Team Fabulous 2
is a Team Fortress 2 machinima created by the late kitty0706 and released on February 22, 2012.
Its plot follows an absurd deathmatch on a TF2 server running MARIO_KART, with the only main focus being on a BLU Engineer entitled "Protagonist". Up until the last arc, there is no real plot to speak of - the film is essentially a Shout-Out fest with a side order of Mind Screw.
In 2020, the TF2 community came together to reanimate the video in its entirety, as both a tribute to its original creator and a means of raising awareness for the disease that killed him: leukemia. Over 100 different animators bring their own brand of charm to the clips they remake. You can view the video here.
This video provides examples of the following tropes:
- Adaptational Villainy: Apparently Desmond Miles, Sam Fisher, Nathan Drake, Frank West, and Francis are working for Spunky.
- Affectionate Parody: Of your average Team Fortress 2 match. If you regularly play the game, a lot of seemingly random bits and jokes will be eerily coherent due to being based on things that happen way too often.
- All There in the Script: Spunky the Imp isn't actually named in the video. He's only named as such in the credits as well as a bonus drawing on kitty0706's DeviantArt account.
- Art Shift:
- The scene before Spunky the Imp is released is completely animated, and Spunky himself is entirely 2D animated (as opposed to being a 3D model like all of the other characters).
- The remake (which is all 2D animated) swaps out the hand animation for 3D Source Filmmaker animation when it gets to the cartoon land.
- Banana Peel: Averted. The RED Heavy picks one up during a kart race, stops, drops it in front of an Engineer who is keeping the track clean, and drives off laughing. The Engineer groans and just sweeps it up.
- Beware the Quiet Ones: Protagonist and Spunky have a combined total of seven direct speaking lines in the entire video, and yet they're the video's respective Protagonist and Antagonist.
- Beware the Silly Ones: Big Bad Spunky the Imp is just as serious as the majority of the other characters in the video (which is to say, not at all) and yet he manages to get an army, brainwash the entire MARIO_KART map, change all of its imagery into pictures of himself and his personal crew, and just about causes a Colony Drop before Protagonist stops him using The Power of Rock Just in Time.
- Big Bad: Spunky the Imp, a red mini-devil guy.
- Bloody Hilarious: Duh. It's Team Fortress 2.
- Butt-Monkey:
- The engineer who tries to build sentries but fails, thanks to the Spy.
- The Medic could also qualify, but then he AFK'd.
- Colony Drop: What Spunky tries to do to the map with the Moon from Majora's Mask.
- Composite Character: In spite of the two being separate characters within this very video, the fact that Desmond Miles and Nathan Drake are both voiced by Nolan North with his regular voice means kitty0706 can milk it for all it's worth by giving Desmond some of Nate's more humorous lines of dialogue.
- Curb-Stomp Battle:
- A Brief one between RED Heavy and BLU Soldier after the latter witnesses RED Sniper's last moments.
RED Heavy: We fight like men. *Miniguns BLU Soldier in an instant* Dead.- Directly after BLU Heavy's Ubercharge runs out during his Rapid-Fire Fisticuffs scene, BLU Medic goes AFK, leading to some Symbol Swearing from BLU Heavy followed by a (offscreen) launch towards a sign.
- Also the fight between Protagonist and Spunky near the end of the video, considering not a single shot was fired between them and Spunky was simply defeated using The Power of Rock and nothing more.
- Disconnected by Death: During the Shoe Phone scene mentioned below, the BLU Engineer gets shot by a Sniper, causing the BLU Soldier's boot to start emitting a dial tone.
- Dual Wielding‎: A soldier is shown firing two rocket launchers in Slow Motion during the opening battle.
- Easter Egg: When slowed down, the phone chatter heard when BLU Soldier calls BLU Engineer for help sounds like this:BLU Soldier: "I CANNOT BE BARGAINED WITH. I CANNOT BE REASONED WITH. I DO NOT KNOW WHERE I AM. I AM A ROBOT. I DON'T UNDERSTAND ANYTHING. I CANNOT BE BARGAINED WITH. I CANNOT BE REASONED WITH. I DO NOT KNOW WHERE- IT IS A FULL MOON. I HAVE TURNED INTO A ROBOT AGAIN. I CANNOT BE REASONED WITH. I DON'T KNOW WHERE- IT IS A FULL MOON. I HAVE TURNED INTO A ROBOT AGAIN."
