Web Video / BadwaterVideos2009

"I make GMOD videos.
Badwater is my favorite map."

BadwaterVideos2009's channel description

BadwaterVideos2009 is a Garry's Mod and Team Fortress 2-themed psychological horror Machinima series, taking the form of a YouTube channel belonging to the player of the same name.

At first glance, the channel appears to feature innocuous TF2-themed machinima, similar to those commonly made during the late 2000's, however it quickly becomes clear that the characters in the game are not only alive, but fully sentient - and completely at the player's mercy.

After a period of inactivity in February 2022, the project's creator, LucyLeviathan, revealed herself in order to not keep the channel's audience in the dark and informed that the series was going on hiatus, but was not canceled. Since then, the channel's upload schedule has been erratic.

See also gunslingerpro2009, a separate series with a similar premise which likely served as this series' inspiration.

---

This channel provides examples of:

• Ambiguously Evil: Given the way the characters are coerced into acting, it's unclear just how evil the Teethineer or Dr. Metalhead are, as they may be merely performing under the player's demands.
• Animation Bump: Melonman's assault on the Teethineer in "Melonman VS The Teethineer" is noticeably smooth and natural in comparison to the rest of the video, showing how the player takes advantage of the ragdolls' sentience for the sake of their video-making.
• Bald of Evil: BadwaterVideos2009's player model is Dr. Kleiner from Half-Life 2, and he's certainly not as nice as he seems.
• Big Bad: Dr. Metalhead in the Melonman series. BadwaterVideos2009 themselves for the overall story.
• Body Horror: Just look at the Teethineer's face. The "Questions and Answers" video proves that the sentient ragdolls are legitimately mutilated to create the characters, which brings unfortunate implications for Melonman, the Teethineer and Dr. Metalhead.
• Cold-Blooded Torture: "Subjugate" has the player strap the RED Scout on a chair before using the finger tool to break one of his fingers, and then cutting him up with a giant saw blade.
  • "Punishment" is an entire episode dedicated to the Player torturing and killing the RED Scout so many times that they litter the map with his corpses.
• Darkness Equals Death: Beautifully played with in "Sanctuary"; the RED Scout takes refuge in the dark room of gm_construct, a place infamous in G-Mod horror series for generally being where the dangerous thing is lurking, only for it to be the safest place for him to be, as the player refuses to follow him in there. The antagonist is afraid of the dark room, while the protagonist finds a sanctuary in it.
• Deconstruction: Of the typical Garry's Mod horror series. Rather than a story about the game being haunted by some intelligence, instead the intelligent game characters are tormented by the player and forced to act against their will, being unable to do anything to stop it. Meanwhile, the player seems to treat the paranormal effects in their game as completely normal, making no effort to hide them from the viewers.
  • The Melonman series also serves as a deconstruction of "TF2 Freaks" (such as Painis Cupcake and Christian Brutal Sniper) showing how the sentient characters would feel about being forced to be physically altered into monsters for the sake of gags and stories.
  • In a huge contrast to other G-Mod horror series, the infamous dark room of gm_contruct is a safe haven which the antagonist avoids, as opposed to being the place where the spooky haunt is lurking. We essentially see the expected reaction of a person playing that map (i.e., being scared of the dark room), only it is used for the protagonist's advantage.
• Evil Genius: Dr. Metalhead, who's described as an evil scientist who plans the downfall of Melonman.
• Extreme Omnivore: According to the Q/A video, the Teethineer's power is to be able to eat anything. His first appearance had him eat an entire teapot in one chomp.
• Expy: BadwaterVideos2009 shares many similarities with gunslingerpro2009, leading to comparisons to be inevitable. This is actually referenced in the Q/A episode, where Badwater is asked if they know gunslingerpro2009, to which they respond they have no knowledge of them.^NoteGiven the titles of the 'nameless' videos in both channels, Badwater predates gunslingerpro "in real life" by around a year, as the former's channel dates from 2009 while the latter's videos seem to have been made in late 2010. The fact Badwater was asked about gunslingerpro a year before their channel was even made is a Timey-Wimey Ball of its own right. invoked Word of God from the creator of BadwaterVideos confirmed the two channels are ultimately unrelated, with the question being put there specifically to make that clear, though bringing it up in-universe ended up causing confusion among viewers.
• Facial Horror: The Teethineer, whose head is basically just a toothy mouth.
