Did Soldier From 'TF2' Appear In A Canadian Textbook?

A humorous photograph of a Canadian textbook with a familiar face in it has gone viral on X / Twitter and Reddit recently.

It appears that a Canadian publisher included a heavily filtered image of the character Soldier from the video game Team Fortress 2 (TF2) in a history textbook after a user sent it to them, pretending that it was their great ancestor.

But is this image of a supposed troll real or has it been an elaborate hoax after all?

The story goes back to June 1st, 2023, when X user @Rad_Demo sent a portrait by artist F.H. Wellington of a smoking man in a uniform by artist @tweet17_tweet to Canadian publisher TC Media Livres, writing that he was their ancestor who fought in the 1759 Battle of Quebec.

The supposed portrait was really a filtered piece of artwork depicting Solider from Team Fortress 2 done by artist @tweet17_tweet (and also a profile picture used by one of @Rad_Demo's mutuals on X). There's also some additional lore. The image is based on an infamous picture of Bara Soldier that was once often used in Heavy Like a Brinks Truck memes.

One year and several months later, @Rad_Demo posted a photograph of a history textbook with Soldier's face staring from it. A few hours later, they posted another photograph, now showing the photograph on page 219 of a yet unidentified history book supposedly published by TC Media Livres, used as an illustration in an article about the Battle of Quebec.

After the photograph naturally made its way to the /r/tf2 subreddit, @Rad_Demo appeared in the comments to share the original email they sent to the publisher one year ago.

The story went viral in the Team Fortress 2 community and many wanted to believe it was true, but has it merely been an elaborate hoax that @Rad_Demo played on all of us after all?

Considering that @Rad_Demo was the only one who posted the image, it could very well be. If you're a student in Canada and see a Soldier Jumpscare in one of your textbooks, let us know!