- Evil Laugh: Protagonist delivers one after ripping off a pony's head and dropping it, though he stops mid-laugh when he notices 'Elliot's fun Box'.
- Eye Pop: Happens to the Protagonist when a pony asks if he wants to play, and again when he sees 'Elliot's fun Box'.
- Firing in the Air a Lot: RED Sniper accidentally does this after trying to balance on RED Scout's shoulders and get a clear shot. He fires a shot into the air as he falls...and then it falls back on him, killing him.
- Freeze-Frame Bonus: One right after the Let's Play parody.
- Fun with Homophones: In the remake, the scene where the BLU Heavy crashes into a washing machine instead has the RED Medic pick him up and throw him into the sidelines. As a Freeze-Frame Bonus and Funny Background Event, this scene takes place on dm_mariokart2, which despite the similar name is a completely different map from the animation's actual setting, MARIO_KART_2.
- Fun with Subtitles: The conversation between the two Heavies on karts.BLU Heavy: Do you remember me? (subtitles: Doo Yooh Rhemnmmembhur Vodka?)
RED Heavy: Yes. (subtitles: sandwich.) - Gale-Force Sound: Several amps and a loud guitar riff are enough to let the Protagonist break out of the locked spawn room.
- Heroic BSoD: Protagonist experiences one after he breaks his guitar on the way to the final confrontation, though he gets himself together relatively quickly and busts out an even more powerful one.
- Improbable Aiming Skills: Lampshaded by Desmond after Protagonist makes a really difficult shot at him mid-flight. This leads to Desmond quoting Nathan Drake just before he dies, complete with voice:Desmond: Yeah, good luck pal, that's almost impossible to- *bullet freezes directly in front of his head* oh you did it, nice.
- Intermission: A 30 second Lets Play of The Bourne Conspiracy.
- Interspecies Romance: Apparently, a Sniper has a kangaroo wife.*
- Let's Play: Parodied in the intermission. A 30 second LP of Matt Damon's Conspiracy!
- Let's Get Dangerous!: RED Scout after BLU Sniper scores First Blood on RED Heavy: "GET DAT MOTHAFUCKA!"
- Mind-Control Device: How Spunky the Imp is able to enslave everyone.
- Mind Screw: Pretty much the entire video.
- Mood Whiplash: At first, the animation itself is a very wild and chaotic Rapid-Fire Comedy, though not long after the animation reaches the seven-minute mark, it, while still being comedic, takes a more serious turn after The Protagonist releases Spunky during his brief venture in the cartoony world.
- Played for laughs earlier when a BLU Sniper accidentally shoots himself. The moment is underscored by somber music and a BLU Soldier promises to send his condolences to the Sniper's kangaroo wife. The music is cut short when a RED Heavy flies by with his minigun ("We fight like men!") and mows the soldier down.
- Neck Snap: While waiting for the match to begin, a Heavy repeatedly does this to a respawning Scout. Sam Fisher also does it to one of the Engineer's sentries.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Spunky is released from some Spray-dimension the Protagonist punches a hole into.
- Oh, Crap!: A BLU Heavy has this reaction after unleashing an ubercharge-assisted Curb-Stomp Battle to the RED team and is caught when his uber runs out, his Medic goes AFK and the whole of RED team are poised to return the favour.
- Offscreen Teleportation: Heavy is able to throw The Medic at and then beat him to RED base.
- Order Versus Chaos: Order is a strong word for it, but the BLU team is much more rational than the Chaotic Stupid RED team. This is emphasized in the beginning, where the teams are waiting for the round to start. Within four seconds, the RED team starts to spam voice lines until one of the Heavy players mows down several of his teammates in annoyance, and the room turns into a team-killing frenzy. Meanwhile, the BLU team has set up a diner, and they're having their favorite dishes. The round then starts, and one of the BLU players throws a fellow Sniper out of the spawn room and locks him out.
