The Unusual Troubles series is a Team Fortress 2 Machinima comedy series made by STBlackST. The first video was published in mid-2016, and features the daily lives of the RED Soldier/American Boot, Scout, Spy, Miss Pauling and others. There is also a subplot detailing their battles against the BLU Team, as well as the BLU Team's machinations. Each episode ends with an RPG-esque battle against at least one member of the BLU Team.
The canon order of the series, and the introduction of different characters in the Unusual Troubles timeline, is as follows:
- Everyday Routine
, Spy is a Troublemaker and Not So Magical Events (RED Soldier/American Boot and the whole RED team, Miss Pauling, Merasmus; BLU Ninja Scout/Death Machine, Sniper, Spy) : three retroactive prequels setting up some of the defining events of the Unusual Troubles series. - Unusual Troubles (BLU Mecha Medic) : the first video of the series.
- Very Unusual Troubles (RED Fem!Scout; BLU Heavy, Engineer, Spy Bros/Mecha Spies, Captain Scout) : the second video.
Unusual Troubles and its sequels contains examples of:
- Actor Allusion: Miss Pauling's voice is taken from Chloe Price, who is also voiced by Ashly Burch.
- Anti-Villain: Mr. Baguette, who opposes the RED team only because he thinks they can't deal with the threat of the Space Cakes. Once he sees American Boot in action and after being fatally wounded, he leaves his mask to RED Spy.
- Arc Villain: At least one for each episode. Let's count them, shall we?
- "Unusual Troubles": BLU Ninja Scout/Death Machine and the BLU Medic/Mecha Medic.
- "Very Unusual Troubles": The Spy Bros.
- "Extremely Unusual Troubles": The BLU Heavy-Phone.
- "Catastrophically Unusual Troubles": Master Cake, alongside Spy Bros. and Death Machine.
- "Saturday's Troubles": Joker Scout.
- "RED Team goes to Japan": BLU Ninja Scout (again).
- "Sunday's Troubles": Mr. Baguette, alongside Joker Scout and Death Machine.
- "RED Team's Euro Trip": Golden Heavy
- "Monday's Troubles": Joker Scout again.
- "Sunny Daydream": Weeaboo Spy.
- "Unusual Daydream": Captain Heavy and the Spy Bros.
- "Soldier's Day Off": Ninja Scout and the Spy Bros once again.
- A Twinkle in the Sky: BLU Ninja Scout, after Soldier kicks him into the sky in "RED Team goes to Japan".
- Baguette Beatdown: Played with. Spy's Limit Break "La pièce de résistance" and "Baguette Special" has him respectively drive a tank and an attack helicopter made of baguettes in combat.
- Big Bad: The BLU Heavy-Phone and Cupcake Medic. Master Cake takes the position in "Catastrophically Unusual Troubles". Mr Baguette follows suit in "Saturday's Troubles", but he turns out to be an Anti-Villain with Master Cake being the real culprit once again. Cupcake Medic and Telephone Heavy take the mantle again from "Monday Troubles" onwards.
- Boss Subtitles: Everyone gets these during the final battle of each episode.
- Brainwashed and Crazy: Mr. Baguette's "BLU Special", which temporarily brainwashes Miss Pauling.
- Breaking the Fourth Wall: In "Monday's Troubles", Spy claims that Soldier's mother has a DVD copy of Spider-Man: Homecoming as a Your Mom joke. Soldier straight-up asks STBlackST for it, being technically his "mother", and gets it too.
- Bookends: The first time Death Machine is beaten, he's sent tumbling towards the sky. And the last time we see him, the team sends him into the sky, but this time seemingly trapping him in a Fate Worse than Death.
- Calling Your Attacks: Pops up now and again in the RPG battles.
- Chekhov's Gun: Mr. Baguette's "BLU Special" again. It's shown brainwashing Miss Pauling in "Sunday's Troubles". Spy later obtains Mr. Baguette's mask in "Endless Unusual Troubles" and uses the same power to hijack Master Cake's Engineers.
- Coolest Club Ever: The Infinite Flex Club in Paris, where Merasmus and Emperor Palpatine moonlight as DJs.
- Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Golden Heavy is obsessed by eating cash and gold and is at first glance just Robot Heavy with a gold paintjob. In battle? He can survive both Miss Pauling's summons and American Boot.
