"I made GMOD videos. Badwater is my favorite map."
BadwaterVideos2009 is the titular and villainous protagonist of the BadwaterVideos2009 ARG, an ARG that puts it's own spin on an already existing formula while also keeping the original purpose of it: to make homage of the old era of GMod Machinimas.
Personality[]
In the little we've seen of them, on a surface level, BadwaterVideos comes off as a polite, thoughtful, yet reserved person. They attempt to please their viewers as much as they possibly can, as seen in their QnA video, where they deliberately chose to answer the most asked questions in order to please the majority of their audience; on their willingness to make a tutorial on how to make a Machinima like theirs; joining a "Skype" group chat with his subscribers and giving them sneak peeks into future videos; and in making the QnA to make up for the absence of a new Melonman video.
However, it is almost certain that this is a masquerade they use whenever they're talking to their public, as their treating of the ragdolls, while not as bad as other's, it's far from anything an empathic person would do: oftenly forcing them into situations where they'd hurt themselves or another ragdoll.
Filmography[]
TF2 sawmill gameplay[]
The first video in Badwater's channel isn't centered on their point of view, but in a RED Scout's, who will be the secondary protagonist from this point forward. The video starts with the RED Scout in the koth_samwill spawn, where he proceeds to go to the enemy spawn, presumably looking for players to engage in a fight. Once he reaches a roof barely away from the spawn, he notices Badwater building a film set, revealing that this isn't TF2; it's GMod. Badwater slowly turns to the Scout, to which he runs away back to the spawn, but is caught by Badwater presumably using noclip, making the portrait in his HUD change with an A-posed Scout. The video then fades to black.
The Broken TV[]
The continuation of TF2 samwill gameplay. It's the Machinima Badwater was setting up before being interrupted by the Scout. It starts with a zoom in into the BLU Heavy, who is sitting on a couch outside the BLU spawn in koth_samwill as he mourns the loss of his TV, saying things like "Ah... It is sad day. Very bad!" until he hears a knock on his door, he turns to see who was knocking, just for the RED scout from early to be revealed. He swoops next to the TV, asking the Heavy if he could use it. The Heavy declines, as it is broken. Scout, angry by this, decides to take matters into his own hands and repair the TV by using the Engineer's wrench. After fixing it, Scout and Heavy enjoy their camaderie, laughing together while they watch the TV. The camera then pans up to the sky, then the video fades into black.
hl2 2009-08-15 18-17-36-64.avi[]
The final installment of the "Broken TV" saga. Here we see Scout's Point of View after the making of the film. He tries to break free from the couch, to which he was welded. After some attempts he achieves it, then turns to the Heavy. The Heavy shakes his head, in an attempt to warn Scout to not rebel against Badwater, before he's deleted by Badwater's toolgun. They then proceed to delete the rest of the film. The video ends with Badwater pointing the Toolgun to Scout, leaving his fate ambiguous for the time being.
Melonman to the Rescue[]
The first installment of the Melonman series, a Machinima series about a Melon-headed RED Demoman protecting his Engineer friend from the BLU team and other opposing forces. The video starts with the RED Engineer, taking cover behind some rocks in pl_badwater as he's being chased by the BLU team. Everything seems lost until Melonman shows up flying while yelling "MELON!". He lands, and summons some sort of melon projectile, which he throws to the BLU team, causing an explosion, sending them flying all over the place. The video then ends with an uncomfortably long hand shake between Melonman and the Engineer, as a BLU Scout tries to crawl his way out of the set on the background, but is quickly noticed by Badwater who goes to retrieve him moments before the video ends.
Melonman VS Teethineer[]
In the second installment of the Melonman series, he's up against the BLU Engineer, whose face has been mangled beyond recognition by Badwater. The video starts with the RED Engineer, who is sitting on a chair on an canyon in arena_offblast. He appreciates the view as he reaches for his mug, laying on a table next to the chair. Before he has the pleasure to take a sip of his mug, he is interrupted by the Teethineer, who makes a wheezing noise, prompting the Engineer to call for help to Melonman, who is resting in a cabin located on the opposite end of the canyon. He flies to aid his friend, whose belongings are being consumed by the Teethineer, he readies another melon projectile, but is stopped by the Engineer because it'd cause the explosive barrels located behind him explode. With no other alternative, Melonman opts to punch the Teethineer onto the ground, finishing them off. Melonman doubts about what to do, but is quickly encouraged by Badwater who flashes their toolgun with the Eraser function on. After this, Melonman stares back into Badwater, ending the video.
