 Good evening. TF2 was never meant to have a story. The characters and world scene in the game were designed solely to be memorable and easy to recognize at a glance. That's why sometimes things in the game don't make a lot of sense, like five clones of the same Frenchman rushing you, or this guy healing you by shooting you in the face with an arrow. However, from the moment TF2 came out, there was always an intense demand from the general public to see more of the TF2 world and more of the TF2 characters. Valve's first response to this was to meet the team shorts. Emotional trailers introducing each character, exploring the personalities and what they're all about. These were a viral success and are no doubt a big part of why the game is so popular today. But they still weren't enough to satiate the masses. So then came the TF2 comics. In 2014, Valve commissioned a team of artists to create a series of web comics set in the TF2 universe to elaborate on the game's world and treat its fans to an all new story starring their favorite mercenaries. Those four years, chapters of the TF2 comic continually released, showing us the adventures of the red mercs, as well as side characters like Miss Pauling and Saksden Hale, and letting us in on just what happened to them after the events of the wars we see in the game. The stories told in these comics were exciting, funny, touching, and honestly, kind of unforgettable. And they were a big factor in evolving these characters from quirky in-game avatars to the cultural icons we recognize them as today. To say these comics were critically acclaimed and beloved would be an understatement. There are some people who enjoy the TF2 comics more than they enjoy the TF2 game, and YouTube uploads of people dubbing over the comics continue to get hundreds of thousands of views to this very day. There's only one problem. The comic series was meant to be seven chapters long, and the sixth one made it clear that things were coming to a close. However, years and years passed after the release of this sixth chapter, with no news or update on the final one in sight. And because of that, the community has slowly but surely given up on ever seeing a finale to this beloved story. The comic page on the TF2 website still appears incomplete. It's final slot grayed out. Coming soon, it writes. It's now been six years since the last comic was put out, about as long as it's been since the last major TF2 update, and pretty much everyone in the community has given up hope on ever knowing the conclusion to TF2's official story. Mainly because, as I'm sure many of you know, Valve has a well-established history of not finishing things. Half-Life? Ended on an unresolved cliffhanger. Left 4 Dead? Same thing. There isn't any Valve game, and there's guaranteed to be at least some unfinished business with it. Even TF2 itself never got the heavy update the community was once teased. So it's a bit of an open secret that Valve really has no problem leaving beloved projects unfinished at the torment of their die-hard fans. However, information about these canned projects always manages to slip through the cracks in one way or another. Whether it's Half-Life's infamous Episode 3 document self-published by the game's writer, tidbits that come out in Valve interviews, or through gigantic illegal server leaks. So six years on, what do we know about why this final chapter, the conclusion of the TF2 storyline, never came out? Well, first of all, we should probably talk about the comics themselves. They follow the red mercenaries and Miss Pauling on a mission for the administrator in Saxton Hail to take down Greyman after fending off his robot army as seen in the Man vs. Machine game mode. Greyman takes over Manco after having his daughter challenge Saxton Hail to the Saxton Challenge and take over the company, so that he can steal the last batches of Australia on Earth under Manco's control and power his life extension machine. Meanwhile, the administrator goes missing after stealing all the remaining Australia that Manco had and leaves Miss Pauling a message to reassemble the team of TF2 mercenaries who had split up after the dissolution of Manco. This leads to a wacky series of events that reunite the TF2 mercenaries and culminates in them facing off against the TFC mercs, who were hired by Greyman to steal all the remaining Australia on Earth. The TFC mercs turn on Greyman, killing him and taking over the company. The TF2 crew then take down the TFC mercs one by one, but unfortunately for the administrator, it turns out the last batch of Australian was used by the Sniper's father to paint a rocket that then promptly gets launched into space with Sniper's mom in it. Once the administrator learns this, she uses the entire remaining batch of her Australian supply to rapidly de-age herself, insisting to her Blue Engineer assistant that she's going to find more. Then it ends. And that's the comics, at least as they stand. It's a pretty silly story, a bit hard to follow at times, but if you haven't yet, they're definitely worth the read. My explanation could never do them justice. Anyways, now that everyone's on the same page, what do we know about why the seventh TF2 comic didn't come out? Well, right after the sixth comic released, its main writer Jay Pinkerton left Valve, which pretty much fell trouble. But he shortly after responded to a fan on Twitter and assured that the final comic story was done and even offered to share the plot to the public if it somehow failed to release, though unfortunately he has yet to ever honor this. Jay Pinkerton later came back to Valve and deleted that original Twitter post, which basically took everyone back to square one of not really knowing what was going on. However, one of the main illustrators on the comic, Heather Campbell, also known as McConny, stated the following on Tumblr two years later in 2019. The last issue is not being worked on at the moment, though we did start on it for a little bit after the last one, and we are all still interested in finishing it sometime. We know what story we want to tell. It's just that now the three of us that do them are working on different things these days, and it's been hard to find a good time. It's sort of a waiting to see if slash when the stars align situation. It does absolutely help to see people are still interested after all this time, though, and we're super proud of the comics so far. So we're watching for a