I Like Her

God Gale as a motivational coach and his guest Astarion lul

Run before they are trying to sell you some NFT's!

The pinnacle of gender envy for me is specifically gl!Charlie slime demon. Like I want to be a grubby slimy guy that kidnaps people and forces them to cook me slime.

Spiderman ATSV did in one movie what MCU failed to do with multiple movies and shows in the past 5 years.

Reignite my love for superheroes.

Hear me out baby dragon Malleus and child Riddle meeting as a hypothetical

Cause the way you draw those two is either the cutest of children or CURSED CHILD

It happened beause... let's say time travel shenanigans. Malleus was sent to the future, landed straight into Riddle's head, and now, Riddle has fully shifted into Caretaker mode because he is fully convinced that Malleus is a baby. Let's also say this happens before he meets Trey and Chenya so he still has his 1 entire hour of free time.

I think that Riddle would try really hard to be rational about it, but man, he is also a kid that found a whole ass dragon. He is happy, enchanted, and he is having the best damn summer of his life. He can't tell it to anyone, because he has no friends AND he is sure his mom would take Malleus away AND he is sure the police would also just take him away, so he just tries to spend as much time with Malleus as possible and makes sure he has everything he needs.

They spend a lot of time together. Riddle believes he is finally making a little friend, and then, Malleus disappears. Magic is over, he is back in the past, but Riddle has no way of knowing this.

So, he just assumes he imagined the whole thing. Silly him, why would a dragon meet him like that? Those are super rare, and there are no faes around. He must have read something about dragon fae and dreamed something very sweet for himself. It's fine. He tries not to think about it. Hurts a little. Life goes on, regardless.

Years pass, he enters Night Raven and then...

...well, suddenly he is forced to remember that little lizard he met years ago.

I'm a firm believer in the idea that Pyro doesn't naturally see in "Pyrovision," but that it's a side effect of their mask/the optics inside it. I feel like they still know what they're doing, though. The rest of the mercs very much know the reality of their job, although some of them see it in a slightly different perspective.

Sniper sees his job as assassinating those who deserve it — only killing people who are "rotten" (as described by his adoptive mother.)

He says himself in the Meet The Sniper short that he isn't a "crazed gunman." He doesn't kill for the sake of killing, he only kills who he thinks should be killed. He's an assassin, it's an occupation. He does it for his job, and states that as a professional, he has standards.

Heavy sees his job as getting rid of "evil men." When discussing taking back his job, he emphasizes that specifically. He isn't just killing anyone, he's killing those who are deemed the bad guys.

We also know he does all he can to protect his family, and his family knows this just as well. He only attacks when it is necessary for him and his family's safety, and/or will benefit them in some capacity. (He's gone through a lot and I feel like we as a fandom don't discuss that enough. I did an analysis over Heavy's past one time in a Discord server and I might post it here if anyone is interested.)

In the Meet The Pyro video, we see how they allegedly view the world. A fairytale-like place full of rainbows, bubbles, sparkles, and almost cherub-esque versions of the enemy mercs.

While it is very easy to just assume this is how they view everything naturally, I don't think it's ever been 100% confirmed that this is the case.

The biggest thing for me is the Pyrovision Goggles in-game. The fact that they can be worn by any class, and it effects all of the mercs the same way, makes me believe that it truly is a result of the optical mask/the lenses within them that makes Pyro see what they do. It would've been so easy to make this cosmetic only available to Pyro, but it isn't.

The fact the goggles includes the "optical mask" text in the center, much like Pyro's mask itself, just pushes the idea that Pyroland is all an optical illusion. Obviously it was never real in the first place, but I don't think it's how Pyro sees everything naturally.

Tying back to the beginning of this post, I believe Pyro knows what they're doing. They know that they're spreading fire and not bubbles and rainbows. But perhaps they keep the mask on for the sake of their own psyche, to make it easier for them to do their job. Much like how Heavy and Sniper justify their jobs by seeing it as killing "evil men," or killing those who are "rotten," maybe Pyro uses their mask and goggles to tune out the dark truth of what they do. It could be yet another reason as to why Pyro never removes their mask.

i feel like ppl who are against kids transitioning don’t understand the degree to which pediatrics are fine with medical intervention for kids. like really? this is where you draw the line?

Scout and Miss Pauling friendship is one of my fave things to think about but I think a lot of people look over the more complex parts (as complex as fucking. TF2 lore gets) like Scout feelings for Miss Pauling are genuine and he's mostly just really lame about it rather the internally a creep but Miss Pauling doesn't owe liking him due to that, even if you go in the transfem Scout route. I think there have to be a talk and a lot of awkward feelings but i think after a while they would be good friends. Sorry to ramble here in your askbox I just wish this dynamic was explored more in the fandom without outright dismissing character traits of either of them.

