Pyro (Team Fortress 2)

The Pyro is one of the nine playable classes in Team Fortress 2. 
==Canon==
Pyro is by far the most mysterious mercenary in TF2. The character's real name, appearance, gender, and species remain unconfirmed. The official short film Meet the Pyro"Meet the Pyro". Valve, 2012. shows that the Pyro is highly feared by the other mercs, including theirMost official materials refer to the Pyro with he/him pronouns, though this has been broken on some occasions; for example, the "Meet the Pyro" video's official transcript features the Scout saying "He's not here, is she?" in reference to the Pyro. This article uses they/them pronouns for consistency. own teammates; the Pyro themself, however, sees the world through "Pyro-vision", and believes that their war crimes against mercs are in fact acts of kindness towards cherub-like creatures. In the official tie-in comic "True Meaning",Minttu "TheMinttu" Hynninen. "True Meaning". Valve, 2011. Engineer is seen reading a book to Pyro, suggesting that Pyro has a more friendly relationship with him than the other mercs. This positive relationship is strengthened by the tendency of some Pyro players in-game to defend Engineers' buildings against rockets and Spies, earning them the nickname "Pybros". 
==Fandom==
Since Pyro has very little decipherable dialogue, no canon appearance, and minimal chemistry with the other mercs, they are relatively neglected in certain types of fanworks. As of December 2023, they are tagged in just over 2350 works on AO3, less than any other class from the game. There are over 250 works featuring them on FanFiction.Net. 
Because the Pyro has so little canon material to work with, many fans have inserted their own headcanons about the Pyro into their works. There are over 150 works on AO3 with the tag "Nonbinary Pyro", and over 40 works where the Pyro is tagged as female. In fact, female fan interpretations of Pyro are quite common in fanart. Pyro (especially fem!Pyro) has been depicted in some inflation kink art, a fact that has been memed on by the community.Spy's Grave Mistake, an SFM animation by SilentManJoe. This pokes fun at the prevalence (perceived or otherwise) of Pyro inflation fanart online.
Some fanartists depict Pyro with a static mask, while others will give them a mask that changes appearance to match the Pyro's emotions. SFM creators sometimes use an "enhanced" modelEnhanced Pyro, an SFM model by Maxxy. of Pyro to get more expressiveness out of the character than the default model would allow. 
The cheerful worldview that Pyro appears to hold in Meet the Pyro has inspired many depictions of Pyro as childlike; this is sometimes but not always accompanied with the headcanon that Pyro is aromantic and/or asexual,doobnnoob-tf2 on Tumblr, post dated June 10, 2022. When asked about Pyro's orientation, the user responds: "asexual. I’m not against Pyro being portrayed in non-sfw scenarios tbh, I just personally see them as being too innocent for it." which itself may be accompanied with a discomfort with depicting a childish character in an intimate relationship.cauldroncreations on Tumblr, post dated Dec. 18, 2019. In this post, the user provides the following as an "unpopular opinion": the user says: "i personally am not a fan of any ships involving pyro! their childish personality makes putting them in a romantic/sexual relationship with like actual adults feel.....uncomfortable for me but that is a personal issue". Other mercs, especially Engineer, may be depicted "father figures" to Pyro. This trend is not without controversy, as some fans object to it:
===Popular Freeform AO3 Tags ===
In order of popularity as of 2024 and excluding "POV," "Mentioned," "Minor" and "Centric" tags. This list also excludes tags that are not used in at least 10 works as of the making of the list.
*Nonbinary Pyro
*They/Them Pronouns for Pyro
*Autistic Pyro
*Female Pyro
*Gender-Neutral Pyro
*Pyro Uses Sign Language
*Selectively Mute Pyro
*Any Pronouns for Pyro
*Maskless Pyro
===Relationships===
The most popular pairing featuring Pyro is Engineer/Pyro, with over 200 works on Archive of Our Own and 14 on FanFiction.Net as of December 2023. Pyro/Scout is a very close second on both platforms. Works exploring the platonic relationship of Engineer & Pyro are also fairly common. 
==== Common Pairings/Polys ====
*Pyro/Pyro
*Pyro/Scout
*Pyro/Soldier
*Demoman/Pyro
*Heavy/Pyro
*Engineer/Pyro
*Medic/Pyro
*Pyro/Sniper
*Pyro/Spy
*Miss Pauling/Pyro
====Common Gen Relationships====
*Pyro & Scout
*Pyro & Soldier
*Demoman & Pyro
*Heavy & Pyro
*Engineer & Pyro
*Medic & Pyro
*Pyro & Sniper
*Pyro & Spy
*Miss Pauling & Pyro
==Example Fanworks==
===Art===
* light pyro by biggreenpepper
* muffled pspspsps by slimsnipes
* the pyro and the seal by emeruga
* They weren't lying. That Pyro can trans your gender. by 7greentears
===Vids===
* Lil' Guardian Pyro, a Saxxy Award-winning SFM directed by Brent Kennedy
* Nobody wants Pyro's Coffee by Misan
* Pyro's Night at Freddy's, a FNAF crossover by Recursive Sweatpants
==Notes==
==References==
Category:Team Fortress 2 Characters