So I've Had This Random Idea In My Head For A Few Days

I love the dynamic that France and America have.

France is kind of like a semi-overbearing parental figure who indulges America. He's a child in France's eyes. When he hangs out with America, he's always a little overwhelmed by how energetic and brash he is, but he still tries to have a good time while also attempting to "mentor" him. America on the other hand appreciates France and his gestures. He subconsciously wants a father figure, but he sees France more as a mature friend who always has his back.

Okay, I know this is from the magical strike au, but I think it describes their dynamic really well. France puts SO much thought into his relationship with America. He's worrying about coming off as an old man trying to be hip, thinking he'll end up babysitting and cleaning up messes, and just generally weighing the pros and cons to attending.

Meanwhile, America is literally just like "hey dude, wanna play Minecraft?"

Every day. Every damn day I question why THIS is the way they established MK's Monkey Demon Form/Identity. He's flickering, shards are coming off of him (shattered sense of identity), he seems to be in pain, and he radiates so much power. Overall it gives the impression that he's fighting this form off, trying to maintain his humanity/the current status quo.

And I'm just sitting here waiting for his current negative character arc to go down FURTHER

RULE NO. 1 OF WOUND CARE: ignore itttt :33

Technodad's words regarding grieving over Techno

highly suggest for you all to read it

i love this guy. the splotch

@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.

As Elon Musk cements his place in history as a fascist tech overlord and the rest of the world looks at us in horror, I really do want to reiterate what I feel will be lost to the history books

Nearly everyone in america has thought and continues to think that Elon is very cringe.

I will forever be sad that Durge can’t bring Orin to camp with them and have her join as they both work to redeem themselves.

with sans it's like... he works by bugs bunny rules, as in his sexuality is whoever it's funniest to kiss at any given moment, except god didn't give him lips so now he's just doing whatever.

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.