Passage[]
The third video where we see the RED Scout's perspective. In here he finds himself in another film set, this time located in arena_lumberyard, where he's aided by a voice in the radio, telling him to "RUN" and that "YOU MUST HIDE" before catching the voice's deal, he tries to wake up a BLU Sniper, but to no avail. Then he notices a door, similar to the one he came out of in The Broken TV, which leads to an all-white Pocket Dimension. The video ends with the Scout going through the door, and getting trapped inside the Pocket Dimension, falling onto the ground in denial.
Dr. Metalhead Rises[]
The third installment of the Melonman series, which teases two new antagonists in to the roster: Dr. Metalhead, a BLU Medic whose head has been replaced with a Combine Chopper Bomb, and a dead BLU Soldier from the aftermath of Melonman to the Rescue. In the video, Teethineer goes back to retrieve the dead Soldier's body from pl_badwater, carrying it all the way to Dr. Metalhead's base of operations, the BLU base on cp_well. In there, Dr. Metalhead conducts an experiment on the BLU Soldier's body with the objective to bring him back from the dead by submerging him into some kind of gold looking liquid. The video ends with Dr. Metalhead maniatically laughing as the camera pans up to the sky again.
Melonman Update and Q&A Announcement[]
Badwaters announces that there has been technical difficulties with the new Melonman video, and that instead he's making an QnA video to make up for it. This is the first time that we see Badwater interacting with the public, showing off traits of their personality.
Questions and Answers[]
The Questions and Answers video Badwater promised, in here they try to suffice the majority of their viewers' questions.
Question: What is your favorite TF2 Class? Answer: I like playing Spy. He's fun.
Question: Why is Badwater your favorite map? Answer: I enjoy payload maps, and I think Badwater is well designed. My only compliant is that the area around the third point is kind of bad for attackers.
Question: Are there any other maps that you like? Answer: I'm enjoying the new KOTH maps they added recently. Nucleus has been fun.
Question: What are some other games you like? Answer: I enjoyed Portal and Left 4 Dead, I am excited for Left 4 Dead 2 coming out in two months from now. I do not play many other games.
Question: Why did you start making videos? Who inspired you? Answer: I was mainly inspired by The GMOD Idiot Box. I thought it was funny and I wanted to make my own GMOD videos.
Question: What do you use to edit your videos? Answer: I use Sony Vegas Pro 9.
Question: How do you make your videos? Answer: There's a lot to talk about. If people seem interested, I may make a video showing what I do to make my videos.
Question: Have you heard of Gunslingerpro2009? Answer: A lot of people were asking me about them, but I don't know who that is.
Question: What is Melonman's backstory? Answer: This will be answered sometime in a future video.
Question: What are the Teethineer's abilities? Answer: The Teethineer is able to eat anything they please. However they are blind and use echolocation by clicking their teeth together.
Question: Who is Dr. Metalhead? What's his connection to the Teethineer? Answer: Dr. Metalhead is an evil scientist who vows to defeat Melonman. The Teethineer is his creation and henchman.
Question: How did you create your characters? Answer: I just thought them up. I wanted to make my own characters to use in my own machinimas and to set me apart from others.
Question: Will there be a sequel to the Broken TV? Answer: A lot of people seemed to like that video. I'll try to come up with something for a sequel inbetween working on Melonman videos.
Question: How did you make the Teethineer move like that in Dr. Metalhead Rises? Answer: There are tutorials on youtube on how to build something that lets you get walking ragdolls. You can easily find them if you search them up.
Question: What were the technical difficulties that cancelled the new Melonman video? Answer: Some things just didn't work out, and I couldn't finish the video.
