The PC’s Samus? Pyro’s Gender To Be Revealed

Share this:

Relaxing with the new PCG: UK podcast, I was entirely unsurprised – if only because Dep-Ed Edwards had told me about it beforehand – to hear the Master of Stealth Tom Francis reveal a little gossip hot from Valve’s Robin Walker. Firstly, they’re still doing the class movies – the next was to be the Medic, to roll out with the class achievements, but it wasn’t quite what they wanted so are reworking. The next will be the Pyro which will “apparently clear up the pyro’s gender”, according to Francis.

Bah, Sex vs. Gender is another case of precise technical language losing its meaning. In this case, ‘sex’ is correct, but no journalist will use it.

The Pyro certainly has the hips of a woman, but the voice of a man. I am curious to see what they do for a movie: I mean, all the other characters talk – they talk a lot, and about everything. The Pyro – well, the Pyro doesn’t communicate well with friends, even when trying. But the Pyro is the only class that can always get the enemy to start yelling, and quite clearly.

That’s the route I’d take for the Pyro trailer: have everyone else talk about the Pyro, and throw in a couple of mumbled shots and maybe a meditation scene in a locus amoenus or something, leaning on the axe and staring out across the water, a lone tear inexplicably dripping from the eyeslit.

But seriously, I’d be very freaked out if the Pyro ended up female… though one questionable clue can be found in the TF2 content GCF (able to be opened with GCFscape). Just CTRL-F for “global_actors.txt” with the proper GCF open and take a look at the contents of the file it finds. Is it proof? No clue, but it seems to confirm what I believe to be true…

And finally, in relation to the snippet about the Meet the Medic video almost being next but needing a rework… if that’s true, then this is me: D:

ohh I gettit. This is why some bit of fan art I saw that had an all female TF2 cast left pyro unchanged

Linkeh? I’m one of the camp that think Valve should do a ‘female model pack’ if only for completeness.

After all, TF2 is currently a sausage fest (!) and it won’t be too hard to keep to the requirement of ‘all models must be easily identifiable’ – If stereotypes have taught me anything, women from the Urals are built just as heavily as the men!

Anyhoo…. the Pyro has a male voice… doesn’t.. uh…it?
I personally would prefer if they kept the Pyro anonymous… I loved that, it’s unique to the character and contrasted nicely against the spy – the Pyro has no face, while the Spy has many.

It’s more entertaining to try and guess and form assumptions than it being revieled to you – like Pyro’s naughty little secret :D

Yeah, I wouldn’t be surprised if the team that brought us portal and Ep2 also gave us a “flamer” pyro. Though I think that the purse might have been funnier in the soldier’s locker, it really is a great touch.

That’s the route I’d take for the Pyro trailer: have everyone else talk about the Pyro, and throw in a couple of mumbled shots and maybe a meditation scene in a locus amoenus or something

The Pyro video I’ve been hoping for:

(We open on the Intel room of 2Fort. The camera pans slowly over to the Pyro, engaged quietly in busywork by the computers. Eventually he’s done with his typing, and he turns to the camera.)
“Urrh, helluh! Uh dun’t see yuh thuh! Huh-huh-huh!”

(BRIEF ACTION SNIPPET)

(From offscreen, we hear the voice of the Spy, who is conducting this talking-head.)
“Pyro, I am glad you found ze time to participate in zis project; I know zat your time is precious ven ve are at all times engaged against ze enemy.”
“Uhffs muh p’eshur, Spuhh!”
“I am appreciating zis. Allow me to be blunt: you are known as ze ‘funny’ one of our team; is zat reputation chustified?”
“Uhh, wuhh, huhh fuhh zuguhh umuhh fuhh, uzuwuhh muhguh suhh ufuhh… buh uhzwuh, zuhmuhguhfuhh! Huh-huh-huh-huh!”
“Ahahah, of course.”

“It vas Robert Frost who wrote, in ‘Fire und Ice’, ‘Some say ze vorld will end in fire/ Some say in ice / From vhat I’ve tasted of desire / I hold mit zose who favor fire.’ Do you not feel zat fire is a destructive zing, and does zis at all make you qvestion your attachment to ze… ‘infernal’?”
(We see the Spy’s hand drawing air quotes at ‘infernal’)
“Uh, zuh’s un’erustingh! Wuhh yuhh suhh, uhh fuhh suhh enguhh suh fuhh ungsuhh un uhh uhfulguhh guhh suhh zuhfuhh fuhguhsuhh!”
“Ahahah, of course, I suppose I never zort about it qvite like zat.”

In my mind however the scene takes place in the fancy library of a mansion with the Luigi Boccherini Minuet playing in the background (that music they play on TV to make a restaurant seem classy) and the Pyro lights the fireplace with his flamethrower before picking up a book of poems. From there it follows your concept very closely. Like telepathic link closely. I wasn’t thinking of an interview but rather his monologue is directed entirely to the camera, rendering it completely incomprehensible. Rather than closing with the painting though, I imagined him clearing his throat and then reading something by Shelley or Keats aloud from the book, being certain to shut it emphatically and look right into the viewers eys as he slows to recite the final line.

Yes. I want the Pyro to be the most cultured and erudite of souls. Sadly, tragically unable to share his nature through the mask.

That was a pretty good script, but the Spy isn’t german is he? I thought he was more… spanish? They are all such stereotypes it’s hard to pin down, but whatever he is I’m almost positive he’s not german (I could and have been wrong though)

I tend not to hear characters very well over all the gunfire and clanking noises (a ton of TF2 taunts here though, including my very favourite, the Spy’s “Cornish gamehen” threat), but I kind of figured the Spy to be some kind of vaguely Germanic Cold War figure who’s snuck through the Continent for so long that his accent has dispersed into a Hispanoteutofrancophonic mess. So when in doubt, have him talk like Edna Mode!

I think it’d be funny if the Pyro did turn out to be a woman, but aside from that it makes no difference to me. On the other hand, I’m with jmwriting on not liking female characters in general. It’d make the game seem really odd and even awkward.

Listen, if the Spy were a girl, so would Pyro. Well, basically, if they have the same voice actor, then that would mean that the Pyro is a guy. Sure, he a has a girl-bag and I haven’t played the game even though I’m saving up for it, Seriously, what’s the big deal about his gender? What about his accent?! Is he Canadian or from the Ozarks?

@James T:
Wow. Just how I pictured it. Seth Macfarli’n the TF2 series.

Personally, I’ve always thought of the Pyro as the funny version of Necron99 from Wizards.

As for the Spy, when they make his video, I hope they play Lou Bega’s song “Gentleman”. XD

Look, it’s the shape of a small, hunched guy, that probably went through experiments through Nazi Germany.

Anyways, the BLU nor RED corporation would let a women into their ranks during the year 1968. Yeah, the game takes place in 1968, and during that time, America wasn’t letting women so easily enlist.