#Pyrovision

[artsy-n-smartsy]

Pyroland

I have been wanting to explore Pyroland for a while. There's a lot of untapped potential here, and while TF2's canon is somewhat conflicting, I wanted to put together some pieces of information that are integral to not only Pyroland, but also to our beloved masked friend :D

This is a long post so I will be hiding it under the cut. I hope that it is interesting to you all! While I don't dive too much into theories (I do explain some of my own thoughts later in the post), I think what I have here could help fuel headcanons and such.

Let's get started :)

WHAT IS KNOWN

Let's go over the known inhabitants first. Besides our star, Pyro (more on him later!), we can get some information from Balloonicorn's in-game description:

"Oh my goodness! Is it Balloonicorn? The Mayor of Pyroland? Don't be ridiculous, we're talking about an inflatable unicorn. He's the Municipal Ombudsman. Between you and me, Balloonicorn's a joke down at City Hall. Gary Brottman, the inflatable Sewer Superintendent, is sleeping with Balloonicorn's wife. Anyway, when he's riding around on your shoulder don't mention ANY of this to him, because Balloonicorn is on a hair trigger and he's usually pretty drunk."

So from this, we have:

☆Balloonicorn; the Municipal Ombudsman (the entity in charge of representing the interests of the citizens within a town or district). According to his in-game description, he is "on a hair trigger" and "usually pretty drunk". As we know, he's an inflatable unicorn.

☆Balloonicorn's wife; her appearance and occupation are unknown. She is having an affair with......

☆Gary Brottman; the Sewer Superintendent (the entity in charge of the sewage system). He is an inflatable of an unknown species.

This would have been all the info here; however, I wanted to share an alternate/extended take on Balloonicorn's description, which could be found on multiple websites where the IRL piece of merchandise, the Inflatable Balloonicorn, was sold.

Aside from how Balloonicorn is portrayed as a moocher in the second paragraph...

"Gary Brottman, the inflatable Sewer Superintendent, was seen playing patty-cake with Balloonicorn's wife."

...Since we know from the original description that Balloonicorn's wife and Gary are sleeping together, this could mean that patty-cake is an equivalent to sex in Pyroland. Whether this is canon or simply a nod to Who Framed Roger Rabbit?—or both—is up to interpretation. (I'm choosing to believe it's canon because it's funny <w<)

Next up! We also know what Pyroland looks like, thanks to Meet the Pyro and to various pieces of concept art.

While the six images above are concept art, they bare heavy resemblance to, if not resembling outright, the Pyroland seen in Meet the Pyro, so we can safely assume it is canon. If anything, some of the concept art is clearer!

WHAT WE CAN ASSUME

Based on our observations, we can rather safely assume the following:

☆Pyro is the mayor of Pyroland. Rather obvious of a point, since it's in the name, but I did notice that one of the archways bear Pyro's resemblance, and so do the party streamers. Pyro is clearly an important figure here.

I lean towards Pyro being the mayor, as opposed to any other leadership title, because Balloonicorn's description mentioned there being a "mayor of Pyroland", while dismissing the idea of Balloonicorn fulfilling that role. It just makes sense for it to be Pyro.

☆Pyroland is made up of things that Pyro likes. If one can create their own city, why not truly make it their own? From this, we can assume that Pyro likes:

Music - his weapons are replaced by musical instruments, and "Do You Believe in Magic?" is quite literally about finding the magic in music. I'd be willing to bet that music is one of Pyro's all-time favorite things, second to fire.

Animals - specifically "cute" ones like kitties, puppies and hamsters (all inflatable animals we see during Meet the Pyro). This is also supported by the comics, as Pyro adopts a dalmatian!

Sweets - There are many candies and other sweets scattered around. In-game, medkits are replaced by cake while using Pyrovision.

Flowers - Big, bright flowers decorate the land, both in grassy areas and within the town itself. Plus, Pyro's purse (which can be seen in multiple respawn rooms in the cubbies) has a flower on it :)

Parties - There are party streamers hanging around the town, and medkits become cake while in Pyrovision. Also, Balloonicorn and the other inflatable animals (plus the unseen Gary Brottman) are all balloon-like.

[Note: from this point on, I delve a bit into theory territory and express my own opinions. I do keep it all backed up by evidence, however :>]

SOMETHING I NOTICED!

Upon a rewatch of Meet the Pyro, I noticed that the set of matches on the title card not only has Balloonicorn, but also text that reads "Est. 1956"!

If these matches, and thus Balloonicorn's likeness, exist outside of Pyroland and within the TF2 world at large, then what does this mean for Balloonicorn?

Considering how Pyroland has party elements (the streamers, balloon-like inhabitants, and cakes), it wouldn't be too far off to assume that Balloonicorn could be a party mascot, and the matches he's printed on could be for lighting birthday candles.

