Soldier (Team Fortress 2)

"If fighting is sure to result in victory, then you must fight! ...Sun Tzu said that, and I'd say he knows a little more about fighting than you do pal, because he invented it. And then he perfected it so that no living man could best him in the ring of honor! (...) Then, he used his fight money to buy two of every animal on earth, and then he herded them onto a boat, and then he beat the crap out of every single one! (...) *sinister laugh* And from that day forward, anytime a bunch of animals are together in one place, it's called a ZOO! ...Unless it's a farm!"

- The Soldier making a speech to a collection of enemy heads.

The Soldier is a crazed patriot from America's heartland. Tough, durable, and well-armed, he's capable on both offense and defense and a great starter class to get familiar with the game. Being xenophobic and jingoistic, he carries a extreme hatred of foreigners (despite enjoying The Art of War which has Chinese origins and most of his own teammates being foreigners) and hippies.

The Soldier is well known for his spectacular rocket jump. In defiance of all common sense and judgment, the Soldier can detonate a rocket at his feet and launch himself skyward at the cost of some health. This ability allows the Soldier to pop up in unexpected places and reach areas off-limits even to the Scout's double jump.

The two grenades on the Soldier's character model cannot be used unless the player finishes the Kamikaze taunt, which can only be used when the Equalizer or the Escape Plan are equipped.

While most if not all of the characters in Team Fortress 2 are mentally unstable, he is one of the two that seem to be completely insane (The Pyro is likely also insane, but is delusional). This is demonstrated in his Meet the Team video where he has decapitated slaughtered BLU mercenaries, his "friends" who are cardboard cutouts that he talks to in TF2 comic Grordbort`s Crash, and hoarding Captain Dan's soup in his home in [http://wiki.teamfortress.com/wiki/WAR!_Comic WAR! comic]. He also "claims" his name is Mr. "Jane Doe" despite that name being used on unnamed corpses of women, instead of John Doe, the male equivalent. In the Shadow Boxers comic he believes his entire team consists of only Americans, but only he, the Engineer, and the Scout are confirmed to be American (Medic is German, Demoman is Scottish, Heavy is Russian, Spy is French, Sniper is Oceanic, and no one knows where Pyro comes from). And recently in Grave Matters, his other possible "real" or just other alias "Barrister Joe" and rank is revealed by his dead boss Redmond Mann. In Meet the Spy and later videos, he has become somewhat of an idiot and immature. This may be due to one of the comics revealing he has been drinking contaminated water, instead of the bottled water meant for the team. The Soldier inspired meme hits like Painis Cupcake and Rubberfruit himself.

Trivia

 * The Soldier is voiced by Rick May.
 * The Soldier and Engineer can be quite essentially the opposite or more of Antithesis of each other in many things. Engineer is: from the southern part of USA, calm and intelligent, a creator, wearing a hardhat and seemingly sane besides some paranoid traits. The Soldier is: from the northern part of USA, rough and belligerent ,a warrior, wearing a metal helmet and one of the most insane characters, partly thanks to drinking toxic water as revealed in the TF2 comics.
 * His primary weapon is a rocket launcher, his secondary weapon is a shotgun, and his melee weapon is a shovel.
 * The "Meet the Scout" video and "Righteous Bison" taunt implies he can juggle with explosives.
 * The Soldier is similar to Charlie Hewitt from the Texas Chain Saw Massacre 2003 remake film as they are both psychotic soldiers armed with a shotgun, and they are both killers.