#sfm user

[emilythedog661-tf2]

Maybe a little Blunt Trauma for the soul? 🙏

Here you are!

Medic Patching up Scout after a battle and scout really doesn't mind medic, he just gets hyperactive in battle and over reacts sometimes 😄

[0sbrain]

why fight when this could be us

[mudzdale]

hurriedly trying to capture a vision of What if Dr Habit Had a Psychonauts Mental World Stage

the idea is that a lot of the character layout and storytelling present in the actual sfm game would be rehashed in this first phase here, through dialogue with habit (who introduces himself as “boris”, or course), and DEFINITELY a memory vault--probably a 1:1 recreation of the trauma room version at the habitat. imagination figments are mostly stylized illustrations of flowers and associated imagery (flowerpots, trowels), and of course smiles. here and there... some teeth, but only as the level progresses (in a ring around the stage, sticking close to the wall--sometimes straying, but overall avoiding The Pit)

gosh the vision for it is SO clear in my head. but my ma didnt raise me to be a level designer

trying to communicate the scale of the place. u feel me right. its big. big ol place with dang ol cartoon flowers everywhere. and then the Nightmare Pit always visible out of the corner of ur eye. and the slope of the place TOWARDS the nightmare pit. very important

its like an inception sequence. very intense. sorry for my hand writing.

sorry to raz for these hideous illustrations ): i love u i prommy im just in a hurry to get the boards out

[yoylechess]

play online with your friends!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[uberchain]

new art account @ooberchain

babe wake up uberchain finally launched an art account for art only after 8 years

Soft-launching @ooberchain​ as a gallery for my 3D & 2D art or visual media. This will include renders, commissions, animations, etc—all tagged for navigation ease!

Part of making a new Tumblr instead of resuming posting this one is knowing that this Tumblr primarily has a TF2 audience (which hasn’t stopped me before tbh) but another part of it is keeping art and non-art separate, especially since Twitter killed off Moments and I stopped using deviantArt

I'll be re-uploading old art slowly over there that hasn’t been posted here which is a lot of VAL art from 2021 until now, but if I tweet new art or media on Twitter, I'll try cross-posting to the ooberchain Tumblr at the same time so people can find it there (without Twitter compression!!! God bless!!!)

(Yes, I will be posting old TF2 or TF2-adjacent art on @uberchain​ and reblogging it with proper tags to @ooberchain​! Additionally, any WIPs or behind-the-scenes will probably be uploaded here and then reblogged)

[n3buladraws]

I got a lil silly goofy and decided to learn how to do source filmmaker and posed Arkham!Nora

[cxlliefxn]

OOH AARON PISSBOY IM GONNA GET U GRAAAAAAAAUGH!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!

💥💥💥🔫😾

[merlyn-bane]

Fic / Art Masterlist

Figured it was finally time to give in and make one of these. Links will all be under the cut with pared down summaries to prevent this thing from being a monster on people's dash. Probably just going to leave them in the order they were posted just to make it easier to update as I go.

Standalone Fics:

Traveling Song - Star Wars, Din Djarin/OC, M Din Djarin gets to know his sometimes-ally a little better, and ends up a lot over his head. Jedi Lineage Shenanigan Collection - Star Wars, T A collection of mostly unrelated and out of order one or two-shots revolving around Jedi, their families, and the nonsense they all get up to. Tren's Xenoanatomy - Star Trek, Jim Kirk/Leonard McCoy, T Jim likes to watch trashy television to cope when he's had a bad day. Bones has some opinions on the medical accuracies of one of his favorite shows. They maybe hook up about it. Foelu - Star Wars, Obi-Wan/Cody/Waxer/Boil/Rex/Helix, E As the only one of his kind in the Order and perhaps only the third in its history, almost all of what they know about Obi-Wan's people is limited what they've been able to observe as he's grown up. When his implant expires and wartime shortages make it impossible to get their hands on a replacement, Obi-Wan learns about something else his body can do--for better or worse. On The Caretaking And Debauching Of Your Senior Field Medic - Star Wars, Obi-Wan/Helix, E When his CMO is benched with an injury and his SFM becomes even more overworked and irate than usual, Obi-Wan Kenobi takes things into his own hands. Killing Time - Star Wars, Bo-Katan/Fennec, E Fennec Shand finds herself trapped in a vault with Bo-Katan Kryze for several hours after they both break in with the intent of stealing the same artifact. Fennec suggests a way to pass the time. Electricity Blew - Star Wars, Obi-Wan/Cody/Waxer/Boil/Helix, E The core of the 212th's officership falls into bed with their Jedi general, and learn some very interesting things about Force users in the process. home (is where you build it) - Star Wars, Obi-Wan/Cody, Obi-Wan & Quinlan, E Obi-Wan Kenobi is a state away and halfway through his master's degree when his sort-of father dies unexpectedly, leaving Obi-Wan's two adopted siblings with no other family to take care of them and Obi-Wan short on options that don't involve him having to move back to a childhood home that he only visits twice a year for a reason. But with a best friend willing to make the move and help shoulder some of the burden with him, and an opening teaching a subject (or two) he loves at the same high school he went to himself, and a very handsome volunteer firefighter just across the street, maybe...maybe it won't be all that bad.

