What is HeavyMedic?
eavyMedic is a fan-favorite ship between the Heavy Weapons Guy and the Medic from the game Team Fortress 2. Their primary ship name comes from fans smashing their class names, "Heavy" and "Medic" together. This is the most traditional way to name a ship. The second most popular name for their ship is "Red Oktoberfest," which comes from the achievement of the same name. There are other names, such as "Birds and Bears" or "MedicHeavy." But I will only be using "HeavyMedic" here.
My experience with this ship.
I first came in contact with HeavyMedic when I started playing TF2 around 2022. At first, this ship wasn't my favorite, I didn't like it at all because I didn't want to be a fan of something so popular (haha). But over time, I fell in love with it. At first, I started liking Medic as a character, he was the first person I felt something for, something close to love. His pretty face and silly antics made my heart spasm. It's still hard for me to look at him without giggling. After all, I've always been somewhat into biology, so it was natural for me to like him.
It was harder to start liking Heavy. As a Ukrainian, liking a ship, where one of the characters is from r***a, is a torturous experience. That's partially why it took me so long to get over the denial that I was a fan of this ship.
There were two choices for me:
- Leave the ship at the beginning.
- Take Heavy.
I chose the 2nd. Suddenly, Heavy Weapon Guy became Ukrainian, and I could breathe freely. From then on, Heavy became the sweet, handsome man I love right now. I soon fell in love with his cute pink cheeks and his gorgeous strong arms (and his tiny legs, of course). It's almost like I fell in love a second time.
And to double my happiness, I started shipping these two. HeavyMedic is everything I ever wanted in a ship. Two hot old guys acting like a married couple, and then adopting a monkey baby together?? Give me twenty! Their strong bond and family dynamic still puts electricity through me every time I see them together.
Of course, I like almost all interpretations of this ship, and I'll eat them up with my big HeavyMedic shaped spoon, but the "old married couple" is my favorite.
Canon and semi-canon evidence.
Here I will give you some evidence from canon and semi-canon media that could prove that Heavy and Medic are in a romantic relationship.
A cute little thing about this ship is that the first letters of Heavy and Medic's real names mirror the first letters of their class names. Medic (Herbert) and Heavy (Misha).
1. Achievements
In the game Heavy has exactly 7 achievements that require a Medic or a "HeavyMedic pair", with other classes being mentioned directly 3 times and indirectly (mentioning Dispensers, Teleporters or Sticky Bombs) 4. This would mean that a whopping 7 achievements are dedicated to the Medic alone (or a pair of them), while all other mercenaries have to share the other 7 between themselves. Sounds pretty targeted, no?
On the other hand, Medic mentions Heavy the same number of times as he does the other mercenaries, twice each. Does this mean Medic doesn't love Heavy? No. From a relationship perspective, this would mean that Heavy is the more obsessive and open person in their relationship, trying to spend as much time alone with Medic as possible, while Medic takes a more professional approach, dividing his time equally between all the mercenaries (as a Medic should).
In total, technically, they would spend 9 achievements together, which is much more than other mercenaries spend together.
So, here are all of those achievements:
Class Struggle
"Work with a friendly Medic to kill an enemy Heavy and Medic pair."
An achievement where you need to kill an enemy pair of clone homosexuals to prove the superiority of your relationship.
Division of Labor
"Kill 10 enemies with a Medic assisting you, where neither of you die."
Protecting each other while you brutally kill men on the battlefield. Pretty romantic.
Party Loyalty
"Kill 50 enemies within 3 seconds of them attacking your Medic"
I would like to emphasize on "Your Medic" They could have said "The Medic healing you" but instead they chose "Your Medic." Because, yes, it's HIS Medic, and he will kill you within 3 seconds if you dare touch him.
Photostroika
"Provide an every with a freeze cam shot of you taunting while invulnerable."
This one is basically Heavy making fun of you while also bragging about what his cool scientist boyfriend is capable of.
Red Oktoberfest
"Earn a domination for a Medic who's healing you."
Give gifts to your boyfriend. Just like he gives gifts to Sasha for good behavior, Heavy also does so for Medic. That should tell you something about the nature of their relationship.
Soviet Block
"While invulnerable and om defense, block an invulnerable enemy Heavy's movement."
Once again two HeavyMedic pairs having a Homosexual power show off.
Supreme Soviet
"Get Übercharged 50 times."
An achievement in which Heavy gets extra special treatment from Medic.
Big Pharma
"Assist a Heavy in killing 10 enemies, where neither of you die."
A cute way to show love to your boyfriend is to have matching achievements.
Blunt trauma
"Assist in punching 2 enemies with a single Übercharge on a Heavy."
Pretty self explanatory. They're protecting each other (Heavy's punch + Medic's Über) in the fight.
Additionally, there are some achievements for other mercenaries that mention a HeavyMedic pair.
Beaux and Arrows
"Kill a Heavy and Medic pair with the Bow."
Not even considering that the title of this achievement is "boyfriends and arrows." The whole act of a guy shooting two people with an arrow is universally interpreted as Cupid helping two people fall in love. Thanks, Sniper!
Back 2 Back
"While using the Back Scatter, kill a Heavy/Medic pair within 20 seconds of each other."
I don't have much to say about this, except that "Heavy and Medic" is written through a slash, as if referring to their ship, rather than just them as teammates, an image of a broken, weeping heart, implying the death of two lovers, and perhaps the fact that they are the only two people ever who have been referred to as a "pair."
