Heavy/Medic
| Pairing | |
|---|---|
| Pairing: | Heavy/Medic |
| Alternative name(s): | Red Oktoberfest, HeavyMedic, Birds 'n' Bears, Beaux & Arrows, Heavic |
| Gender category: | Slash |
| Fandom: | Team Fortress 2 |
| Canonical?: | No |
| Prevalence: | Popular |
| Archives: | |
| Other: |  |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
Heavy/Medic (also known as Red Oktoberfest) is a slash pairing in the Team Fortress 2 fandom between the Heavy and the Medic. It is the most popular pairing in the fandom, and has even been acknowledged by the game’s voice actors.
Canon
A common strategy among TF2 players is forming the “Heavy-Medic Pair”. The Heavy’s large size allows him to act as a physical shield protecting Medic from damage, while Medic can in turn continuously heal the Heavy and replenish his high HP. The popularity of this dynamic can be seen in official Valve content, such as the shorts "Meet the Medic" and "Expiration Date", as well as several in-game achievements.
In the game’s supplemental materials, Heavy and Medic are shown to be good friends, with Heavy in particular being protective of Medic in the official comics. The “Meet the Medic” short notably gives Medic and Heavy roughly equal amounts of screentime, as the bulk of its runtime is dedicated to Medic conversing with Heavy while performing surgery on him.
Ship Teases
Several pieces of in-game material appear to hint at romantic undertones to the Heavy-Medic duo. For example, if a Sniper kills a Heavy-Medic pair with a bow, they earn an achievement called “Beaux and Arrows”;[1] ‘beaux’ is the plural of ‘beau’, which is French for ‘male lover’.[2] The description for the fan-made but Valve-endorsed SFM short End of the Line notes that it features “romance action*”, with the asterisk leading to a disclaimer that “technically this is more ‘bro-mance’ than romance”;[3] this is generally understood to refer to Heavy and Medic.
The Voice Actors
This article or section needs expansion. |
Several of the voice actors for TF2, including Gary Schwartz (voice of Heavy and Demoman) and Robin Atkin Downes (voice of Medic) have expressed support for the Heavy/Medic pairing.
Robin Atkin Downes posted a parody version of Prince's famous romantic song "Purple Rain" (called "Sawmill Rain", after one of the in-game maps) on YouTube. In the video, he was performing the song to Gary Schwartz.
Fandom
The idea that Heavy and Medic may have a romantic or sexual relationship has existed for almost as long as the game itself.
Perhaps the earliest example of a Heavy/Medic fanwork is a micspam (a soundbyte meant to be played over voice chat in-game to troll other players) in which Heavy and Medic’s voicelines were edited together to tell a heavily suggestive story. The earliest trace of this micspam is the YouTube video “Heavy and Medic get it on (Funny as feck)”, posted by Bl4ckDmon1 on February 9th, 2008, just four months to the day after TF2’s release. Four days later, an episode of Zero Punctuation released which, in celebration of Valentine’s Day, featured a love story between Heavy and Medic at the end.[4] One of the first TF2 longfics, Respawn of the Dead, features the pairing and helped popularize it. Various vids and SFMs featuring the ship have existed for over a decade.
As of February 2024, there are over 1100 works featuring Heavy/Medic on Archive of Our Own, making it the most popular ship in the fandom by volume; roughly 40% of those works feature Heavy/Medic as the only tagged relationship. The pairing is featured in 23 works on FanFiction.Net.
Heavy/Medic is almost always portrayed as same-faction, with Heavy and Medic both on RED or both on BLU; however, cross-faction Heavy/Medic is not unheard of.
Common tropes in Heavy/Medic fics include:
- Big Guy, Little Guy. Heavy is the largest merc in the game, and many fanworks highlight the height/size difference between him and Medic.
- Backstory. Fanworks often explore the personal histories of Heavy and Medic prior to the events of the game.
- Protectiveness. Heavy and Medic protect each other when teaming up in-game, and many fanworks emphasize this aspect of their relationship.
The Heavy/Medic pairing is indirectly featured in the animated webseries Lil’ Pootis, which stars anthropomorphic birds named Pootis (modeled after Heavy) and Medimedes (modeled after Medic) as the protagonist and antagonist, respectively.
Example Fanworks
Gallery
Screenshot of an SFM animation by tf2-daesdes; this animation is one of the most widely reposted Heavy/Medic works within the fandom.
Art
- Touch by iqrachi
- two hugs; years apart. (or a monday and a friday.) by parisoonic
- Yeah by orangsodiepop
SFM Posters
- Boasting by Cyristal-Artist
- Don’t Touch Doktor by Infinity-Max
- Fascination with different hand sizes. by gizzberg
- Husbands. by Annalaatikko
- Most iconic kiss of all time by mishapootis
Fic
- I’m me (I’m the only me) by Zarla
- Of Sound Mind by Camelot_taurus and HarveyDangerfield (on AO3)
- Ursine by Lightspeed
Songs
- Human Shield by PhemieC (with an instrumental cover by Sheila Lieber)
Vids
Animatics
- heavy medic by knnw -a
- Piedmont by costasmae, based on the fic Of Sound Mind
- Red Flags, an animatic by CABBAGE set to the Tom Cardy song of the same name
SFM Animations
- Canon: Heavy X Medic by Aftox
- Pocket Medic by Porridge, using a fan song by Conductus for Miss Mutation
- TF2 Heavy finds out it’s Pride Month by MediExcalibur2012
- Time of Love, Doctor by Elena Lozovaya
Meta
- Heavy and Medic are so in love with each other: a thesis by zarla-s
- The "Heavy-Medic Duo" (FIXED IT!) by bleachandablowtorch
References
- ^ Obtaining Sniper Achievements. Official TF2 Wiki.
- ^ Beau, Dictionary.com.
- ^ Official update page for End of the Line.
- ^ Dailymotion reupload of Zero Punctuation’s review of Sim City Societies. An official reupload of this episode does exist, but without the Heavy/Medic outro.