Moira O’Deorain

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/moira_portrait.png

"Humanity is shackled... I will find the key."

Species: Enhanced human
Age: 48
Occupation: Geneticist; Minister of Genetics of Oasis
Base of Operations: Dublin, Ireland; Oasis, Iraq
Affiliation: Talon; Blackwatch (formerly)
Appearances: Moira Origin Story (focus)
Appearances (comics): "Masquerade" (cameo), "Retribution"
Appearances (Archives events): Retribution
Appearances (short stories): "Code of Violence"

"Science will reveal the truth."

Voiced by: Genevieve O'Reilly (English)^note

Equal parts brilliant and controversial, scientist Moira O'Deorain is on the cutting edge of genetic engineering, searching for a way to rewrite the fundamental building blocks of life.

Over a decade ago, O'Deorain made waves when she published a controversial paper detailing a methodology for creating custom genetic programs that could alter DNA at a cellular level. It seemed like a promising step toward overcoming diseases and disorders and maximizing human potential.

Dissent among her peers soon followed. Many considered her work to be dangerous because of its perceived ethical shortfalls, and O'Deorain was even accused of having the same unchecked desire for scientific advancement that some believed had caused the Omnic Crisis. In addition, other geneticists were unable to reproduce the results of Moira's research, which further called her discoveries into question. Instead of kickstarting her career, her paper seriously damaged her reputation.

She received a lifeline in an offer from an unlikely source: Overwatch's covert ops division, Blackwatch. She continued her work in the shadows while developing new weapons and technologies for the organization. Her employment was a closely kept secret until it was uncovered during inquiries following the Venice incident. Many high-ranking Overwatch officials disavowed all knowledge of her affiliation with them.

After Overwatch was disbanded, O'Deorain was forced to turn to unconventional sources of funding. This time, she was invited to join the scientific collective that had founded the city of Oasis. Yet some have whispered that the shadowy Talon organization had already been supporting her for years, aiding her experiments in exchange for utilizing the results for their own purposes.

Though O'Deorain will go to any lengths to make scientific breakthroughs, her work is still unknown to most of the world. But now that she has been freed from all constraints, it is only a matter of time before everything changes.

Moira is a Support armed with high area-of-effect abilities that alternate between potent healing for her allies and raw destructive power for her enemies.

Her weapon is Biotic Grasp, a twin set of gauntlets which unleash two distinct types of close-range beams. Her primary fire, Regeneration, releases a spray to heal allies (but requires a meter to use), while her secondary fire, Decay, locks onto and continuously damages a single target, healing her and charging up her Regeneration much faster.
Biotic Orb allows her to create two different types of rebounding orbs that can either heal nearby allies or damage nearby enemies.
Fade, allows her to become invulnerable as she teleports a short distance in front of her.
Her ultimate, Coalescence, causes Moira to fire a gigantic laser in front of her that heals allies and can pass through barriers to damage enemies.