Series:

Order 63 (2022) - Codywan

Monday - Middle Earth AU, art & fic Obi-Wan forgets about certain cultural traditions when she returns to the Shire with Cody after three years at war. She Plays Bass - Band AU, art & fic Up-and-coming rockstar Cody Fett is touring with well-established Obi-Wan Kenobi for the first time, and may have developed an extraordinarily predictable crush--much to the amusement of her bandmate, Fox. When the tour's booking agent messes up their hotel reservations, it leaves Cody in something of an interesting predicament--and in much closer quarters with Obi-Wan than intended. Wednesday - Star Trek AU, art Captain Obi-Wan Kenobi and her First Officer, Commander Cody, stumble upon strange flora on an away mission. This is nothing new, and neither is Obi-Wan's ill-advised urge to touch it. Cody fondly wonders if perhaps her Captain was not promoted to command simply to distance her from the scientific field where she started. Thursday - Sports / Roller Derby AU, art What's a little friendly competition between girlfriends, anyway? Friday - No O66 / Jedi!Cody AU, art A warm, cozy morning in the Jedi Temple, and a playful battle for the shared kettle.

Thank God You Introduced Me To Your Sister - RexObi

Thank God You Introduced Me To Your Sister - Sapphic Modern AU, fic Rex is feeling underappreciated in her relationship with her best-friends-with-benefits. Good thing his very attractive older sister's back in town on break from school, huh? Thank God For You - Sapphic AU, fic It's Rex's turn to take care of Obi-Wan.

SubObi Week (2022) (also contains Obi-Wan Omegaverse)

Day One - Jangobi, Omegaverse AU, fic Obi-Wan Kenobi's suppressants fail for the first time in his life as he's en-route to Kamino to investigate the attempt on Senator Amidala's life. Fortunately for him, there happens to be an Alpha available in the facility. Unfortunately for him, that Alpha is Jango Fett. Day Three - ObiMaul, Sith AU, art Day Four - Codywan, Omegaverse AU, fic Jango Fetts's intelligence provides the Republic with better footing at the start of the war. It is not the only thing he's left Obi-Wan with. Day Five - Codywan, Omegaverse AU, fic Obi-Wan Kenobi's pussy saves the galaxy. It just…takes a roundabout sort of path to get there. Also known as Obi-Wan Kenobi Gets To Have The Beginnings Of His Happy Ending, As A Treat. Day Six - Codywan, Omegaverse AU, fic Obi-Wan Kenobi's happy ending continues, just with a brief intermission as an old acquaintance resurfaces. Day Seven - Jangobi, art Some Jetii just look so pretty with a hand around their throat. Day Eight - Bail/Obi/Breha, art Bail and Breha Organa are unable to conceive on their own. They approach their dear friend Obi-Wan for a specific kind of assistance. He is more than happy to help.

Year of the OTP - Spirk

On Social Maturity Across Species - fic The Enterprise crew are sent to negotiate a new planet joining the Federation. Unfortunately for the Captain and First Officer, the people of Ektros IV don’t consider unattached individuals to be full-fledged adults and will not meet with Jim at the negotiation table unless he can prove his marital status. On Automatic Adrenal Responses - fic The crew of the Enterprise are sent to investigate reports of a rogue scientist developing illegal chemical weapons. Commander Spock becomes an inadvertent test subject. Spending All Our Time (Trying To Get Back Home Again) - fic In which the events of Beyond never take place, and Jim takes the Admiralty job. He manages to survive behind a desk for about a year before the need to be out there once more becomes too much for him to bear. But how will his old crew take his return to his post as Captain of the Enterprise?

