The Machinist

About

The Machinist is a neutral boss and player skin added to the video game Fortnite in May 2024. The character is a female wasteland engineer who fights those attacking her using an arsenal of guns, automated turrets and an armored vehicle. The Machinist inspired fan art, memes and hornyposting on social media following her release in late May 2024.

Origin

On May 24th, 2024, season three of Chapter 5 of Fortnite launched.^[1] The season added three neutral bosses, known as the Wasteland Warriors, including an engineer called The Machinist, also available to players as a skin. The boss can be found either at the Redline Rig location or traveling as a part of a convoy in an armored vehicle.

Spread

Following the launch of the season, the character achieved significant virality within the Fortnite player base, who shared artworks and other fan-made content.

For example, on May 25th, 2024, artist @jiansketch posted an artwork of the character that received over 470 reposts and 3,200 likes on X^[2] in three days (shown below, left). On May 27th, artist @nekoramen222 shared an artwork that garnered over 1,200 reposts and 7,400 likes on X^[3] in one day (shown below, right).

The character also became the subject of hornyposting on social media. For example, on May 25th, 2024, X^[4] user @_nedwardo posted a humorous sketch that received over 600 reposts and 4,100 likes in three days (shown below, left). On May 27th, X^[5] user @ana_D7omf posted a GIF caption meme that received over 400 reposts and 4,100 likes in one day (shown below, right).

On May 26th, 2024, X^[6] user @Mlickles posted a video of The Machinist's unintelligible voice lines, commenting, "Was listening to the machinist’s voice lines and oh my god." The post gained over 1,300 reposts and 13,000 likes in two days.

Was listening to the machinist’s voice lines and oh my god pic.twitter.com/Z5gbKaXqau

— Mlick (@Mlickles) May 27, 2024

Additionally, the character was shipped with Jules, another Fortnite character, shortly after her debut.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References