Airplane Arms: At least to others in-game, she trails her arms behind her when she runs. Oddly, playing her in first-person view has her palms in front of her for clarity purposes.
Ambition Is Evil: Her primary goal in a nutshell is for humanity to achieve peak evolution and has no problem testing out her theories on herself and others, regardless of the consequences.
Animal Motifs: Not nearly as much or as obvious as D.Va but Moira tends to be associated with rabbits in a few sprays and icons and is seen experimenting on one in her origin video. In this case it's used more as point of comparison as she's a predator attacking a weaker prey.
Area of Effect: Like Lucio, Moira's healing (through Biotic Grasp's Regeneration, her healing Biotic Orb, and Coalescence) has an area-of-effect. Unlike Lucio, however, her healing abilities cannot be used constantly (Biotic Grasp has a resource meter that has to be replenished by doing damage or waiting, Biotic Orb will disappear after replenishing a set amount of HP and has a significant cooldown, and Coalescence is an ultimate). Additionally, her damage-based Biotic Orb and Coalescence provide area-of-effect damage.
Armor-Piercing Attack: Coalescence bypasses barriers like Reinhardt's and Orisa's shields, preventing them from protecting their teammates from the beam or stopping Moira's teammates from being healed by the beam. The only blockade it cannot pass is Mei's Ice Wall.
Armor-Piercing Question: When Mercy calls Moira out on her unethical research, Moira asks her if she can deny the breakthroughs and discoveries she achieved. Mercy cannot answer, as Moira predicted.
Back-Alley Doctor: Has shades of this. Moira's main hurdle is that her methods were highly controversial in the field of medicine which made her an outsider and forced her to work in the shadows. In fact, she's brought into Blackwatch almost specifically because her illicit means could better aide Gabriel Reyes with his condition.
Baddie Flattery: Despite her and Mercy not getting along for the most part, Moira is still impressed by Mercy's impressive intellect and even offers an invitation to Oasis, possibly in a Minister position.
Moira: I know we have our differences, but your brilliant mind would be welcome among my colleagues in Oasis.
Mercy: No thank you. You and your colleagues discredit the field of science. I want nothing to do with it.
Bad People Abuse Animals: Implied. Her "Nervous" spray and "Coinin" player icon depict one of her lab bunnies looking concerned as if saying This Is Gonna Suck. On the other hand, there is a spray showing her seeming quite friendly with dogs.
Berserk Button:
- Her tone gets noticeably more defensive and angrier (if still deadpan) when a fellow scientist or medic character questions her experiments.
  Mercy: Describing your work as unethical would be a kindness.
  Moira: "But the true question is whether or not you can deny my discoveries. (quiet pause) No. I didn't think so.
  