With the establishment year being 1956, and TF2 taking place in the late 1960s and beyond (taking the game and comics into account)...could it be that Balloonicorn was a key figure in Pyro's life when he was younger, and that's how he ended up with a prominent role within Pyroland? Perhaps; while Pyro's age is unknown, one can form attachments to characters at any time of their life.

Whether Balloonicorn's lore is a result of him taking on a life of his own within Pyroland is a mystery. Although, with the tone of TF2 in mind, it wouldn't be out of the ordinary for their real-world Balloonicorn to possess those same qualities as well.

My Own Thoughts

Some people argue about whether Pyro is aware of what he does. I have reason to believe he is aware; in Meet the Pyro, he shut the present that the baby Medic hid inside of, while, in reality, Pyro had trapped the actual Medic inside the wooden shed and burned him. If Pyro truly believed he was playing with a baby...why would he so confidently encase the baby inside the box, and risk harming the poor thing? He knew what he was doing. He's playing with babies in Pyroland because that's what it feels like to torture his targets. It's similar to how Heavy taunts his opponents by calling them babies. (For that reason, I believe the babies aren't truly inhabitants of Pyroland, though that's just my opinion.)

I've always seen Pyroland and Pyrovision moreso as representations for how Pyro feels when causing carnage. After all, it seems fire is what fuels Pyrovision. It brings Pyro much joy. So much, that it quite literally restores the color to his life.

How I wish we were given a comic about the inner workings of Pyroland.

[anonomi]

Just found out the font used for Pyro's happy Pyrovision is from Pou.

Yes the same brown blob Pou

[krowmachine]

Day 4: Pyrovision

Wowza! Butterflies, rainbows, pretty flowers everywhere!!

[syppys-den]

Y'know I gotta say, I'm surprised nobody has ever tried to make a Joker like this:

[mancocare]

[phantom-pinetree]

HEAR ME OUT

In Pyrovision, Medic's operations are all exactly like Teddy Has an Operation.

Like, all the mercs are different stuffed animals (Heavy being the bear obvi), and while it's still gory, there's shit like sprinkles and glitter and stuff throughout the body that makes it less scary to Pyro.

Here's Teddy Has an Operation if you don't know what I'm talking about v

[gypsypendragon]

Day four, Pyrovision, stumped me not gonna lie. I struggled with this one, but ended up opting to do all 9 mercs in a "candy land" kind of design. Didnt get to the others today, but I plan to add them on.

Pyro needs a rework, they were supposed to be cinnamon candy based. Difficult to do when 90% of cinnamon candy is just flat red. Scout is based off of my favorite candy cane which is a skittles flavored. Soldier was gonna be Bazooka bubble gum, but it wasnt as notable color wise as the Double one.

[amberandomly]

Some of my favourite pieces from this year's Inktober/Cringetober I did with my friends

Now I'm wondering how i soloed an Inktober by myself in like 2019 when this was killing me for the whole month

If yall wanna see all 31 days of suffering we posted everything on insta

Go look at it do it NOW

[catboy-medic-tf2]

yknow what? i like ur vibe. could you draw any merc in incredibly bright colors and a stupidly exaggerated pose? please and thanks :]

I hope this works! I thought this was the perfect ask to do for day four of TFtober ^^

I stuck solely to the brightest colors ibispaint x had to offer :3

[whennoonecares]

Not necessarily a hot-take, but maybe outside the norm:

What if PyroVision isn't literal. What if it's just a visualizer for the state of euphoria Pyro enters while committing arson. There are times in the comics- for instance- where it could be argued he's processing the world more or less as we, the audience, do: We can't see through his eyes, he may not be experiencing hallucinations and/or delusions in that moment.

I do live for him having schizophrenia, but imagine if he uses very colorful, cheerful language to describe what he knows is violence.

In the world of TF2, there's nothing to say he can't be a successful CEO and be experiencing 24/7 hallucinations, but what if the arousal (psychological definition, not standard parlance) of combat triggers his hallucinations?

I admittedly don't know nearly as much on the subject as I'd like to, but this's something I've been batting around for a while

[skyesthelimit55]

😍🙌

[henchthem]

WONDERFUL counterargument. unfortunately, pyro

[krowmachine]

pyro and their silly pyrovision

super duper silly

[smuby]

blu scout is actually a decapitated head here but shhhh don’t tell pyro that

[yusakiiiii]

Do you identify as an EthoGirl?

Well I do. So I thought for Pride Month I would make a Pride Flag for the EthoGirls out there to use. So here you go:

If you are a GemBoy I will get you a complementary flag as soon as Skizz reveals what Gem looks like to him in a future Guess that Build.

[rogerrrroger]

The