to him: invented fighting, was a prizefighter, used his fight money to put two of every animal on a boat like Noah, "and then he beat the crap out of every single one!"
  • Offhand Backshovel
  • Sequel Escalation: The second: a vignette showing a pacing soldier giving a fantastic speech to a row of decapitated heads between clips of heated gameplay footage.
  • The Stinger: "Unless it's a farm!"
  • Stock Femur Bone: See Did Not Do the Research above.
  • Trick Dialogue: The Soldier is actually drilling the severed heads of the people he's just killed.

Meet The Engineer

Meet The Demoman

  • Badass Boast: "SO...t'all ya fine dandies, so proud, so cocksure, prancin' a-boot with yer heads fulla eyeballs! Come and get me, I say! I'll be waitin' for ya, with a whiff of the ol' brimstone! I'm a grim bloody fable...with an unhappy, bloody end!"
  • Cutscene Power to the Max: The Demoman kills opponents with near-impossible ricocheted grenades, and sets a trap with about a dozen stickybombs (his normal maximum is eight.)
    • All of this was possible when the video was released (still months before the game actually came out), but subsequent updates have brought this trope into play retroactively. There's a disclaimer about this at the end of the video:

Disclaimer: All information regarding Demoman grenade behavior was obtained from Australians believed to be reliable at the time. It is submitted subject to the possibility of errors, omissions, or nerfing without notice.

  • Freeze-Frame Bonus: Takes place on cp_gravelpit.
  • No OSHA Compliance: With equal parts Reckless Bomb Usage. A lit cigarette can be seen sitting on a crate of grenades on the left side of his desk. He drunkenly knocks a loose grenade off his desk which lites up and makes a "live" beep noise as it falls to the floor. And of course chugging down a bottle of whiskey as he's working on his explosives.
    • Amusingly he's doing all of this while describing to the viewers just how much precision it takes for him to do his job, and the horrible consequences otherwise.
  • Oh Crap: The BLU team's reaction to the sticky trap.
  • Outrun the Fireball: The Demoman does this at the beginning.
  • Sequel Escalation: The fourth: an interview with a seated, drinking Demoman in three parts, punctuated by highlighted examples of Demoman weapon use.
  • Sound Effect Bleep: "They got more f[3-second-long bleep] than they've got the likes of me."
    • This is used in one of the Blog's contests asking people to send in what they think was bleeped out. At the end of the contest, the winner of the "most accurate to the original script" category was something roughly like "They've got more fuckin' monsters in the Loch Ness than they got the likes of me."
  • Super Window Jump: While outrunning the fireball.

Meet The Scout

  • Ascended Extra: First appearance of The Sandvich.
  • Big Guy Rodeo: The Scout, with the help of his bat, does this to the Heavy.
  • Boisterous Bruiser: Especially while he was fighting the Heavy.
  • Cartoon Juggling: The Blu Soldier was entertaining his co-worker by juggling.
  • Catch Phrase: "Grass grows, birds fly, sun shines and brother--I hurt people!"
  • Cutscene Power to the Max: When Heavy is eating his Sandvich, he is also holding a shotgun. In-game, if you equip the sandvich, it replaces the shotgun.
    • For some reason, the Scout is able to resist being snapped in half by the Heavy at one point.
  • Dramatic Gun Cock: At the start, the RED Scout cocks his scattergun (lever-action shotgun) before he runs out the door.
  • Early-Bird Cameo: The Sandvich appeared in this video before it was released as an item.
  • Freeze-Frame Bonus: Takes place on both cp_granary and cp_well.
  • Flexing Those Non-Biceps: "Oh man, that's beautiful!"
  • Racing the Train: RED Scout manages to outrun a train, just to cross the train tracks and go to were BLU Heavy is.
  • Sequel Escalation: The fifth: an interview, after a long introduction with complicated camera movement, rapidly cutting back and forth between the scout's free-roaming grandstanding and his action-packed direct struggle with the Heavy.
  • Sound Effect Bleep: "If you were from, where I was from, you'd be f(beep)cking dead!"
  • You Have No Idea Who You're Dealing With

Meet The Sniper

Sniper: [Looking through the scope] I think his mate saw me.
[Bullet hits the rail next to him]
Sniper: Yes, yes he did.