window where we could wrap it up. So that's it, I guess. The comic was fully written as confirmed by both McConny and Jay Pinkerton, but the team never finished illustrating it and everyone working on it just kind of went their own ways. It's officially not being worked on and given Valve's reputation. Chances are we'll probably never see it because they really have no incentive to wrangle the team together to finish it. It's a really lame way to close the chapter on something hundreds of thousands of people have enjoyed, but there's unfortunately really no leverage the TF2 community has over a multi-billion dollar tech giant. The whole situation just kind of sucks. However, what's probably more interesting to think about than what happened to the final TF2 comic is what was going to happen in it, which unfortunately we don't really have too much to go on, but there is one really interesting lead. In 2018, an anonymous user posted in a TF2 thread on Four Chance V-Board claiming to have read the script for the final comic. He was weirdly nonchalant about it and didn't really seem to be calling much attention to himself, which was kind of peculiar. When asked by other people in the thread to explain what happened in that script he claimed to have read, he happily obliged. Here is, according to an unverified anonymous leaker, a full plot synopsis to the unfinished final TF2 comic. I'll do my best on the visuals. Comic picks up right where the sixth left off with engineering young administrator taking an elevator down. Administrator asks Engie about his thoughts on life, death, religious beliefs, et cetera, and Engie just says he's a man of science and reason. They walk down a long hallway as Admin explains that some things can't be explained and some people are better off not knowing. Doors open and engineers see something off-screen that puts him in a state of shock. Scene changes to the rest of Red Team looking for the remaining TFC mercs. Soldier and Zana are toying with some of them by threatening to cut off their ears. Spy is about to interrogate slash torture TFC engineer before Miss Pauling steps in and asks him if he knows what his son has been up to. Classic Engie is surprised to learn his son is working under Manco and Pauling says he should come with them when they go back to see the administrator. Though she really wants him to tag along so both engineers can make a better life extender for the Admin. After searching for a vehicle to leave on they find one of those massive carriers from MVM to drive off the island. Hale says he needs to go back to Manco first before they get to the Admin. Pauling argues that she's more important but Hale says that without his company the war is meaningless since there's no weapon supply. Pauling eventually agrees after the mercs say they enjoy having guns. Mags calls Darling telling him to come back to Manco HQ as soon as possible. Hale burst into Manco only to find Olivia playing Tea Party and dress up with the robots. Before he can say anything, Maggy steps forward and recognizes Olivia as her biological daughter stolen from her when she was a baby. Charles arrives and it's revealed he is the father. Hale is livid, more so after realizing that Darling technically owns Manco now until Bidwell reminds him of the company policy where any opposing CEO can become the CEO of Manco if they beat the owner in a fight. Darling says Hale can't do that since he isn't a CEO of a company. Hale asks if the mercs own any companies. Scout chimes in saying he owns the Tom Jones Memorial Museum and gives ownership of it to Hale. Hale kicks the shit out of Darling while Mags watches in horror and the mercs in Olivia watch in delight. Hale reclaims his title as the owner of Manco and kicks Darling out. All's well that ends well. Except Pauling reminds everyone about the Admin and the lack of Australia, the latter of which enrages Darling since it's the entire reason he wanted Manco in the first place. Cuts back to Angie and the Admin speaking to the mysterious figure hinted at comic six. Angie's still in utter shock. Admin talks about her blood debt and the promise they made years ago, how all the deaths were part of a tribute. Cuts to the mysterious figure. Turns out it's Abraham fucking Lincoln. Except it's not really him, it's some cosmic entity or messenger assuming his form or something. Engineer asks what the fuck is going on. Decades ago, the Admin made a pact with some eldritch force in exchange for power of some sort. It's intentionally left vague. All of the blood shed for the past century or so has been her part of the pact. Like a mass sacrifice to said being. Lincoln explains that her time is up. Admin is furious saying that she basically gave her life away to serve them and even then it wasn't enough. At this point she snaps and starts walking toward a control grid in an attempt to prep every missile or rocket red and blue ever had. Saying it's enough to pay off her debt and wipe out the entity in one foul swoop. A perfect stalemate. Pauling, Hale and the Mercs bust through the door right in the nick of time. Both engineers have a touching moment where they reunite as Pauling asks what the hell is going on? Admin rants about how Pauling and the Mercs didn't do their jobs. Zana is the first one to step in and tell the Admin to fuck off before the scout and the rest defend Pauling as well. Admin is furious that they can't see what they're dealing with and points it directly where Lincoln was. But he's not there. Instead he's at the control grid and arming the nukes to go off after a timer. Blips out of existence like the fucking G-Man while the Admin has a genuine look of fear on her face. She collapses and Pauling runs up to her. Both engineers run to the grid to try to open it up and diffuse things. Admin's time is up and she's apologizing to Pauling for insulting her. Says she should take the blame. Her and Pauling share an intimate moment. They nearly kiss. Admin suddenly rapidly ages forward back to her wrinkly old self and dies on the spot. Scout and Spy console Pauling before Spy shouts Zana and soldier to not cut the Admin's ears off her corpse. Engineers are struggling to stop the timer. Barely a minute left. Heavy steps forward. Gives a speech about how grateful he is to have been with the team and if they die he'll go out with pride. All the other Mercs chime in and say their part. When it gets to the engineer he shouts out that they've stopped the