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viv-weylin · 2 years

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Why Sniperspy is So Damn Good

Both Sniper and Spy are incredibly angsty- or goofy characters depending on the tone of the story. This leads to a ship that can be just about any tone while also being character. Sniperspy is one of the most versatile ships while also being one of the most fun ships.

Let's take apart the characters. Because Red and Blue Sniper are basically the same, we can just say "Sniper". However, Red and Blue SPY are different which leads to different dynamics, but they're very similar.

Sniper is a quiet, loner type. He spends his time alone, in his campervan, far away from the chaos. Sniper is a professional, he can kill without emotions, he can feel separately. He's incredibly awkward, bad with emotions, and is incredibly passionate about his hobbies. He's also seen as a more simple, survivalist-based person in comparison with Spy. Depending on some readings, this can be seen as autism or depression, or just a weird quirk. All of these are valid interpretations of what we know about Canon Sniper.

He can be dealing with disappointing his parents, or dealing with his parents death if this is Post-Game and during/after the comics. This leads to a good central conflict OR a good character arc. He can also be dealing with his own inadequacy in his appearance. Canonically, he was bullied or at least treated differently for his appearance (being small, skinny and lanky compared to the rest of Australia). This can lead to another conflict or character arc. We've established two character arcs that he goes through/can go through in fanfiction or media. These are cinematic parallels to Spy's character arcs.

BLU Spy and RED Spy work about the same personality wise. Usually Spy is more pretentious, more reserved and he is also secretive, quiet, and spends time far away from everyone else. Spy is also professional, and he also can kill without feeling emotion. He's good at talking to people, he's incredibly arrogant and a womanizer. If we dig deep and speculate, we can also assume he has problems with identity and honesty. Growing up and becoming a Spy leads to someone constantly playing a character, and this means that Spy hasn't hasn't himself in a long time. He's always lying because there is no person behind the mask. He's always been "Spy"— and we can assume what he wants is somewhere to be honest and genuine. Be himself.

His character arcs can be dealing with Scout's Mom leaving him because she was disappointed in his Spy work. He could also be dealing with his relationship with Scout. This part only applies to RED Spy since BLU Spy is not Scout's dad. Spy can also be dealing with his genuine self, which has been stated before. He can also be dealing with honesty and being true. Or getting rid of the ego and arrogance that makes him unapproachable. All these character arcs parallel Sniper's in a way.

Both Spy and Sniper have someone disappointed in them. Someone they both love. Both Spy and Sniper deal with identity and who they are, in appearance and in personality. Both of them have problems with ego (or lack thereof in Sniper's case). They're both lonely, sad men who don't have anyone waiting for them at home. Both of them can help each other grow, become better and become less lonely. Or… if you want a darker flavor of ship, this can also be codependent and unhealthy. But they both can love each other, and grow as individuals.

And both of them can be read as Trans. The Transness of both of them are there— Sniper's bullying for his body type and Spy's need to constantly hide his face and wear layers and layers of clothing. Both of them struggle with their body or appearance in some way which leads to a good t4t/one of them are trans story that also coincides with Canon.

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Types of Sniperspy dynamics:

There are a lot of Sniperspy dynamics which both work, and are common. We'll be establishing the following:

Cross-faction Enemies to Lovers Sniperspy

Same Team Friends to Lovers Sniperspy

Falling back in love

The Unhealthy flavor of Sniperspy

Crossfaction: One of the most common forms of Sniperspy is the cross faction variety — this is why Sniperspy is the second most popular TF2 ship. Crossfaction is when someone on BLU and RED falls in love, despite the fact they're on enemy teams.

The star-crossed lovers, forbidden lovers trope has been popular since the dawn of time. Romeo and Juliet is one of the most popular love stories (if we ignore the actual story and just look at how it's interpreted 90% of the time). RED Sniper and BLU Spy canonically have a rivalry, or enemies to lovers dynamic (according to the Sniper v. Spy update, which features a rivalry between RED and BLU Sniper and Spy).

