#meta post

AGE

Sniper was born in New Zealand, which sank 40 years ago (Comic 4 Page 73). So the starting point for maximum age is 40 years old plus the age when he left New Zealand. Pauling says that “they lived down here for years… but something happened” (Comic 4 Page 74) which is implied to be baby Sniper blasting through the dome in a rocket (Comic 4 Page 89). So that implies that New Zealanders lived down there at least 2 years before the rocket, but likely 4-8. 

On that day, Bill-bel, Sniper's biological father, in his speech (comic 4 page 78) tells the ministers that he advised them to sink New Zealand “a decade ago… but [they] would not listen”. This means that the starting point for Sniper's age is minimum 30 years old plus his age at the time. For him to say that the ministers did not listen, there had to be some delay after the warning but before the sinking. Judging from real life government examples, this could have been days (storms, earthquakes) or years (pandemics, climate). Any delay by the government before the sinking of New Zealand would raise the minimum age. To build the dome and react to a “slow” threat, the delay is probably on the scale of years. 

On the day he left New Zealand, Sniper crawled into a rocket by himself when unattended (Comic 4 page 85). A baby typically starts crawling between 7-10 months of age, but possibly as low as 6 months to as much as 12 months. https://www.healthline.com/health/baby/when-do-babies-crawl#talk-to-a-doctor 

Babies continue to crawl for an average of 3.9 months before walking, though this can range from 0 (walk on the same day) to 8.9 months. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3050596/ 

Parents are generally advised to consult a paediatrician if children are not walking by 18 months. https://www.bbc.co.uk/tiny-happy-people/articles/zqd7xbk There is no strict age to stop crawling, but based on appearance, Sniper is no older than 3 years old (toddlers are 1-3). However, he was tall and strong enough to pull himself up into a tall rocket meant for an adult, likely placing him at the older end of this range, minimum 8 months. https://therapiesforkids.com.au/blog/early-climbing-for-children-aged-8-12-months/ 

There is the possibility of rounding error if you assume “forty years ago” and “a decade ago” are approximates as they were conveyed in speech. There is the possibility of +/- 5 years in rounding. However, the personalities of the people speaking should be taken into account. Miss Pauling is an exacting person and an excellent administrative assistant, it is unlikely that she would say forty years if it was more than +/- 1 year. Bill-bel is full of himself and is more likely to exaggerate the number than to round down. If it were more than “a decade”, he would say “more than a decade”. So, his rounding would likely be -5 to 0, or if we are being generous, +1. This means that any rounding is likely to lean to Sniper being older rather than younger. 

Absolute minimum age = (Miss Pauling rounding error to make New Zealand sink 39 years before comic 7 mission) - (Bill-bel rounding error 11 years down to a decade) + (minimal delay of a day between Bill-bel warning the New Zealand government and the country sinking) + (Sniper was a tall and strong baby who reached the developmental milestone of crawling and being able to pull himself up early at 8 months) = 39 - 11 + 1 day + 8 months = 28 years and 8 months 

Absolute maximum age = (Miss Pauling rounding error to make New Zealand sink 41 years before comic 7 mission) - (Bill-bel rounding arrogance 5 years up to a decade) + (maximum delay between Bill-bel warning the New Zealand government and the country sinking, making his told you so speech the day after New Zealand sank, subject to the rounding by Bill-bel, subject to them living there for “years”, 5-2= 3 years) + (Sniper was a late bloomer baby who reached the developmental milestone of crawling and being able to pull himself up late at 3 years) = 41 - 5 + 3 + 3 = 42 years 

Take everything at face value age =  (Miss Pauling was exact, 40 years) - (Bill-bel is exact, 10 years) + (no delay between Bill-bel warning the New Zealand government and the country sinking) + (Sniper was an average baby, 1.5 years) = 40 - 10 + 0 + 1.5 = 31.5 years 

Realistic age =  (Miss Pauling was exact, 40 years) - (Bill-bel rounds slightly, 9 years) + (a significant delay between Bill-bel warning the New Zealand government and the country sinking, 4 years) + (Sniper was an average baby, 1.5 years) = 40 - 9 + 4 + 1.5 = 36.5 years 

Caveats:

*I could not be fked to look for proper academic studies for every statement about babies so some sources are less serious. 

NAME 

His New Zealand name is Mun-Dee (Comic 4 page 84). 

His Australian surname is Mundy. He signs off his card to Santa as Mr. Mundy (https://wiki.teamfortress.com/wiki/Nutcracker). Ms Pauling refers to his parents as Mr. And Mrs. Mundy (Comic 4 page 25). 