They Told Me I Couldn't Bag A Jedi (And I Took That Personally)

Like A Puzzle - Codywan, fic The beginning of Marshall Commander Cody's Slut Era [Affectionate]™ You Think I Wouldn't? - CodyQuin, fic Marshall Commander Cody's Slut Era [Affectionate]™ Continues. A Fast And Dedicated Learner - Cody/Luminara/Shaak/Depa, fic Cody is invited to give batting for the other team a try. Still Got It - Cody/Mace, fic Cody decides to take some initiative as part of his Slut Era, only sort of because his brother basically dared him. Expanding Horizons - Cody/Obi/Kit, fic Cody's Slut Era™ Is Equal Opportunity

Art:

AO3 Postings

Too Spicy For Tumblr - Art

Tumblr Postings

Fox Day Merry Christmas Hardcase Ides of March Padmé Ari Sketch Commander Cody Phase Knives Awful Little Carnivore Baby's Second Paleoart Stewjoni Wooley Bird Perserverence Window (gift for @lttrsfrmlnrrgby) Major Bent ObiMaul Hockey AU Foelu Art - Obi's Robe, Baby Kai-Tal, Obi's Pregnancy Outfit (gift for @lttrsfrmlnrrgby), Cody Civilian Clothes, Obi-Wan Halloween - Ms. Frizzle She Plays Bass Art - Kissing On Stage, Goofing Off Backstage (gift for @goddammitjim) Butch Lesbian Codywan (gift for @meebles) Leera Rain Day Barrisoka Fic Writer/Podcaster AU Codywan Monsterfucker Christmas Codywan Dinosaur AU (co-created with @meebles) - Kissing on Boga, Boga 'Grooming' Obi-Wan, Kissing on the Bucking Parasaurolophus Curvy Lady Painting 2024 Clone Pin-Up Calendar - January, February, March, April Nautolan!Obi-Wan (gift for @meebles) Coday Art - Coruscant, Cody With A Steel Chair, Kamino, Civilian Clothes, AU Shaak Ti/Luminara Wound Tending Codywan Mermaid AU Kiss (gift for @meebles) Kesett Art (gift for @lothcatthree) Codywan Lift & Carry Kiss Cloud/Barret CodyQuin Art (gift for @lothcatthree) Expression Requests - Sleepy Quin, Laughing Shaak (De-Twinkified) Shibari Obi-Wan ObiBail Art McKirk Art Werewolf AU Girlies - Sleeping on the Couch Sugar Baby Fox Cody In A Gown

[sims-tec]

The T-51 power armor series was the pinnacle of mechanized protection before the Great War, and a mainstay for the Brotherhood of Steel. As usual, this requires into the future and the pieces are in the accessory section. Big shoutout to prolific mod author niceguyhenry and sfm filmmaker Sodaz for providing and giving permission to use their textures/

Niceguyhenry: https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/users/30711905?tab=user+files

Sodaz: https://www.youtube.com/@SODAZ/videos

Google Drive link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1KG6asjfNBAY9eUsJe6V5ePUktnb24zoC/view?usp=sharing

[emilythedog661-tf2]

If it’s not too much trouble; Can you do a SFM Helmet Party comfort please? Like have Engineer comforting Soldier from a really bad nightmare or vise versa

Here you go!

My headcannon is that soldier is a big sleep talker and he sometimes says the strangest things in his dreams that engineer has to hear a lot as they sleep together, he thinks it's funny when he says funny stuff but he also knows when soldier is having a bad dream so he always kissing and cuddles him to calm him down which always works, he also smiles when soldier says some sweet things in his dreams about him and he thinks it's cute, obviously soldier doesn't remember saying anything in his sleep but engie always tells him.

(Sorry for the late reply, i was busy sleeping and drinking sip sip juice as i live in the UK and i got your message passed my bedtime)

I'm open for requests again if anyone wants to know!

[moyonote]

GAMERIP MODEL ASSETS MASTERPOST

i posted these over my (inactive) dA so might as well make a masterpost here

before you ask me:

yes you can port them to MMD, SFM, VRChat, etc i really don't care what you would do with these model rips (heck i don't even care if you use them for nsfw)

if there are new game content updates, i'll try to remember to update my dump too

my only rules for these gamerips are:

CREDIT THE CREATORS (AKA THE GAME DEVELOPERS) OF THESE MODELS, ESPECIALLY WHEN USED FOR IN-GAME MODS. you don't even need to credit me, i only ripped these out effortlessly (most of the time).

DO NOT DIRECTLY SELL THE MODEL RIPS. (if you wanna use them for commissions, such as kitbashing or porting to other 3d softwares, that's up to you... but NEVER SELL OR PUT THE RAW MODEL RIPS BEHIND PAYWALLS.)

if you do not agree to these rules, DO NOT USE MY GAMERIPS.

DISCLAIMER: i am only sharing these model assets for the sole purpose of letting other users to study and utilise them for personal projects. i do not seek compensation, monetary gain, nor profit over these assets as extracting them from games is already in the gray area in the first place.

so please use common sense whenever you use these model assets, and i, the uploader, do not, and will not, claim ownership over these model assets.