Meet The Sandvich

  • Amusing Injuries: From the cut lines - "Gimme back my legbone! OW! Don't hit me with it!"
    • In the actual video, what the actual lines and chaos:

      "You call that breaking my spine, you RED team ladies wouldn't know how to break a spi-(CRACK!!!) - Ow, my spine!!!"

  • Bad Vibrations: Kinda averted, the huge footfalls can be heard and some of the beer bottles shaking as RED Heavy makes his way to the fridge to grab a sandvich (Bad if you're BLU Scout and BLU Soldier).
  • Big OMG: Scout repeatedly says this.
  • Gory Battle Discretion Shot: The second half of the scene.
  • Satiating Sandwich: After when RED Heavy takes half of the sandvich from the fridge, he eats it, and was able to defeat his foes.
  • Sequel Escalation: The seventh: a beatdown over a food item whose perspective is entirely inside a refrigerator, finishing with gameplay footage.
  • Signature Laugh: RED Heavy's trademark laugh can be heard as he punch out all of BLU Scout's blood and other things.

Meet The Spy

Administrator: Intruder Alert! RED Spy in the base!
Soldier: A RED Spy is in the base?
Administrator: Protect the briefcase!
Soldier: We need to protect the briefcase!

  • Chekhov's Gunman: The Soldier should have stopped to wonder why the Scout was trying to pry open the door instead of putting in the code.
  • Crazy Prepared: Those panels in the beginning say things like 'Has evil twin' and 'Found Dracula'. They can all be seen here.
  • Curse Cut Short:
    "What the -!"
    —Scout
  • Cutscene Power to the Max/Gameplay and Story Segregation/Never Trust a Trailer:
    • The RED Spy slides a sapper under a sentry gun.
    • The RED Spy touches the intelligence briefcase (without taking it) without losing his disguise. Although this could be justified by the fact that he didn't actually pick up the briefcase.
    • There's also the scene where he disguises as the Medic, which works entirely differently from how it does in game. In particular, the fact that he incapacitates him with a single karate chop, which probably wouldn't work even if it was possible in this game.
    • The BLU intel room has a locked door with a keypad--all in-game doors open automatically or when an objective is completed.
    • The Soldier pops a friendly Spy's head with a single shotgun blast. While friendly fire with reduced damage is possible in-game with the server-side variable set, the shotgun doesn't do special damage for headshots and can never kill in 1 hit, and even if it could, heads don't gib that way in the game.
      • The shotgun in question also sounds like the Spy's revolver when the Soldier fires it.
  • Defensive "What?": The Soldier after blasting the Spy.
  • The Dev Team Thinks of Everything: Eventualities the BLU base monitor system is prepared to report:
  • Everyone Is a Suspect
  • Eyes Are Unbreakable: Instead of properly exploding, the Spy's eye pops off.
  • Fake Shemp: Engineer, Sniper, Medic use sound clips lifted straight from their in-game dialogue lines rather than new voice-acted scripts.
    • Same goes for the Scout during he first twenty seconds or so.
  • Foreshadowing: The Spy's true identity is subtly hinted at-- Scout doesn't know the doorcode, when the BLU Spy walks in with the Sniper's corpse over his shoulder, the Scout checks to see if the knife is still in its back, and at 2:42, he makes sure no one is going to see what he's about to do.
    • Also, the Alarm-O-Tron 5000 board gives a hint about who the RED Spy is disguised as. Three consecutive alerts read "BLU Scout", "Has Evil Twin", and "RED Spy".
  • Freeze-Frame Bonus: Takes place on a modified 2Fort with a new security door and massive wall of alerts (the latter does appear in-game, but only on Doublecross).
  • Funny Background Event: The possible messages on the Alarm-O-Tron 5000 alert system. Blink and you'll miss it, or just see above.
  • The Guards Must Be Crazy: In-game, a Scout is easily the worst class for a Spy to disguise as (the Spy can't match the Scout's speed), yet the BLU team STILL couldn't figure out who the RED Spy was.
    • Probably because he never had to run.
      • Also, he tries to open a password-locked door by force... though the others have trouble remembering the password too.
  • Head-Tiltingly Kinky: The Heavy and the Soldier, in reaction to the pictures produced by the BLU Spy.
  • I Banged Your Mom: The red spy banged the blue scouts mom.
  • Ironic Echo: While not repeated word for word, it's still close enough to count.

