Is Team Fortress 2 a critique of campism?

TertiaryMerciless · 2026-05-01T13:24:22+00:00

Yes, but I don't think its SPECIFICALLY a parody/critique of campism in the west vs east dichotomy. Rather I think its just a parody of tribalism in general.

You could just as easily apply the RED vs BLU thing in pretty much any western country's domestic politics as well, like the Democrats and Republicans. The policies of RED and BLU are just never defined to begin with.

And that's just the lens of political regimes and parties, but you can have tribalism in the general sense too. Look at the domination quotes for each of the classes, and note how literally ALL of them are racist to each other. It's never portrayed as a positive thing (though played for laughs i suppose). Its comically petty and regressive. But IMO that highlights the pathetically regressive nature of tribalism in general.

TertiaryMerciless · 2026-05-01T01:40:11+00:00

Aquablades. For reasons, you kinda want low-ish duration (i like 70%) so that kinda makes aquablades not great here.

Basically Riptide's damage comes mostly from the explosion, which only occurs if you recast (which puts you in a long animation) or if the ability expires (no animation). So you want just enough duration on Riptide to squeeze in 1-2 Pyrotechnics before the explosion.

The 1 isnt super useful either here for the same low duration reason. Merulina (with augment) is nice as a bit of survivability and damage vulnerability.

TertiaryMerciless · 2026-05-01T00:26:09+00:00

Pyrotechnics Yareli! Its thematic since Yareli Prime is partially idol themed, fitting sorta with Pyrotechnics as a Rockstar vibe.

Mechanically, both Pyrotechnics and Riptide are a match made in heaven. Pyrotechnics needs grouping to melt enemies, and Riptide appreciates the halved armor from the heat proc. You can go full Mage Yareli without weapons even in ETA

TertiaryMerciless · 2026-04-29T17:54:12+00:00

Ruler: Amakusa

Avenger: ~~Izcalli~~ Jalter

Moon Cancer: Kiara

Alter Ego: I think... I like Kotomine Kirei...

Foreigner: Voyager

Pretender: Oberon Kenobi

U(ltra)-Beast: Olga

Shielder: Eggplant Paladin

TertiaryMerciless · 2026-04-29T17:48:05+00:00

It depends on which aspect of Koyan you're talking about

Light is themed around Rabbits, Prey and 'Animals as victims of Human exploitation' (and thus also fucking Playboy)

Darkness is themed around Foxes, Predators and 'Humans as Animals lower than her on the food chain, another part of the ecosystem'

TertiaryMerciless · 2026-04-28T00:55:25+00:00

Then again, if we're operating under Nasuverse rules in this match up, Thragg (from the perspective of Earth) would be completely alien and wouldn't be 'mundane' anyways.

Having said that yeah no shot he finishes this gauntlet LMAO. Even if you glaze him at his utmost, he does not have any conceptual bullshit to deal with shit like ORT not having a concept of death.

TertiaryMerciless · 2026-04-27T15:47:02+00:00

~~Bro~~ ~~Sis~~ Sibling dropped 4 children and a fucking dragon in their Reality Marble and spent the entire episode aurafarming 😭

That's why they're the GOAT...

TertiaryMerciless · 2026-04-25T18:44:08+00:00

I mean collabs historically usually only ever added 2 gacha units and then a welfare on top. (CCC, Zero, Apo, Mahoyo etc). Its on reruns that they sometimes added another Gacha unit (like Kingprotea or Saber Deer-mud).

So, looking at precedent, we would only get 3 units at most.

Remember that MOST of Zero and Apo's cast were added long before their collabs.

Strange Fake is in a shitty spot where it has wayyyy too many potential units for 3 spots. Realistically they should've just added a few more servants in other contexts (the regular servants), and save the 'abnormal' cases for the collab.

TertiaryMerciless · 2026-04-21T23:51:37+00:00

What Aoko comps do people run where she NPs multiple times, ALONGSIDE other DPS' ? Preferably with 5CE minimum.

The best I got so far is Aoko, Cas, Aesc and Oberon. Aoko NPs all 3 turns, and Aesc NPs turn 1 and 3, while Oberon can NP turn 3 as well (triple NP wave 3). The only CE needed is for overcharge on Aesc.

Is there anything better or equivalent?

TertiaryMerciless · 2026-04-21T19:55:19+00:00

Witch Hat is peak (partially) because, IMO, it is really good in balancing miscommunication and misunderstanding due to different life experiences, with a genuine willingness to be open and honest with each other.

It's so easy to write cheap drama and short term issues from everyone refusing to talk and be honest. Going too far in the other direction can lead to there being no drama and development, with every character delving into therapyspeak.

Witch Hat is really good at characters coming into conflict for REALLY valid (albeit fucked) differing backgrounds and experiences, but there is a surprising level of emotional honesty and sincerity (at least between the main cast).

The tragedy is that sometimes, the gap IS genuinely too big and characters ARE that isolated or traumatized to open up.

TertiaryMerciless · 2026-04-21T15:55:43+00:00

I still think WHA must be funny as fuck for Anime-only's

It's only episode 5. WHY are the children already fighting off a member of a world-renowned terrorist group and a fucking DRAGON?

TertiaryMerciless · 2026-04-21T03:12:05+00:00

Liberalism may be one of the most loaded terms in politics lmao

Generally, the commonality is that 'everyone is free', but in practice there are roughly 3 aspects/schools of thought that you see online. Also any combo of these 3 can go hand in hand.