[dA masterpost]

(Click "Keep Reading" to see the links)

#COMPASS Live Arena [NHN PlayArt]

Aether Gazer [Yongshi]

AFK Journey [Lilith Games]

Arknights: Endfield [Hypergryph]

Eternal Return: Black Survival [Nimble Neuron]

Higan: Eurythll [Bilibili]

Lord of Heroes [Clover Games]

OUTERPLANE [VA Games | Smilegate]

Persona 5 Tactica [P-Studio | Atlus]

Punishing: Gray Raven [Kuro Game] (you'll need to DM me for this)

takt op. Symphony [Game Studio | DeNA]

[7grandmel]

Todays rip: 04/02/2024

[SFM] The Voice's Day Off

Season 3 No Album Release (Read More) Idle - Garry's Mod

Ripped by NBGMusic

Requested by @undertale-vs-fortnite-who-wins!

Look - To tell you that I was DELIGHTED to see this request come into my askbox would be an absolute understatement. In my coverage of SiIvaGunner through this blog, I want to try and touch on as many different parts of its history as possible, to introduce and remind fans new and old of just how many things have been put on the channel in its life. Yet somehow in doing that, I'd forgotten entirely about the Garry's Mod rips, which given their quality is a damn crime.

For that specific generation of internet users who have only recently turned into adults, it's a universal truth that Source Filmmaker (SFM, for short) fucking rules. Released by Valve onto Steam back in 2012, its the software that the company themselves used to animate cinematics within and to promote their own games from around that time - only now being distributed for free to anyone using Steam to use. This opened the floodgates for a whole new wave of amateur animators to fuck around with all sorts of film-making, either by using Valve's own characters such as the cast of Team Fortress 2 or by using models shared on the Workshop. Not too dissimilar to the chaotic and openly unrefined world of YouTube Poop, the resulting wave of SFM animation would be defined by its imperfections - ragdolling characters, distorted facial animations, and generally crazy over-exaggerated animation placed upon environments that looked noticeably stock and standard by comparison.

On SiIvaGunner, the rips of Garry's Mod (a sandbox game that was often used before SFM to make faux-animations/Machinima) are all made to pay tribute to this specific part of internet culture, with SFM animations made within SiIvaGunner's set of inside jokes. And god, man, [SFM] The Voice's Day Off in particular just brings me back to such a fun time on the channel in general. I'll still likely forever say that Season 2 was my favorite time to be invested in the channel due to just how much constant lore development seemed to be occurring at every moment, but...for as engrossing-yet-absurd as those Christmas Comeback Crisis episodes were, there was something refreshing about Season 3 scaling back on things a bit - yet still letting us keep tabs on it all with side episodes and the Haltmann Archives data logs. And yeah, the channel was still definitely going down a sillier, more chaotic path over the course of the Season, and by the start of Season 4 the lore had effectively been put on hold entirely to focus more on the core of the channel. But the result of that shift in focus has left Season 3 as feeling like a sort of crossroads in my mind: as that period of time where the entire community was still aware of and hotly anticipating any and all lore developments and updates on our favorite CCC characters, while still being fully aware that we probably weren't going to see a new main episode any time soon. We were all just lore aware enough to begin having communal fun with all forms of SiIvaGunner lore-shitposting.

Look, what I'm getting at is: [SFM] The Voice's Day Off is an immensely silly animation, yet what its parodying is the SiIvaGunner lore itself. It's an animation where the entire joke is built on the characterization of SiIvaGunner-original character, more than it is about the pop culture that otherwise influences the channel so much more frequently. I am of course immensely happy with how The Voice was portrayed in his grand return in Season 7's Christmas Comeback Crisis episode, yet in those years of time off between Episode 10 and 11 it was the rips like [SFM] The Voice's Day Off that reminded us in the community that The Voice still existed, and that he still very much mattered. Silly of a video as it may be, it is still just a genuinely funny concept and execution for a parody video, given the genuinely evil characterization he has in the storyline. There's just something so fun about seeing the guy sing and boast about his perfectly normal sunday afternoon, althewhile it consists of just as much murderous rampage as he seeks to indulge in during his time in the canon material. Silly parody content or not, even through the often intentionally crude animation, it really was rips like this that helped inform my understanding on The Voice as a character, in particular his love for the theatrical and the borderline flamboyancy he exudes.

