Overwatch

In regards to villain lore Gunbreak....

Reaper is Gabriel Reyes, former commander of Overwatch (and the Blackwatch special ops team that does the dirty work of Overwatch) and former best friend of Jack Morrison, or known as Soldier 76. Reaper built Overwatch but grew more and more bitter overtime and jealous of his best friend basically getting most of the credit. Something worth noting was that Reaper was an General Ripper type of commander whom focused on the job getting done consequences be damned even if it's death (basically like what Pharah was in her comic) while Soldier 76 focused more on teamwork and keeping everyone alive. During this time Mc Cree was also briefly in Blackwatch and it was implied that he quit due to something disturbing that they were doing (which says a lot as he was a former arms dealer for a gang named Deadlock). It's also implied in-game that Reaper taught Mc Cree some tricks with guns back in the day.

It's implied very heavily that Reaper tore apart the original Overwatch organization from the inside out and that he and Jack was killed in the ensuing explosion aftermath. Jack survived obviously likely because his super soldier enhancements and Reaper survived because his powers. Reaper's powers however were clearly not very intentional judging by what he says in-game about them. His powers operate on cell regeneration and degeneracy and he needs souls to refuel them essentially. His powers are likely to be very very painful to use from what I gathered. We still don't know how he got them.

Reaper is implied to be working with Talon. Talon as far as we know is a really nasty terrorist organization that basically kidnapped Widowmaker and turned her into what she is now. They tortured her, brainwashed her into a perfect assassin, and then told her to kill Gerald aka her husband whom was a Overwatch member. She also killed Mondatta, aka the omnic that advocated for good human/omnic relations alongside Zenyatta (although they disagreed on how to go about it) The worst part is Widowmaker in-game implies very heavily that her old personality is still there. When she gets revived by Mercy she will lament the fact that she is still alive and will occasionally call out to her husband.

We also got Junkrat and Roadhog. Australia's government sold-out all of there human citizens after the Omnic Crisis to the Omnics. They basically displaced and tossed a whole bunch of civilians into poverty for the Omnics. One of said civilians was Mako (forgot his last name), or as we know him as Roadhog. Mako created the ALF (Australian Liberation Front) and started a guerilla war with the government. The problem was the rebellion was a case of Gone Horribly Right on the ALF's part (and Mako's) as they ended up accidentally setting a nuclear reactor off. Turning Australia into a dangerous wasteland, aka Mad Max style world. Mako went insane out of guilt (and radiation) and hid behind his Roadhog mask. Junkrat was only 5 when this happened and is likely so crazy because he had to grow up in an anarchistic environment were surviving was ridiculously harsh and cuttthroat. They both are racist towards Omnics because they both see them as what started the problem in the first place.

edited 29th May '16 7:19:31 PM by Ecrivan

Story is mainly on the official Blizzard site — character bios, animated shorts, comics and in-universe blog posts are where it's all at.

As an addendum to that, it's implied that Reaper's powers came from Mercy.

These lines, specifically:

Mercy: What happened to you?!

Reaper: You tell me, Doc.

Mercy: This is not what I intended for you, Reyes.

Reaper: You knew exactly, what were you doing.

Reaper is pretty much my favorite character & I am very interested in learning more about him since out of all the villains he has the most mystery. I wonder how close he was with Morrison, I know its said they were best friends but I wonder exactly how close they used to be especially when they had such differing personalities & styles. Another thing to notice is that apparently Morrison was the only person who liked him as some words from the other characters implies no one liked the guy despite being a member. I feel sympathetic to him especially his jealousy as I can understand it, like I interpret it as the commander of Blackwatch he had to do a lot of awful shit to save the world while Morrison & Overwatch got the easier stuff & played hero. I am excited for that graphic since according to some images I saw it be bout the original Overwatch squad.

Huh, I never heard those last two lines. Just the first two. The implications of that are interesting...

So Mercy tried to do some sort of unique enhancement with Reaper but something went clearly wrong. That conversation seems to lend the to the idea that Reyes was also probably friends with Mercy at one point too....hmmm.....

Yeah some of the characters clearly don't like Reaper. Mc Cree doesn't and Reaper likely taught him some of his skills.

edited 29th May '16 7:40:52 PM by Ecrivan

I'm gonna start theorizing now and say that I think what caused Reaper to get his powers was that after the explosion that "killed" Morrison it also took down Reyes and left him in such a bad state that Mercy tried to revive him but something went wrong with the process.

Who knows, that could've been the first time Mercy actually tried to use her Ressurection technique but something went wrong and gave us Reaper.

She was all like "'Heroes never die!" and he was all like "Uhh, I don't know about that label applying to me", and then it got awkward.

We also have the upcoming Sombra character whom might be a villanous omnic (or at the very least a mercenary) that operates in Dorado, and Reaper is familiar which should certainly be interesting. If she is a villainous omnic then we might get some rather fruitful interactions with her and Zenyatta along with the characters who don't like omnics (Torjborn, Zarya, Junkrat, and Roadhog).

That got a chuckle out of me

edited 29th May '16 7:44:29 PM by Ecrivan

Zarya and Troj dont like omnics?