No yeah ur literally so right n I've def talked before about how this is the ONE vaguely complex canon character thing I get to be snotty about and that I think like. there are Implications(tm) if you choose to make it so that Scout was NEVER attracted to Pauling ever (usually bc "he's gay") or Pauling is actually attracted to men and now she and Scout can date!! like I'm trying not to be A Hater but I rlly do think a lot of people just haven't deconstructed how they think about men (for the sake of the intentions of the source material, Scout will be a man in this post) who are attracted to women, especially the "loser who gets the girl in the end" archetype. If Scout is attracted to Pauling, he is not in any way owed her reciprocation, EVEN IF she were attracted to men. And people have friends that they're attracted to who don't reciprocate for whatever reason and they manage to work it out. The actual canon Scout/Pauling dynamic (which is that he's really into her and thinks she's into him but she's not and he's lame) IS very funny, but if you want to imagine any sort of closure for these characters it has to involve him coming to terms with it and like. learning to deal. I am SO happy that there seem to be absolutely zero hints of Scout and Pauling actually hooking up at the end of the comic (but what do I know) bc I am SICK of every piece of media on the planet feeling the need to shove a man and a woman together because he likes her and therefore deserves her. This is like, tf2 level nuance! It's extremely simple! Idk this is such like. a common relationship thing that happens in real life and if people can't handle it when cartoon hat people do it idk how they'd handle it if it were happening to them or to one of their friends

lukewarm take but i personally do not give a shit if poor people cheat a system that was designed to fail them anyways. i also coincidentally do not enjoy the taste of boot rubber

@dreary-giraffe

This is a good question! And the answer is: I think the community made up the 'Fritz' part. Pretty sure that's what his name is in Emesis Blue (which is, incidentally, the video that reached up from my Recommended list and violently dragged me back into this fandom, hahah).

But as far as I know, the only name we know canonically is 'Ludwig,' and we're not sure if it's his first or his last name.

HOWEVER:

This sign is featured in the Man vs. Machine map 'Rottenburg.'

According to the wiki, this is a blurb from the official update that included this map:

"The second of our Two Cities finds the mercs defending the Medic's vaguely European hometown of Rottenburg — a sprawling village famous for its centuries-old traditions of 1) chasing the next in the resident lineage of mad doctors out of town with torches and pitchforks whenever they swapped out too many super-charged baboon hearts,"

Huh. Interesting.

Now, this is just conjecture, but this implies two things:

Ludwig is his first name, and his last name is Humboldt

HIS ENTIRE FAMILY LINE IS LIKE THIS

Of course, it's also possible that he was unrelated to whatever local mad scientist there was when he was a kid, but he decided 'hey, I'd like to do that too' and then grew up to eventually take over the pharmacy for himself. There are plenty of mom-and-pop type places that are operated by someone whose last name isn't actually on the sign.

So until Valve says something, we don't really know what his last name is - this is just an extremely strong hint.

For the purpose of this blog, though, his name is Dr. Ludwig Humboldt. I haven't yet decided what Misha's last name is.

Speaking of Misha... apropos of nothing, but here's a shot from the supply room in the same map.

(Hahaha floating syringe. Why is it floating? Because players aren't supposed to be able to look at this room from this angle. When viewed from above, you don't notice it's floating.)

Anyway, I saw someone else once point out that our boy Ludwig is fucking obsessed with making diagrams of Misha. He studies him like he's the perfect specimen.

What's that? You want a close up of the diagram? Of course!

"This is the ideal male body. You may not like it, but this is what peak performance looks like." -- Ludwig, probably

Anyway, as you can see, we unfortunately can't read the text when we zoom in. (EDIT: Actually, yes you can, at [this link]!) But I do have to note that it is hilarious that the ammo pouches and bandolier are part of the diagram, as if they're an essential part of his anatomy. That is also literally just an A-posed model they loaded in and slapped a skeleton on top of.

I choose to believe Ludwig made this diagram in Blender himself.

Jergal, the scribe of the dead, the archivist—this three fates motherfucker who refuses to elaborate on personal questions but waxes philosophical about your adventure, protects you, ensures your success, brings you back into the fray, puts you back on your feet, helps you mold yourself into whatever you want to be, this strange reverse-psychopomp—is the only god who did not reject Astarion.

Astarion, a finicky undead who went to law school once upon a time who is never seen at camp without a book in his hands. Astarion who passes more perception and insight checks than anyone else in my games. Astarion with his mediocre Charisma stat but higher than average Intelligence stat. Astarion who ONE HUNDRED PERCENT probably put together who Old Man Withers was but just shrugged like "I got other shit going on and I'm not about to kick a skeleton out of the closet."

I want Old Man Withers as Astarion's Grampa Figure. Astarion CALLING Withers an elvish equivalent of "Gramps". (U'osi/U'osu?? That's so cute wtf)