  Winston: Overwatch had good reason to shut down your research.
  Moira: I shouldn't be surprised at such a narrow opinion coming from a jumped. Up. Ape.''
- She also gets audibly impatient whenever Sigma starts going off on one of his aimless rambles, presumably because she's assigned with monitoring him and she's heard them all before.
Bifauxnen: She has short hair, a rather angular face, a slim build, and a low voice. But what really puts it over the edge are the shirt and tie she wears in her origin story video and in some of her sprays. And then her "Glam" and "Moon" skins are pretty much knock-offs of Ziggy Stardust, David Bowie's most glamourous stage persona.
Big Bad Ensemble: Is part of Talon's Inner Council, making her one of the principal antagonists of the setting alongside Reaper and Doomfist, without getting into Vishkar (who may or may not be connected to Talon through Sanjay), the God Programs, and the Conspiracy.
Bilingual Bonus: She has several quotes in Irish.
Blank White Eyes: Her "Banshee" Legendary skin for the 2018 Halloween Terror event gets rid of her pupils and irises entirely for white, vacant eyes.
Blue-and-Orange Morality: To Moira, if it helps scientific progress, it is good. It's for this that she completely lacks any prejudice towards omnics; while she doesn't care about them (or many others) as people, she finds even the concept of prejudice woefully backwards and a limiting factor on the technology used to create them.
Blush Sticker: A look at her "Foundation" spray shows her child self had a pair of these. Noteworthy in that nearly no other younger versions of the heroes features this detail.
Boyish Short Hair: She has short and spiky hair that furthers emphasizes her Bifauxnen appeal.
Bright Is Not Good: She uses the same bright yellow biotics technology used by Mercy and Ana to heal, but also weaponizes it similarly to Ana with her damaging abilities.
Cold Ham: Almost always speaks in a low and controlled voice but is still prone to some exuberant speech patterns and has quite expressive, dramatic body language.
Combat Medic: While she doesn't have as high raw DPS as Zenyatta and her healing is stronger stat-wise, she has just as many options for damaging her enemies as much as healing her allies, usually making her pretty deadly in a one-on-one fight. In fact, her main weapon/healing option requires her to perform the former in order to do the latter, including healing herself. Her Biotic Orb in particular can be devastating against divers, especially in closed spaces.
Cool Mask: She wears a silver mask on her right eye that's slightly reminiscent of the one popularized in The Phantom of the Opera. Her Year of Rat Legendary dresses her in ogre themed mask dancer attire, reminiscent of the Talchum (탈춤).
Crippling Overspecialization: Subverted; Moira's specialization is survivability and extremely powerful healing. However, this comes as a cost of her being the only Support hero that offers no utility that can save teammates from extremely high burst damage or from abilities that nullify her powerful healing like Ana's Biotic Grenade or D.Va's Defense Matrix. This USED to be the main weakness that held her back prior to Sigma's launch because you could always run another Hero with supportive capabilities/a third healer if absurd survival is what you needed. POST Sigma though with the amount of options to run support had shrunk immensely (You now can only run 2 supports, in the specific support category; many players treated characters like Soldier Torbjorn or Sombra as support heroes at High skill levels). With these changes the meta shifted heavily to high survivability and the importance dealing with barriers. Moira is not only the support with the best solo survivability and best overall healing to ensure the same for her team, but her orbs also penetrate barriers, and her ultimate does the same. This lead to Moira quickly ascended in usage due to no other support being able to completely bypass barriers at a time where good barrier usage shut down practically everything. This lead Moira to being generally considered one of the best healers in the game even after barriers as a whole got nerfed solely because of how she can fit into just about every team as the main healer.
Creepy Long Fingers: She has very long, crooked fingers. Along with her Femme Fatalons, it only makes her look more like an evil sorceress.