Spy:...then we still have a problem.
Soldier: And a knife!
Scout [sarcastic]: Ooh, big problem!
Later:
Heavy: So, we still got problem.
Soldier: Big problem. {{Back Stab problem asserts itself}}

  • Killed Mid-Sentence: The BLU Spy.
  • Mistaken for Spies: The BLU Spy is mistaken for a double-agent.
  • Mook Horror Show/Perspective Flip: Told from the perspective of the BLU team, as the BLU Spy warns the others about how dangerous the RED Spy is, who is shown dispatching several BLU members.
    • It's fairly ingenious as the other videos (except "Meet the Sandvich") have the RED members talk about themselves, which would be out of character for a Spy; telling it from the other perspective maintains the mysterious nature of the RED Spy.
  • Neck Snap: The RED Spy kills the BLU Medic with a karate chop to the neck.
  • Open Says Me: BLU Spy, Blu Soldier, and Blu Heavy done this to the door just to check if the intelligence is still there.
  • The Password Is Always 1111: Made even funnier by the fact that although the "1" button on the BLU intel room keypad is dirty and worn out, implying that it has been used very often, the Soldier enters the first three digits, then has to stop and think to remember the last one and then grins when the door opens, like he's proud of himself for getting the code right.
  • Pistol-Whipping: The BLU Sniper hears the RED Spy and tries to jab him with the butt of his rifle. It doesn't work.
  • A Riddle Wrapped in a Mystery Inside An Enigma: Valve's written description of The Spy for the video begins, "He is a puzzle, wrapped in an enigma, shrouded in riddles, lovingly sprinkled with intrigue, express mailed to Mystery, Alaska..."
  • Scars Are Forever: The Sniper has had a scar across his face in-game ever since the Spy cut him in this video.
  • Sequel Escalation: The eighth: a tale of intrigue with direct character interaction cutting back and forth between the Spy's action-packed narrative and the exploits and nuanced interactions of the characters in the intel room. Plus, an all-"new" character model for the Scout's mom.
  • Sound Effect Bleep:

Spy: And now he's here to f[beep] us!

  • Spot the Imposter: The basic plot of the video.
  • Stupid Statement Dance Mix: After the RED Spy reveals himself, pay attention to the TF2 theme snippet...
  • Unsafe Haven: The intel is behind a locked door, but the password is 1111, which is obvious from the "1" being the only button that's seen use, and the Heavy was able to shoulder-barge the door, destroying it.
  • Wrong Genre Savvy: When the Soldier kills the BLU Spy, expecting him to have been the villain all along, only to discover he was actually disguised as the Scout.
  • Your Head Asplode
  • Your Mom: Done oh so very right by the BLU Spy by actually backing it up with his dossier on the Scout's mom, showing photos of her sleeping with the RED Spy. Most likely the best use of the line ever.

Meet The Medic

  • Adjusting Your Glasses: Type 3. The Medic adjusts his glasses before turning on his Quick-Fix.
  • And I Must Scream: The RED Medic has the severed head of a BLU Spy preserved in his medical refrigerator. The Spy happens to be still alive, and capable of talking.

Spy: Kill me.
Medic: Later.

Archimedes: *Coo*

RED Scout: (knocked down by a blast, he sees another volley of rockets flying at him) Whoa, who the f*KABOOM*AAAAAAAAHHHHH-- *crash* ...Medic.