timer. Everyone breeds a sigh of relief except the timer restarts. At this point everyone is beating the shit out of the control grid in an attempt to stop things. After enough damage the entire thing shuts down completely only for the missiles to fire anyway. Several panels of other TF universe characters watching the world end. Sniper's mom in space watching everything in the rocket fade to black as the comic ends. Next few panels show the far future. Caveman Roman. Sniper's mom in the Australian rocket crash landed on earth. The caveman are exposed to Australian and pick apart her red and blue clothes from her corpse. Final panel is the caveman fighting in red and blue cloth enhanced by the Australian. The war begins anew. Okay, it's worth noting that this is just some guy's posts on 4chan and isn't to be trusted in any official capacity at all. But the story described to me at least seems like a very believable and even fitting conclusion for the TF2 story. It wraps up basically all of the arcs the comics introduced even the one of Miss Paul and being a lesbian funnily enough and feels very much in the spirit of something the real team would come up with. If that story is not the one written by the TF2 comic creators then it's one written by someone who's captured the style exceptionally well especially for the meaningless valor of, I mean just kind of posting it on a basket weaving form for maybe a handful of people to read. If this completely anonymous poster is to be at all believed it seems that the fate of all Team Fortress characters was to die in an apocalyptic bombing caused by the administrator trying to satisfy the bloodlust of an ethereal being that looks like Abraham Lincoln with the only surviving member of humanity being an old woman in space who later crashes back into Earth. But then the series would basically reset with the mercenary clashes being replaced by primal caveman warfare in the same spirit. That seems like a pretty believable ending at least to me. But what actual reasons are there to believe this green text? Well, if nothing else there's actually a pretty considerable amount of evidence that suggests TF2's final saga was going to involve space pretty heavily. When Valve released the third comic they published it alongside this concept art that I believe was created by the original art director Team Fortress 2 Moby Frankie. And then immediately afterward the fourth comic came out and introduced the plot point of Sniper's mom going into space. As some of you probably know that picture that heavy in space turned out to be concept art for the map RD asteroid which was created in 2014 and features the mercenaries fighting in an all new game mode in space. So basically they introduced outer space as a location in both the comics and in the game at nearly the exact same time which I don't think is a coincidence. Asteroid itself is a completely new and ambitious environment filled to the brim with new gameplay concepts and assets. And Valve continued working on it five months after its release showing they cared about it quite a lot. If it were finished and it came with a full space themed update it would be a pretty big deal one worthy of accompanying the game's story conclusion, don't you think? Additionally, the level had its own unique voice lines for the announcer in which she sounds very distressed and constantly remarks about how we're running out of time. I find that to be very peculiar considering the very last thing that happens in the TF2 comics is the administrator giving herself one hour to live by using all her Australian. Basically, the fact that already Asteroid was never finished just like the TF2 comics that were worked on alongside it makes me think that two were meant to be part of the same project. And I speculate it might have possibly been a big final update for Team Fortress 2 where the game itself would have somewhat tied in with the events of the comic. It could have brought a bunch of new space levels and cosmetics to the game while the story itself gets wrapped up with the mercenary's death. But not in a sad way in a cool and funny way that carries the distinct flair of TF2's humor and style. It all adds up perfectly to me and somewhat aligns with the story in the supposed leak. If nothing else, I think I probably would have been satisfied with that being the game's conclusion. It definitely would have been better than not getting a conclusion at all. Now, unless someone who worked on TF2 and RD Asteroid and or the comics ever speaks out, there's really no way to know what would have come of either of those projects had they been finished. But in the absence of any other explanations, that supposed green text leak combined with my personal theory about the comics being linked to Asteroid I think paints a pretty vivid image of at least one possible story conclusion for TF2. But then again, maybe I'm wrong and everything I just tried to piece together is just a coincidence. I'm not a developer or an artist. I've got no idea what was happening in those writing rooms or at Valve's offices. Hell, I was only 14 when the sixth comic came out. It's also more than possible that that guy in 4chan was just some asshole with too much free time on his hands. In that case, well, with how little optimism there is in the TF2 community, it's kind of hard to hope that that star's aligning situation described in Heather Campbell's four-year-old Tumblr post will ever happen. Unless someone were to buy out Valve or something, which, fat chance. So if anyone has any other theories of what was going to happen in the final comic or what the whole deal with Asteroid was, I'm all ears in the comments. Otherwise, I can only hope this video and the weird green text story helps give at least someone watching a sense of closure on TF2's story. I don't think we're gonna find it anywhere else. I also think it's worth keeping in perspective that TF2 is really over-delivered on what it owed the world. All it was ever really meant to be was the multiplayer component of Half-Life 2 Episode 2, and instead it became one of the most popular games of all time with a beloved comic series that was still getting worked on a decade after the game's release. So I guess the fact that we never got a giant climactic explosion send-off update really shouldn't be seen as too much of a disappointment. Anyway, I've been Ricky Blober. Subscribe for more epic videos like this one and have a good day.