Enemies to lovers in TF2 is uncommon in other ships, especially with any canon grounding, and if you want an enemies to lovers story, Sniperspy is one of the only ships with canon evidence that enemies to lovers work with. Even their playstyles have this dynamic. You'll see Spies often targeting a Sniper because when scoped in, he can't see anyone coming from behind. Snipers often can see a Spy try and backstab since he's usually far away and observing the battlefield. Their PLAYSTYLES help support this dynamic of enemies.

Both of them are reserved, hateful and can hold grudges like no other.

Now that we've established an enemies to lovers dynamic, we can talk about the subcategories.

Casual fuckbuddies to lovers is one of the most popular Sniperspy tropes. Because Explicit stories are very popular, along with it just working like no other TF2 ship. It often starts with them taking out their frustration and hate through sex (which is the hate sex trope, too) and them starting to get feelings. It could also be them both being touch starved and finding comfort in each other (which can be hate cuddling, too). This dynamic doesn't doesn't as well with most other TF2 ships because Sniper and Spy spend most of their time away from their team, which can lead to them having conversations… or sex without anyone else noticing.

This can turn into a lot of things. A BDSM relationship, a true honest romance, a one sided "Oh no I caught feelings" kind of deal, a "I can't believe I'm attracted to men" arc, or a "we've been caught by someone and now are forced to break up even though we both have feelings and care deeply for each other" fic.

One-sided attraction is another common idea. Spy or Sniper could catch feelings for the enemies. Sniper is usually attracted to Spy's confidence and general sexiness, and Spy could be attracted to Sniper's honesty or genuine personality… or his sexiness too. This can lead to the casual sex trope, or guilt for feeling attraction towards another man and angst. The possibilities are endless.

Enemies to friends to lovers is another good ship, this usually is a slow burn but doesn't need to be. This usually is Sniper and Spy becoming close friends and then becoming lovers. It's a simple dynamic that doesn't need to be explained.

A slowburn will-they won't-they, while not my cup of tea, is very doable. This can be a longform of any of the above and this slow burn works really well with this dynamic.

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Same-Team Friends to Lovers

The ability to be both Friends to Lovers AND Enemies to Lovers work incredibly well. If you want to write a cute fanfic, RED Sniperspy is always there. This has a special aspect that Enemies to Lovers Sniperspy doesn't have.

RED Spy being Scout's father.

That AND Sniper and Scout being good friends can lead to an interesting story beat. Spy could be dealing with guilt and Sniper could help him grow. Sniper could be dealing with his own guilt about dating Spy while being friends with Scout. Or we could go the comedic aspect with Sniper becoming Scout's step-dad.

Or we could do something incredibly unique to this ship. We could have Spy a single dad with Scout, and Sniper be the other parent. Either by meeting accidently, or what another fic does. See: Recommended Sniperspy Fics.

This Friends to Lovers ship is unique and has aspects that only it can explore while being canon-compliant.

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An underutilized idea in this ship is the falling back in love trope. This is Post-Game. It usually follows the idea of Sniper and Spy falling in love during the Gravel Wars, but once it ends, they seperate. Sometimes it mutual, sometimes it's one sided, but someone is always upset.

Once they reunite, it's the "awkward exes" trope all over.

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Sniperspy can also be a good way to explore unhealthy relationship dynamics. Most notably codependency.

Hypothetically, we can imagine:

Spy can be an empty shell, with no real personality, constantly lying to Sniper. He could be telling these fake stories of a real person just to make Sniper happy while also having Spy put zero effort into being a good person. Lying to Sniper would be an addiction, something he couldn't stop doing because this person he made up is a million times better than who he truly is.

Sniper could be okay with the lies, maybe he'd even be aware of it, but because of his need to love, to feel love, to have someone love him, he wouldn't mind.

You could explore an obsessive Spy, delusional even, thinking Sniper loves him back, which leads to an incredibly unhealthy dynamic that can be interesting to explore.

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A dynamic that I love is Vampire/Vampire Hunter. Both of them have cosmetics that support this, with Spy having a Vampire Cosmetic and Sniper having a Vampire Hunter cosmetic.

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