The video ends with the real cause of the cancellation of the Melonman video: Something went terribly wrong with the BLU Soldier's revival attempt, he was brought back, but his legs were cut off from his body. He crawls to Badwater, who erases him, either mercifully or disappointingly. They describe this as a "Failure."
How I make GMOD Machinimas Tutorial[]
Badwater teaches us how they make their Machinimas. This video also serves as foreshadowing for the next 2 videos.
First, they load in pl_badwater, for obvious reasons. Once they establish a filming location, they encourage us to decorate with as many props as you can to make it look natural. Once they're done, they proceed to move to the next step, which is bringing the ragdolls in, for this they reveal that they use the Pocket Dimension seen in Passage to move the ragdolls from map to map, as they can't respawn the ragdolls. They see this as a normal, everyday GMod action, implying that their copy of GMod isn't a regular one with alive ragdolls. They open a gateway to arena_offblast, where they pick up the Melonman ragdoll. They suggest to weld the ragdolls on the floor, so that they don't run away after recording sessions. After setting up the filming set, they move on to the next tutorial: How to animate. For this section, located in gm_construct, they use the RED scout, whom they have retrieved from the Pocket Dimension sometime after the first tutorial. They force him to wave to the camera with their Physgun, showcasing that the beam from the Physgun is visible, and then show the audience how to fix this in the settings, alongside the HUD with console commands. Next, they set up a ragdoll walking machine, however when they finish and turn back to test it on the Scout, he's ran out. After a cut, they come back with a new test subject for the machine, the RED Engineer, whom they successfully achieved to set up. Finishing the tutorial.
The Teethineer Interrupts Tea Time[]
The first interquel between the first tutorial and the second one. Here we are presented with the RED Engineer and Melonman enjoying tea time together in pl_badwater, that was until The Teethineer decides to put their shenanigans in motion yet again and tries to sabotage tea time by throwing a grenade, which lands next to Melonman's foot, luckily Melonman quickly reacts and kicks it back to The Teethineer, who gets flung into the air, breaking a prop in the process. Dr. Metalhead, who has been observing Teethineer via cameras, brings them back using a teleporter of some sorts, and expresses his disappointment on them. The video ends with Teethineer running to the middle point of cp_well as he manically laughs while the camera fades into black.
Sanctuary[]
The second interquel between the first and second tutorial, this time focusing on the RED Scout's point of view.
It starts with the Scout sleeping on the floor of the Pocket Dimension, waking up as he hears footsteps, it was Badwater transporting Melonman into the filming set of the Tutorial video. He walks up to where Badwater was, and notices the gateway to arena_offblast, where he attempts to wake up the RED Engineer, but once again to no avail. He then gets picked up by Badwater, who pulls him into gm_construct, where we see the Scout's point of view in the second tutorial. He manages to somehow break free of the welding once again, and flees into the infamous dark room.
When Badwater notices this, they attempt to chase him, prompting Scout to cover his eyes in fear. However, they seem hesitant, and ultimately refuse to take another step, and instead give him a familiar stare just to run away. After this, Scout runs deeper into the dark room, finding a flashlight and a mattress.
Gunslingerpro2009's canonicity[]
The Badwater ARG has made itself clear that it's in no way trying to connect with the Gunslingerpro2009 ARG, most notably in the QnA video, where Gunslinger hasn't even started his career and even then Badwater's viewers know him, due to this error in the continuity it's commonly agreed that these two take part of different universes for the time being. Even if these two were to coexist, they wouldn't even be in the same time period, as Gunslinger started in late 2010, and Badwater takes place in late 2009.
Trivia[]
- The RED Scout playing a similar role to the BLU Spy in the Gunslinger ARG, especially in the second tutorial, might be referencing to these two characters being canonically father and son.
- Badwater's viewers being aware of Gunslinger might point to an alternate universe counterpart of Gunslinger, but this is a stretch.
- Badwater seems to be a partial anti-thesis of Gunslinger, showing dread for the dark room, whereas Gunslinger relies on it to capture the BLU Spy; Being successful in containing the ragdolls during the recording of the videos, whereas Gunslinger failed; Even his stance in Sanctuary mirrors that of Gunslinger in the paralelling shot in hl2 2010-10-25 14-49-44-34.