His first name is Mick, based off the back packaging of his official NECA figurine. This is clearly a Crocodile Dundee reference, where the main character is named Mick Dundee. 

Prime opportunity missed to call him Mun-Dee Mundy though. </3 Moon Moon energy. Now that’s a name that would get him bullied. 

ADDRESS 

Geography and the “a mile” problem 

New Zealand is relatively to the south-east of Australia, so the closest parts of Australia not including small islands, are Tasmania and the south-east/east coast. On the map that Ms Pauling looks at in the New Zealand parents base, this remains true in TF2 fantasy Oceania. (Comic 4 page 105)

Baby Sniper's rocket breaks through the protective dome of New Zealand and crashes “a mile away” (comic 4 page 89). 

There is no part of the New Zealand landmass that is 1 mile away from Australia. So we have to consider the characteristics of New Zealand's protective dome and what may have occurred when the country sank. 

The dome is pictured as round, centred over a city (comic 4 page 74). The city is clearly not the entirety of the New Zealand landmass. Ms Pauling says “the whole country” but visually that doesn't seem possible. Perhaps it holds the population of the whole country moved into the dome, which is 5mil people and very doable for a major city. 

There are a few possibilities: 

New Zealand is now a collection of these little domes over various cities = unlikely as it is implied that the city pictured in the comic is the entirety of New Zealand. The dome is also referred to as “a fragile glass dome”, “living in the dome”, “New Zealand’s protective dome”, implying there is only one. 

A dome was built over one New Zealand city in particular, and continues to stand in its location on what once was above land. Assuming you would either want to save the largest city (Auckland) or the capital city (Wellington), these would both be on the North Island. On the map that Ms Pauling looks at in the New Zealand parents base, the red dot representing the Australium rocket can be seen near North Island, supporting this location. (Comic 4 page 105) Since the government is in the dome, and it is implied that there is a continuity of government for Bill-bel to say “Ministers, I warned you a decade ago [before New Zealand sank]”, it would likely be Wellington. = Possible. The underwater city starts out hundreds if not over a thousand miles away from Australia. There is an argument it may have drifted closer to Australia over time. Shipwrecks have been observed drifting 500km over a period of months in the North Atlantic ocean (Richardson, Drifting Derelicts in the North Atlantic,1883-1902 (1985) Prog. Oceanog. vol 14 pp. 463-483). I'm unconvinced since it would still be attached to a landmass albeit a sunken one. The prevailing current on Eastern Australia should push the dome south, and also likely away from Australia instead of towards. It is unlikely but possible to have drifted closer to Australia. If it cleared the bottom of Australia, the prevailing current on Western Australia is a cold current moving north. The rocket post-launching can be moved by the current but probability drops the further it goes as it needs to have enough power to clear the water and still land on land. 

The dome and city were purpose-built in New Zealand's territorial waters (up to 12 nautical miles from shore) or in international waters, and the elites of the country evacuated to there when the landmass sank. = Possible. Underwater architecture likely is different and easier to build from scratch rather than make a dome over an existing city. Also possible for it to have drifted, with more likelihood towards Australia, as above. But then why sink New Zealand landmass unnecessarily? Also unlikely to comply with Pauling’s wording “they built a giant glass dome over the whole country and sunk it to the bottom of the ocean”. (Comic 4 page 74) 

So 2 is the most likely, but even then there is no realistic scenario for even the dome of underwater New Zealand to be 1 mile from land Australia. That would be invading Australian waters, which is undesirable for New Zealand politically, and also likely to ground/wreck New Zealand physically as the seabed gets too shallow. We can perhaps interpret it as 1 mile from the coast, as the rocket is shown whizzing past a cliff coastline just before the “a mile” text. 1 mile is not very far in but we'll look for a location near the coast. 

According to proximity and ocean currents, the most likely coastlines will be the southern part of the east coast and Tasmania, and then south coast, then maybe west coast. North coast of Australia is very unlikely. 

Terrain matching amateur geoguesser time  

Sniper voicelines “how we do it in the bush”, “bushman rules” etc imply he’s from the bush. The bush/ Australian outback spans mostly central and west Australia. The bush area touches the coastline in the south and west. The south is closer to New Zealand. 

The rocket crashes onto a grassy plain with short shrubs and reddish hills/ mountains in the background. It looks like one might be a flat top rock formation (comic 4 page 89) which are more common in central Australia/ Northern Territory but that would be too far away, so we’re just looking for a hilly reddish bush area. Trees are sparse. This is confirmed in the background when Pauling and Demo get to Sniper’s parents house (Comic 4 page 22). It will likely be a rural area as they have been looking for Sniper for a while, implied by Spy saying “still looking for the bushman” and the “weeks” ago timestamp on Comic 4 page 2. 

