 Good evening. A couple of months ago I did a video on Gunslinger Pro 2009, a Garry's Mod ARG channel on YouTube. This video achieved some success and brought in a couple of views for both me and the Gunslinger Pro channel. If you haven't seen that video or the one by Stellar One that partially inspired it, I'd recommend that you go back and watch those. Without the knowledge from them, this video probably isn't going to make much sense. Before I start, however, I want to extend a big thank you to everyone who supported that video and subscribed to my channel. The growth has been unreal, and I'm truly grateful for everyone who stuck around. I also want to say that I'm sorry for not returning to Gunslinger Pro 2009 sooner. It's just that there's only been one new upload on his channel, and I'd prefer to wait until there's more content to talk about. But I do promise that I will make a follow-up video on Gunslinger Pro once there is. In the meantime, however, I found something else I think will be of interest to those who enjoyed the Gunslinger video. While perusing the internet two months ago, I was tipped off to a new ARG. Since it appeared to be TF2 themed and launched right as my Gunslinger Pro video took off, I was pretty quick to dismiss it as a copycat. But after sifting through its catalog, I can confidently say that this channel has creativity and consistency that I think rivals or maybe even beats out its predecessor. And since it's also relatively unknown at the moment and seems to be fairly active, I think it deserves to have a shot in the limelight. So today we'll be looking at the channel BadwaterVideos 2009 and trying to piece together its narrative. Let's begin. First, let's look at the channel's premise. Unlike Gunslinger Pro, BadwaterVideos actually does give us a channel description to work with, though it's pretty simple. I make Gmod videos, Badwater is my favorite map. Apart from this almost comically simple description though, there's nothing to note about BadwaterVideos channel itself. His banner and icon are just screenshots from Badwater and I didn't notice anything off about them. So let's just get straight into it and take a look at his first video, titled TF2 sawmill gameplay. One upload in and we can already tell something's up. This video is trying to give the impression that we're looking at standard TF2 footage, but it's pretty obvious that we're not. We watch from a Red Scout's perspective as he runs around alone on sawmill. Making his way to the enemy spawn, he spots a Gmod player doing some set dressing for a machinima. After a few seconds, the player turns around and spots the scout, who then panics and tries to flee. The video ends with Scouts screaming as he's dragged away, followed by a couple seconds of silence. This video establishes two characters, the Red Scout and the Gmod player who is presumably the operator of the BadwaterVideos YouTube channel. From here on out, I'll be referring to this operator, who represents himself with the Kleiner player model, as simply Badwater. It seems that the Red Scout accidentally intruded on one of Badwater's productions and was then spotted and captured by him. This sets us up for the same sentient character's premise we saw from Gunslinger Pro, but with a twist. Since the scout is carrying weapons and has a heads-up display, it'd see me as an actual player character drawn from TF2 itself somehow. Not just a rag doll. With that established, let's move forward. The next upload is called The Broken TV. Here's that. Here we get to see the machinima that Badwater was working on in the last video. It appears that after the Red Scout was captured, Badwater made him play a role in this production. As advertised in the description, the machinima's plot follows a blue heavy who is sad because his TV doesn't work. The Red Scout arrives and fixes it using the engineer's wrench, then the two have a great time laughing together as the video fades to black. You might notice the scout's hand-jostling at the end of this clip, which sets the stage for the next upload called, uh, that. Let's give it a watch. In this video, we return to the perspective of the Red Scout who was captured by Badwater, sitting frozen on the Red sofa with the blue heavy. He manages to break his arm free, at which point the heavy turns to the scout and shakes his head no, seemingly warning him not to attempt escape. At that point, Badwater makes his presence known by deleting the heavy who cries out in anguish. Badwater slowly starts cleaning up the rest of the set, but pauses at the scout. Distortion kicks in and the Red Scout's fate is left ambiguous. We'll get back to his story in just a little bit. This video establishes that the scout is not the only captive sentient character, as we briefly spot the blue heavy moving before he's vaporized. The title also lays down a timeframe of 2009, with this video in particular