• Foil: Despite being similar to gunslingerpro2009 in many ways, it becomes clear that BadwaterVideos2009 has some important distinctions. gunslingerpro attempts to hide the bizarre things that happen in their videos, and seem rather confused about the whole thing, whereas BadwaterVideos doesn't attempt to hide things and deliberately directs and forces ragdolls to perform actions. In practice, this means gunslingerpro is harder to parse in motivation while BadwaterVideos is more clearly evil. From a meta standpoint, the two also differ in that gunslingerpro was a loose collection of videos, while BadwaterVideos features a more concise narrative that is easier to follow.
• The Hero: Melonman serves the hero of his own in-universe series of videos. Meanwhile, the RED Scout seems to take the role of main hero of the overall story.
• Heroic BSoD: Assuming that he survived his torture, whatever the player did to the RED Scout in "Subjugate" left him in an emotionless state by the events of "Metalhead's Final Straw", as his face is completely devoid of any expression.
• Hope Spot: In the videos "Discarded" and "Subjugate", the RED Scout decides to fight back against Badwater, and is implied to be trying to build a tool gun, only to be found out, brutally tortured and mutilated, and used as a character in the next G-Mod video, "Metalhead's Final Straw".
• Humans Are the Real Monsters: Unlike gunslingerpro2009, who is prone to Alternative Character Interpretation, Badwater is fully aware of the ragdolls’ sentience and still horrifically mutilates them in various ways. He is also implied to take pleasure in making the sentient ragdolls beat the crap out of each other, and points a remove tool at one of the ragdolls when he stops.
• It Can Think: The characters used in the videos are not just ragdolls, but fully sentient. In comparison to gunslingerpro2009, this is revealed as early as the first video in the channel, leaving no room for ambiguity on the subject.
• Mercy Kill: The second RED Scout deletes the first in "Revelation" with a toolgun, after finding him disfigurated in the darkroom of gm_construct. The latter provides no resistance.
• Non-Human Head: Melonman is a Demoman with a watermelon for a head, while Dr. Metalhead is a Medic whose head is replaced with a Hunter-Chopper bomb.
• Numbers Stations: The Combine Overwatch radio in "Passage" does nothing but spout out seemingly random strings of numbers. They are actually warnings, telling the Scout to hide and run.
• Oh, Crap!: The RED Scout's reaction to making eye contact with the player is to run like hell. It doesn't help him, since the player has a Gravity Gun.
• P.O.V. Sequel: "Sanctuary" is "How I Make GMOD Machinimas Tutorial" from The RED Scout's perspective, explaining how he suddenly disappeared from the latter video.
• Speaks in Binary: A variation; in "Passage", the radio repeatedly lets out strings of numbers which, when translated from 16-bit decimal to English turn into "YOU MUST HIDE", and later, "RUN".
• Stylistic Suck: The videos have the hallmarks of the old, choppy Garry's Mod videos from the early 2010 era, including low resolution, simple editing and stiff character movement.
• Throw Down the Bomblet: Melonman's power is throwing explosive watermelons at his foes.
• Unexplained Recovery: The RED Scout finds himself in another map entirely after seemingly being deleted by the player. Whatever happened, the radio stresses (in 16-bit decimal numbers) that he must hide.
• Villain Protagonist: The player behind the channel. They show little ambiguity in their actions when they mistreat the sentient characters, such as forcing Melonman to assault the Teethineer while pointing the Remove Tool to his face (as if threatening him with death if he refused), or deeming the mutilated Soldier a "failure" while deleting him, unlike gunslingerpro, who has their actions framed in a more Ambiguously Evil fashion.
• Villainous Breakdown: "Punishment" is heavily implied to be the aftermath of the Player suffering an extreme one, having spawned and killed several RED Scout ragdolls to the point the map is covered in them. Whatever happened, it's pretty clear that it managed to actively piss him off to drive him to do this.
• Wham Episode: "Revelation". Melonman and the Teethineer are revealed to be the ones who saved the RED Scout after the TV video, and also reveals there is a second RED Scout, who encounters the first after he has been mutilated by the player and puts him out of his misery.
• Wham Line: In the "How I Make GMOD Machinimas Tutorial" video: "It is good to weld them to the ground so they do not wander off after filming."
• Wham Shot: In the very first video, "TF2 sawmill gameplay", when the RED Scout stumbles into the player making his machinima scene. And when he's grabbed as he tries to flee.
  • In the video "Questions and Answers", when Badwater explains why the latest Melonman episode was canceled, we're cut to a mutilated Soldier, crawling away from a glass pod while agonizing until Badwater deletes him, deeming him "a failure".
  • In the video "How I Make GMOD Machinimas Tutorial", the player reveals the ability to transition seamlessly between maps by entering a white void (avoiding the normal loading screens from Garry's Mod), which was previously seen in "Passage".
  • In the video "Revelation", aside from being shot from another RED Scouts POV, we learn the first one, despite his disfigurement in "Subjugate", did indeed create a fully working albeit screenless toolgun.

---