  • Cutscene Incompetence: The Medic's ÜberCharge in the video does not make him invincible as well. Justified in that he most likely hasn't given himself a heart implant yet. On the other side of the battlefield, none of the Soldiers are firing at said vulnerable Medic.
  • Cutscene Power to the Max: Mostly averted, but the Medic is keeping a severed head alive indefinitely, and a RED Demoman is on the battlefield in a wheelchair. The Medigun also seems to have a low setting, as he's keeping the Heavy alive, conscious, and mostly out of pain without his heart and with his chest cut open, but without healing him.
    • The Soldiers' rockets also curve in mid-air to hit the Scout during the opening sequence.
    • The Heavy's ÜberCharge also seems to be making him immune to the rockets' knockback--in fact, the rockets don't even detonate, they just bounce off him as if they were airblasted. This actually makes sense when one notes that the Medic is using the Quick-Fix instead of the vanilla Medigun. The Quick-Fix's ÜberCharge does, in fact, render the patient immune to knockback. It doesn't make the patient invulnerable, but the description of the Quick-Fix notes that this is because the invulnerability function of the Quick-Fix shorted out after that first test, forcing the Medic to focus on one benefit or the other.
  • Dark Reprise: The first part of the soundtrack, which plays when the RED Scout is fleeing from a barrage of rockets, is a slowed down version of "Faster than a Speeding Bullet".
  • Development Gag: Apparently, the disembodied Spy head is a remnant from an earlier version of the short.
  • Dissonant Serenity: While the Medic's anecdote about losing his medical license (see below) is a little bit disturbing, it's still kind of jarring to hear him and Heavy laughing and chatting casually while a battle rages outside and Medic is currently performing surgery on Heavy while the latter is awake.
  • Disturbed Doves: The Medic has a fair flock of doves, apparently as pets. When he leaves his operating room and takes the field with the Heavy, a bunch of them fly out of the garage to mark his entrance. They also fly by when he and the Heavy are standing atop a pile of Soldiers.
  • Evil Laugh: The Medic. Hoo boy, the Medic. He's enjoying himself when he really shouldn't be.
  • Fourth Wall Psych: Right before the title card the BLU rockets appear to send the Scout smashing into the camera only for it to turn out to just be a window.
  • Freeze-Frame Bonus: It's hard to tell what map this takes place in, but according to Valve, it's a modified version of Badwater Basin. To fit this trope, it takes a bit to time to see that the entire contents of the refrigerator are a Sandvich, three hearts ("Mega Baboon", "Loch Ness Hamster", and one label too small to read), three bottles of Red Shed beer, the BLU Spy's head, a battery for the head, and an ashtray.
  • Funny Background Event: In the final scene, all of RED team is sitting in the Medic's waiting room, waiting for their own ÜberCharge implants. The Pyro is reading a magazine (with "The Insult That Made a 'Jarate Master' Out of Sniper" on the back cover) while playing with a lighter, the Sniper is sleeping, the Demoman is drinking, the Spy is looking at his ticket, the Engineer is playing his guitar, and the Soldier is standing at attention, eschewing the chairs.
    • During the start of the last battle scene, you can also see the Pyro near the cliff, running away from the mass of Soldiers in the funny 'humiliation' run cycle.
    • Check out the background at the start of the surgery scene. The x-rays in the light box show the Heavy has had a bomb lodged inside him. The extracted bomb is in the bucket underneath the x-rays. The Medic's Overdose can be seen by the bucket.
    • During the heart scene, several clips are run together very quickly. In one, the Medic's doves can be seen for a fraction of a second... nervously moving away from Archimedes, who got rather bloodstained in a humorous fashion earlier in the video. The implied Running Gag is ultimately averted, however. Also, Miss Pauling can be seen watching from a window in those two scenes.
    • When the Heavy's heart explodes, the monitor in the background flatlines. When the Medic gets a new heart out, the monitor resumes its earlier display.
  • Healing Factor: "Oh, don't be such a baby. Ribs grow back! [aside] No they don't."
  • Heroic Comedic Sociopath: Since it's his class video, the Medic gets played for this even moreso than usual in the course of regular gameplay, but he definitely buries the needle deep into the 'sociopath' side.
  • I Have No Idea What I'm Doing/Indy Ploy, For Science!: The field test of the first ÜberCharge.

Heavy: Doctor! Are you sure this will work?
Medic: Ha-ha! I HAVE NO IDEA!!!!