Heh, that's why I said a while ago.

So who thinks Reaper had some justifiable grievances? Like it doesn't justify destroying Overwatch or killing Morrison but does it make him somewhat understandable or at least pitaible?

They do not my friend.

edited 29th May '16 7:46:50 PM by slimcoder

Zarya fought omnics for years in the crisis. And Torjborn is bitter that no one listened to him about the idea of creating sapient robots being a bad idea (he basically saw the Omnic Crisis coming).

Faught agianst does not mean they still hold those veiws though?

They still hold those views.

This can be seen in dialogue of when they kill Zenyatta.

Or Torb going crazy when in Numbani or someplace.

edited 29th May '16 7:52:42 PM by slimcoder

Oh?

Do you have those dialog bits? Kinda curious, sorry.

She doesn't think humans and omnics can integrate together judging by her comments on Kings Row and that one map that takes place in India (Numbani I think it was?).

....Also, I find it hilariously ironic that Lucio says that Numbani (?) is his kinda town considering that was Symmetra's hometown and considering Vishkar clearly has a hold on that place.

edited 29th May '16 7:56:31 PM by Ecrivan

Sure.

Torb: (on King's Row) These Londoners have the right idea, if you ask me. Omnic rights? Pah!

(on Nepal) It's like a culmination of a thousand of my worst nightmares.

(on Numbani) No, no, no. N. O. NO!

Zarya:

Zarya: How do I trust a man who is half machine? Genji: The heart of a man still beats inside me.

Zarya: Watch your back, Omnic. Zenyatta: And I will watch yours as well.

(after killing Zenyatta) Never trust an Omnic.

Ha all copy & pasted, heheh.

edited 29th May '16 7:57:38 PM by slimcoder

You can check most of the character interaction in the quotes page for Overwatch here on TVT

Ya know I like that there racist. It adds some moral ambiguity & grey to the hero characters. Some good character flaws, ripe for conflict & soap opera drama.

Actually, I'm quite curious about the Talon organization. We don't know much about it except they made Widowmaker, then Reaper signed in as their merc. But it's rather unclear about its origins and why it existed, it's like a Generic Doomsday Terrorist Organization, all we know is what it does and how much it poses a threat. I'm not sure when Widowmaker was created, was it after the incident that took down Morrison and Reyes, or before? It also casts doubts on when Reaper signed in, we might get juicy info that Reyes used Talon to help him instigate the fall of Overwatch, then use them as a 'backup' to fall back once Overwatch fell.

Talon has a lot of potential to become an anti-Overwatch organization, so hopefully we'll have a lot more Talon new heroes, the cast is pretty bloated with ex-Overwatch agents (Tracer, Winston, McCree, Mercy, Reindhardt, Genji, Torbjorn, Pharah, Soldier 76), and the rest seems to be 'mind your own business' style (except Symmetra-Lucio, which goes into Vishkar-anti Vishkar).

Apparently Reaper has a line when revived by Mercy where he goes "...Seriously?". It's implied he was sorta her prototype for her resurrection tech, presumably after he nearly or fully died at the hands of Morrison, but... it didn't go according to plan.

edited 29th May '16 8:01:35 PM by Ninety

I did compare Talon to Cobra from G.I. Joe once so I hope we get more colorful villains. Like I think Genji deserves his own Storm Shadow.

Damn, both Widow & Reaper are death-seekers. That's pretty sad especially when compared to the jolly & lively Australian duo.

edited 29th May '16 8:03:03 PM by slimcoder

Reaper might not be working for or with them willingly for all we know. These are the same guys that did all of that nasty stuff to Widowmaker....

Although now I think of it how exactly would they make something like brainwashing or some insidious to get Reaper on there payroll considering his powers stick? He could probably regenerate his brain back into it's original state if they tried it. Hmmmm.....

edited 29th May '16 8:04:51 PM by Ecrivan

Right now I was quite thinking that Reaper, after his resurrection, was like "Oh hey, cool terrorist organization. Sign me up, buddy." I don't think Reaper NEEDS brainwashing like Widowmaker, his mind is already twisted on his own that his mindset just naturally aligns with Talon's. Whatever it is.

Though which one do you think is nastier: Talon or Vishkar? As much as Talon is a rather destructive terrorist organization, they really can pull the At Least I Admit It card, meaning that they're open in their destruction and they're villains, as opposed to Vishkar who masks their nasty and shady corrupt behavior with "For the greater good", easily taken as hypocritical... and somehow it's A LOT more hated than destructive villainy For the Evulz... as long as you're honest about it.

edited 29th May '16 8:10:17 PM by ChrisX

There's so much open stuff in Overwatch that it really makes me want to start writing fanfic

I do have to wonder about Vishkar's operations, we know from Symmetra's comic and Lucio's bio what happened in Brazil, but I have to wonder how they are doing in other countries and if it was only in Brazil where people took issue with them.

Zarya makes an awful lot of sense since the Omnium in siberia woke up and started churning out war omnics RECENTLY, to the point where Volskaya is still churning out Jaegers at present.