...I feel like this post is delving ever closer into character-overanalysis territory akin to Vote Responsibly!!, but I can't help it - I fucking love SiIvaGunner and its lore, and I find The Voice in particular to still be one of the channel's most compelling pieces. And though it's definitely true that he was turned into more of an in-joke within the community during his years off the clock after Season 2, no doubt in part thanks to rips just like [SFM] The Voice's Day Off...I'm still glad silly shit like it was able to exist at all before his grand return. Because for as often-disconnected as I've felt from SiIvaGunner as a community, it felt damn good to be laughing together over the characterization of our favorite pyramid-headed bastard.

[coolhorse]

Christian pure spy. History and characterisation the essay.

not usually what i post here but hey. I am presenting almost everything available on christian pure spy and the major 2 eras of his characterisaiton and their influences/his powers/ all that kind of thing. This is the most comprehensive cps thing out there.

incredibly long post warning.

the beginning. tumblr user mit-332 (23 may 2012)

^^ very relevant to tumblr’s general perception of CBS also. Was pretty different to kekas videos. (here is the post link)

As an avid sniperspy shipper, mit-332 built cps as a counterpart to cbs, this is why the pair compliment eachother like they do, and why the first piece of art of him is with cbs. The shippability is the point here. That is why he exists. the first art of him ever is ship art.

First image by (x) created one day after the freak was first posted. other are by tumblr user star-bbee and are also some of the first fanart of the freak. Despite the first image being created literally the day after his introduction, and the post specifying he is not a man of religion. we already have angel/demon imagery!

other early fanart. here is the credit (X) (X)

tumblr/deviantart user uberchain also began making sfm posters of him at this time.

(x) (x) (x)

he was always paired with cbs, which is to be expected. and typically he is seen in a non combat role, or being his sidekick/ally and looking out for him. he is the kinder of the pair and a parallel to cbs. none of this will change.

2. DW VS TK VS CBS (21 SEPT 2013)

Christian pure spys first video appearance and where most of his characterisation comes from. and a personal favourite freak series of mine. (x) (x) this may also be the first time christian brutal sniper has been shown as a christian. I havent been able to find anything that predates this series to depict him in this specific way.

in the linked image, witchy does not credit mit-332 as the creator of christian pure spy. he says the creator is unknown. Which i think is important to remember when it comes to how he writes cps.

Basically in this series he is working alongside cbs to kill demon witchy who is a demon and satans daughter. A lot of his characterisation seems to be inspired by the helsing anime. the series is lemurfot and witchy collab but looking at their individual works outside of the collaboration, I assume witchy was behind the script so I will refer to him as the writer. it lines up entirely with how he makes and writes his machinima and lemurfot says in the video that witchy did most of it.

In DW VS TK VS CBS the pair are religious and christian pure spy uses bible themed powers to attack and remove demons from the world.

He takes his job as a demon hunter very seriously, and typically is very calm and gets straight to the point. He views demons as things which he needs to remove from the world and takes care in doing so as painlessly as possible. while not a pascifist he disagrees with harming people, but is not above threatening them. he plays off of brutal, often grounding him and being 'the voice of reason', his seriousness and detatchment to his job is a purposeful direct contrast to him. and despite their arguments they work together and seeming have been for quite a while.

Christian pure spy aims to kill demons painlessly and quickly. Not liking to make them feel pain or suffer. This causes conflict between the two. but they are still partners. in this iteraton he also says he likes to be called "father pure" but it never comes up again.

His powers are introduced in this. his abilities need to recharge after use, and too much use of his magic at once can stop it from working. when he introduces himself and states his ability to "turn off the body" which he later uses, it basically just knocks someone out. He can create portals, locate items (cbs' knife), use some kind of forcefield attack to throw people back, he can teleport his weapons and himself, he also has a restoration ability as well as general 'bible powers'. he is agile but not superhuman.

3: The rest of it.

to my knowlege there has been no more major videos containing him, he has had a few cameos but nothing dw vs tk vs cbs level. the freak fortress wiki says he may appear in lost in nightmares but the only similarities he has to the black spy in the video is that they are both religious spies. one of the wikis also mentions him as weak to lava, i do not know where this comes from, there is no real mention of this. He is mostly depicted as a human, so sure he would be weak to it but theres no source or explaination.

the idea about christian pure spy being a resurrected red/blu spy has never come up beyond the original post. in christian brutal sniper origins (x) (the video referenced in the original post) cbs is a red sniper is kidnapped/tortured/killed and he comes back to life and becomes cbs and seeks revenge, and the red spy from the previous videos becomes gentlespy. christian pure spy may have been intended to have had a similar backstory. but regardless, he never got one and this version of his character seemed to be abandoned and left out immediately after it was posted.

tdlr; watch dw vs tk vs cbs and check out the linked artists. its great fun.

[dougielombax]

Alright.

This is gonna be a big one.

Here goes.

Parallels.

