asya

First of all, why is their relationship mainly viewed that way? It's rather simple, the whole Sniper vs Spy update shows them as archenemies. Sniper and Spy's rivalry was highlighted through this update, especially with the jarate comic.

There's also the fact these two have different lifestyles and views that clash with each other. Sniper is viewed as filthy and spy is viewed as pompous. The contrast is quite clear.

But they're literally supposed to be enemies here. In an update called Sniper Verses Spy. They'd obviously try to one up on each other. It's a personal rivalry on opposite teams. That's not everything that there is to them.

Now look at them.

The former is from the meet your match update and the latter is from the official tf2 facebook page. And they're just- casual with each other contrary to popular belief. Playfully annoying and not even fighting.

They're really just casual coworkers

Seriously where's the hate? Their cars are even parked next to each other in this.

A lot of the fandom's depictions comes from the tf comics, especially since sniper and spy have a lengthy time interacting with each other for us to have a solid idea of how their relationship is like.

We can see that they have met and came up with a plan to take down c!sniper.

And when spy's shot and his cover is blown we can see sniper immediately panicking and rushing to save spy before he dies. And he does in fact, saves spy's life.

Is bickering classified as hate? When spy shows disdain and acts annoyed throughout the entire comics? Is not liking the sniper class as a whole means he hates his team's sniper as a person?

Don't get me wrong, they clearly have different views on how they kill people. Spy disrespects sniper's profession as an assassin, that's not a surprise. But that doesn't mean they don't like each other at all. Spy mocks quite literally everyone on his team, does that mean he hates them all? Sniper doesn't look like he has a problem with spy talking like that, he talks back casually, either used to it or it's their everyday bickering topic.

They're both exhausted and bleeding. Spy shares one of his cigarettes with sniper. They most likely took the time to have a smoke. We see them bickering the most because (large amount of interaction aside) sniper's the one who bites back at spy's sarcastic remarks. He matches up to his tone.

As my friend said, it's the type of bickering that you could only get from coworkers that have worked together for a good while now and have gotten to know each other well enough that they've actually settled into this weirdly comfortable zone of picking on each other that actually implies them being pretty close.

Spy values his suit, it's stated multiple times in his voicelines he doesn't want it to get dirtied and here he's saying it's not worth to be used to hide sniper's modesty.

This isn't even a personal thing, spy wouldn't give his suit like that even if it was anyone else on his team. No matter which teammate was with him he would ask them to cover up and then deny his suit for it.

I can't provide an image for this as the tumblr app only allows 10 images max, but we know that spy has trusted sniper enough to let him know about spy and scout's relation, and he casually asks sniper if he can fly a plane in comic 7, and they're casually in the background together when they find the administrator.

Do they dislike each other from how they disrespect each other's professions and find each other annoying? Oh sure. Do they hate each other that they have no chance of being friendly or be close to each other? No.

Honestly i'd even say "dislike" is too harsh to be the one word that describes their relationship. They clearly have moments where they hang out/interact without any trouble or hostility.

They're casual with each other. Whether it's annoying each other or bickering, they're perfectly set up to be enemies/rivals but they're also well set up to be friends.