taking place on August 15th. And it confirms that being in the custody of Badwater is not in these characters' best interest. With all of that laid out, let's check out the next video titled Melon Man to the Rescue. This is another machinima from Badwater, but it brings some new elements into play. In this upload we're introduced to two new characters. One of them is a TF2 superhero character drawn from Badwater's imagination, dubbed Melon Man. He's a Demoman with a watermelon for a head. The second new character is Melon Man's friend, the Red Engineer. The plot of the video is that Melon Man saves his friend by blowing up the enemy team with a watermelon bomb. For just a moment, I'm going to go off track to say that Melon Man's design, the way he's introduced, and the sense mixing used all create a very impressive emulation of early 2010's Gary's Mod Machinima. The fact that Melon Man only has one eye, just like the regular Demoman, is kind of funny as well. I want to give the creators of the ARG props, because the attention to detail and the charm in this video is outstanding. It's actually the upload that got me hooked on this ARG in the first place. But back to the material itself, there's a couple of things to note here. In the last scene where Melon Man and the engineer are shaking hands, we can see the blue scout that he bombed crawling in the background. And after a couple of seconds, Badwater steps out from behind the camera, presumably to dispose of him. With the blue heavy, the red scout, and this blue scout sentience all confirmed, it'd be hard to fall to for drawing the conclusion that all of the characters we see are alive. But there's no way to be sure. The last thing I find interesting is that, given what we've seen in this video and in TF2 sawmill gameplay, Badwater seems to have some sort of bone to pick with scouts. Things get more interesting in the next upload, titled Melon Man vs the Teeth and Ear. Let's look at that. Another machinima that picks up where the last video left off. We're introduced to a new character called the Teeth and Ear, who takes the role of the antagonist. He is a blue engineer whose face is contorted to just his teeth and gums, and he serves as a nemesis to Melon Man. He starts tormenting Melon Man's friend, the red engineer, by eating his belongings, so the red engine calls for help. Melon Man flies to the rescue but is bored from using his melon bombs because of an explosive risk. He decides to solve the problem by simply knocking the Teeth and Ear to the floor and punching him repeatedly. I hate to derail again, but I have to say that this Teeth and Ear character is actually pretty unsettling. The idea of seeing someone who has no face except teeth is kind of terrifying, and the snaps and crunches you hear when he grits his jaw together are unpleasant. I've spent a good amount of time playing Gmod and I have never seen anyone make something like him, so more points for creativity. Back to the ARG itself, I'd like to highlight the ending scene where Melon Man beats the Teeth and Ear. While the rest of the video is choppy and crudely arranged in typical amateur fashion, Melon Man's punches and their impact on the Teeth and Ear's head are abnormally fluid, much like the heavies movement from earlier. I take this as confirmation that the Melon Man and the Teeth and Ear are alive, and that the Melon Man is actually assaulting him. But if you're paying attention, it's pretty clear that the Melon Man doesn't want to be doing this. After he spouts his line, he looks up at the player in hesitation, and only starts punching once the player threatens him by flashing the remover tool in his face. Fearing for his own life, Melon Man obeys and starts punching until we hear the Teeth and Ear gurgling his own blood, so it seems as if the player is forcing the Melon Man, who he knows is alive, to brutalize another living character for the sake of his machinima, or maybe just his amusement. And before that grim promise can fully sink in, Badwater hits us with another curveball, and the form of their next upload simply titled Passage. In this fully animated first-person sequence, we resume the perspective of the Red Scout from the first three uploads, who has somehow survived his last encounter with Badwater, Awakening on a bench on the map Lumberyard, he's met with droning from a number station playing off a radio sat beside him. He gets up and inspects a limp sniper before noticing a door sat in the middle of the dirt, as he approaches that the radio gets quieter and quieter until he can no longer hear it. The scout opens the door and is met with nothing but a white void. Suddenly, the radio starts spewing a new set of numbers, louder this time. The scout decides to step foot through the white passageway, and the door slams behind him. He tries to reopen it, but to no avail. At this point, the video distorts and ends. We'll