So we search the coastline of south Australia, ignoring: sandy beaches, big cities, suburban residential areas, areas with a lot of trees, small islands. We are keen on: less populated areas, rock formations, cliffs, grass with small shrubs, areas that are lighter green or reddish, mountains. It is okay if it is quite green as there seems to be seasonal variation in the appearance of the surrounding land (Meet the Director page 6). 

Along the South coast about 10 miles in from the shore, I found the town of Penong in South Australia (comic 4 page 89). There is a beach but also cliffs, not a perfect match for the curvature but coastlines can change since the 1920s. It has a population of about 280 people and is famous for the kind of windmill that is pictured in the image of his parents’ house when the rocket crashes. And if you move inland, you get to various conservation parks and the Yellabinna Regional reserve. There are hills that resemble the background of the pictures of his parents’ house. It appears that these are vaguely visible even from Penong according to street view and photos from the nearby roadside camping spot. 

Penong meets the following requirements:

Near a coast, with cliffs, not just beach (not 1 mile but close enough)

Close as possible to NZ, still plausible coast side (the rocket was meant for space and if it catches the right current that would help, we have to handwave a bit) 

Matches terrain type, dirt, colour, vegetation 

The town is noted for its privately owned windmills, which supply houses and farms with water from the Anjutabie Basin. These match the exact design of old-school windmill power in the background of the Mundy house when the rocket crashes. (I was so excited when I found those windmills) 

Mountains in the background if you go north 

Small population 

Tenuous connection to Adelaide (same state)

Passes the vibecheck 

The postcard to Mum is a red herring

You might say to me but Red, Sniper writes a postcard to his mother and you can see the address! (https://www.teamfortress.com/sniper_vs_spy/day02_english.htm

) The address is “Adelaide St., Australia, (Red House on the Left)”. The address is inadequate. (Also that house is clearly pink.) There is a city called Adelaide in South Australia, sure, but there are also various “Adelaide Street”s in various cities all over Australia (and the world, including Florida, USA for you Soldier fans out there). These Adelaide Street addresses are in a city or a suburban residential area, i.e. not a visual match for the Mundy house. Yes, I checked. I am so tired. 

It would make sense that as a professional killer, he has a trusted middleman to forward post to his parents in order to protect them. This could be an agreed code that informs them where to forward the mail. Either that or he doesn't know how mail works, and his parents are not getting his letters. 

Jinshi to me is a well-meaning character who is honestly extremely progressive for the time period he is being written in. And yet, his privilege both as a man and as a member of the noble family is something he has to examine constantly and Maomao is a catalyst for that.

The moment where she explains how she came to serve in the palace is framed as such a turning point in his affection for her, and it’s only the beginning of him questioning his place in the world and how this system affects others.

There’s so many other instances too, such as when they’re undercover and he asks Maomao what could lower the value of a courtesan.

And in the LN’s, reading the chapters within his POV are so interesting to me because you see this gradual shift in his perception of himself and how his position affects Maomao in terms of their relationship- beginning with him “firing her” and subsequently buying her out all the way up to LN 13’s epilogue where Maomao has finally accepted his affection and yet he feels as though he’s still in this power imbalance with her- and he cares about her so much that he can’t abide it.

It’s so refreshing and interesting bc usually the ‘secret prince’ trope is played out as a reward for the ‘commoner’ Cinderella protagonist but The Apothecary Diaries doesn’t do that- it really forces the reader to examine the question of how much of a choice Maomao really has. Maomao herself is very aware of her lack of agency- to the point that she is pretty much accepting of anything that happens to her and she’s endlessly adaptable (she’s def repressing and denying her own trauma but that’s another meta entirely).

And as such, the reader is not so much reminded of this power imbalance and its unfairness through her, but through Jinshi. To me that is such a narratively interesting and nuanced way to go about examining this issue- so refreshing to see the male character in this instance taking responsibility for the situation and remaining grounded in reality instead of being gallant and optimistic and overly romantic (although he is these things in his own way) And he keeps Maomao’s desires (as he understands them) in mind too.

Because the issue is not whether or not they can be together within the constraints and world of the story- it’s whether or not they can be together in a way that leaves Maomao with as much independence and agency as possible.

And yes, at times the slow burn can be agonizing, but I trust how these characters are being handled so much at this point and it feels so realistic that I don’t mind it. Having this conflict tied up with a pretty bow as if the craziness of LN 5 and 8 didn’t happen wouldn’t be satisfying to me anyway.