Damage Over Time: Her weaponry doesn't do a lot of damage upfront, but she has infinite ammo and her Biotic Grasp is difficult to dodge unless you get out of range (which is difficult since it's quite long). This adds up to a lot of damage over time, so it's easy to get picked off by Moira if you aren't paying attention.
Dark Action Girl: A villainous female fighter like her Talon teammates Widowmaker and Sombra, but she might actually have them beat in the "dark" department, given that she doesn't really have any sympathetic backstory to her. While Widowmaker was forced into evil by no choice of her own and Sombra was at least orphaned as a youth and later targeted by the Conspiracy, Moira is fully committed to scientific advancement, no matter the cost.
Dark Is Evil: In addition to wearing an all black outfit, some of her attacks use dark energy.
Deadly Doctor: Attacking enemies uses a corrupted version of the same healing technology that heroes like Mercy and Ana utilize.
Deadpan Snarker: She has an icy, classy sense of humor.
(after killing an enemy) "Thank you for your contribution."
Dramatically Missing the Point: Moira seems genuinely fond of her old teammates from Blackwatch, and tries to reminisce on old times. Including with the ones who are now with the good guys. But she also seems completely unable to understand why things have changed, or why Genji and Cassidy hate her so much now.
Dr. Jerk: Moira is not the nicest person around, and if anything there are next to no characters who can get along with her. Precisely because of her methods as a doctor. Her dismissive and condescending responses when confronted over the matter don't help.
Duality Motif: She has heterochromia, her gender expression is very androgynous and she wields both the healing and decaying capabilities of Biotic tech. Her left arm is normal and is used to heal, while her right is full of Tainted Veins and is used to kill, and her Coalescence ult combines the two. Further, she combined the aesthetics of a sorceress, but with explicitly science-based powers.
Early-Bird Cameo: She showed up on the Talon Council in Doomfist's "Masquerade" comic three months before her official reveal.
Energy Ball: Her Biotic Orb, which can be set either to heal or to hurt. The orb itself will perform its function by lashing energy tendrils toward its intended target, so its area of effect is significantly bigger than the orb itself.
Even Evil Has Standards: Despite her Evilutionary Biologist credentials, she bluntly criticizes the way the British government treats Omnics when she spawns on King's Row.
Moira: The government here has such medieval views towards omnics.
Evil Counterpart:
- To Mercy. While Mercy is a kind-hearted doctor who seeks to save lives through ethical methods, Moira is more of a Mad Scientist who seeks to push the boundaries of what science can achieve. One of her experiments included Gabriel Reyes, who was at least partially responsible for turning Reaper's genetic problems into his so-called "curse". She even has her own Blackwatch version of the Valkyrie suit◊, which is notably Red and Black and Evil All Over and features a headpiece that resembles curled horns in contrast to Mercy's brighter palette and angelic halo, as well as being a reversed version of her halo. They also have matching sprays◊ of them standing back to back, as well as another one◊ where Mercy is looking up ("Light") and Moira is looking down ("Shadow").
- Also to Zenyatta. The Omnic monk uses his spirituality to help all and his abilities seem to be rooted in mysticism and exploiting the forces of harmony and chaos. Moira's abilities share the same color scheme and use of spherical shapes, but are firmly rooted in the setting's scientific achievements and she intends to advance her experiments regardless of what stands in her way.
Evil Genius: Of the scholarly variety; Evil Sorceror, Mad Scientist, a smug asshole, she EMBODIES this.
Evil Is Angular: She's very sharp, both in character design and mental acuity, with a very pointy chin and prominent cheek bones; elongated, bony fingers; long, sharp nails; her sleeves have wide, flowing ends that taper at the bottom; her shoes are pointy with a few Spikes of Villainy on them; and when she runs, her arms trail behind her, turning her entire body into an arrow.
Evil Laugh: Her laugh emote titled "How Amusing" is a rather haughty but nontheless mocking and cruel one.
Evil Makes You Ugly: The hand she uses for killer biotic energy is paler than the other, has longer and sharper fingernails, and the tips of her fingers are a sickly purple.