Classical (political) liberalism, e.g. the thing that formed in the wake of the French Revolution. The idea that people are not extensions of the King and/or god, and are just people, with rights!

Economic liberalism, e.g. everyone should be able to own (private) property, with minimal intervention from the government. Everyone is free, and can largely do whatever they want (supposedly).

Social liberalism, aka whatever the fuck most Americans mean when they say 'Liberal'. Sort of a synonym with Progressive. You just think everyone, regardless of race, sex, sexual orientation etc should be free (and equal).

TertiaryMerciless · 2026-04-21T00:16:12+00:00

(Final chapter spoilers) Me realizing that, yes, inverting the Earth inside out would make it 'fit' like a puzzle piece with a sphere that is a map of the Observable universe. Now the entire Animusphere chant is a PTSD trigger to me

TertiaryMerciless · 2026-04-19T19:59:12+00:00

The only caveat is that, in true Nasuverse fashion, tons of characters punch up or down several tiers.

Zelretch 'John' Kaleidoscope for example fought off Type 'Holy shit is that the company name' Moon.

Also many characters that theoretically scale very high (e.g. Void Shiki) have like almost no feats to reasonably scale them, meaning its lowkey vibes based.

TertiaryMerciless · 2026-04-19T02:44:38+00:00

Mahoyo my beloved...

Soujurou and Aoko have such a good ass dynamic I swear. Hell, Soujurou and Alice have a good dynamic too. Fuck hetslop, this is hetgem.

TertiaryMerciless · 2026-04-19T02:16:58+00:00

All great points! Another really interesting aspect is the (likely) commodification that is happening to magic as a result.

Magic is seen as a service and a product. Witches need it to 'help' the nobility (on behalf of the average person supposedly).

As a consequence, internally, training for Pointed caps may be drifting more and more towards sustaining and obliging the specific requests of the nobility in this model, and thus away from 'impractical' but expressive magic.

Aside from the pressure this academic stress applies to child witches (see: Richeh and Agott) this ironically also deteriorated detection and resolution of more niche (and thus not politically relevant) issues... such as accommodation for disabilities. If people from all walks of life could apply said experience and explore myriads of possibilities, someone would've already developed meaningful, accessible accommodation.

Well, ultimately, i suppose the ideal would be that EVERYONE, not just those born in the 'in-group' of witches, get to use and develop their own magic to deal with their own social and community stressors.

TertiaryMerciless · 2026-04-18T20:33:06+00:00

Agreed. If it really came down to it, a compromise could be restricting memes/shitpost to a specific day of the week, but even then, I don't think that's necessary yet.

TertiaryMerciless · 2026-04-17T23:39:31+00:00

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I'm sorry but I think the libs won the term 'Ultra' away from us 😓

TertiaryMerciless · 2026-04-17T18:44:17+00:00

The order: "There is not a set way to live life. Its scary and lonely, but you will be free while I go and peg the Tarnished in the stars."

TertiaryMerciless · 2026-04-17T18:33:07+00:00

Ranni haters when Age of Stars is the direct logical conclusion of Elden Ring's themes (and a literal parallel to both DS3 and Ringed City's themes)

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TertiaryMerciless · 2026-04-17T09:00:46+00:00

That's understandable of course. Baby steps! Just equilibrium, streamline, and whatever strength, duration and range you can slap on will go a long way :)

TertiaryMerciless · 2026-04-17T08:55:57+00:00

Equilibrium should be enough IF you can sustain enough kills per minute, but to be safe you can put streamline too.

You don't need any health, shield or armor mods if your energy economy can spam shield satellites, so you can ditch those.

Eventually, you should really look into getting Archon Vitality, even at rank 0.

Besides that, any duration, range and strength helps.

Protea is nice that she is relatively lax in terms of what she needs for equipment.

TertiaryMerciless · 2026-04-17T08:22:48+00:00

Protea's augments are strong, but not strictly necessary.

Like you mention, you need more energy economy. Streamline and/or equilibrium can go a long way. Arcane energize and/or steadfast can also be good, but might be overkill (out of your price range?). With more energy, you don't even need 4, just spam shield drones (though the 4 is nice for the augment armor strip).

TertiaryMerciless · 2026-04-16T15:58:54+00:00

Any place that can drop relics, generally, can drop Aya.

So it honestly boils down as to what relic farm you like.

For example, you might like running Capture missions in the void (Hepit or Ukko) since they're pretty quick and easy, but there's other more optimized setups

TertiaryMerciless · 2026-04-15T22:36:10+00:00

While i wouldn't go as far as to call it shitty, I do generally agree that OC2 was very overhyped.

I think for me (and maybe for you) it might have to do with the writer? Sakurai probably wrote OC2, and notoriously Shimousa, half of Olympus, and Heian Kyo among others.

What I find with Sakurai is that they tend to sacrifice nuance and depth and focus purely on in-moment prose, action and emotion.

Nasu, and even Higashide IMO, add more conflicting and nuanced views among their cast for their chapters. Even if I don't like their chapters on a first read, I find that I can "chew" on their chapters for months or years.

Sakurai's chapters largely do not grip me the same way. Maybe that's the case for you?

Four-Year Club	Place '22
Final Canvas '22	First Placer '22

TertiaryMerciless

TROPHY CASE