- Paper-Thin Disguise: Spy, true to TF2, attempts to disguise himself as an Engineer by wearing a paper mask. Desmond doesn't fall for it.Desmond: Oh, that's very convincing. (smacks the mask off of Spy's face)
- Precision F-Strike: Spunky the Imp's only line is to his enslaved army of soldiers, after displaying to them a photo of Protagonist, with the simple order of:FUCK HIM UP!
- Rapid-Fire Comedy: Even when things get serious, the jokes come thick and fast.
- Rapid-Fire Fisticuffs: At one point, BLU Heavy, while provided with a Ubercharge by a nearby BLU Medic, stands in front of RED's spawn point and does this, instantly knocking back every RED player until the Ubercharge wears off.
- Redshirt Army: Lampshaded - the last name checked off of Spunky's hit list is "Everyone Except Protagonist."
- Sealed Evil in a Can: What Spunky might have been inside Elliott's Fun Box.
- Shoe Phone: BLU Soldier uses his boot. BLU Engineer answers with a banana. They are also literally two feet away from each other.
- Short-Distance Phone Call: BLU Soldier relays orders to BLU Engie via Shoe Phone...and they also happen to be right next to each other.
- Shout-Out: Oh so many...
- The title card has Plank as a part of the logo.
- During the spray scene, music and sound effects from Jet Set Radio play. A billboard of said game also appears on the map.
- Team Fortress 2-related memes and Derpy appear as the sprays.
- The two Heavies drive a kart around the track ala Mario Kart, with one of them even using a Banana.
- Fitting considering the map they are on is the Mario Kart map, well known for being loaded with Shout Outs thanks to the billboards that decorate the map.
- One of the names crossed off of Spunky's hit list is Ed, Edd n Eddy, another is Ao Oni and yet another is Ethan Mars.
- As mentioned before, the moon is from Majora's Mask
- "MINE! MINE! MINE! MINE! MINE! MINE!"
- Spyro is the "dragon in Skyrim".
- Emeruga's segments from the reanimation are loaded with some references to Tokusatsu series such as Kamen Rider and Super Sentai:
- While the BLU Scout is charging into an airshot on the RED Heavy, billboards can be seen of Ultraman Z, Engine Sentai Go-onger, and Kuroto Dan banging his head against the wall. Garren can also be seen staring, as per the meme from his home series.
- The same scene also has a Touto flag, the Taka, Tora, and Batta symbols in the starting lights, and "Naze mitterun desu?!"note written out in Japanese on the starting post.
- Protagonist apparently carries a Double Gashat with a copy of Guitar Hero installed on it.
- ZAIA Enterprise has identifying marks on the speakers used for the climax.
- Sigil Spam: Following Spunky's release, he changes all the billboards and other artwork on the map into images referencing him and his allies.
- Single Tear: Spunky sheds one before being defeated.
- Take That!:
- In the weird cartoon land where Elliot's Fun Box is located, Protagonist meets... uhhh... "Rainbow Dash," who has the words "I'm Gay" in place of a cutie mark. Protagonist refuses its offer of playtime and rips their head off.
- Downplayed about 30 seconds earlier, in which Derpy Hooves is graffiti'd onto a wall, and the character responsible doesn't get any more punishment than the five other people trying to graffiti the same wall, though that is punctuated by a fart noise unlike the rest.
- The Fourth Wall Will Not Protect You: During the montage where Spunky's minions capture the mercenaries, one of the names crossed off the list is "You".
- The Power of Rock: How Protagonist saves the world. Even though his guitar was broken he somehow manifests another one.
- The Quiet One: Protagonist only has eight speaking lines and Spunky only has one (three for Spunky if you count the dialogue in his introductory scene as his, and Protagonist's count is ignoring the scene where he uses The Power of Rock to defeat Spunky). They're also the respective Big Good and Big Bad.
- Troll: The RED Spy who keeps messing up the BLU Engineer's sentries, and at one point even becomes his Nemesis after he kills BLU Engineer a second time.
- Trope Codifier: This is pretty much the gold standard for TF2 machinimas.
- Vile Villain, Saccharine Show: Team Fabulous 2 is mostly about random stuff. Then Sparky show's up and the scene become absolutely dark and serious.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: Despite showing up in the intro sequence, the Demoman is completely absent from the rest of the video.