- Fighter, Mage, Thief: The RED team heroes have this dynamic, Soldier being the Fighter (with his direct, no-frills attacks), Scout the Mage (with his Time Bend and crit-based abilities) and Spy the Thief (favoring trick attacks, backstabs and feints).
- Final Boss Preview: "Sunday's Troubles" has a battle against Mr. Baguette and the Ninja and Joker Scouts. Despite the entire RED Team AND Miss Pauling assisting, Mr. Baguette gets away, though not without brainwashing Miss Pauling first.
- Friendly Enemy: Weeaboo Spy is apparently a childhood friend of American Boot and, after a quick but non-fatal victory against him, politely leaves.
- Generation Xerox: Soldier's Dad looks exactly like Soldier save for a white Fu Manchu moustache and beard.
- Greater-Scope Villain: The Space Cakes are this compared to the BLU Team by virtue of driving more of the major plot beats.
- Gold Fish Poop Gang: Captain Scout, despite having a battleship (the beautifully named SS We're Done Sucking Juicy Cocks), gets trounced without as much as an afterthought everytime.
- Gratuitous Japanese: Justified for the BLU robots in Japan. Weeaboo Spy does it too as his voice is taken from Genji Shimada.
- Guest-Star Party Member: Miss Pauling joins the RED Team in episode 2, after Scout got Put on a Bus. Scout rejoins the team in episode 3. The entire RED Team join as temporary members for the battle against Mr. Baguette in "Sunday's Troubles".
- Heel–Face Revolving Door: Merasmus seems to decide whether to side with RED Team or their enemies on a whim. Or if Soldier was a dick to him recently.
- Heel–Face Turn: At the end of "Monday's Troubles", after falling out with Ninja Scout, Joker Scout strikes up a friendship with the Soldier.
- One-Hit Kill: American Boot and Miss Pauling's summoning. So far, only Golden Heavy survived both.
- Random Events Plot: While there's continuity regarding the events of BLU Team, whatever happens in an episode between those moments is closer to this.
- Recurring Boss: The BLU Ninja Scout/Death Machine has been fought four times, in "Unusual Troubles" (if you could call it a fight), "Catastrophically Unusual Troubles" (summoned by Master Cake), "RED Team goes to Japan" (on his own) and "Sunday's Troubles" (fought alongside Joker Scout and Mr. Baguette).
- Summon Bigger Fish: The RED Team can summon Miss Pauling or Merasmus to heal them or deal damage to the enemy, and summon the entire RED Team as backup against Mr. Baguette. Mecha Heavy can summon Merasmus too. Master Cake summons reinforcements every so often. Mr. Baguette has both BLU Scouts as backup.
- Taken for Granite: RED Engineer, after the Heavy-Phone bites him in "Very Unusual Troubles".
- Temporal Paradox: As a result of Phone Heavy's meddling, Soldier gets sent back to the events of "Spy is a Troublemaker", and immediately ruins the timeline by killing Demoman, Merasmus, and the disguised Spy.
- The Hero: Soldier.
- The Man Behind the Man: Master Cake, leader of the Space Cakes. Also Mr. Baguette.
- The Worf Effect: In "Saturday's Troubles", the Joker Scout fought off Soldier, Scout and Spy by himself, and almost wins before Scout bends time and space. In "Sunday's Troubles", Joker returns alongside Ninja Scout and Mr. Baguette, and gets taken down easily, though not before offing Scout, Sniper and Medic.
- Time Master: Scout can use a clock to rewind time, nullifying the last attack used against the team. The Joker Scout has this too, stopping time to attack.Scout: Bending time and space!
- Took a Level in Badass:
- BLU Ninja Scout/Death Machine in his first appearance gets OHKO'd by the American Boot. In "Catastrophically Unusual Troubles", he lands the killing blow on Soldier, and in "RED Team Goes to Japan", manages to hold his own against Soldier and Scout.
- The RED Soldier, Scout and Spy are just ordinary mercenaries - but during battle they can somewhat warp reality, bend time and space, heal themselves without need of a Medic and defeat enemies normal mercs wouldn't have a chance against. Soldier in particular come "Catastrophically Unusual Troubles", going up against Master Cake and defeating the Spy Bros. by himself, when previously he could barely scratch them.