Evil Redhead: She has red hair and works for Talon. And if you check the page for that trope, traditionally red hair is supposed to be a mark of a witch, to add to her sorceress theme.
Evilutionary Biologist: She's noted as having an insatiable desire for human advancement, not unlike the scientists who helped start the Omnic Crisis. The City of Oasis noticed this and invited her to become their Minister of Genetics.
Evil Sorcerer: She really likes the look, dressed in a flowing black tunic, attacking like she's casting spells, and her biotic pack giving the shape of a high-collar. She's actually using technology, but her powers are essentially Magic From Science.
Evil Sounds Deep: She has a distinctively low voice compared to the more heroic women of the cast.
Facepalm: One of her sprays shows her doing this, and she also has an emote of it.
Fashionable Asymmetry: Building off her Duality Motif, Moira wears a silver mask only over her right eye and in many of her legendary skins, her Red Right Hand will bare a single glove or wrapping of some sort. She also has a habit of painting her nails on one hand a entirely different color than the other.
Fatal Flaw: Impatience. As elaborated on during many of her interactions in Overwatch 2, Moira's dedication to scientific progress at any cost is so extreme that it has led her to resort to increasingly unsafe, unethical methods in search of a result, not necessarily the desired or optimal result that her patrons may want. She successfully revived Gabriel Reyes as Reaper, but whatever remained of his human form has been horribly disfigured, possibly beyond repair, and he's stuck in a rapid and painful state of cellular regeneration and degeneration. She transformed Amelie Lacroix into Widowmaker per Talon's orders in order to create the ultimate killing machine devoid of any feeling or emotion, but several lines of dialogue indicate that Moira failed to fully erase Amelie's original personality per Talon's intent, as Widowmaker has started to display much more self-awareness, having developed quite the ego taking pride in her skills as a sniper and learning to take some form of enjoyment in her new life while still reminiscing fondly about her old one.
Fate Worse than Death: Not Moira herself but she certainly has a talent for inflicting these onto other people.
- Whatever procedures she performed to keep Gabriel Reyes alive turned him into the dreaded and incredibly unhinged Reaper, who's in a state of constant, immortal agony because of her experiments.
- Then there's the case with Widowmaker, whose true personality is suppressed but nonetheless self-aware of the monster she's been turned into.
Femme Fatalons: To further her sorceress-like appearance. They look somewhat similar to Sombra's hacking cybernetics, though presumably are used quite differently.
Finger-Tenting: Featured in both her "Steepling" victory pose and "Plotting" spray. "Plotting" itself is a Shout-Out to the famous "Gendo Pose."
Friend to Bugs: Her "Foundation" spray shows her child self hapily analyzing a pray mantis, black widow spider, and a scorpion. One can only assume these are pets for the time being until they're sentenced to the jars of fluid the other creatures at her feet are submerged in.
Flash Step: Fade looks this way, briefly making her untargetable and invisible before she reappears a short while later.
For Science!: She's constantly seeking new advancements in genetics and biotics technology, regardless of whether or not it's used to heal or inflict grievous harm. Her origin story states that she doesn't like ethical restrictions, and turned to Blackwatch to move her experiments forward, and later joined Talon so that nobody could tell her what she can or cannot do.
The Friend Nobody Likes: Most of her interaction with former Overwatch and Blackwatch members are antagonistic. Even on her side, Reaper makes it clear that he isn't thrilled about his condition, which was largely Moira's doing.
A God Am I: When she really starts going on a tear, she shows shades of this, along with a maniacal cackle. Her catchphrase is even "Surrender to my will!"
Goth: As it's the darker color swap of her "Glam" Legendary, her "Moon" skin encompass Gothic glam rock fashion akin to KISS complete with black hair, black lipstick and nails, and a choker.
Graceful Loser: Moira's respawn quotes are oddly humble, which is a huge contrast to her usually haughty demeanor.