Or

Seeing Patterns in Things that Aren’t There

Part 20: The Illusion of Free Choice.

1. “You’ve proven yourself a decisive man so I expect you’ll have no trouble deciding what to do. It’s time to choose.” - G-Man. Half-Life (1998)

(Credit to user @greenstorm64 for the SFM rendition, it’s not my work)

2. “You take the blue pill, the story ends. You wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill - you stay in Wonderland and I show you how deep the rabbit hole goes.” - Morpheus. The Matrix (1999)

“Time to fly.” - Morpheus. The Matrix Resurrections (2021)

3. “So. What’ll it be then? You can go back to your regular life and forget any of this ever happened. Or you can know the truth about the universe. The choice is now yours.”

“No, we’ll do a redo, you’re supposed to WANT to know.” - Weird Barbie. Barbie (2023).

I thought of this one just today and I am IMMENSELY proud of it.

The mysterious G-Man offers Gordon a choice between an uncertain future and immediate death at the hands of an army of monstrous aliens. Knowing he can only really choose one of them.

Morpheus offers Neo the choice between the red or blue pill the first time around, with both choices made in sincerity. Second time around, he hopes that Neo will choose as he did last time “Time to fly.” “Yeah, that’s not gonna happen..”.

Weird Barbie (Kate McKinnon) practically wants Stereotype Barbie (Margot Robbie) to choose to leave Barbieland to meet her human owner to fix the ongoing fuckery in her world. Insisting upon such a choice.

The similarities between the last two immediately stood out to me and I LOVED it.

Make of this what you will.

[opalrosechalydra]

Emesis Blue & Postmeta Art

We live in a media driven society. Our most famous celebrities star in our favorite movies and TV shows, our politicians are elected by whose propaganda-adjacent advertising campaigns were the most effective, even our youngest children are put in front of screens which permanently alter their brain chemistry. In a world where all of us must abide by systems that force us to sacrifice our whole lives at jobs and all of our free time managing our non-guaranteed shelter, food and health, we have to find solace in something easy to consume and easier to distribute. When your work day is done, what better way to wind down than by putting something on the television for your tired mind to be lost in? 

The history of media is almost as old as our most ancient civilization. It has evolved to become a very complicated, interconnected system of referential pieces. Martin Luther wrote the 95 theses critiquing the Catholic church in 1517. Papers at the turn of the 20th century critiqued films of the blossoming industry of cinema. Musicians preached an anti-war message throughout the US invasion of Vietnam and Korea. Now, there is an entire video sharing platform where independent videographers, filmmakers, editors, artists, and thespians may share projects with their own views and opinions. YouTube is home to a number of genres as defined by the internet communities who participate in them. Critiques, reviews, essays and more, all in video form by people who are unbound by contractual restraint and free to express their personal feelings.

Those who rise to the top of this massive, competitive industry are those whose feelings resonate with the most people. Oftentimes, it can be difficult to pin down exactly what something is saying, but the fact that it invokes a primal emotion tends to indicate that it resonates with the experiences of the viewer. Many experimental films have stood the test of time despite having unclear messages, or perhaps being made with no intended message at all. Eraserhead, The Holy Mountain, A Serbian Film and more are difficult for viewers to get through due to their subject matter and presentation, but have remained among the most influential movies ever produced. Many analyze them, try to derive meaning from sequences of abstract or even nonsensical images. These things disturb us on a greater level than just their superfluous design. There is a deeper message that these films convey which lets them stay with viewers for longer than just the night they watched it. This, obviously, brings us to… 

Team Fortress 2.

It’s a silly game, truly. It detaches itself from its predecessor with a cartoony artstyle, quirky dialogue and somewhat developed characters. Each of the nine playable classes is fleshed out in a series of, “Meet the…” videos released by Valve. These little nuggets of cinematic gold characterize each mercenary through an expert use of comedy, receiving further depth in the official Team Fortress 2 comic series for fans hard enough to the core to read through. However, this content was sparse and separate from the main game. Players who wanted to experience more stories involving these characters had to make some themselves. 

Fanfiction is a very common aspect of any online community surrounding media. People will inevitably want more from products than its producers can produce. The one thing that set TF2’s fanbase apart from others is that Valve released a tool that allowed users to stage scenes using assets from all of Valve’s games: Source Filmmaker. Valve has famously stopped releasing accessible mainline entries in their franchises for a decade now, with Dota 2 in 2013 being their last non-spinoff/non-VR release. Their older releases still maintain a decently high level of popularity despite minimal updates. One of the main reasons they stay so loved is because of Source Filmmaker. SFM gave fans a creative outlet to contribute to their favorite Valve games when Valve themselves weren’t. These videos can be indistinguishable from the professionally made animations Valve produced if given enough time and effort.

