stratoscophic

This first piece of concept art is absolutely amazing. Not only is it potentially the baldest we've ever seen TF2, as only sniper verifiably has hair, but these designs are ridiculously early. Lanky Medic and beady-eyed Soldier especially are cooked. But despite just how early and different these designs are, Spy himself is shockingly very similar. He has a cute little bowtie and his weapons are more obviously on display, with the thigh-knife and shoulder holsters, but those are extremely minor. You might think this means I don't have much to talk about, but brother, you thought wrong, I can always find things to talk about when it comes to Spy.

First thing to discuss is the inspiration for Spy's character and design. Just looking at him here, Spy has the simplest design, and if anything his design has only become simpler. He's a man, in a suit, with a mask. That's it. And it's kind of perfect. The suit is symbolic of the default every-man, office workers and faceless men in the newspaper, spies should blend in after all. The suit also implies a level of professionalism and detachment, he's a mercenary, a killer on the battlefield, but he doesn't need armor or bright team colors, this is a job for him and not a difficult one, he's experienced and skilled.

Spy also lacks a lot of the exaggerated proportions of his fellow mercenaries, most notably are the normal sized hands, which seem small in comparison to everyone else's absolutely massive hands. His small hands are perfect for his small weapons, which imply level of precision befitting his character, Spy skillful uses a balisong and revolver while the others wildly swing and shoot their cartoonish large weapons. It also helps to maintain his sleek, straight silhouette.

In a power point presentation about the creation of TF2, valve talked being inspired by movies and tv shows and were made or take place in the 1960s (they use The Incredibles as an example but I digress). This can certainly be seen with Spy, think the mission impossible tv show and James Bond. He's the suave, womanizing agent.

This sets a good picture of who Spy is, but all of it is completely thrown by the mask. The mask is so silly. It's meant to conceal his identity but it only makes him more suspicious, what kind of spy announces they're a spy? It's so form fitting to his face that it doesn't cover anything, not to mention his goofy ears sticking out. It's perfect and so very tf2, at its heart this is a deeply silly game.

Next thing to discuss is this early Spy in relation to his teammates, as while Spy is scarcely any different, the rest of them certainly are. Spy as we know him has always been one of if not the most capable merc. So in order to counteract this and allow antics, in early TF2 he's the butt of a lot of jokes, getting shot in the head during his own meet the team, getting fridged (lol), getting jarated in the first tf2 comic ever etc. In more modern tf2 media, Spy is instead presented as more of a straight-man to the team's silliness, especially Soldier, this is best seen in the third and fourth comics; While also having a paternal side added, seen in his interactions with Pauling and Scout.

TF2 characters are based on a common trope with some sort of subversion, I say based on because throughout the course of the comics and videos the characters have changed quite a lot. Heavy is a big dumb Russian, but he's actually smart and introspective, Pyro is a crazed pyromaniac, but they're actually a little sweetie, Soldier is a patriotic military type, but he's actually insane. My point being, looking at these original concepts, I don't think there was any subversion at this point (expect for Spy as previous discussed). Heavy just looks like a big dumb Russian, Medic just looks like a mad scientist. In this more-serious and less-silly vision of the game, Spy is only one smiling, very much the opposite of modern TF2 where he's usually the only one not smiling. Instead of standing threateningly or brandishing a weapon he's vainly adjusting his clothes.

I imagine this version of the Spy would be more the comic relief, perhaps having his vanity and womanizing tendencies played for laughs. This scary ass Soldier certainly isn't the funny one anymore. It makes sense to have the Spy, someone stereotypically weak and cowardly play this role, which is why I'm glad they didn't, yay subversion.

Also of note is that Spy is the shortest mercenary here, alongside short king Engie. This makes a lot of sense (for both of them). From a gameplay perspective it's not balanced for a class to have a powerful extra ability, cloaking/disguising/backstabbing and building, while also being strong normally. So they have low health and weaker primary weapons. Making them short is one way to represent them being weaker, but Spy obviously isn't short anymore, this is potentially either a gameplay change. Spy keeps his spy hitbox even when disguised, so having him be the middle in terms of height makes hitting headshots on disguised spys the most reasonable. Alternatively it was done to make him more true to his inspiration James Bond.

100/10 I love him

I really really like the art style on this next piece. Spy here has a silencer on his revolver which is kind of funny but also makes his weapon very big, so I understand why they removed it. He doesn't have a mouth hole in the larger colored drawing, and I'm not 100% sure but I'm pretty sure the sketch doesn't either and Spy is just holding the cigarette with his teeth?? through the mask?? which is hilarious and should be in the game. Overall he's very sharp, sharp shoes and sharp lines on his face, I like it.

8/10 I still love him

This last piece is a model silhouette, nearly all the classes have one, but most are identical to the final model. The outfit here is once again on point, the only difference is that the final Spy is scrawnier, but comic Spy is even thinner, this logically means that if we let valve make more tf2 media then Spy will waste away to nothing (a small price to pay).

6/10 Still has the funny silencer.

The last thing I wanna talk about is feminine motifs with Spy, I already discussed the small hands, but there's more. The thigh knife holster is associated heavily with women (google it to see what I mean) as it allow people wearing a skirt or dress to be armed. Similar story with the shoulder gun holster, while this one is more gender-neutral, a belt gun holster is considered more masculine. Spy is very parental towards Scout, Pauling, even random children as seen in the Christmas comic. Although I very much disagree, being materialistic is also considered feminine. The other mercs often point this out in in-game voice lines, directly or indirectly calling Spy feminine, "fight like a real man". I have no greater point here, just interesting that the two mercs with the most hidden identities (Spy and Pyro) have this shared trait. I wonder if having less lore makes the creators feel more free to take the characters in new directions.