  • Instant Bandages: The Scout and Demoman have somehow acquired bandages on the battlefield, and the Demoman is rolling around in a wheelchair before being healed by the Medic.
  • Last-Note Nightmare: Inverted; the score "A Little Heart to Heart" remains in minor and chromatic sequences through most of the song, but then at the last note, turns into a major chord.
  • Laugh with Me: Heavy's belly laughs were completely genuine until he learned that the anecdote was actually about the Medic, after which this trope comes into play full swing.
  • Lock and Load Montage: More like a 'get dressed to kill' montage with the Medic putting on his gloves, labcoat, and backpack.
  • Mad Doctor: It has never been clearer. ÜberCharges are apparently the result of the Medic slapping some sort of insane device on a heart (any heart will do) and placing it in the subject's chest before using the Medigun on him. He ends up blowing up the Heavy's original heart (passing it off as "progress") and outfitting him with some sort of super-baboon heart. Not to mention the severed Spy head, and his anecdote about removing some poor schmuck's skeleton during an operation.
    • He also clearly tries to comfort Heavy after he breaks his own rib by saying that they grow back, before whispering to Archimedes that they don't [1].
  • Meatgrinder Surgery: Heavy's surgery, to an extent. For one thing, it involves Medic forcefully shoving the new heart into Heavy's chest cavity when it doesn't quite fit...only to actually break off one of Heavy's ribs.

Medic: Oh, don't be such a baby, ribs grow back! (aside, to his doves) No, zey don't.

    • Not forgetting the fact that Heavy's heart was IN THE MEDIC'S HANDS for over a minute, then BLEW UP, then was replaced by a new one... from a baboon.
    • And Heavy was awake the whole time.

Heavy: Should I be awake for this?
Medic: Well, no. But as long as you are, could you hold your rib cage open a bit?

  • Mix-and-Match Critters: Although we only see its heart, there's the apparent "Loch Ness Hamster."
  • Noodle Incident: How the Medic lost his medical license.
  • Only a Flesh Wound: Heavy goes through open heart surgery (if you could call it "surgery"), only to have his entire chest cavity healed over in seconds by the Medigun.
  • Oracular Head: The BLU Spy in the fridge.
  • Out of the Inferno: The Heavy gets to indulge in one during his first ÜberCharge, as the rockets of a dozen Soldiers fail to stop him.

Ahhhahaha! I AM BOOLETPROOF!

Heavy: What happens now?
Medic: Now? [chuckle] Let's go practice medicine.

Demoman: FREEDOM!

Medic: [To the Heavy] Oh, don't be such a baby. Ribs grow back! [To his doves] No, zey don't!

  • Ubermensch: In a bit of a Genius Bonus (cryptically answered, in the usual way, by Valve), Medic draws a lot of parallels to Zarathustra in the video. Both mention doves and aim to transcend humanity, but in the original version of the video, he states he doesn't want to be a God, but instead, create them:

Medic: I could do in seconds what would take other doctors months! I could take men to the peak of health- and beyond! I could make gods!

Meet The Pyro

  • Baby Language: The chibi baby Blu Team laughs, coos, and scream in these sounds.
  • Basted With Extreme Prejudice: The Blu Soldier clutches his chest, which has a circular hole, and falls down dead.
  • Battle Amongst the Flames: The whole vid mostly is fire in the background as Blu Team fighting for survival and attempting to attack the Red Pyro.
  • Bubble Gun: How the flamethrower appears as in "Pryovision", just shooting bubbles and rainbows.
  • Butt Monkey: Like in the previous "Meet the Team" series, the Blu Team gets at the wrong end of the flamethrower and axe.
  • Camera Abuse: The Red Scout gets up and knocks over the interviewer's camera. Later on in the short, Red Pryo rams an axe onto Blu Heavy, some of the latter's blood splatters onto the screen.
  • Chibi: The Blu Team appears as weird yet cute babies when viewed in Pryovision.
  • Complete Monster: The Red Spy sees his partner as a sadist and a monster when he states, "One shudders to imagine what inhuman thoughts lie behind that mask. What dreams of chronic and sustained cruelty?"
  • Death Wails: The agonizing screams from the Blu Team as they were burn alive.
  • Distinctive Appearances: Early in the short, silhouettes of Blu Demoman and the rest of Blu Team can be seen running and hiding.
  • The Dreaded: Both Red and Blu Teams sees the Pryo as this.