get to the speculation of what's actually going on in this video in a minute, but first I need to address the number station. I knew there was no way the numbers broadcasted were just random, so I asked for some help decoding them. Within a couple of minutes, my good friend, who goes by the name Pictures and Panavision, cracked the code and got back to me. I'm no good at explaining this stuff, so I'll have him handle it. In mathematics and programming, hexadecimal is a positional numeral system that represents the numbers using a base of 16. Unlike the more common decimal system that uses 10 distinct symbols to represent numbers, hexadecimal uses 16, usually the symbols 0 through 9 to represent values 0 through 9, and the symbols a through f to represent values 10 to 15. Hexadecimal is, in short, a more human-friendly method of representing binary values, where a single byte of data can be represented in binary as anything between 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, and 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1. That same byte of data can be represented in hexadecimal as anything between 0, 0, and f, f. For example, the letter A is represented as 41, B is 42, C is 43, and so on and so forth. This can be applied to the numbers we hear in the passage video. The first string of numbers we hear is this. Separating this string of numbers into pairs of digits and translating each pair from hexadecimal to English gives us the phrase, you must hide. Doing the same thing to the second string of numbers gives us this, run. Big thanks to Richter for featuring me, but I'll leave it to him to explain the significance behind these messages. So, what's the meaning of this? Well, evidently, someone, or something, is trying to use the radio to communicate with the scout and warn him that something is coming. The scout seemingly finds his escape in this mysterious white void. I know there's a lot to pick apart and speculate about here, but there's only one upload left to cover, so let's get through that first. It's called Dr. Metalhead Rises. Have a look. This is another short machinima made by Badwater following up on the events of Mellerman versus the Tethernir. We see that the Tethernir has survived his beating and is now scooping a dead soldier into his wheelbarrow. He takes the corpse to a lab where we're introduced to his acquaintance, Dr. Metalhead. This new character is a medic with a combine helicopter bomb in place of a head and will presumably take up the role of our main antagonist now that Mellerman has defeated the Tethernir. The two of them activate some machinery and submerge the dead soldier in some kind of liquid. The description gives some insight into what's going on. In the aftermath of Mellerman's intervention, a new villain devises a plan to defeat Mellerman forever. It appears that the Tethernir and Dr. Metalhead are working together to use the body of the dead soldier they found to create some sort of entity to fight and defeat Mellerman. If I had to guess, I'd say that the next episode will be a battle between Mellerman and whatever the Tethernir and Dr. Metalhead are making. With that last upload out of the way, we can finally start trying to figure out the story of this ARG. First, I'll cover what we know for sure and then dive into my own speculation. As for what we know, Badwater Videos 2009 is a YouTuber who, much like Gunslinger Pro, has living TF2 characters in his GMOD and forces them to participate in his machinimas. On August 15, 2009, a sentient red scout stumbled into one of the productions, so Badwater grabbed him and forced him to participate in his video called The Broken TV. The scouts somehow managed to survive in the face of deletion, but were not told how. With the scout gone, Badwater began laying down the foundation for his GMOD TF2 series starring Mellerman and the engineer. In the second episode, Badwater forces one of the living characters, Mellerman, to beat the other, the Tethernir, on camera. Sometime later, the red scout reawakens on Lumberyard to a radio voice warning him to run and hide. He passes through a doorway into a white void, where, to our knowledge, he remains. The last thing we learn is that Badwater is setting up for a new episode of the Mellerman series, where Mellerman will face off against some kind of villain based on the soldier. Going into my speculation, I'll start by saying that I think some of these videos are being uploaded by Badwater himself, while the others are being made available through other, possibly paranormal, means. This is a common trope in other ARGs, such as Marvel Hornets. The videos in question from Badwater are the machinimas we see, like the broken TV and the Mellerman videos. The other clips that show the perspective of the red scout, like TF2 Sommel gameplay and passage, are probably not from him. One question I want to briefly ask, why did