After Dinner…

TF2 in Historical Context: Spy's Background

It goes without saying that Spy is incredibly mysterious and we know fuck all about him, other than that he at some point had an affair with Scout's mother, and Scout was the product of that. However, I think we can extrapolate some stuff about his backstory nonetheless

Firstly, we learn in Comic 6, which takes place in 1972, that Scout is 26-27 years old. This puts his birth year at 1945 or 1946, right after the end of WWII. I say '26' bc uh. Babies gotta grow yk

This puts Spy's latest possible birth year at around 1927. Probably a little (but not much) earlier, for reasons we'll get into. It is fair to assume that Spy was already a spy by the time he met Ma, because there's no other reason for him to have been in Boston in 1945 really

I can't be the only one who was kinda surprised that Spy looks much younger than I expected without his mask - he's less noticeaby greying than Heavy and Medic too. He's either got an insane botox routine (which wouldn't be ooc lol), or he's younger than the two of them.

In my last post I concluded Heavy was around 52 in 1972, and 59 in 1979. If Spy is slightly younger, that would make him in his mid 40s in game, late 40s in Comic 6 and early to mid 50s in Comic 7.

So. Given Scout is 27, that means that Spy would have met Ma when he was in his early 20s. On a related note, given she already had 6 children before they met, she's also probably quite a bit older than him lol. Seems like both he and Scout have a thing for Moms

All this to say, I think 1924ish is a good approximate birth year for Spy. This would make him 15 years old when WWII broke out and just 16 when Germany invaded France in 1940.

Onto historical context: France was the first modern nation in Western Europe to introduce universal military conscription, which wasn't phased out until 2001. Conscription did take place during WWII (and WWI), but Spy was almost definitely too young to be drafted.

We don't know which region of France Spy is from, so we don't know whether he grew up in the zone libre, which was free from Nazi occupation, or in Vichy France, the puppet state headed by Maréchal Philippe Pétain established by the German occupying force.

Given Spy's age and the context of the Nazi occupation of France, I think it's most likely he entered the world of espionage by joining the French Resistance. Resistance fighters were highly diverse and came from different sections of society, but young people were esp useful.

After the war, a national myth arose in France that overplayed the size and breadth of the Resistance forces, whilst underplaying or ignoring the degree of collaboration of some parts of the country with the Nazi occupation. This came to be known as Résistancialisme.

Something I always think about with the European mercs is the question of how they ended up in the USA in the first place. Given Scout was born around ~1945, Spy must have left France after it was liberated in September 1944.

I feel like if Spy were a member of the Resistance, this shift in the collective memory of the resistance in France may have been one of the reasons he left the country. Either that or he found himself good at working undercover and fell into working internationally.

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But WHYYYY :(

You're my awesome bsf why would I NOT stick my nose into your ask box you silly rat !!

Or fox . Idk anymore

if you have questions , u ask me directly . on the discord . you are simply filling up my questions box, NOT WITH QUESTIONS!!!!

looks around.. i swear on my life i know you from somewhere like some discord server or something.. sigsh

aha ,,, no you dont . TAPES UR MOUTH .

they're dating now because I said so . say hooray for yuri guys .

I'm calling them medical aircrafts

owh yes!!! certainly what ive been yearning for ! yes many thanks .

i say , taking the whole sack . I give a nod of thanks before scurrying away

excccusse me , bird child . thing .

i am in need of a , a screw . or a bone . would you happen to have said items that I am in desperate need for .

i , the coolest fox says . as I sit with patience .

O !! Screws and bones you say ?? Well I've been getting rid of a shit ton of bones and knick knacks I don't need, so here you go !!

Plops down a sack of the screws and bones

Hit someone with them, idk. Good luck with whatever project you got lmao

Funny screenshot

that "OKAY SO" before someone u love starts infodumping........ most blessed feeling in the world

I actually hate being sick . wdym just because I thought my eggs tastes weird I'm gonna wake up feeling like absolute shit??? STOPPFGEHOERHH I'm both physically n mentally not okay . i really want ice all over my body I hate this