Red Heavy: "I fear no man...But that thing, scares me."

    • Red Scout: "No I ain't gonna talk about that freak alright...(Nervous fumbling and pauses)...He's not here, is she?"

  • Falling to Their Death: Some explosions flung the Blu Spy into the air, then he fell.
  • Freeze-Frame Bonus: A short clip appears on the screen of one of the employees' computers in "Portal 2 Perpetual Testing Initiative".
    • The beginning of the short shows the Medic's glasses, Demoman's bottle, and Sniper's bullets.
  • I'm Not Afraid of You: RED Heavy tells the interviewer this is what he feels about other people, they don't scare him. Except, that "Thing."
  • Irony: The Heavy calls everyone "Babies", while in this short, the Pyro sees Heavy (and the other adults) as a cute chibi babies.
  • Hollywood Giftwrap: The gifts that the chibi baby Blu Doctor was hiding in counts as these, the boxes and lids are giftwrap and have bows on them.
  • Level Ate: Some of the trees, bushes, and pathways of Pryoland are lollipops and fruit roll-ups.
  • Kill It with Fire: Most of the short has the Pyro burning everything and the opposite team alive.
  • Men on Fire: Blu Team becomes this.

    • Blu Demoman:"I'm burning!"

  • Menacing Stroll: To the Blu Team, the Red Pyro strolls up into the base, axe and flamethrower in hand.
  • Mental World: "Meet the Pyro" is actually a journey inside the Pyro's mind.
  • Murder by Cremation: The Pyro locks the Blu Medic into one of the wooden shacks, bars the entrance with an axe, and proceeds to burn down the building.
  • No Range Like Point-Blank Range: The Pyro shoots Blu Heavy at point black, shortly later uses Scorch Shot on Blu Scout and sets the Blu Sniper aflame at the end. All shots are point blank.
  • Mood Whiplash: When the trailer switches to Pryoland (and Pyrovision is activated), the song "Do You Believe In Magic?" plays, it contrasts heavily when it scene shifts to "Dreams of Cruelty" and the real world.
  • Oh Crap|Big No: The Blu Medic screams "No." As the Pryo locks him up in a shed and set it aflame.
  • Open Says Me: Red Pyro kicks down the door of one of the shacks.
  • Pretty Butterflies: In Pyroland, some butterflies are seen flying around.
  • Psychotic Man Child: The "Meet the Pyro" short, dives into the Pyro's mind, were he sees the world as a fun, happy cute land, Pryoland, that's ruled by Mayor Balloonicorn.
  • Sequel Escalation: The tenth and final episode: introducing the Pyro and entering his...Her...Mysterious mind. The episode takes a different tone from its predecessors: one minute it's funny and cheery, the next is filled with horror and dread.
  • Ridiculously Cute Critters: The Balloonicorn and the round cat-like critters in the "Meet the Pyro".
  • Running Gag: The Red Scout uses both "He" and "She," this is part of a long running gag about the Pryo's Ambiguous Gender.
    • "COPYRIGHT LOLOLOL".
  • Skip of Innocence: Pryo does some skipping and prancing while in Pryoland.
  • The Stinger: After the ending title cards, the Red Pryo leaves the scene whistling "Do You Believe In Magic?" as the small town burns.
  • Stripped to the Bone: The ending shows some of the charred remains of BLU Team, mainly their bones in semi-silhouette form.
  • Sugar Bowl: Pyroland is a Sugar Bowl version of the Team Fortress 2 world, filled with lollipops, bright colors, cuteness, chibi babies, and balloon critters.
  • Theme Song Reveal: "Dreams of Cruelty" sets the stage and tone of the whole "Meet the Pyro" video.
  • Voodoo Shark: BLU Soldier's chest hole appears like his Voodoo-Cursed Soul.
  • Winged Humanoid: With Pryovision, the Blu Team are chibi babies with wings.


  1. ↑ In fitting with the theme that the Medic is completely unqualified, his claim that ribs don't grow back is completely false
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