"There was a flaw in my approach."

"We all must make sacrifices in the name of Science."

Gradual Regeneration: While Biotic Grasp's Regeneration can be sustained for more potent burst healing, even a quick spritz will apply a temporary regeneration status buff to allies, allowing Moira to conserve her resources.
Hartman Hips: Not as obvious as others due to her choice of clothing but Moira's hips are noticeably more pronounced than the rest of her narrow physique. Her "Blackwatch" and "Scientist" skins especially highlight this.
Healing Shiv: Coalescence is capable of both healing allies and damaging enemies, although it's much more effective at doing the former.
Hypocrite: Averted. You would expect someone with Moira's personality to expect other people to pay the price for the new world she wants to create. But her respawn lines show that she accepts personal sacrifices for the cause philosophically, and we also see that she is willing to perform painful and probably dangerous experiments on herself.
Ink-Suit Actor: She bears a certain amount of resemblance to the actress playing her, Genevieve O'Reilly◊.
Insufferable Genius: Very much so, especially around Cassidy who she deems Book Dumb throughout most of Retribution. She's generally very high and mighty about the benefits of scientific achievement, be it her own or others, and her flowery speech and victory poses always radiate a sense of pompous arrogance.
(during a kill streak) "My keen analytical mind detects a pattern forming."
Jerkass: She's smug, condescending, and snarky, seeming to look down on everyone around her and doesn't get along with a great majority of the cast, not that it seems to bother her.
Kamehame Hadoken: Coalescence fires a large, continuous beam in front of her. In an interesting twist, it also functions as a Healing Shiv.
Jump Scare: Does this in her "Boo!" emote where she turns her back and pretends to be walking away only to fade and make a face with her arms outstretched while a Scare Chord plays.
Kick the Dog: She has a pre-game interaction with Mei that's... pretty brutal.
Moira: Dr. Zhou, I'm interested in your colleagues' research into the long-term effects of cryogenic freezing.
Mei: Oh... well, yes, I'm sure... maybe... (sniffs)
Knight of Cerebus: Though many Talon operatives fit the bill fine, having moments of sympathy and levity to balance their villainy, Moira lacks a sympathetic backstory to justify her more wicked deeds, and her sense of humor is very dark and condescending toward others.
Labcoat of Science and Medicine: Wears an especially long one in her origin video as part of her work attire. This was made into a skin during the 2019 Archives Event.
Lack of Empathy: As another huge contrast to Mercy whose defining strength can be her strong empathy for others, Moira lacks it entirely, only caring for her own personal gain and using her experiments to test the limitations of humankind to appease her own curiosity, no matter how badly she might screw someone over in the process.
Lady of Black Magic: A scientific variant. Moira is a villainess with no regard for ethical guidelines in the name of technological advancement, looks like a sorceress with a black robe and witch-like fingers, has offensive abilities which wield biotic energy that are highly reminiscent of magic, and conducts herself with an arrogant and aristocratic air.
Lean and Mean: She's one of the tallest and thinnest humanoid female characters in the roster, even standing a few inches above some male heroes.
Life Drain: Moira's damaging biotic energy siphons the life energy from her enemies, healing herself and filling her biotic meter, allowing her to heal her teammates. This is demonstrated in one of her emotes where she releases some life-giving biotics with her left hand, then drains them away with her right hand.
Mad Scientist: She's considered such by the populace at large, and she doesn't appear to deny it or care much. And on that note, she considers Reaper's condition to be a success.
Moira: Your body seems to be adapting well to the changes, Gabriel.
Reaper: You call this well?
Magic from Technology: Many of her abilities are basically this: she uses hand gestures to attack and use her abilities instead of any obvious weapons, teleports in a flash of shadow, and describes her weapons as "her will imposed on reality," a common description of magic.
Meaningful Name: Deoradhain (anglicised as Deorain) is Irish for "exile", reflecting her self-presumed isolation for her views (understandable given her ethics).
Mechanically Unusual Fighter: Her primary weapon(s) behave unlike any other in the game. Her actual damage comes from her secondary fire, which is a beam-type weapon that infinitely drains her enemy so long as her target is vulnerable, in range, and in her relatively small crosshairs. Her primary fire is a healing spray that's meter-based in lieu of an ammo/magazine system, recharging slowly over time, but filling much faster from using her secondary, necessitating she regularly use both.
Navel-Deep Neckline: Her "Glam" and "Moon" skins have plunging necklines that go down to her stomach.
Nerd Glasses: Her "Foundation" spray reveals she wore a pair of giant oval-rimmed glasses as a child.
The Nicknamer: Back in Blackwatch, Moira rarely ever referred to Cassidy by name and would simply call him "cowboy".
Ninja Run: Moira runs around the battlefield with her head tilted forward and her arms back with posture that would make Naruto proud.