Something happened to Team Fortress 2’s mercenaries as the fans took the creative reins from Valve. The same thing happened to many other IP’s, most famously Sonic the Hedgehog and Garfield. When an internet community puts their twist onto a neglected franchise, it usually turns out experimental. There are things that small internet communities can get away with that large publishers seeking the widest audience can’t risk. TF2’s characters took on insane personas that spoke in broken sentences edited together from their existing voice lines. For every SFM video there was, there were two Gary’s Mod videos with rougher animation and wilder content. These videos broke every law of physics that these characters should abide by for the sake of surreal, mildly horrific humor. Fans eventually stopped associating TF2 characters with their in-game personas, replaced with odd inside jokes like Sandvich, Spycrab and Surprise Buttsex. 

As public perception of TF2 became altered by these niche YouTubers, the game itself underwent a bit of a crisis. Blizzard released Overwatch in 2016 as a much larger, more diverse Hero Shooter heavily inspired by Team Fortress 2. It had the cartoony artstyle, quirky dialogue and somewhat developed characters. Each character was fleshed out in video packages released by Blizzard and an Overwatch comic. Essentially, a much larger company just made a fresh game that represented more people that the company would pay more attention to than Valve had with Team Fortress 2 at that point. This revitalization of the Hero Shooter genre pushed other large developers like Respawn Entertainment and Riot Games to come out with their own. TF2 was seen as the old man game with all these young upstart series doing what TF2 did with a more effective understanding of the, “video games as a service,” trend that continues to dominate the market.

Players moved from TF2 to these alternatives over the next few years. This depopulation made two existing problems within the game worse: Bots and hackers. Bots made up such a large portion of the player base that #SaveTF2 went viral among fans wishing to combat the issue. Updates would come out tackling random exploits, but no progress on the bot issue was ever really made. These bots have been reported to spam hateful rhetoric including homophobic and racist slurs in game chat. Given how progressive Overwatch and its new wave of Hero Shooters presented themselves, these bots made TF2’s community seem like an even worse haven of bigotry. The hacker issue is mainly rooted in the Valve Anti-cheat (VAC.) It had been around since 2002, meaning that players had over a decade to figure out ways to get around its archaic system. Less players meant that a higher ratio of them were these hackers who dedicated too much time to learning how to mess with the game to leave now. TF2 seemed unplayable in comparison to the more well regulated alternatives throughout the late 2010s and early 2020s.

What seemed like the final nail in the coffin for TF2 was a source code leak that occurred in 2020. On top of all of the other factors pushing players out from TF2, it was revealed that simply playing the game could expose an unwitting player to malware. Team Fortress 2 became this wasteland of godlike cheaters among mindless zombies that worked together to attack people and invade their privacy, represented by twisted corruptions of the game’s original cast. All of the fun times that people had with the game years prior seemed to come to an end in a cataclysmic sequence of events worse than the last. 

TF2’s reality was completely distorted. Players could look back at a golden age over a decade ago where these problems could barely be conceived of. The game could still be fun if you went through the effort of finding servers unaffected by its litany of issues. As established, this world is one that leaves people with little energy. Why waste time trying to find safe servers to play on when there are so many alternatives with modern solutions which avoid these problems? It comes back down to ease of access, which is very important to most of the working class laborers of the world. 

This frustration, combined with the disruption of realism within the community’s fan-made content, inspired a group to action. There is a massive history known to millions of people, a history that ~100k people still partake in daily, which had never been put to art. It is only collectively archived in the minds of those who partake in the game’s legacy, be it playing the game itself or following the animators who made content for it long after Valve’s abandonment. These all collectively made up what people thought of TF2, but were never combined in a meaningful way. There was SFM/Garry’s Mod, then there was the game itself. This is what Fortress Films wanted to unify in their impressive passion project:

Emesis Blue

Emesis Blue is a fantastic representation of the progress fanmade media has made. People have been making their own video game content since before the internet gave it a worldwide platform. Players on old school cartridge based systems would tinker with their favorite games to create ROM hacks that completely changed its content. Sprites would be ripped by early 2000’s Newgrounds users who would create astounding animations with them. Even Valve chose to publish Gary’s Mod six years before they released Source Filmmaker because players could not stop themselves from trying to make their own content. 