Badwater force the Mellerman to beat the Tethernir? Was it just to bring him some sick pleasure? While I wouldn't rule that out given his treatment of the other characters, I think it was actually Badwater taking advantage of the fact that these living characters he has dominion over can move. The way I see it, Badwater wanted to make a more impressive video. So rather than crudely animating a violent assault, he instead forced one of his actors to brutally injure the other. You can't say he wasn't being resourceful, I guess. With that out of the way, I really need to address the videos that follow the red scout, because his story seems like an integral part of the ARGs plot. Let me run you through his list of events again and try to answer some questions you probably have. Starting with TF2 Sommel gameplay, the scout finds himself kidnapped and forced to participate in the production of Badwater's machinima, the broken TV. Once filming is over, Badwater starts cleaning up the set and deletes the heavy. With the remover tool being turned on the scout as the video cuts, things look pretty dire. But since we see the scout again in a later video, we know he wasn't deleted and somehow escaped. So how did he get away? Well, he certainly didn't make a run for it. He was frozen with only his head in hand-free, and it didn't look like he had much anywhere to go anyways. Plus, we already know the scout cannot run the player thanks to the first video we watched. Since there's no reasonable way the scout got out of this situation on his own, the only conclusion I could come to is that some entity intervened and saved him. How? Well, the next time we see the scout, he's on the map lumber yard. So perhaps he was saved by being teleported to another level. I mean, it makes enough sense to me. And now I can finally talk about Passage, which is probably the most interesting video of the bunch. The scout awakes to a radio message telling him to hide, and this already prompts us with two important questions. Who is communicating with the scout and what is the danger that they're warning him of? And I've got an answer for both. I think that the messenger on the radio is the guardian angel-type entity that saved the scout by teleporting him to lumber yard in the first place. And the danger it's warning of is probably that Badwater is coming again. But why does the message change from you must hide to run? Well, I've got one theory, but I'll admit it does require a bit of a reach. I'll go out on a limb anyway. Because Badwater gets a kick out of toying with innocent sentient beings, I think it's fair to assume he enjoys going on power trips. Because of this, the scout teleporting away before we could delete him probably infuriated Badwater. He wasn't ready to just give up and let the scout get away, so now he's loading through every map looking for the scout to actually get rid of him once and for all. Badwater eventually begins loading into lumber yard, where the scout is currently resting. The guardian angel figure that teleported him there wakes him up and tells him he needs to hide. The scout seems to not get the messages though, as he doesn't seem to be in a particular hurry. But time is running out. Badwater is loaded into the map, and if the scout doesn't move soon, he's going to be toast. The message changes to reflect the new urgency. Run. The scout seems to finally take his savior's advice, running into the strange door which is quickly shut behind him. So to recap my take on this ARG so far, a red scout has found his way into Badwater's build of Gary's mod. Badwater tries to delete him, but an external force is trying to save him. So far intervening to stop his deletion and now putting him in some kind of pocket dimension where Badwater can't reach him. And in between snippets of the scout's journey, we get to watch whatever videos Badwater comes up with. So why do I like this ARG? Well if you couldn't tell by my outburst earlier, I find it pretty impressive how well the Melon Mame videos emulate the old comedy from the early era of Gary's mod. The fact that Badwater videos 2009 as a character also seems to be trying to depict a story of his own also adds to the level of intrigue. Having two plot lines to follow is pretty cool. I also find it cool that despite hitting most of the same notes as Gunslinger Pro, this ARG manages to be interesting and charming. Its machinimos are done extremely well and the animated portions help make it very interesting. There's clearly a lot of heart put into it. And the last thing that I like about this ARG is its upload consistency. With how active it is, I wouldn't be surprised if I end up putting out a follow-up to Badwater videos before I return to Gunslinger Pro. I mean it already has more uploads. That's all this time. If I missed anything, let me know in the comments below. Thanks for watching and I'll see you in the next video.