Noblewoman's Laugh: A short but suitably aristocratic one for her laugh emote.
No Celebrities Were Harmed: She's very clearly supposed to take after David Bowie's Ziggy Stardust persona, which, coupled with her androgynous appearance, makes her resemble Tilda Swinton. Her unlockable "Glam" and "Moon" skins make it even more obvious.
No Cure for Evil: Played with. Moira's healing is more potent than her damage, but what she lacks, in contrast with other supports/healers, are utility and buffs.
No Brows: Though it didn't make it to her final model, Moira's concept art has her lacking her natural eyebrows and instead the two metallic black implants in her forehead. For sake of compromise, her "Glam" and "Moon" skins have her eyebrows completely shaved off.
No Social Skills: More than once she's been shown to be so caught up in her own thoughts that she can't read social cues or understand what kinds of responses or topics are inappropriate. Her bringing up the cryogenic freezing with Mei is her most blatant example and during "Retribution" she takes Reyes' joke about anyone being hungry when they approach an outdoor restaraunt literally.
Gabriel: Am I the only one who feels hungry?
Moira: That could be an unforseen side effect.
Gabriel: I was making a joke...
Not So Above It All: Despite having a dry sense of humor, Moira constantly presents herself as classy, dignified and is well convinced she's the smartest, most cultured person in the room, but even she doesn't seem to be above pulling childish pranks as seen with her "Boo!" emote.
Not So Stoic: Despite how professional and composed she presents herself as, having to listen to Sigma's philosophical ramblings when she's trying to work quickly wears her patience thin.
Sigma: Can one know that one knows nothing? / If the universe is a simulation, why aren't there more elephant seals?
Moira: (through gritted teeth) It thrills me to put aside my preparations and humor your brilliant inquiries, Doctor. It thrills me.
Sigma: Kind words. Thank you!
Obviously Evil:
- To a perhaps even greater extent than Widowmaker and Reaper. Not only does she wear all black, but she looks and acts like an evil sorceress. She also lacks any sympathetic background, unlike Amélie and Gabriel.
- She even had this in her earlier days with Blackwatch. On top of her already then-controversial reputation, one has to wonder what they were expecting when she had a red and black-colored devil-themed Valkyrie suit.
Odd Name Out: Out of all the other playable Talon agents, she's the only one who doesn't have a code name.
Older Than They Look: The art style doesn't make it exactly obvious, but Moira is in her late forties, yet doesn't look older than 30.
Our Banshees Are Louder: She has a "Banshee" Legendary skin for the 2018 Halloween Terror event.
Pet the Dog: Literally. One of her sprays shows her with pet dogs, seeming quite fond of them. Less literally, she also seems genuinely committed to science and considers discrimination against omnics medieval. Her respawn voicelines also indicate that, while she'll happily experiment on others, she accepts any personal sacrifices philosophically as well.
Painfully Slow Projectile: Not as slow as Symmetra's Photon Projector orb, but Moira's Biotic Orb is fairly slow moving and can usually be sidestepped fairly easily to minimize potential damage (unless you try your first instinct and move backwards from the same direction, in which case it'll keep pace with you), but this also means that it's better at healing allies as it's easier to keep them close to the orb. Its ability to bounce off walls further increases its healing and damage potential in tight spaces.
Pinball Projectile: A rather slow-moving example, but her Biotic Orbs bounce off of nearby terrain, which can make closed, indoor spaces a blessing for allies with her healing orb or a terror for enemies with her damage orb.
Power Floats: She's capable of levitating for short periods of time while performing Coalescence. While this makes sense with Mercy who has a stylized Jet Pack built into her suit, it's not implied Moira has one of her own or if it's perhaps one of the many results of her experiments.
Purple Is Powerful: Her damage orbs as well as the highlights of her suit are colored the same shade of dark purple.
Professor Guinea Pig: Her origin trailer shows her doing experiments on herself or at least applying her research to enhance herself. A couple of her sprays also show this, especially "Self Experimentation", which shows her fighting through the pain as her right arm suffers the effects of an injection.
Red Right Hand: The hand she uses for harming looks noticeably paler and sicklier than the one she heals with. Her "Self-Experimentation" spray shows that her arm also has Tainted Veins.
Reverse Arm-Fold: Moira is a frequent user of this pose, as seen in her "Prim" victory pose and the Retribution opening cutscene.
Sadist: If her Biotic Grasp lines are anything to go by, Moira seems to derive immense joy from the suffering of others, often times moaning in pleasure or commenting with malicious glee on how her opponent is decaying before her.
"Tell me how this feels."
"Your body decays."
- Retribution all but confirms this as she's the only one who has a very satisfied look on her face upon taking out her share of guards and when Gabriel shoots Antonio, setting off the alarm that triggers the plot she offers a very pleased smirk that heavily contrasts Cassidy's anger but even then, that's small potatoes to her response to Junkrat offering to be her lab assistant.