Not only does it show how far the quality of the tools has come, but it raises the bar for the artistry that these pieces are made with. Emesis Blue is art. Many people have claimed that it’s a cinematic masterpiece deserving to be played in theaters. As much credit as Emesis Blue deserves, it is the natural next step in a further industrializing YouTube. Channels continue to make longer and longer videos, providing aspiring filmmakers with a space to release passion projects that would never be picked up by sound of mind producers. YouTubers have to make the most emotional pieces that they can to stay afloat among the 500 other hours of content uploaded to the site every minute. This crushing amount is supposed to be compartmentalized by the YouTube algorithm, though many professional YouTube content creators have claimed that it is a wildly irrational system that cannot be tamed. In place of trying to master the system, the best channels master their craft.

Following the human desire to organize, a genre began developing among the most experimental of these art pieces. Fans produced content for their favorite franchises, some of which evolved to accommodate all the angst that came with being fans of these series. Sonic the Hedgehog has perhaps the most famous fan community of any video game in history for this reason. Many young artists growing up into a confusing world used Sonic as a tool to vent their frustrations. It often came out very cringeworthy, giving Sonic fans the reputation they have today. However, the outlandish behaviors of the Sonic community have been deconstructed through comics like Tails Gets Trolled and games like Sonic Dreams Collection. Despite not being official, fans used canon characters to provide a meta commentary on the original piece.

This occurred again with Garfield. Though most people wouldn’t consider themselves fans of Garfield, there was something to be said about the success it received. That little orange cat is perhaps one of the most recognizable characters globally. The lack of depth compared to its astounding success inspired observers to create pieces that commented on Garfield's indomitable presence and the shadow it cast over Jim Davis as a cartoonist. The characters of Garfield and John Arbuckle are featured prominently in fan works like Lasagna Cat and those posted in r/ImSorryJon. Yet again, artists used pre-existing characters to create a meta narrative of their source.

Three for three, Emesis Blue followed this trend for Team Fortress 2. The chaos occurring in TF2 during the production of Emesis Blue was captured in the aggressive non-linear pacing. The unnecessary brutality of bots was captured in the hyperviolence of the film's most gruesome moments and in the throngs of mindless zombie-like monsters that pursue the main cast. Many entities, such as the Medic, defy the laws of the world to gain an unfair advantage like the hackers that plagued servers. 2020’s source code leak could be felt when Scout’s home was invaded and the multiple unsolicited phone calls Blu team received. All the while, the game being abandoned for fresher titles inspired the decrepit look of the classic 2Fort map.

Emesis Blue captured TF2 fans' frustrations and insecurities through a surrealist psychological horror. It was an unofficial piece of brilliance that added lore to a game that had been mostly forgotten by the people who made it and departed fans. Emesis Blue has the supreme luck of being provided assets directly from the games to express feelings about its greater existence outside of just its canon. It is also significant as a milestone in a new medium that seems to be taking off. There will be many more projects inspired by it utilizing the same core principles. As such, these pieces must be compartmentalized into their own genre:

POSTMETA - Being composed of storytelling elements belonging to a medias canon, such as characters and settings, which produces a narrative which provides commentary to the reputation the source media has in reality

Emesis Blue obviously is not the first Postmeta piece, but it marks a point where a coincidence becomes a trend. These works are indicative of the place that media has in our lives. Passionately followed media are taken from the hands of neglectful producers by an online fan base too vast to stop. Where companies fail to provide, the people will make up for it. They will also use that opportunity to capture the reality of that product as it influences people's lives, not just providing more escapist fiction to be consumed mindlessly. As people have sacrificed their time and money to make art more prosperous, it is able to say more about the human condition. Even through something as silly as a cartoony Hero Shooter, Fortress Films is able to bring out emotions within us that spark questions about our society. There’s something beautiful to that.

A miraculous thing has happened with TF2 in 2023. Though its player base was slowly decreasing in numbers since the release of its competitors, only a few months after the release of Emesis Blue did Team Fortress 2 break its peak player count at 253,225 in June of 2023. In a combined effort with fellow enduring YouTubers like Uncle Dane and Elmaxo, Fortress Films helped to bring TF2 to a level of popularity far surpassing that of its golden age. As of the time this essay is being written, Emesis Blue itself has over 8.7 million views and TF2 averaged over 100k players throughout the entirety of 2023, almost twice the number of players in its darkest periods. Art resonates with people, and it inspires people to action. No matter what the source is, how abstract it becomes, or even how relevant the subject is anymore, there is something to be felt in every corner of the world. Art about art does not devalue it, but simply gives it a value we couldn’t rightly calculate in a world where that didn’t happen. And a video about a game almost 2 decades old got that sentence to be written. Watch Emesis Blue, play Team Fortress 2, and enjoy the new wave of Postmeta art that it and pieces like it will inspire.

[captainpissofff]

Ok so I just started playing Control and I love it sfm???? The gameplay is soooo user-friendly and fun