2. Voice lines
For this I will be using voice lines from TF2 and Poker Night (including unused ones).
I would like to point out that Heavy and Medic are so in love that they don't even have any domination or derogatory voice lines directed at each other.
Heavy
- "You are now without doctor!"
- "My doctor's still alive!"
- "Your doctor is dead!"
Here Heavy again calls Medic HIS, instead of "our" (team's), hinting that he has a deeper connection with Medic than with others.
- "Thank you, doctor!"
- "You are great, doctor!"
- "I love this doctor!"
Heavy boldly confesses his love for Medic. Nothing else to say here.
Heavy says this line every time he kills someone while being übercharged by Medic. Once again, they are protecting each other.
- "Medic is not coming with us? Today is sad day."
- "Was Medic not invited to ass-kicking party!?"
- "Medic has not joined us? NO MORE TEA PARTY FOR YOU, MEDIC!"
- "Where doctor?"
Heavy is sad that he didn't get to spend time with his Medic today. The third line also reveals that they are canonically having tea parties.
- "No Medics left!"
- "Medic is dead! Now I am alone!"
- "Doctor is gone!"
- "Medic is dead!"
Here, Heavy is deeply saddened by the loss of his Medic and being left "alone" despite having other mercenaries with him, which could imply that Heavy is now "romantically alone." Of course, Medic will be back soon, but what about the drama?
- "Where is your doctor, coward?"
One more "your" "my" doctor wouldn't hurt.
- "Medic!"
- "Doctor!"
- "Follow me, Doctor."
- "We go together, Doctor."
- "Doctor, this way!"
- "Come, Doctor!"
- "Come along now, Doctor."
These just sound very sweet. Awwwh, yes, you do go together!
- "Bet or call? With Doctor behind me, it would be no question."
I like this one. It tells us that Heavy feels most confident when Medic is around. Ah, to be the man who makes Heavy Weapon Guy feel protected, safe, and confident.
- Do you get the nightmares? I am talking about visions of endless suffering. Dead doctors, everywhere. Spy cannot be found.
This line can be taken literally, meaning Heavy is afraid of Medic's death, specifically at the hands of the Spy. Which is an understandable fear, Medic is a mercenary, he could die at any moment (or has already died many times, depending on what you think of the respawn theory), it's a pretty scary image. But we can also look at this line from a more metaphorical perspective (which is how nightmares usually work), meaning that Heavy is not literally afraid of Medic dying, but instead is afraid of the demise of their relationship or that it will experience some major change. The sudden and violent nature of Medic's death could symbolize the sudden change in their relationship that is forced upon Heavy and that he finds difficult to accept.
This all sounds terrible. But major changes aren't always bad. Medic's death can be seen as the death of a familiar dynamic, the sacrifice needed for a powerful rebirth of their relationship.
I'm getting a little crazy...Let's take a look at Medic.
Medic doesn't mention Heavy often in his voice lines, he mostly talks about himself (and does so very fruitily) or his team in general.
As I mentioned earlier, he's more of a professional type. But here's some cut content from Poker Night 2 that can be related to Heavy.
- Perhaps I should have stayed at home looking at naughty x-rays.
The only x-rays Medic can be seen looking at are Heavy's.
- I'm going to sit this one out, and think of more pleasant topics... like sucking chest wounds.
No, this doesn't mean Medic wants to suck on chest wounds (although he probably would want that). It's a type of wound. Basically, when you have a hole in your chest that allows air to get in. This is often caused by gunshots. And who else had gunshot wounds in their chest? Heavy! So Medic is probably thinking about the time he spend with Heavy in MTM.
3.Taunts
There are two taunts that fall under the HeavyMedic category:
Bear Hug
When initiating a hug, Heavy can say, "Come here, baby!" or "Kiss me." This could be directed at any mercenary, but since Medic is the one he's hugging in the picture, let's assume Heavy is saying that to him.
Results Are In
Medic pulls out an x-ray of Heavy's chest. This taunt was also in the "Love and War" Update.
4.Art and Comics
Including merch, yes.
Art
Holiday Card titled "The Medic gifts the Heavy a superbly tall stacked sandvich"
"Anatomy of a Heavy Weapons Guy."
A drawing of Heavy's skeleton, which can be found on the map Rottenburg. Isn't it so romantic to have a detailed map of your lover's skeleton?
"Hevey luvs Medek" can be found on a loading screen of the Swiftwater map.
Shirts
There are a two shirts featuring Heavymedic, "Unbreakable bond" and "YinYang MedicHeavy".
Banner art for SFM.
It is a reference to The Creation of Adam. Here Medic literally gives life to Heavy. Could this mean that Heavy is somehow fascinated by Medic and worships him? Maybe.
Art made by official comic artists.
By Heather Campbell, "Makani"
By Maren "rennerei" Marmulla
Maybe there's more art of them, but that's all i was able to find. Moving on!
Heavy and Medic are posing together on the header of the TF2 Website
Update art
Soldier is lecturing Heavy and Medic bots.
Heavy is trying to shield Medic from the Mecha Engineer.
Comics
"Early comic"
An ancient Spy centered comic in which Heavy gets blown up and then treated by Medic while being extremely dramatic. I like how Medic is touching him here. Very cute hand placement.
"Catch Up comic"