Junkrat: You looking for a lab assistant? I'm great with chemicals!
Moira: Certainly. We should begin by testing your tolerance for pain.
Junkrat: Uh what's pain got to do with science?
Moira: Everything, my strange little friend.
Skill Gate Characters: Arguably even more than Mercy. Moira can pump the heals like no other, she can easily self-heal with Biotic Orb or Biotic Grasp, and Fade is a tremendously powerful 'get out of jail free' card at a ridiculously low 6-sec cooldown. What she lacks though, are game-making or game-changing abilities. Coalescence heal isn't going to keep your allies alive under heavy damage unlike Transcendence, she has no ability to start fights like Nano-Boost, and she doesn't have any tool other than healing to actually increase her teammates' survivability like Immortality Field or Armor Kit.
Smug Smiler: While the other supports have warm and inviting expressions in their icons, Moira's smile looks far more self-satisfied than friendly. It's something of a default expression if she isn't glowering. At her worst, she has quite an unnerving◊ Slasher Smile
Squishy Wizard: Zig-zagged. She is a 200 HP character with no armor or shields and can quickly fall to burst damage, but in a protracted duel, she can use Biotic Grasp and Biotic Orb to heal herself. Her Fade is actually one of the most powerful escape abilities in the game by now - after being patched, she can use it to escape stuns, letting her survive otherwise utterly lethal combos including some dreaded ultimates. Teams with good communications will call out when she has used Fade because she's borderline unkillable before it.
The Sociopath: Tics off a few boxes and fits the traditional definition even more than the rest of her Talon pals. She tends to view most human life as disposable lab rats, even referencing to downed foes as "Guinea pigs", and as shown with the creation of Reaper, has the power to inflict terrible fates that she deems scientific miracles. She also has a fairly obvious sadistic streak and is so goal-oriented and emotionally cold she seems blissfully unaware of how unlikeable it makes her. The only slightly noble personality trait she has thus far is her appreciation for Omnic life, but even that might be more of a passing fascination on understanding how their technology works more than genuine empathy.
The Stoic: Moira possesses a near uncanny level of calmness no matter the situation, hardly ever raising her voice or thinking dire situations are the right time to make sarcastic commentary. She only truly shows any signs of agitation, albeit a very controlled and cold one, whenever her scientific methods are challenged by the likes of Winston and Mercy.
Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: Technically everyone is on the receiving end of this when paired with her, though this trope is in full force with Mercy who she seems to have some history with, see Berserk Button.
Token Evil Teammate: She fits the villainous support role very well. Unlike most of the other villains, she completely lacks a sympathetic backstory and is written as a Mad Scientist bent on "improving" humanity in any way possible. Cassidy in particular thinks hiring her to Blackwatch was a terrible idea.
Viler New Villain: She debuted several patches after the game's initial roster of Talon villains and is notably less sympathetic compared to the others. She's seemingly motivated purely by her ambition for scientific progress alone which leads to a commonly held belief that she was not only the creator of Reaper but possibly Widowmaker, putting the kidnapping, torture, and brainwashing of an innocent woman under her list of misdeeds.
Villainous Cheekbones: She has distinctly angular features, befitting her "evil sorceress" design.
Villain Protagonist: A bad guy narratively but is still a selectable player character.
Visionary Villain: She doesn't have any inherently "evil" motivations, and her overall goal is to improve humanity through genetic modification. Unfortunately, she really doesn't care for things like ethics, and she'll even be a part of Talon if it means she can continue her work.
White Hair, Black Heart: Quite a few skins dye her hair from red to white including Pale, Banshee, and Ice Empress.
Wicked Cultured: On top of her aristocratic tone and Noblewoman's Laugh, she expresses herself in a distinctively eloquent and well-spoken manner, often using flowery turns of phrase where simpler ones would have worked just as well. Her dialogue in Retribution upon reaching the museum shows she has quite the fondness for art, and she shares Gabriel's fondness for elaborate costumes. On top of that, if she looks through the telescope on the Horizon map, she'll quote Oscar Wilde.
Winter Royal Lady: Her Ice Empress skin invokes this complete with a fur trim, Cool Crown, and Prim and Proper Bun.
Yin-Yang Bomb: She has a theme of mingled energies, opposing philosophies or ideas, healing and hurting, and her ultimate is an actual healing/damaging beam attack.

Sandbox / Overwatch: Moira

Moira O’Deorain

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Sandbox / Overwatch: Moira

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Moira O’Deorain

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